Community Church Sermons

The Twenty-second Sunday After Pentecost – October 20, 2002

Trails Through Tellico:

Unseen Consequences

Exodus 33:12-23

 

Have you ever seen God?

 

Often, people speak of hearing God’s voice, or sensing God’s presence, but seldom do folks claim the experience of actually seeing God.

 

Have you?

 

And if you did see God, what do you suppose God would look like? An old man with long flowing white hair? A brilliant light? Someone who looks like Jesus?

 

These are all good answers, I suppose, but today’s reading from Exodus gives us much deeper insight into whether or not we humans can actually see God, and what we would see if we did.

 

Moses is back up on Mount Sinai trying to bail out the Israelite people after they became faithless and manufactured that little golden calf. This is a huge breach of their covenant with God. It is a violation of the very first of the ten commandments.

 

I can imagine God’s disappointment in us sometimes. After fashioning for our use and enjoyment a beautiful world like the one in which we dwell; after breathing life into us, and birthing us into the loving arms of parents, grandparents and others; after watching over us and filling us with talents and gifts and ability; after bringing into our lives loving people, and good friends, and remarkable experiences of beauty and joy; after weeping with us when we’ve wept, and laughing with us when we’ve laughed; after picking us up when we were knocked down, and helping us pick up the pieces when our lives were shattered; after guiding us through the years to the place we are now, I can appreciate how deeply sad God must become when we remove our trust from him and instead place it in things, or other people, or other gods, or even ourselves.

 

So in this story, Moses is trying to soothe God’s hurt feelings over what the people have done. They are so self-destructive, God sees. And for a while, God feels like the world might be a better place if He simply lets them go their own way and they end up destroying themselves. But Moses convinces God to not give up hope in the people. Isn’t that a wonderful thought? And God relents and pledges that, even though the people might be faithless to Him, He will never be faithless to them. Then God assures Moses that He will keep His promises to Israel, although God is still hurt enough to say that He Himself will not lead the people anymore, but will send an angel instead to go before them. But Moses won’t accept the deal. No, Moses insists that angels aren’t enough. Cherubs and seraphs and archangels are all great and wonderful, but they are not God. Moses will not accept one of God’s assistants. Moses wants God Himself to go before them.

 

And God agrees. You see, persistence pays off. What was it Jesus once said? Ask, and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and eventually, the door will be opened!

 

And then Moses asks for one more thing. Moses asks to be able to see God’s glory. And although God reminds Moses that, if he were to see God’s face, he wouldn’t survive the experience, God does offer this: God will place Moses on a high rock, and God will walk by in all God’s glory. And God’s hand will cover Moses so he doesn’t get burned up by God’s dazzling brilliance. But then, once the Lord has safely passed by, God will lift His hand. And Moses will get to see God’s back.

 

Now this is a wonderful story about the power of faith, and the living, give-and-take kind of relationship God lets us have with Him. It is a great story about how, as tempting as it might be for God to give up on humanity, God will not. And about how you and I play a role in pleading with God for mercy toward those who fall away.

 

But it is also a story about something much more specific and local than all that. I believe it is a story about the glory of Stewardship Season here at Tellico Village Community Church in Loudon, Tennessee!

 

The Trails Through Tellico notebooks are out there in the neighborhoods, being passed from member to member. Thanks to all of you who have already pledged your financial support for our ministry next year. And thanks in advance to those of you who will be getting the books and making your pledge in the days ahead.

 

But while all that is going on, I want to invite you to the more important experience of this season. I want to invite you to come…and – like Moses - see the glory of God!

 

And here’s the secret to seeing God’s glory: first of all, the story in Exodus promises us that what we can see of God is God’s goodness. “I will cause all my goodness to pass before you,” God says to Moses. What a wonderful thing! All of God’s good deeds. All of the ways He has blessed Moses since he was a little child. All God’s good gifts and blessings that have been given to Moses and the world. “I will cause all my goodness to pass before you.” But, the Lord adds, you can only see it once I’ve passed by.

 

Have you ever been out by the lake and heard the pounding of waves and seen frothy swells and wondered where they came from? And then you looked further down the lake to see the boat that made that wake when it passed by. Have you ever looked up into the clear blue sky and seen a white contrail, and then followed it miles ahead to catch a glimpse of the jet aircraft that produced it? Have you ever watched the old TV show “The Lone Ranger?” The people of the town are left only with a silver bullet and beautiful memories of what justice came into their lives. And they are left to ask, “Who WAS that masked man?”

 

In a similar way, that’s how we often encounter God. The goodness of God and all God’s good deeds begin to appear like a wake trailing behind Him as God passes by.

 

The sermon title today is Unseen Consequences. And the basic premise is this: when you as a person of faith – or we as a church together - live our lives to God, when we do what God wills, and follow where God leads, it may not always be immediately apparent how our faithful living has impacted and changed the world around us. But, in due time, the good consequences of our living, and giving, and loving in Jesus’ name will appear!

 

God always leaves goodness in His wake, and when you see the goodness of God, you see God!

