WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.860 I just wanted to take a moment and introduce our preacher this morning, Bishop Steve Breedlove. 00:00:06.020 --> 00:00:10.359 Some of you have had the opportunity to meet Bishop Steve and his wife Sally when they visit 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:15.080 at least once a year to be with us in our parish. But for those of you who don't know him, Bishop 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:21.080 Steve leads our diocese, which is the Diocese of Christ Our Hope. He's also a dear friend of mine 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:27.460 and really my pastor. And so I'm very excited to have him with us this morning. I reached out to 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:32.020 him several weeks ago and felt like this would be a really good time in the life of our church 00:00:32.020 --> 00:00:37.260 and the life of our society to hear from our bishop. So we're so thankful to have him with us. 00:00:39.140 --> 00:00:43.880 Good morning, Church of the Advent. Tommy, I particularly want to thank you for welcoming 00:00:43.880 --> 00:00:50.480 me to preach today's message to your church, to this precious church. And I hope and trust that 00:00:50.480 --> 00:00:54.600 you and Laura and the kids are having a great vacation. And I'm thankful to be among all of 00:00:54.600 --> 00:01:01.200 you. Dan and Jen and Kevin and Susan, the newest deacon in our diocese, Lisa Schultz, along with 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:08.140 her husband, Tim. That's great. Deborah, the rest of the team, the whole church. Though I can't see 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:16.319 any of you, it is my joy to be with you. This is surely one of the strangest Fourth of July weekends 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:21.000 in my life. In North Carolina, pretty much every public event is canceled. There's no firework 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:26.040 celebrations. We're advised not to gather in groups, but stick together only with the people that you 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.980 live with, that you're accustomed to being around. Don't introduce any new risk factors. 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:36.540 I'm not pretending that that was a hardship for us in any sense. It really wasn't. It's just strange. 00:01:36.599 --> 00:01:41.420 It's just different. But the bigger issue, of course, is that we're living in a season of renewed 00:01:41.420 --> 00:01:47.780 and growing COVID-19 pandemic that's overlaid with the most serious season of strife and social pain 00:01:47.780 --> 00:01:53.920 in recent U.S. history. We're like medics in a field hospital on the battlefield trying to care 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:59.960 for the wounded and seriously ill soldiers while in the distance we hear the approaching rumble of 00:01:59.960 --> 00:02:06.020 artillery and machine gun fire. And we're listening to the drone of bombers overhead. So how do we focus? 00:02:06.180 --> 00:02:10.680 How do we focus our care for the sick and the wounded while preparing for the probability of violence 00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:15.840 and mayhem? And all the while, by the way, we're trying our very, very best for ourselves and for our 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:20.900 family and particularly for the children to have some sort of a holiday. Some have some fun together. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.140 You know, Christians in America do not face crisis and dark times well. 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:29.939 We are part of a culture that is built on the premise that we all have the right, 00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:33.520 and I underscore the word right, to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:39.480 But over the generations, we have morphed that into simply we have the right to life, 00:02:39.819 --> 00:02:43.640 to liberty, and to happiness for those who can make the system work for them. 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:49.179 And we have the illusion that we finally found a political system that guarantees freedom from 00:02:49.179 --> 00:02:53.479 wickedness and oppression from the top and guarantees equality and justice for all. And 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:59.439 we couple that with the advances of technology and science and particularly medicine. And we're 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:01.919 confident that we can look pretty much any problem that comes our way. