God with us!

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

What a privilege it is to bring the Word of God to you today, the day of baptism. If we were to pause and consider for a minute in terms of the season of the church, we are nearing the end of Epiphany season. Next week we turn our attention to transfiguration of our Lord, and then commence Lent season soon after. Epiphany in a broader sense means to reveal, it is an ‘aha moment’ or ‘a light bulb’ moment when you realize about things, or suddenly become aware of those things as light is cast revealing what is hidden in darkness. As we gathered to listen to the Word of God, I wonder, where the spotlight will be in our life, to what sense of new realization we will come to about our God?

Let me read these words from Isaiah 40: 27-31

Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel,

“My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

Let us pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of Your Word, thank you for the privilege you bestow upon us to listen to your Word. Open our ears, hearts, minds, and lives to respond to your Word. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

How are you feeling this morning? Good!

Now that is the standard answer we give, don’t we? No matter how we feel, we say, ‘good.’ What if you were responding to a friend through a text message? How do you convey your true ‘feelings’? How would you express yourself?

Perhaps, you might use words in such a way that they share your feelings, or carefully use punctuation to express the excitement in your voice, or type everything in BLOCK CAPTIAL letters to share your ‘not so happy’ tone with others, wouldn’t use one of these techniques?

Some of us, even though we are not super great sometimes these things called Emoji’s or emoticons (share the picture), On the days you are happy you might use a ‘smiling’ emoticon, when you are pulling a prank or being silly we might use ‘a tongue in cheek raspberry face’, when sad, you might use the ‘teary eyed emoticon’, when angry, you may use ‘a red coloured emoji’, and when jealous, you might use ‘a green’ one. Apart from this we might use a ‘thumbs up’ emoticon if we like something, or ‘thumbs down’ for something we don’t think is cool. That’s the end of my emoji usage, you might know or use more emojis than me.

As humans we use a few of these emoji’s depending on the situation we are facing. Obviously, we as creatures, experience range of emotions living through ups and downs of each day. Like clouds, some emotions come and go, and may not have much influence on our lives. It is true, sometimes we wake up to face an exciting day, therefore, we may feel great in the early hours of the day, but just as clouds pass in the sky our excitement vanishes, by the end of the day, as humans we grow weary and tired, drained out we look for the comfort of a good night sleep. Even in sleep, sometimes we feel terrors, wake up worried or afraid after a nightmare. I suppose, what I am trying to say is this: as humans we deal with emotions all the time, from waking moments to resting moments. Normally, we deal with them just fine, as emotions come and go.

But then, there are extraordinary times. Strong feelings come upon our hearts, and they stick with us. This is where things can get a bit messy! Strong feelings give all sorts of direction in life, for out of heart proceed all sorts of emotions. These strong emotions exert power over us. Take for example, when a catastrophe hits us, or a tragedy strikes our loved ones, wouldn’t that influence us? Maybe an accident (or an incident), can change everything, taking away our sense of direction, belonging, security, confidence in life, and self-esteem. Death of a close relative will challenge people. The loss of a job, or loss in business, or a physical function in the body, or a relationship can trigger all sorts of emotions. If not dealt well, they can create further complications leading people into despair and even depression. In such times, no emoticons can truly express how we truly ‘feel’. What do we do then?

In our readings for today, we meet a certain group of people who were wrestling with this particular question. The Hebrew people who were living around 550 B.C.E, in Israel and Judah. Their story (in Isaiah 40) was an emotional as well as factual one. God loved them and entered a covenant with them through their ancestor Abraham. In a nutshell, the promise included God calling Abraham, promising numerous children, God also promised to look after descendants as they live in the promised land. God’s promise to Abraham guaranteed, abiding relationship between God and Israel. The covenant gave promises of safety and security under God’s watch for these people.

This guarantee was challenged by the sin of the people. In particular, the way they lived and rebelled against God. Rather than relying on their God, they relied on their hearts. Self-reliance was their agenda. Like Adam and Eve, they wanted to be the ones-in-charge. So, they sought gods, sometimes, it is their own ego, their emotions and self. Led by these they bowed to idols and worshipped.

God, through prophets called people to turn from the errors of their ways and to return to him. God desired repentance from people, but they would have nothing to do with him. They ignored God’s prophets and carried on managing their lives as their hearts desired.

Until one day they all woke up to a catastrophe. All of a sudden, Assyrians invaded them, later on came the Babylonians. As a result of these invasions, mighty armies destroyed their lands, their properties, crops, businesses, their temple, and ultimately took them as prisoners. Pretty gruesome story really! It was truly hopeless situation for the Hebrews. They woke up to the bitter reality of life turned upside down. All hope was lost as they were exposed, humiliated, and exiled from their homes. At that point they sought salvation, interestingly not in their ‘own feelings’ but in God!

In the midst of this grief and hopeless situation, they wondered about meaning of promises of God. The chosen ones felt weak and powerless, they asked, where was God, when tragedy struck them down? They whinged at one point saying: “my way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God?” Their complaint reflects their struggle with strong feelings they carried. Far removed by events of the exile atleast by 2500 years, we can still sense this. Yet times, we even join with them in complaining about perceived absence of God in our time of need.

