Trusting
An Unknown Future to a Known God
Joshua
1:1-9, Matthew 6:25-34
February
16, 2014
Grace
Presbyterian Church
Rev.
Dr. Richard E. Miller
Two weeks ago we heard that Our Past is
Forgiven. Last week we heard that Our Present is Holy, This morning we discover that Our Future is
Safe in the Hands of God.
Ah, the future. What an intriguing word
it is. It is what yet will happen, for good or ill. And we spend enormous
amounts of time planning for it and discussing it. And sometimes we try to find
out ahead of time just like Kermit the Frog did.
The Frog and the Crystal Ball Kermit goes to a fortune teller and says, “I want to know what’s going to happen to
me in the future.” The fortune teller asks him to sit down, looks into her
crystal ball, turns to Kermit and says, “I
can see your future quite clearly. You are meeting a beautiful young woman. She
is showing an ardent desire to know all about you. She is coming closer and
closer to you. She can’t keep her hands off of you.” By this time Kermit is
all excited and says, “Where am I meeting
her? At a singles bar? At the Mall? At Church?” “No,” said the fortune teller, “In
a biology lab.” I dare say that
Kermit thought to himself, “I wish I’d never asked.”
Ways to Tell the Future I think most of us at times are like Kermit.
We’d really like to know what’s going to happen in our future. Will we be
successful in work? Will our marriage be successful? Will our children grow up
to be happy? Will I enjoy good health through the years? How can we find out?
Society offers many options.
We could read our astrological
horoscope, consult a Ouija Board or Tarot Cards, have a psychic read tea
leaves, look into a crystal ball, go to a palmister and have our palms read, or
go to a phrenologist and have the bumps on our head read. Perhaps the most
unusual person we might consult would be the mystic Jemima Packington of
Somerset, England. Who is she? Why she’s the world’s only aspermancer. How does she foretell the future?
By throwing asparagus spears into the
air and “reading” the pattern they make when they fall on a white sheet. Of
course, she uses only fresh Worcestershire asparagus grown in the Vale of
Evesham.
However,
in spite of crystal balls, tea leaves and head bumps, our future remains
unknown, unpredictable and shrouded from our sight.
Anxious Hearts
So how do we face the unknown future? We meet it with varying degrees of
anxiousness and worry, myself included.
I remember one event in
which I excelled in the fine art of being anxious. It happened in June of 1968
when I was a commissioner to the meeting of the General Assembly in
Minneapolis. I was asked to preach the sermon at the concluding worship and
communion service of the assembly. Here I was, 37 years old, going to preach to
nearly 10,000 commissioners and guests. I started to worry. Half of those
commissioners were ordained clergy and seminary professors. They would critique
every single word I said. Although I got through the sermon for the General Assembly
just fine, I lost sleep the night before worrying about it. This experience
enables me to understand the anxiety and pressure that Olympic athletes feel
just before they perform.
I imagine that
most of us have anxious moments every week. Maybe we worry about our children,
are anxious about taking a test at school, worry if we’ll be late for an
appointment, or are filled with anxiety as we go to the dentist. These kinds of
worries are part and parcel of life and are over quickly.
Worry Warts These are not the kinds of worrying I
mean. Rather I’m referring to bonafide, certified, card-carrying, long-term
worry warts. What’s a worry wart? One person put it this way: a Worry Wart is a
person who, “if you save them from
drowning and put them on a bank to dry in the sun with hot chocolate and
muffins they wonder whether they are catching cold.” [John Jay Chapman]
One person put it, “Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you
something to do but doesn’t get you anywhere.” Another said, “Worry is as useless as a handle on a
snowball.” [Mitzi Chandler] Yet we continue to worry about the future.
Worrying in Jesus‘ Day It is apparent that there were Worry Warts in
Jesus’ day. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your
body, what you will wear. Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of
life?” [Matthew 6] That’s quite a statement. Worry doesn’t add a
moment to your lifespan. Indeed, excessive worry might take off a few years.