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:09.199 Now, the last four months has disabused us of these fictions and forced us to face our own, 00:03:09.299 --> 00:03:14.379 ongoing, broken, and flawed humanity and the limitations that are built into every human 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:20.679 government system. The systems that we presume will work. It will produce life and liberty and 00:03:20.679 --> 00:03:26.439 pursuit of happiness and justice and equality for all are simply not working. Our laws are not 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:32.500 enough to govern human behavior and to force us to do what's right. Technology and science are not 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:36.560 adequate. We're not prepared for the crisis. We're not handling the crisis. We're losing 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:44.639 the game. And we're face to face with the deeper facts of our human existence that has been true for 00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:50.719 every society and continues to be true for us. That we are just simply not adequate for life. 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:57.740 Now, in that context, as Americans, it's hard and disorienting. And it's hard not to fall into 00:03:57.740 --> 00:04:03.360 discouragement or fear or despair or anger. Pride and being American and confidence in our 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:07.460 countries at the lowest level since we began measuring such things 50 or 60 years ago. 00:04:08.979 --> 00:04:13.400 Now, in that regard, I'm not suggesting to us as followers of Jesus that there's no basis for hope 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:17.759 or happiness, but it will have to come from another view of the world. And in fact, that's one of the 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:23.180 greatest gifts we receive from Jesus Christ. The message of the gospel is that the core flaws and 00:04:23.180 --> 00:04:30.039 existential sorrows of human existence have been overcome by Jesus, God the Son incarnate in human 00:04:30.039 --> 00:04:35.819 flesh. And through Jesus, we are forgiven and reconciled and redeemed and given a new life, 00:04:36.060 --> 00:04:41.699 eternal life, and a promise and a hope of a new creation. And the deepest problems of our 00:04:41.699 --> 00:04:48.120 identity and existence have been resolved in Jesus and by Jesus and through Jesus. 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:55.740 And therefore, we can talk about faith and hope and love with a straight face. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:02.759 We have ground to stand on. In my mind, the last few days, the song, the old gospel hymn, 00:05:02.839 --> 00:05:07.539 On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, has been just filtering again and again, kind of rolling through my mind. 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:14.080 And that also means that we can face head on into a world that is not yet redeemed, not yet remade, 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:21.820 and we can live a meaningful life, a life of hope, yet without denying the pain and not being 00:05:21.820 --> 00:05:28.120 overwhelmed. And in that, the Psalm of Moses, Psalm 90, can help us and guide us. 00:05:29.460 --> 00:05:34.720 Moses was a leader well acquainted with sustained crisis. Yes, he did some wonderful things to lead 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:38.600 the nation out of Israel, out of a terrible political and economic situation. They were 00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:45.560 slaves. They were an entire race that was simply a cog in the machine of Egyptian materialism. 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:53.960 The nation of Egypt stood on the backs of the people of Israel. And God delivered them mightily 00:05:53.960 --> 00:05:59.800 through Moses and all those beginning stories and the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. 00:05:59.800 --> 00:06:07.939 But over the next 40 years, it turned out that Moses was leading a nation of faithless, sinful people. 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:15.560 No matter how high they might rise to their calling as the people of God, they always fell back into 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:22.480 their core nature as sinners and rebels, as people who are discontent and unbelieving. And the result is 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:28.600 that Moses did not have a life that materialized into anything that we might call happiness. He just wasn't 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:36.020 there. In fact, I've often read the life of Moses and thought, what a terrible task and calling to 00:06:36.020 --> 00:06:44.420 have. But Moses did find deep peace and joy, a way of resolving this and a way of moving forward. 00:06:44.760 --> 00:06:50.780 And Psalm 90 is written late in his life. And it's my personal go-to psalm on virtually a daily basis 00:06:50.779 --> 00:06:58.439 for how do I live with realistic hope and action in a pain-filled, sin-filled world. 