Please bow our heads. Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, that in your light we may see light, in your truth find wisdom, and in your will, discover your peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Good morning,
Welcome to Blue Lake, and thank you for coming.
The title to today’s message is “Letting Go”
A man was walking along a mountain ledge when the earth under him gave way. As he fell he grabbed onto a root that was sticking out of the mountain side. He began to shout for help, he waited….”then again Help,”
Finally there was a voice: I can help you
The man was relieved that someone answered: please help me, I’ve fallen off the edge!”
Suddenly, there was a reply from above, “Let Go”
The man yelled back “Who are you?”
“God” said the voice.
“Oh God, please help me get out of here.
And again the voice said “Let Go”
The man’s arm was beginning to hurt now, and then he said, “Is anybody else out there?”
“Letting Go” can be particularly challenging, when you have no idea where you are going, when the course is uncertain, when the outcome is not clear.
On October 23d 1983, I stepped aboard on an airplane headed for America. It was a bit unnerving, flying to a foreign land not knowing what to expect on the other side.
I had to “Let Go” of the comforts of home, back in Holland. I remember there was a layover in London, but flight from AMS was delayed, and missed my connection, had to be rescheduled through Minneapolis, then Seattle then Portland.
I stopped stressing out about it, “Let Go” of my anxiety, and surrendered to whatever was meant to happen. Eventually I arrived in Portland, and the rest is history.
When I came to Arcata in 1984, the company was still called Sun Valley Bulb Farms. The largest crop in those days was Daffodils. Millions of daffodil flowers were picked from December through February. In June and July many school kids in Arcata spend their summer vacation picking up daffodil bulbs.
Then 11 years later in 1995 we grew our last crop of Daffodils. We “Let Go” of a long tradition of Daffodil growing for Sun Valley, and nearly 100 years of rich Daffodil history in Humboldt County.
“Letting Go” is also the theme in the song we heard earlier by Louis Armstrong titled: “Let my people go”.
These were the words, the Lord instructed Moses to convey to Pharaoh, to “Let Go” of the Israelites after 430 years of captivity in Egypt. Eventually, Pharaoh did let them go. The Israelites went through the Red Sea. But once in the dessert disbelief and distrust set in.
In Exodus 17: 3 they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst.
Even though they were subjugated by their Egyptian captors, the Israelites knew what they had in the land of Egypt. But now they are in the wilderness, not knowing what the next day would bring, and had to depend on the Lord to provide food and water.
They become restless, lose confidence, lose faith, and it leads to complaining and moaning, and they get into rebellion, like building a golden calf and worshipping it, and some men started messing around with women of local tribes and worshipping their gods.
Paul uses this historical context, while writing a letter to the Corinthians.
He warns these folks in Corinth of their wicked ways, by giving them a history lesson.
This brings us to today’s reading of 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, on page………..
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3and all ate, the same spiritual food, 4and all drank, the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
6Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” 8We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11These things happened to them, to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12So if you think you are standing, watch out, that you do not fall. 13No testing has overtaken you, that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not, let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it…………..
The Greek city of Corinth is located on a peninsula, with Ionian Sea on one side and the Aegean Sea on the other. At the narrowest spot it is only 3 miles wide. In 1882 a canal was built across, saving ships the long and treacherous journey around the southern point, referred to as Cape Maleae.
But in the times of Paul, there was no canal, and goods would be offloaded in Corinth, and taken across the land. The port of Corinth developed into a bustling seaport, an intersection between East and West.
This meant a town full of sailors, looking for a good time. It became a magnet of drunkenness and prostitution. In ancient days, if someone was referred to as a Corinthian, it would connote a licentious and unrestrained lifestyle.
It was in that culture, where Paul arrived with the “Good News Message”. He stayed there for a year and a half, establishing a church.
3 years later on his “3d Missionary Journey” Paul is now in Ephesus, when he receives several reports of disturbing things happening within the church in Corinth.
He is so distressed by this; he sits down and starts writing one of the longest letters, he ever wrote, to those believers in Corinth.
The letter lays out a blueprint, for the Corinthians to live a virtuous life. But in order to make his point he inserts a historical perspective in Chapter 10, by reminding them of what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness, 1500 years earlier.
In verse 8 Paul writes: We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23.000 fell in a single day.
The historical context of this, is found in Numbers 25:1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. Eventually 24,000 died in the plague.
In verse 9, Paul writes we must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. He is referring to Numbers 21:4
The people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” 6 Then the Lord, sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.
These passages in the Book of Numbers (OT) sure seem very challenging. But it is even more mind boggling to find this in one of Paul’s letters.
Is this the same Paul who writes about “Love” in 1Corinthians 13, and about salvation for all, Jew and gentile alike.
So where is Paul coming from? Why is he bringing this up??………..