What Jesus is Not Saying
In these words of advice to his disciples and to us, we should be aware that
Jesus is not saying “Don’t worry since
everything in your life will be free of stress and fear.” Jesus knows that
we or our loved ones may indeed be injured or get sick or have problems. He
knows that our lives may be torn apart by such things as divorce or death.
Jesus has already told us that we will have trials and tribulations in our
lives. [John 16:33] And Jesus is not saying that we shouldn’t plan for the future.
What Jesus Is Saying
*** He is saying we should place our lives and our future in the hands
of God who stands firm forever.
*** He is saying that even though we
are frail and helpless, when we trust
God, we have his power to give us strength for the moment.
*** He is saying that if we seek first
God’s kingdom and his righteousness, we
will not be immune to hunger and pain and death, but we will be given
confidence and hope in the midst of them.
Trusting Unknown Future to Known God One woman put it this way, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future
to a known God.” Corrie
Ten Boom. If we’re going to trust our unknown future to a known God,
we must personally know the God in whom we are placing our trust. If God is
unknown to us, we’re not going to trust our unknown future to him. How can we
know God?
Paul - Prayer and Petition The
Apostle Paul answers this by saying, “Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus.” [Philippians 4:6-7]
So one action to help us stop excessive
worrying is to establish a strong trust relationship with God through daily
prayer. If we do this consistently, God will become a known God and his peace
and shalom will guard our hearts and minds from anxiety and worrying.
One person summed up worry in this way:
“There
are only two things to worry about,
either
you will remain healthy or you will get sick.
If
you remain healthy, then there is nothing to worry about.
But
if you get sick there are only two things to worry about,
either
you will get well or you will die.
If
you get well, then there is nothing to worry about.
But
if you die there are only two things to worry about,
either
there is an afterlife or there isn’t an afterlife.
If
there is an afterlife, then there is nothing to worry about.
But
if there isn’t an afterlife you wont know, so don’t worry and be happy!”
Paul’s Answer to Worry Paul put a Christian stamp on this statement
when he wrote “We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If
we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then,
whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” [Romans 14:7ff NRSV]
Because Christ lives,
so we shall live. And whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. A few years
ago, my brother-in-law in Illinois was going to the hospital for brain surgery.
He was given a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the operation. He said to me, “I’m not worried. If I
die, I’ll be with Jesus. If I live, I’ll be with Jesus.”
Moses and Joshua In our Old
Testament reading this morning, Moses had died. God chose Joshua to take over
as leader of the Israelites. Joshua realized that an entire nation’s fate was
upon his shoulders. They were entering a land that had a strong and mighty
military presence. If he messed up, thousands could lose their lives. So Joshua
was worried. He was anxious. He was afraid of what might happen in the future.
And God knew it. So God said to
Joshua, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you
or forsake you. Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in
possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong
and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with
you wherever you go.’”
And so Joshua’s fears were allayed
and he successfully led the Israelites into the Promised Land. His anxiousness
about the future faded away. In like manner, no matter what happens in our
lives tomorrow or the next day or next month, God promises that he will be with
us. He will never betray, leave or forsake us.
In his Great Commission to his
disciples, Jesus said “I am with you
always, to the end of the age.” [Matthew 28:20 NRSV] That means that we
will never, ever be alone no matter what happens. Therefore, we can, with great
confidence, trust our unknown future to a God who made himself known to us
through our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
Joshua
1:1-9 NRSV
After the death of Moses the servant of
the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, ‘My
servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this
people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. Every place
that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised
to Moses. From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the
river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west
shall be your territory. No one shall be able to stand against you all the days
of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you
or forsake you. Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in
possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Only be
strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law
that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or
to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This book of the
law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night,
so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it.
For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.
I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’
Matthew 6:25-34 NRSV
‘Therefore I
tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and
the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor
reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour
to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown
into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore
do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What
will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and
indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive
first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will
be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will
bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
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