00:06:58.859 --> 00:07:02.039 And I want to share it with you today because I think it will help us in this time. 00:07:02.979 --> 00:07:06.859 We've already read it, but if you have your Bibles or you want to look on the liturgy, 00:07:06.979 --> 00:07:08.699 please turn to Psalm 90. 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:10.619 It begins, 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:27.980 And the ground of Moses' faith is that God exists. He is more solid than the mountains. He is more solid 00:07:27.980 --> 00:07:34.139 than creation itself. He is more founded than earth itself. And in fact, for the people of God, 00:07:34.139 --> 00:07:38.719 we can say we are at home in the Lord and in nothing else. That's where our true home is. 00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:43.459 There's nothing else that grounds our lives and our hearts and our souls like the Lord himself. 00:07:43.759 --> 00:07:48.959 And it is actually that relationship with him that is the ground of our being. This is an intensely 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:55.259 personal statement. We remember Moses' passion to see the Lord face to face and his practice 00:07:55.259 --> 00:08:00.939 personally to meet with the Lord on a regular basis in the tent of the meeting. And the glory of the 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:07.740 God would appear and Moses would talk to God face to face so much that it transformed him. 00:08:08.699 --> 00:08:13.139 So verses 1 and 2 are not merely a statement of doctrine. It's a statement of experience. 00:08:14.500 --> 00:08:21.379 That Moses is at home with the Lord and he's with the Lord and wherever he is, God is. And he can never 00:08:21.379 --> 00:08:29.300 escape. Would never want to escape. And that's where truly every person who owns Jesus Christ can be 00:08:29.300 --> 00:08:35.240 because Jesus has come to us through the Holy Spirit. He invites us to abide with him daily, 00:08:35.419 --> 00:08:41.659 constantly, actively to draw our life from him, to be at home with him. One of my very, 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:47.659 very favorite hymns is, My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. And the last verse speaks about being at home 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:54.779 with God. It ends the song this way here in the references to my father's house, but here would I find 00:08:54.779 --> 00:09:03.159 a settled rest. While others go and come, no more a stranger nor a guest, but like a child at home. 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:09.519 We are at home with God. And that is the ground of our whole conversation. Anything else we might say 00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:17.759 that precedes it, undergirds it, surrounds it. We are standing on the rock of Jesus. Nevertheless, 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:24.960 the reality of life in this world is dark. Verse 3, you return man to dust and say, return, 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:30.379 O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are as but yesterday when it is past, 00:09:30.819 --> 00:09:35.860 or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away, that's people, as with a flood. They are like a 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:41.360 dream, like grass that's renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes and is renewed. In the 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:53.700 evening it fades and withers. Life is futile. It's frail. We are just simply weak, transitory people. 00:09:54.960 --> 00:10:00.899 Failure and sin are constantly present in our lives and in the world. Verse 7, we are brought to an end 00:10:00.899 --> 00:10:06.440 by your anger. By your wrath we are dismayed. You've set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:12.940 in the light of your presence. David in the psalm says, if we consider our sins, who can stand before 00:10:12.940 --> 00:10:22.060 God? And fear attends it all. Verse 9, for all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our 00:10:22.060 --> 00:10:28.280 years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are 70 or even by reason of strength 80, yet their 00:10:28.280 --> 00:10:35.120 span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:40.899 and your wrath according to the fear of you. Now this is a complicated part of the conversation 00:10:40.899 --> 00:10:47.700 which we're not going to dig into much. But the concept of being under the wrath of God 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:55.740 is simply the statement that the anger of God is just because we are sinners. And this is the 00:10:55.740 --> 00:11:03.879 natural conclusion, the natural clash of a absolute white holy God in his relationship to humanity. 