It maybe because, we sometimes carry on with life like them too. Having same attitude to life, we want to do things our way! Be in-charge of life. We want to run the show, wanting to control those things in our lives that we have no control over. At times rather than handing things to God, we want to call the shots in life. Be it matters of finances, managing time, relationships, or the needs of body, we desire to be in control. But, when we hit a dead end, that is when we turn around and ask, ‘ok, where is God?’ From despair we seek light. Feeling lonely, isolated, we complain about the absence of God. Isn’t this how some of us operate sometimes? Let us be honest with ourselves!

The news for us today is this: God isn’t far removed from us. In fact, God cares about us enough to see you, hear your words, and discern your thoughts. In Psalm for today we hear God is closer to people than ever: ‘God heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit’ (Psalm 147: 3-5). This is our God. It is his nature to be close, the one who knows stars by name, also knows you intimately and thoroughly. As a matter of fact, He even knows the number of hair on your head (Luke 12:7). God’s Word reveals this plainly and clearly.

Guess what, because God knows you so well, he knows about your struggle. So He challenges this way: (verses 21-22,27 NIRV): ‘don’t you know who made everything? Haven’t you heard about him? Hasn’t it been told to you from the beginning? Haven’t you understood it ever since the earth was made?’ This is God’s way of inviting us to go beyond ourselves and put our hope in the hands of our Saviour. A Psalmist sheds light into the heart of God when he said: ‘the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love’ (Psalm 147: 11).

You see friends, your creator knows you! The one who sits high on heavens above understands your struggle. His mighty power is enough to save you out of any trouble. No wonder, our Heavenly Father acts in love to save us from sin and our selfish ways by sending Jesus.

The message of the gospel story is that our Heavenly Father knows how to search us. On the days, when we might not ‘feel good’ our God is still seeks us, even though we are lost and condemned sinners. Confronted by sin around us, we may feel feeble, in despair we might like Israelites in exile, feel as if God has abandoned us. Truth is far from it, God’s word declares, ‘even a mother could forget her child, but not God (Isaiah 49:15). Like grasshoppers, we might feel miniscule and overlooked, but scriptures remind us, the power of God’s love finds us.

Rather than, getting up from his throne to destroy evil, God shows patience and acts out of love. The life and story of Jesus, shows this heart of God. The will of God is to save the world, so he sent Jesus, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. The baptism that we received saves us. Just as this child (N) is saved from her sin by the grace of God, we too are saved by the waters of baptism.

Not just that, to those who put their hope and wait in the Lord, to them is given a wonderful promise. They ‘will run and not grow weary’, they will ‘walk and not be faint.’ This promise is not based on a fleeting feelings, but is based on the solid, unchanging word of God, like eagles you will soar.

Have you ever wondered about the style flying accomplished by an eagle? They don’t flap, like a lot of birds, But they soar, a technique, which relies on the rising air-currents to carry them to higher altitudes. This technique of soaring saves them significant energy, because air currents do the trick, they do all the work. So, eagles spend minimum energy but get maximum flight due to air currents. This is how gospel works too.

We tag along to heaven on account of what Christ has achieved for us, not based on what we can do, no matter how strongly we feel about it. In baptism, God connects us with Christ. At the font, God offers pardon and new life as a gift to us. Reception of Gospel makes this possible. It is as simple as that. The gift of the gospel is given through faith. We are justified by grace, through faith, and that is the gift of God.

Yes, our feelings help us gauge things from earthly perspective, but feelings don’t necessarily offer hope, only Christ does. By taking our death, and our sin upon his shoulders, Jesus won salvation and life eternal for us. So He offers hope to us out of every situation. Through the means of Grace he offers promising presence of God with us. No matter how we are feeling today, God is still closer to us. The gifts of grace we soon see, touch, taste, remind us our Father’s love, care, and eternal commitment towards us. But we need to ask ourselves: do we trust the power of God’s love for us? Is the love of God enough for us to look above our situations?

Soon, we will draw to a time of confession and absolution, but let me leave you with this powerful anecdote that I once heard:

Every Sunday, the ducks in a certain town waddle out of their houses down Main Street to the church. They waddle into the sanctuary and squat in their proper pews. The duck choir waddles in and takes its place and then the duck minister comes forward opens the duck Bible. He reads to them: ‘ducks, God has given you wings! With wings you can fly! With wings you can mount up and soar like eagles. No walls can confine you! No fences can hold you! You have wings. God has given you wings, and you can fly like birds!’ all the ducks shout, ‘Amen!’ and ‘Hallelujah’ then they all waddle home.

May the spirit of God give us such faith which seeks to follow Christ at all times, yes even in times of despair and when you are ‘’feeling low’.

Towards this purpose the peace of God that surpasses all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Rev. Jaswanth Kukatlapalli

Pastor at Mackay Community Lutheran Church (Mackay), and

St. Martin’s Lutheran Church (Cannonvale)

Office Address: 44-46 Wellington Street, Mackay, Queensland, 4740