“Searched and Known”

You might have noticed I have strayed off lectionary for this morning. Well at the end of July I attended a conference with a number of our youth that was called Into the Wild. The conference was about the wilderness that each of us face in our lives every day. During the conference we talked about the two texts I have chosen for today along with a number of others. I thought the lessons we learned were important enough to share with all of you, hence my detour off of lectionary for today.

The first passage from Isaiah, was one that we talked about during our evening worship. I have heard this passage from Isaiah many times, as I'm sure have all of you. But I heard it in an entirely new way during the conference. I've always heard the voice crying in the wilderness. Haven't you?

Well, actually, it can be read as A voice crying out. And what the voice cries out is "In the wilderness, prepare a way for the Lord." The voice isn't in the wilderness, the one who is preparing the way is.

Isn't that an odd way to look at it? When we go out on a trip, we tend to prepare BEFORE we get to the wilderness. When I went on the trip with the youth, I didn't think about packing after we had left. No, I packed ahead of time (admittedly it was the night before, but it still was ahead of time.) We try to prepare before we get to the wilderness.

Yet this voice tells us to prepare in the wilderness. Why? Because we are already in that wilderness. Look around at the world. We live in a deep wilderness. Wilderness is a word used many times in the Bible. It is meant to be a place without rules, a place away from others. People frequently are traveling there to flee God. Or to speak to God. But it is a prevalent place.

The wilderness is full of the dark places in our lives. The untamed. The place where unexpected things happen. We all have our own wilderness that we have dealt with. Or maybe you're dealing with yours now. A fight with a trusted family member that has gotten out of hand. A struggle with an addiction. A loss of employment. The breaking down of an important relationship in your life. These are our wildernesses. It isn't all jungle and wild animals.

That's why the voice tells us that we have to prepare in the wilderness. We are all in the wilderness! If we waited until we were back to a place of safety to prepare away for the Lord, nothing would get done. No one would be able to prepare. Instead we are called to prepare a way for the Lord in the mess of our lives. Not when things get calmer. Not when jobs are worked out. Now. In the mess of our lives today, we are called to prepare.

And what are we preparing? We are preparing a way for the Lord. The Lord will come in glory and rule in our lives.

Not an easy thing to think about. After all, when we are deep in the wilderness, we don't necessarily want to share those experiences with anyone, do we? When we are feeling shamed by what has happened, or embarrassed by our actions to try to solve it. We are a people of self-reliance. We want to deal with the wilderness by ourselves and not show the flaws to others.

There's one small problem with that, which we see in Psalm 139. God already knows. God is with us in that wilderness and God knows our pain. God knew us before we were born and knows the layout of our days. God knows the deep secrets we try to hide in our wildernesses. Isaiah is talking about listening to God in turn in his passage. Paying attention to God in God's glory instead of turning away and trying to ignore God's presence. We can't keep God out, the Psalmist talks about that. But we can and do pretend that God is not present.

I ran across a delightful video on youtube this past week by Wendy Francisco. The lyrics begin: "I look up and I see GoD, I look down and see my dog. They would stay with me all day. I'm the one who walks away. But both of them just wait for me and dance at my return with glee. Both love me no matter what, divine God and canine mutt." The song goes one from there, and I really recommend watching it. But for a God whose knowledge is too wonderful for me” looking at a beloved dog helps our minds to understand God's enduring love. God is always with us, but we sometimes push God away. Forget that God is there.

Why do we do this? Well, it's not an entirely comforting thought is it? I mean, there is the joy and delight in knowing that no matter what happens, we are never ever alone. And there is the shame and the worry that no matter what happens, we are never ever alone. Everyone has secrets they don't want to share with anyone. Ones that we just want to be buried. But God already knows those. God knows our inmost thoughts so God knows what spurred us into doing them.

By pretending that they are hidden from God, all we're doing is holding onto that shame and fears by ourselves. When God is waiting to help us in the wild, we try to forge ahead, all on our own. Turning back to God, eases the journey. Allows us to be loved and known, even in the dark places.

God knows us. What an awesome thought! One of the biggest causes of loneliness is the fear that no one really knows you. But God does. You can be completely yourself with God.

That doesn't mean that its okay to continue with the sins you've been hiding because God already knows. By turning back to God, we are loved and embraced, but we also have to acknowledge the wrongs we have done. God knows you and loves you, but like anyone in love, God wants what's best for you. God wants you to grow beyond the limited space you have allowed yourself. God wants you be the best you, you can be. And God knows who that is.

One of my favorite lines in the whole Bible comes in this Psalm “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” What a rich thought.

We are fearfully made because God has created us and not we ourselves. We are finite, limited; that knowledge stirs up fear. We have the capacity for making choices, but we cannot choose what the outcomes will be; and that stirs up fear. We can imagine a life with no sin, but we discover we are powerless to achieve that life. The gap between what we imagine for ourselves and our reality stirs up fear.

We are wonderfully made because we have a unique capacity for wonder, prayer, song, friendship, love and redemption. We are remarkable creations who in turn can create. That balances out the fear of our sinful selves.

Yes, God is all knowing. Yes, God is all powerful. And on top of that, God is creative. You are a marvelous expression of God's power and knowledge. We learn this from the creation account in Genesis, where after forming humankind, God said it was very good. You are an expression as His masterpiece – a living expression of the creativity of God.

For Middle Schoolers I think this Psalm is valuable to hear. God knows and loves your strange and awkward self. Every middle schooler feels they don't fit in at some point. But they always have a place with God. As I listened to this Psalm again with fresh ears, I realized that it isn't just middle schoolers who can benefit from looking more closely at these words.

We all feel like we don't fit. We all forget that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and instead feel strange and awkward. We all have deep secrets that we think no one else can know. We don't remember that God knows all of us. We all need to hear the comforting words of the Psalmist here.

For all of us do have our own wilderness to get through. Our own dark times. Yet we can take comfort in the fact that no matter how dark the times are, God is with us. Nowhere we can go and nothing we can do can separate us from the love of God. God has searched us and knows us. God made us just as we are and God loves us! Even in the depths of the wilderness, God is with us. Amen.

Rev. Cara Gee

August 1^st, 2010