00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:08.860 I'll speak about that a little bit more in a moment. And that's just the reality. So this is a very 00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:14.439 sobering reality of life in this world and a diagnosis of life in this world that it is not about 00:11:14.439 --> 00:11:19.759 having better government or a better technology that will solve the problems. But because our core 00:11:19.759 --> 00:11:28.100 problem is that we're sinners, we're weak, we're limited, and we live under the justifiable wrath of God 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:38.000 apart from a mediated, changed existence with God. So what do we do? To quote Francis Schaeffer from an old 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:45.860 book in the 70s, how do we now then live? And what Moses proceeds to give us in verse 12 to the end of 00:11:45.860 --> 00:11:54.840 the psalm is seven prayers, very practical prayers, daily prayers for life in a difficult, fallen world. 00:11:54.840 --> 00:12:01.740 And I want to encourage you. I pray this prayer many times. I pray it sometimes every day in the week. 00:12:01.780 --> 00:12:05.840 And we'll come back and talk about how to do that at the end of our conversation. But I want you to 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:11.700 listen to these seven statements of prayer because I think that they will help us understand how to 00:12:11.700 --> 00:12:18.639 live with realism and hope in this world. Verse 12, so teach us to number our days that we may get a 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:24.100 heart of wisdom. I translate that and say this, may we receive each day as an undeserved gift, 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:30.980 which we offer back to you in worship and service and in gratitude. We don't deserve it. Our family 00:12:30.980 --> 00:12:37.419 prayer has been for about 18 years, Lord, thank you for this day we do not deserve. The person who 00:12:37.419 --> 00:12:44.059 introduced that first into our family was our youngest son. And as he was expressing that, 00:12:44.059 --> 00:12:50.599 what overwhelmed us, he was coming out of this, a core of gratitude and awe that we do get to have 00:12:50.599 --> 00:12:55.899 a day of life as a gift from God. And it's, we already know it's with God. We're standing on him. 00:12:55.959 --> 00:13:00.559 We're not on our own. So even though this is a difficult world and there's things we've got to 00:13:00.559 --> 00:13:04.479 work through, we've got to reflect that this is a day in which we have been given by God 00:13:04.479 --> 00:13:12.419 to serve him, love him, know him, walk with him. So we can offer this day every day, all day back to God 00:13:12.419 --> 00:13:18.099 as a gift of gratitude and worship. Like Romans 12, 1 and 2 says, we can offer ourselves everything 00:13:18.099 --> 00:13:25.659 who we are as an act of worship, as a living sacrifice to God. Acceptable, it says, acceptable 00:13:25.659 --> 00:13:33.459 to God. It's amazing. Thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for the gift of this day. We don't 00:13:33.459 --> 00:13:41.419 deserve it. May we offer it back to you. Second prayer, verse 13, return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:48.099 your servants. Have pity on us. Have mercy, Lord. I've been spending more consistent time in systematic 00:13:48.099 --> 00:13:54.659 reading of the Old Testament this last year. The Old Testament is raw and unfiltered many places. It's 00:13:54.659 --> 00:14:00.740 the holiness of God and the unholiness of humanity. And that often results in a clash. It's like fire 00:14:00.740 --> 00:14:06.860 and gasoline. It's what Moses was referring to as being under the wrath of God back in verses 9 through 00:14:06.860 --> 00:14:13.200 11. And it's not because there's an active anger necessarily. There are moments when that seems to 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:19.980 be true. But because of the necessity that spills out of unmediated holiness when it meets sin. 00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:27.220 And so by nature, this is who God is. This is by nature who we are. And by nature, it is 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:34.220 conflict. Yet within that, as we read the Old Testament, what has happened to me as I've just 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:40.080 continued to think about that and wrestle with it, it seems very clear to me. In fact, it is very clear 00:14:40.080 --> 00:14:46.480 that God simply keeps at it. Even though we constantly turn away, even though we prove utterly 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:54.800 unreliable, God keeps at it. So how does that work? Well, it suddenly hit me one day that no matter how 00:14:54.800 --> 00:15:02.200 crazy the specific interaction between God and people are in the Old Testament, in