Here is where “Letting Go” comes into the picture……
In the final analysis, the Israelites were not letting go, they were not putting their trust in the Lord, and instead they were complaining and moaning and full disbelief and distrust and malice.
If they would have “Let Go” and trust in the Lord, they wouldn’t have had to spend 40 years in the wilderness in the first place.
The Israelites, had seen the powerful hand of God during the plagues and miracles of the Exodus.
Yet, like many people, they walked by sight and not by faith, and God was displeased by their unbelief.
The bible says in Hebrews 11:6: “Without faith it is impossible to please God”
Marc and Angel Chernoff, in their bestseller book “Getting back to Happy” tell the story of a psychology professor raising a glass of water asking: “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”
Students shouted out answers ranging from eight ounces to a couple pounds.
She replied, “From my perspective, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter. It all depends on how long I hold it.
If I hold on for a minute or two, it’s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its weight might make my arm ache a little.
If I hold it for a whole day, my arm will likely cramp up and feel completely numb and paralyzed.
In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”
“Our stresses and worries in life are very much like this glass of water.
Think about it for a while and not much happens. Think about it longer and you begin to ache.
Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb and paralyzed – incapable of doing anything else, until you “Let… Go…”
Preparation of a sermon, selecting a scripture text, and writing a message can be challenging, but somehow every time, the provisions for content seem to come at the right time.
A few weeks ago, I visited the Presbyterian Church in Arcata and a person in the congregation came to me, with a book to read.
The book is a fascinating story about a Dutch guy called Andrew, who grew up in a town, no further than 20 miles where I was born and raised. He spent his childhood during World War 2.
As a youngster he skillfully managed to avoid many church services and described himself as a rebellious adolescent.
At age 18 he enlisted in the Dutch Marines Corps and fought in the independence war of Dutch West Indies (Present day Indonesia).
The scene in Indonesia was not pretty, he tells of killing villagers and children, and when not on patrol, did lots of drinking.
He eventually gets injured, when a bullet shatters his ankle. He ends up in a hospital in Indonesia run by Franciscan nurses.
He is amazed about the joy those nurses exhibited, and how cheerful they were, despite a heavy workload. It was the type of joy that he was missing.
At one point he asks Patricia, one of those nurses, why are you so happy and full of joy? With a sparkle in her eye she answered, you know……it is the love of God.
She tells Andrew, you have to “Let Go” you are so troubled by your past, that you resort to drinking and rebellion.
Then she tells a story of how monkeys are caught in the jungle. The villagers take a coconut; drill a hole on one side just large enough for the monkey’s paw to slip through.
They put a pebble inside the coconut. The monkey will try to get the pebble out, it will rattle but he can’t get it out and the monkey will not “Let Go”.
Andrew endured a period of severe emotional stress; he was overcome with guilt of the atrocities of 2 years of warfare in Indonesia.
He lived a lifestyle that included drunkenness and rebellion not unlike those folks in Corinth.
He returns to Holland, but needs to spend more time in a VA hospital for a long rehabilitation from his injuries. One day all patients are invited to a tent meeting in a nearby town.
A fellow patient had snuck out to the town and bought some liquor. By the time they made it to the tent meeting, both were drunk. The preacher was not amused with these two guys in the back, making a ruckus.
As the tent meeting comes to a conclusion, the closing song is: Let my People Go. The same song, we heard earlier by Louis Armstrong.
On the way back on the bus, and while laying in bed at night, that song kept playing in his head.
Years earlier before going to Indonesia, his mother had given him a bible, but all that time, he never once picked it up.
He kept it at his nightstand in memory of his mother. But as he was lying there in the hospital bed, and that song kept playing in his head, he reached out to it and started reading.
From that moment forward he read the bible, and within months stopped drinking. The fire had been ignited. The bible stories he had heard as a child, that didn’t make any sense to him then, now became real.
Once back home, one night, he was lying in bed while a huge storm with strong winds was howling around the house.
In the wind he heard the voice of Sister Patricia telling the story of the Monkey not “Letting Go”, he heard the singing, “Let my People Go” “Let it Go”, give yourself to God.
Lying in bed a said a simple prayer:
Lord, if you show me the way, I will follow you.
That changed his life forever.
That night he gave his live to Christ. He “Let Go” and surrendered to the Lord and put his trust in him.
The book is called “God’s smuggler”, it is truly remarkable and fascinating, doors are opening up, miracles abound, I won’t give any more away, but encourage all to read it.
Andrew is 90 years old, still lives in Holland, and his ministry continues today, and is known as Open Doors International, supporting persecuted Christians in over 70 countries…….
In this season of Lent “Let Go” of the past, no matter what the past may have been.
Ask Jesus to cleanse us of our sins.
“Let Go”, put our trust in the Lord,
repent of our sins,
give ourselves to Christ,
and accept him as Lord and savior.
He will lead us on the narrow road to the Kingdom of Heaven
Thank you,
God Bless you,
Amen
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