It Matters

It Matters

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

March 17, 2019

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Luke 15: 1-7

Isaiah 41: 8-13

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

            For your eyes show us the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

Where we’ve been, doubt – sin

The lie and the exchange

The fog, the disease, the pestilence

We come to doubt who we are and what our place is

Let alone everyone else

I don’t fit

Nothing I do is right

I see my joy ahead

But I am blocked

I begin but I quit

I’m stopped by so many who are in my way

O Brother Where art thou – Obstacles

In that fog, we hear a voice

Much like that which called to Noah, or to Abraham, to Jacob, to Moses, to David, to Isaiah, to Jeremiah, Ezekiel

It has come with a never abandoning marking

It has come in a nameless faceless, promise

In a burning bush

In angelic messengers

In the ability to slay Giants

In walls coming down

In Mannah from heaven

In a way through the desert and the sea

In the fiery furnace and the lions den

Even an the small stillness of sheer silence

And countless other ways to people all over the world

The call from God

To which the reply is simple – hineni

Here I am

I response that stops hiding, stops blaming, and begins to seek God.

This is the transition, this is the beginning

This is conversion

It begins with a need before unknown, untapped, unfounded

And now sought

It begins with humility

And confession

Owning up, and admitting,

Simply admitting the need of something more than ourselves

To a God, whom we call out in belief

In faith, in knowing. . . we leave behind our doubts,

Maybe in desperation because all else has failed

Maybe in dire need because our attempts to do it alone on our own have gone awry

Maybe in faithful confidence

But we leave them behind, reach out, and turn to God.

And we know we can do this because God always shows up

He has since the beginning,

And nothing ever have we needed so badly,

Though we have until now been fleeing

We stop our fleeing and turn finally to God – Hineni – Here I am

WE know we can turn now, that he is there because the Bible tells us so

Shows us over and again, time and time again. . .

Look to the Old Testament lesson for you will hear him calling out to Israel:

Isaiah 41: 8-13

“But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    you descendants of Abraham my friend,
⁹ I took you from the ends of the earth,
    from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

¹¹ “All who rage against you
    will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
    will be as nothing and perish.
¹² Though you search for your enemies,
    you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
    will be as nothing at all.
¹³ For I am the Lord your God
    who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
    I will help you.

Why does God do this, because you matter to him. . . who you are and what you do matters, like you wouldn’t believe you matter, you matter

Look at how much you matter--- the world will tell you it is not true, that you don’t

The voice in that cloud of sin is strong saying no you don’t matter, no one cares anyway, why bother

But you do matter, even in your doubts, your suffereing, your wondering why, your wandering far, your pain, your failed attempts, no matter how many times you have lost. . . the world calls you a loser, tell you, you don’t matter, but God says you do. . .

Here again New Testament: the first of three stories proclaiming the importance of each individual version of God’s creation:

Luke 15: 1-7

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Rejoicing over one lost lamb – he the good shepherd calls, and lthis time you recognize his voice, for he has called you as his own and you answer hineni

Here I am, I matter, I individually, me

Each Life Matters

There’s only one difference ‘tween “all” and “each,”

And it’s the only one difference that matters,

For “All” is a number ever out of reach

And therefore all hope it shatters.

Never, no, never could you ever help all

So you might as well now stop your tryin’;

The world around us is just fated to fall,

Why waste your time carin’ for the cryin’?

It don’t matter no how; it never did y’all;

They keep sellin’ but we just ain’ buyin’.

No, life’s just a clock, and all its tick ‘n’ its tockin’

‘s just the music that plays while we’re dyin’.

Do you believe that, really deep and inside?

Have you never touched anyone’s soul?

Can you honestly say that you’ve never felt pride

In making another broken soul whole?

If you’ve ever loved with your arms open wide

Beyond selfish desires of control,

Then you’d too see the shame, of the endless names

Absent when “All” calls the roll.

And so every time that we talk of love

Let's not lose the "each" in the "all"

For silence is broken when only one dove

Forgets that his voice is too small.