every moment, 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:11.340 and in that moment, the vanguard, the advanced team, the first move from God towards humanity is mercy, 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:17.560 is mercy. It's like that's the presenting characteristic of God throughout the entire 00:15:17.560 --> 00:15:24.379 story of redemption. It's always first and fundamentally mercy. And it finds its fullest, 00:15:24.379 --> 00:15:32.740 most complete expression in the coming of Jesus in the flesh. The glory of God was clothed in the 00:15:32.740 --> 00:15:39.340 person of Jesus Christ so that it could be mediated to us. The Word of God was clothed in human flesh so 00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:43.740 it could be mediated to us so that we could handle it, so that we could understand it, so that we could 00:15:43.740 --> 00:15:49.820 see it, so that we could relate to it. It says the Word in John chapter 1, the Word became flesh and 00:15:49.820 --> 00:15:55.200 dwelt among us, and we've seen His glory, the glory of God. Glory is of the only Son from the Father, 00:15:55.360 --> 00:16:00.100 full of grace and truth. Later on in verse 18, one of my favorite verses in the entire Scripture, 00:16:00.280 --> 00:16:09.140 no man has ever seen God. Raw, direct, even Moses, as he met with God and saw Him face to face, 00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:15.500 quote unquote. It was mediated through cloud, through the backside of God going off into the distance. 00:16:15.500 --> 00:16:23.980 No man has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. Our old translation says, 00:16:24.100 --> 00:16:30.299 who is in the bosom of the Father. He has made Him known. He has communicated to us. He has helped 00:16:30.299 --> 00:16:37.860 us understand. He has been the bridge between us and the unfiltered holiness of God. So that now what 00:16:37.860 --> 00:16:43.320 we could say, have mercy on us, is a real prayer. It's a real cry. Not for what's not available, 00:16:43.320 --> 00:16:49.400 but to help us receive and realize what has already been poured out for us. Lord, have mercy on us. 00:16:50.040 --> 00:16:56.720 Have pity. Praise God you do. The third prayer, satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, 00:16:56.780 --> 00:17:04.360 that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. This is the central joy and confidence of almost every 00:17:04.359 --> 00:17:12.639 psalm. God's steadfast covenant love. His chesed is the Old Testament word. It is the loyal, faithful 00:17:12.639 --> 00:17:18.619 covenant love of God. It's the promise of God that says, I will never forsake you or leave you. It is 00:17:18.619 --> 00:17:23.579 the astonishment at the grace of God, which has been poured out and established for us a relationship. 00:17:23.579 --> 00:17:29.579 It really rolls back to Genesis chapter 15. I encourage you to read that sometime and reflect on it 00:17:29.579 --> 00:17:36.319 repeatedly in your Christian life. This covenant that God made with Abraham that was exemplary and 00:17:36.319 --> 00:17:43.740 in fact, initiatory for all of the redemptive covenants that came from the throne of God to us. 00:17:44.179 --> 00:17:50.019 And it's a covenant in which God says, Moses, I mean, excuse me, Abraham, you're to be prepared for 00:17:50.019 --> 00:17:55.259 this, but frankly, you're going to be on the sidelines because I'm going to do it all. I'm going to not 00:17:55.259 --> 00:18:01.900 only tell you what to do. I'm going to actually do it. And it's going to be me who makes the covenant, 00:18:01.900 --> 00:18:13.019 which is in history or in type, a two-way covenant. But in this case, both ways, both ways in between 00:18:13.019 --> 00:18:19.619 the sacrifices, Genesis 15 and back out through the sacrifices, both ways from God to us and from man to 00:18:19.619 --> 00:18:27.059 God, both ways are done by God himself. And may that knowledge satisfy me. 00:18:29.459 --> 00:18:36.459 May that be enough. Now, that's a really substantial prayer for me on a daily basis because I honestly 00:18:36.459 --> 00:18:41.399 want more. For me, I have a primary, I have primary drivers in my life. I want to achieve things. I want 00:18:41.399 --> 00:18:46.859 to accomplish things. I want to be pretty much perfect. And I want everybody around me to think 00:18:46.859 --> 00:18:52.539 I'm perfect. And I can, you know, anytime I say that to myself, you can see how foolish that is, 00:18:52.599 --> 00:18:58.659 but I kind of fall back into that. May I, I want to be, I want to be able to say that I've done 00:18:58.659 --> 00:19:07.619 everything perfectly. My wife, Sally, doesn't have that fiction, but her drivenness is around closeness 00:19:07.619 --> 00:19:12.519 and connectivity with family. So she wants to be at the very heart of things. And there's this hunger. 