Dr. David D. Young
September 16, 2007
Psalm 121
II Corinthians 4: 7-18
"Are Things Really Looking Up?"
(The Upward Look)

Have any of you ever used a power washer? Give me a power washer - and watch out! This summer at our vacation spot up in northern Minnesota we borrowed a power washer - and I went crazy. It's amazing what you can clean with a power washer - and it's amazing how clean things get.

My better half suggested I get up on the roof and try cleaning the skylights on the cabin - which had pinesap and debris from years of accumulation. And, oh my goodness what a difference it made - we could see sky and branches and birds whenever we looked up.

"I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and for evermore."
~ Psalm 121

The psalmist encourages us to look up for a sense of God and God's grandeur and goodness. And the Psalmist bids us to trust in the Lord no matter what our circumstances - good or bad - in or out.

When I think of the war in Iraq along with so many of the atrocities and problems of the world, I wonder "Are Things Really Looking Up?" The issues and challenges of our world seem so overwhelming that it's hard to know at times how one can make a difference.

But if God cares about our going out and our coming in - and if God cares about keeping our life, then it seems to me we need to care about our brothers and sisters going out and coming in as well - all of our brothers and sisters around the world.

And when we look at our church and our own lives we see change and challenges as well. These past months have been considered a time of transition for us as we have said farewell to Susie Craig and what was the last of a combined seventy-five plus year tenure of pastoral staff of Susie, Sally Colegrove and Tom Stiers.

Ever since Tom's retirement - now over four years ago - there has been a lot of transition at our church. There have been numerous staff changes and there are new possibilities emerging - and that's exciting and uncertain.

A search committee is hard at work to find a permanent Associate Pastor. And many people are working very hard to cover all the bases as we enter this new program year. I would submit that this year to come is also a year of transition.

Whenever we move through changes and transitions in life - we wonder what potential the future really holds for us. And so, this fall we are exploring a sermon series theme entitled:

"Opening Opportunities: Windows for Discovery."

Last week we kicked-off homecoming Sunday with "Let Your Light Shine!" - and from here on out we will be dealing with the upward look, the inward look, the beyond look, the together look and the outward look - as we seek to discover the opportunities God would open to us in our unfolding future.

The opening opportunities for us during this fall season - are on the one hand - very exciting! It was the fifth century B.C. Greek poet, Pindar, who wrote,

"My soul, do not seek eternal life, but exhaust the realm of the possible."

The challenge for us is to explore the possibilities for First Congregational Church as we seek to better understand and live out who we are as a people of God.

"Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door."

So wrote our American poetess, Emily Dickinson. The poetess knew the need for openness precisely when her natural instincts would have said, "keep things closed and safe - wait until the light of a new day is revealed before deciding whether or not you choose to receive it."

Having lived through a tornado as a young person - there is a simple truth about tornadoes I want to remind you of. When one is approaching (as opposed to a hurricane) it is far better to have the doors and windows open rather than shut. For it is the disparity between outer and inner pressure that potentially destroys a house. The same is true for nations

And the same is true for a church during a time of change and transition - we are much better off to remain open to what the future holds - than to batten down the hatches in a closed, indrawn way. And my sense is, there is an openness among us to the new winds of God's spirit moving here in our church home.

Yet - it would be easy to sugar-coat the future - as we often sugar-coat the past. It would be easy to get caught up in the excitement of last Sunday and today, and envision a bright, rosy picture - while forgetting the struggles of the past - and that all futures require faithfulness. It would be easy to pretend that everything is "hunky-dory" - while denying that many of us struggle with terribly difficult personal issues.

We could sit here today and say that Christianity is just love, love, love - and deceive ourselves about the truth that to live is to be part of the push and pull of all of life's tensions. So whether it's in our personal lives, our church, our country or our world - I suspect each of us at some level can ask the question "Are Things Really Looking Up?"

Do we have a bright future - full of opening opportunities? Or, is it all just a bunch of fluff? Well, those questions bring us to the first point of our New Testament lesson which Larry Haviland read, a recognition of reality.

"This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar - to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out!"

You see, Paul had a very realistic awareness of the difficulties and dilemmas, pressures and problems, struggles and stresses - which are part of the human condition. Yet, his faith affirms that nothing in life can give the final knock-out blow, not even death itself.

When your life gets messy, takes a turn for the worse or is just plain down and difficult - haven't there been times when you secretly wished things were totally different. At such times in my life I've wished I could just change the channel with the touch of a button to something more comfortable, enjoyable and fun. But, whether in our personal lives, our social relationships, or our world situation - we can't change channels.

We can say with Paul,

"We are afflicted, yes, but not crushed; perplexed - but not driven to despair; struck down - but not destroyed."