 

When Sandy and I were on vacation this past August, I accepted an invitation to preach at the very first church I served on my own. It’s been fifteen years since I last preached at First Congregational, and when you consider that I served there for fifteen years, you can understand that our roots there go back a long ways. It was just about thirty years ago that Sandy and I first pulled up to the church in our rented Uhaul truck that carried all our life’s possessions. We have many dear friends there still, and the Sunday we were there was like a homecoming celebration. The place was packed! They treated us like visiting royalty! It was wonderful!

 

But among all the great experiences and reunions of that Sunday last August, one in particular touched me deeply. A young woman came through the line after the service. I didn’t recognize her at first, but then remembered that it was Sheila. She was just a little kid when I served that church. And then a more specific memory came. Sheila was one of four little kids huddled with their mother in the driveway of their home on a cold afternoon just before Christmas one year. Inside the house, police officers were investigating the suicide death of Sheila’s father. I remember so vividly how the family shivered in the cold, and in the utter shock of what had happened. I remember trying to gather them all in my arms both to warm them, and protect them. And, you know, there’s nothing you can say. Nothing you can do to make things right. You can only be there with them, praying that God will somehow redeem them from such a tragedy.

 

Well, we had quite a conversation, Sheila and I. She told me that God has been good to her, and her mother, and her sister and two brothers. A lot of healing has taken place in their lives.

 

And then Sheila said to me, “Will you sing me my song one more time?”

 

“What song?” I asked.

 

“The song you used to sing me every Sunday morning when I came into church!”

 

Well, I had no clue what she was talking about.

 

“Oh, you know,” Sheila said. “The one with my name in it.”

 

And then I remembered.

 

 “Sweet little Sheila, you’ll know her if you meet her,

Blue eyes and a pony tail.

Her cheeks are rosy, she looks a little nosey,

Man, this little girl is fine.”

 

What can you ever do to lift up the life of a little child who has lost her father? Well, nothing really. Except to love them, and make them feel special, and trust that God will take those very human gifts and produce goodness with them. So, not knowing what else to do, I used to sing Sheila that silly little song. And that day last August I sang the song to her again.

 

And a beautiful smile spread across Sheila’s face, and then came the tears, welling up from within twenty-five years of memory, and trickling down her cheeks. Then Sheila threw her arms around my neck and sobbed, “You will never know what that song meant to me!”

 

Unseen consequences.

 

Oh, I believe I saw the goodness of the Lord pass by there in the hallway at the First Congregational Church!

 

And we see God’s goodness in our church, too.

 

We see it in people. Why, I doubt very much that, when Terry Boyes was working for Aramco over in Saudi Arabia, he ever imagined that one day he would be instrumental in the development of a Child Advocacy Center for abused children in Loudon, Tennessee. But the Lord passed by…and look at Terry! Unseen consequences of faith! And when Will Rogers was figuring out how to make explosives for the United States military, who would have dreamed that he would become a strong advocate for supporting local students with scholarships to college? But the Lord passed by…and look at Will! Unseen consequences of faith! When Patty and Dean Miller moved to Tellico Village, I highly doubt that they had any clue that God would use them so beautifully as He has developing all sorts of outreach through our church kitchen! And now that they’re getting ready to retire from that ministry, we all look back and say, “Wow! Look at God’s goodness!” And if anyone had told Bill Williams when he went to broadcasting school that his work as a television anchor would one day result in hundreds of orphaned children being adopted, he’d probably have laughed out loud! But the Lord passed by…and look at Bill!

 

You see, we humans are not always able to see God face-to-face in the present moment, but in due time, when we live faithfully, the consequences of our faith emerge. God’s goodness appears, and we know the Lord was here!

 

We see it in people. And we see it in our church.

 

When Bob Puckett and Carl Burke and that courageous handful of people who began this enterprise first stepped out in faith, I’m sure they could not have visualized all the goodness of God that would be seen here fifteen years later.

 

A handful of people dedicated to glorifying God through service to others becoming over a thousand people dedicated to glorifying God through service to others. A ministry of Christian care that would encompass not just the church, and not just the Village, but the entire county. A congregation that would be a driving force behind Habitat For Humanity, the Good Samaritan Center, the Child Advocacy Center, the Good Neighbors Shoppe, and countless other agencies that seek to bring Christ’s love to others. A center for Christian learning where hundreds of adults as well as children come each week to deepen their faith and learn to apply it in daily life.

 

The consequences of the faith of the founders of our church are only now becoming more and more evident. You and I are seeing God parade by in all God’s goodness!

 

So let me ask you. Have you ever seen God?

 

I hope the goodness you see in your life and in our church is far more than you ever anticipated!

 

And I hope you will rededicate yourself in this season to faithfully following Jesus every day. To being an individual who represents the Lord in every relationship you have. To being a hardworking member of a church that God has blessed with unlimited potential for doing good. To bringing forth and offering simple gifts of faith that have tremendous unseen consequences when given to God.

 

Come today, and stand on a high rock with me, and take a look at all God’s goodness parading before us.

 

And then come and let’s join that parade together!