00:19:12.519 --> 00:19:18.879 You know, some people have a desire that no matter what else they experience, that there's this 00:19:18.879 --> 00:19:28.139 ultimate unruffled peace. Really, we're infinite almost. Our capacity for seeking satisfactions, 00:19:28.339 --> 00:19:33.259 apart from simply the knowledge that we're held in the love of God, is pretty much infinite. So it's a 00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:39.839 daily question on the table for us. Where are we finding our deepest satisfaction? Therefore, this is a 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:46.159 daily prayer. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love. May that be what satisfies us. May the 00:19:46.159 --> 00:19:54.039 knowledge of that be what we live on day by day, moment by moment. Verse 15, make us glad for as many 00:19:54.039 --> 00:20:01.220 days as you've afflicted us and for as many years as we've seen evil. I love the realism of this. It's 00:20:01.220 --> 00:20:09.680 sort of a right-sizing prayer to me. May we simply have as many good days as we've had tough days. I 00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:17.960 could be just happy enough with that. Not that I have to have 97% happy days, happy, happy, happy, 00:20:18.100 --> 00:20:27.620 but that I can have as many good days as tough ones. The fifth prayer, verse 16, let your work be shown to 00:20:27.619 --> 00:20:33.379 your servants and your glorious power to their children. Open our eyes to see the work of God in 00:20:33.379 --> 00:20:38.099 the world, to help us see where God is changing lives and changing history and intervening. And 00:20:38.099 --> 00:20:44.979 that prayer is such an important prayer. We struggle so often to see where God is at work or if he is at 00:20:44.979 --> 00:20:53.239 work. We want to see changes that quickly flow into a movement in a society and we want everything to 00:20:53.240 --> 00:21:01.940 be changed at once. Yet what is usually happening is much more modest. So this is a prayer to God, 00:21:02.019 --> 00:21:06.539 give us eyes to see those modest things that you're doing, the daily things that you're doing, 00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:13.680 and help us to see the multiplication of modest efforts, the modest efforts of faithful Christians 00:21:13.680 --> 00:21:19.759 that really make a difference. There are examples that I have been seeing lately, and it's one of the 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:24.299 privileges of this coronavirus time. I'm spending a lot of time on the phone talking to people and 00:21:24.299 --> 00:21:28.480 finding out what's going on in their world and in their lives. And what's really impressed me as I 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:35.000 tell you two or three examples is just how small they are on a daily basis, but how they've added up 00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:41.920 to big things over time. I was recently talking to Bishop Quig Lawrence, who is the suffragan bishop of 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:48.000 our diocese, sort of an assistant to me. And he has just described to me an enduring friendship with a 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:55.160 number of pastors of color in his hometown of Roanoke, Virginia. And these are just deep friendships 00:21:55.160 --> 00:22:01.200 and deep confidences with one another that have been forged over faithful meeting together over meals, 00:22:01.339 --> 00:22:09.920 over coffee, talking and praying together for years on end. And so this time of crisis actually 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:18.140 in those relationships and in the unity of Church of the Holy Spirit, Bishop Quig and other pastors and 00:22:18.140 --> 00:22:22.180 leaders in the city of Roanoke has not been particularly challenging. I mean, they've had things to talk 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:26.980 about, but they have common faith and they have a common foe because they have shared gospel mission. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:31.680 And this is just simply long-term faithfulness and friendship that can really make a difference in 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:38.039 a society. So therefore, Quig and the efforts and resources that he represents are free to work 00:22:38.039 --> 00:22:42.659 together with people that they've already established friendships with. All these suspicions of what 00:22:42.659 --> 00:22:50.319 are you doing this for have long been put into the background. I think about Christchurch Winston-Salem 00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:57.759 led by Ben Sharp and they have a food bank that they've been giving, that they've opened up every 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:03.700 month like clockwork for about 12 years, 10 or 12 years now. And they feed 80 to 100 families 00:23:03.700 --> 00:23:10.539 a month with a week's worth of