An important Greek word here is aπopεw which literally means uncertainty. As we face the future individually, congregationally, and on the world stage - we are certainly in a time of uncertainty. That is the honest recognition of reality. The future is not nailed down.

A teacher once asked a student to define a vacuum. The young person responded by saying,

"Well, I've got it in my head - but I just can't tell it."

Perhaps an accompaniment of uncertainty is a slight feeling of emptiness. When the future is uncertain - there is a void to be filled. What I mean is the void out in front of us gets felt within us.

On nothingness, the author Oliver Sacks wrote,

"Nature abhors a vacuum - and so do we. The idea of a void - of emptiness, nothingness, spacelessness, placelessness, all such "lessness" - is at once abhorrent and inconceivable; and yet it haunts us in the strangest, most paradoxical way: 'Nothing is more real than nothing.'"

And isn't that the wrestling within each of our souls - the final facing of the great abyss? But in the face of nothingness - the voice of faith can be heard.

Although the in-between time is uncertain - it is a yeasty time - filled with opportunity and growth potential - if we can learn to make uncertainty our friend. One of the few certainties of life is its uncertainty - and our faith can help us to live with that.

Which leads to our second recognition this morning, that of renewal. Paul continues in verse 16 of our text,

"This is the reason that we never collapse. The outward person does indeed suffer wear and tear, but every day the inward person receives fresh strength. These little troubles (which are really so transitory) are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain."

You see friends, renewal doesn't come by sugar-coating the past or pretending there are no challenges or struggles. No, it comes as a gift - following the honest recognition of reality.

Thomas Edison was not a man to allow himself to get bogged down in self pity. At 67 years of age his plant with all his earthly assets burned down. He said to his son, "Where's Mom? Go get her, Son! Tell her to hurry up and bring her friends! They'll never see a fire like this again!" Before dawn the next morning he called his employees together. "We're rebuilding," he announced. He was determined that upon the foundation something greater would rise.

Our challenges to grow and build as a congregation pale in comparison to what Edison faced. Yet, that's the promise of our faith - that when we recognize reality - no matter how tough the challenge - in our personal life - our corporate life - and even in the life of our world - God's goodness and grace offer renewal.

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day." says Paul.

And how is it we discover such renewal? By raising our focus upward toward God. Our text concludes with these words,

"For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory: it is the invisible things that are really permanent."

Directing our gaze to God is the source of all real focusing in life. The upward look offers discovery through the window of seeing and knowing God's unconditional gift of love and presence. For the inward person to receive fresh strength - we must look to the unseen realities of God.

The great English Congregational preacher, P. T. Forsythe, warned about the person,

"Who, finding nothing within - which is over - succumbs to what is around."

Without turning our sights toward the transcendent, we will be given to despair and we can be crushed and knocked out. But when God in Christ shines through our window of discovery - we are renewed in the inner person for faithful following.

When we come face to face with the prospect of nothingness in life and the uncertainty of all our futures, the paramount question is, will we raise our sights with the upward look? In this year ahead - each of us individually - and we as a church - and yes, even we as a world - will need to raise our sights and maintain the upward look.

The late Archbishop, Dom Helder Camara, who spent many years with the poorest of the poor in Brazil, captured it well in a nightly vigil journal entry marked July 12, 1957,

"Of all your lessons, Master, one is so important I forget about the rest... Teach me to reach for the infinite, the light, which on the horizon, helps heaven come down to earth and earth rise up to heaven."

These then are our three R's of recognition:

Reality!

Renewal!

Raising!

Our recognition of reality tells us that though we may often be perplexed and uncertain - we need not be driven to despair. And though our outer nature does indeed suffer wear and tear (let's face it - we are all getting older) - we receive fresh strength and renewal every day! For as people of faith - we raise our focus upward toward God - looking not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

So, here we are on this September Sunday - with the known past behind us and the unknown future ahead of us. And we ask ourselves,

"Are Things Really Looking Up?"

Instead of a superficial "Yes" - or a faithless "No" - comes a deep flowing -"You bet your life they are!" Because we know that our faith and our very lives are grounded in the upward look!

"Where do we lift our eyes?"

"And from where will our help come?"

"And who will keep our going out and our coming in?"

Amen.


AFFIRMATION OF FAITH

We lift up our eyes to the hills-
   from where will our help come?
Our help comes from the LORD,
   who made heaven and earth.
He will not let our feet be moved;
   he who keeps us will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is our keeper;
   the LORD is our shade at our right hand.
The sun shall not strike us by day,
   nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep us from all evil;
   he will keep our lives.
The LORD will keep
   our going out and our coming in
   from this time on and for evermore.
       (from Psalm 121)