food. That's a lot of food. And every Sunday, I mean, excuse me, 00:23:10.539 --> 00:23:15.759 every Saturday that they have this once a month, they literally have 25, 30 people from the church 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:21.039 who come. They've been accumulating food and all, all week long or, you know, all month long. 00:23:21.360 --> 00:23:26.819 They open it up and it's open for like five or six hours and there's 80 or 100 families that come in. 00:23:26.819 --> 00:23:34.179 I was talking recently with a deacon in our diocese, Teresa Kincaid, who's the leader of our prayer 00:23:34.179 --> 00:23:40.720 ministries. And she and her husband, Craig, have been going to have lunch in a primarily African-American 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:46.079 nursing home for 12 years now. And she was just telling me about the deep friendships that have 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:51.039 been established and the ways that they have built relationships and the ways that it shifted from the 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:56.379 first year when they came in kind of as outsiders and there was suspicion and they started studying the 00:23:56.380 --> 00:24:00.540 Bible together, but it was like four or five people and how that shifted in that year too. 00:24:01.520 --> 00:24:06.460 And the people within the nursing home, the residents began to lead the Bible study and, 00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:11.540 you know, and how they really have taken over and Teresa and Craig now just come in and bring lunch. 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:18.260 But now instead of five, six, seven people, the entire nursing home, except for those who are too sick, 00:24:18.400 --> 00:24:23.680 always come for lunch, always come for Bible study. And just the joy that they've had together, 00:24:23.680 --> 00:24:29.640 the ways that they've established strong friendships over the years. And again, these are small things, 00:24:30.019 --> 00:24:34.400 but these are the work of God, the work of God through faithful people. And I think that the 00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:40.380 faithfulness of God to us that's exemplified in the steadfast love of the Lord plays its way out in 00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:47.160 the faithfulness of the work of God and his people through the faithfulness of God's people in the world. 00:24:47.160 --> 00:24:57.240 The sixth prayer, verse 17, let the favor of the Lord, our God be upon us. And I think we're circling 00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:03.060 back to this overarching mercy. It's a bit of a repeat to the first prayer, excuse me, second prayer, 00:25:03.560 --> 00:25:08.840 have pity on your servants. But I think it's because we need so deeply to see the mercy of God. 00:25:09.300 --> 00:25:13.660 And so for me, the question that I have when I get to this prayer is what is the color of the sky? 00:25:13.660 --> 00:25:22.220 It's kind of a silly prayer, but it's the way I think of it. What do I see as the background of all of life? 00:25:23.200 --> 00:25:27.240 Do I see pain, problems? Do I see stress? Or do I see mercy? 00:25:29.740 --> 00:25:35.580 Because I believe, again, I'm going to say it again, that the vanguard, the first move of God toward us 00:25:35.580 --> 00:25:41.560 is always mercy. And if we have eyes to see, and that's what we're praying for is eyes to see, 00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:46.839 I believe we will see God's mercy constantly played out in our lives, things we don't deserve. 00:25:47.059 --> 00:25:52.779 We don't get what we deserve. We have blessings we do not deserve, and we do not get the tough 00:25:52.779 --> 00:25:59.379 things that we deserve, no matter what. And then the final prayer, this last half of verse 17, 00:25:59.960 --> 00:26:06.220 establish the work of our hands. Yes, establish the work of our hands. May what we do matter. 00:26:06.220 --> 00:26:12.680 May we be able to make a real contribution. And I think that's so important for us. It's so important 00:26:12.680 --> 00:26:18.180 for you because you live in Washington, D.C., in that area. And most of you have come there, 00:26:18.539 --> 00:26:22.539 moved there at some point in your life in order to make a difference. That's really a driving force. 00:26:22.640 --> 00:26:28.600 And I think one of the big issues of people who live in the seat of power is the disillusionment that 00:26:28.599 --> 00:26:35.339 comes with how little impact political power can have and what its limits are. Yet we have to do it, 00:26:35.379 --> 00:26:42.099 and we got to participate, and we want to do so with good faith. How can we do something that really 00:26:42.099 --> 00:26:49.119 matters? And the crisis in our systems, our political and governmental systems, I think hits you 00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:53.879 harder than perhaps it does many people because you're living close to it. So this prayer, frankly, 00:26:53.880 --> 00:26:59.100 to me is more precious for you than just about anybody I can imagine. Establish the work of our 00:26:59.100 --> 00:27:06.640 hands. May what we do matter. My wife Sally writes devotions for a prayer movement called 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:15.520 8at8pm.com. I encourage you to consider joining that. Almost 13,000 people have daily prayer through 00:27:15.520 --> 00:27:22.680 that medium. You can go online with that. But she wrote a devotion this week that has really been 00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:28.680 meaningful to me about this issue. She was writing about the feeding of the 5,000. And as she reflected 00:27:28.680 --> 00:27:33.140 on the conversation between Jesus and his disciples and what he does, she asked the question, could it 00:27:33.140 --> 00:27:37.580 be that the disciples are tired of other people's needs? They say to Jesus, send the people away to 00:27:37.580 --> 00:27:44.880 find food. But Jesus pushes back. You give them something to eat. And it's hard not to read a bit of 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:49.360 sarcasm or at least irritated exhaustion into their response. So you want us to walk to the next 00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:56.159 village buy and bring back enough food for 5,000 men and some women and wives and kids? What 00:27:56.159 --> 00:28:01.179 village would have food for 5,000 extra people at a moment's notice? You must be kidding Jesus. And 00:28:01.179 --> 00:28:06.459 as Sally and I were talking about, she said, how many semi-trailers are you going to have to bring in 00:28:06.459 --> 00:28:14.599 for that one? Christ's only response is have them sit down in groups of 50. Now that's a job they can do, 00:28:14.599 --> 00:28:19.799 Sally goes on, tell people where to go and where to sit, but to what end? And while they are busy 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:24.219 arranging the crowd, Jesus gathers the small bit of food the disciples have scavenged, 00:28:25.159 --> 00:28:30.639 five loaves and two fish. Jesus looks upward to heaven and blesses the food before him. 00:28:30.919 --> 00:28:34.819 Then he begins to break it and give it away and then break it and give it away and then break it 00:28:34.819 --> 00:28:39.019 and give it away until everyone eats and what is left over is gathered into 12 baskets. 00:28:39.019 --> 00:28:46.519 Did it ever look like a gigantic buffet on an ocean liner? As the disciples came back to Jesus 00:28:46.519 --> 00:28:50.839 again and again for another basket of food to distribute to those groups of 50, did they ever 00:28:50.839 --> 00:28:57.500 wonder if the next time there wouldn't be any left? It was an impossible situation, but somehow the need 00:28:57.500 --> 00:29:04.420 was met and leftovers abounded. We live in a world of impossible needs. Who has the answers? Who has the 00:29:04.420 --> 00:29:08.779 means? Who can solve the hatred, the contempt, the division, the disease, and the distrust that 00:29:08.779 --> 00:29:13.740 threatened to consume us? Does Jesus expect any one of us to come up with a large enough answer to set 00:29:13.740 --> 00:29:20.840 this world right? If we can't do that, what can we do? Perhaps we need to do what the disciples ended up 00:29:20.840 --> 00:29:29.279 doing. Keep returning to Jesus time after time, day after day. Receive from him a basket's worth of 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:35.839 wisdom, of love, of patience, of compassion, and trust. Give today's provision away and come back 00:29:35.839 --> 00:29:43.660 again tomorrow. I think Moses is a great guide for us on this pilgrimage of life and faith. He was a 00:29:43.660 --> 00:29:48.599 leader of a nation of Israel for almost 40 years of the most difficult and recalcitrant and rebellious 00:29:48.599 --> 00:29:54.980 divisive nation we can ever imagine. His view of the world is brutally honest. It's corrective to us. 00:29:54.980 --> 00:30:00.880 It's unflinching in its honesty, yet he does not despair. He's settled and he's at home with God. 00:30:01.420 --> 00:30:07.819 He faces each day honestly, prayerfully, and ultimately hopefully. And he prays these prayers. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:16.440 Thank you for this day. It's a gift. Lord, have mercy upon us. Be merciful to us. Help us to be 00:30:16.440 --> 00:30:21.799 satisfied with nothing less than your steadfast love. Lord, may we have as many good days as we've 00:30:21.799 --> 00:30:30.180 had tough days. Help us to see what you're up to. Give us an encouragement. Again, let your favor be 00:30:30.180 --> 00:30:38.879 overshadowing us. And Lord, help what we do make a difference in the world. In the name of the Father, 00:30:38.879 --> 00:30:40.079 the Son, and the Holy Spirit.