The Reflection on Life's Story

02/28/21

Dominant Thought: Our God makes the impossible possible.

Objectives:

I want my listeners to realize the different stages of grief.

I want my listeners to see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit n Psalm 114.

I want my listeners to ask the Holy Spirit to help the heal emotionally.

I was walking through Wal Mart this week and I noticed in the cleaning supply aisle that the shelves were full of clorox wipes. I can remember not too long ago the shortage of clorox wipes and hand sanitizer and toilet paper. We will have lots of stories to tell about the last year. It has been a challenging year for many people.

This past week, I attending the Preaching and Teaching Convention from Ozark Christian College that was held online. I attended a workshop by a smaller church pastor, Karl Vaters. The workshop was called, “Post Pandemic Pastoring.” During our time together, Karl Vaters suggested that we have experienced several traumas this past year: COVID, George Floyd, an election, remote schooling, and delayed gradations. We have experienced a host of traumas that have lasted months.

Then, he highlighted the grief cycle from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s book, On Death and Dying,: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and, acceptance. In his conversation with a neurobiologist, he suggested that since each person has experienced a series of traumas, it is possible that each person could be at different stages of grief with each trauma. They may be in denial on COVID, but angry on George Floyd. Or maybe, it has crippled some to be depressed by all of it.

He went on to say that some people have turned these stages in the campsites. They have just camped out on these grief stages instead of moving through them in a healthy way. He gave some examples. Some have camped out on Acceptance. They say, “It is what it is. You can’t change it.” However, they may be hiding the trauma and not dealing with it completely. Others have camped out on anger. People seem to be angry at the world. They may even say something like, “If you’re not angry right now, then you’re not listening.” Others have camped out on bargaining. These are the fixers. They are burning themselves out trying to fix the traumas. Some have camped out on denial. They say things like, “It’s all fake new, a hoax, and you can’t trust anyone.” And some have camped out in depression. The past year has brought them low, they are almost frozen because they don’t know what to do.

As Karl Vaters shared those observations, they seemed to make some sense of what people are feeling and how we are acting. We will have lots of stories to tell about this window of time. The story that I am most excited to tell is how God is leading us through this season of time into a season of peace and health.

Psalm 114 shares how God has led His people through challenging experiences with His presence. Psalm 114 is another one of those psalms that would have been prayed prior to the Passover celebration of God’s people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the psalms as the “prayerbook of the Bible.” He went on to say, “The Psalms have been given to us precisely so that we can learn to pray them in the name of Jesus.” Let’s read Psalm 114.

Psalm 114 ESV

When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

In Psalm 114 we see God’s people move from slavery to safety. For over 400 years, God’s people lived in slavery in Egypt. They lived far from home and were among people of strange language. As God’s people would have gathered for their Passover meal, they would have prayed Psalm 114 that remembered their bitter bondage. One preacher called the past 12 months a briar patch which may be accurate compared to generations of slavery or martyrdom.

However, to move into the promised land of safety and God’s sanctuary, two bodies of water stood in the way: the Red Sea and the Jordan River at flood stage. Each of these waters were separated by a 40 year wandering in the wilderness.

God’s people came out of Egypt and were backed up against the Red Sea. I love how the Psalmist shows how God’s people crossed these bodies of water. “The sea looked and fled. The Jordan turned back.” In Psalm 114.4, we have this image of mountains skipping like rams and hills like lambs. Poetry can be quite fun because you can press language to the limits. The image is at least that these mountains and hills are moving or quaking. This could be a reflection of receiving the 10 commandments on Mount Sinai.

Exodus 19:18 ESV

Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

Three events, Red Sea, 10 commandments on Mount Sinai, and Jordan River. Three landmark moments in the story of the children of God leaving slavery and heading to safety in the promised land.

In Psalm 114.5-6, the Psalmist asks questions to the sea, the river, the mountains and the hills. The Psalmist asks the sea and the Jordan, “What ails you that you flee and turn back?” It could be asking, “What’s wrong sea that you fled?” or, “Why did you flee?” The same could be said for the mountains and the hills. “What’s wrong? Why did you skip like rams and lambs?” We’ll get the answers in 7.

On Easter Sunday, 1963, some 5,000 African-American followers of Jesus gathered at new Pilgrim Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL to march to the jail and pray with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. When they drew close to the jail, they found police chief Bull Connor with barricades and fire trucks and police and dogs blocking the street. Andrew Young went forward to reason with Connor, when someone in the crowd stood up and hollered, “The Lord is in this movement! We’re going on to the jail!”

Young writes, “Everybody in the front rows…got up and starting walking right toward the barricades and massed police. Stunned at first, Connor yelled, “Stop ‘em! Stop ‘em!” But the police didn’t move a muscle.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. They just stood there watching as if they were transfixed. Even the police dogs…became perfectly calm. The fireman just stood there holding hoses…I saw one fireman, literally with tears in his eyes, just let the hose drop to his feet. Our people marched right between the fire trucks, singing, “I want Jesus to walk with me.”

“We marched on to the park across from the jail, where we [sang]. I’ll never forget one old woman who got happy when she marched through the barricades. She shouted, “Great God almighty done part the Red Sea one mo’ time!”

“Connor just stood there cussing and fussing. His policemen refused to arrest us, his fireman had refused to hose us, and his dogs had refused to bite us.” (From Scott Bowerman, “To Die For” quoting Robert E. Dunham, “Unmarked Memories and the Road Ahead,” in Journal for Preachers, (Pentecost, 1994), 15-16). The sad thing about Bull Connor. His full name was Theophilus Eugene Connor. Theophilus means “one who loves God.”

The Red Sea and the Jordan River both represented barriers to exiting slavery and entering the land of promise. God worked a miracle to allow His children to walk through on dry ground. This Psalm celebrates the miraculous power of God.

The answer to the question, “why did the river and sea turn back and the mountains and hills skip?” is found in Psalm 114.7. Tremble at the presence of the Lord. The presence of the Lord is pictured as the face of the Lord. At the Red Sea, God was driving the sea back with an east wind.

Exodus 14:21 ESV

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

Then, at the Jordan River, the presence of God in the ark of the covenant stopped the waters.

Joshua 3:17 ESV

Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

It is not until verse 7 of this 8 verse psalm that we see God’s name show up. We see him referred to in verse 2. When the sea and the river and the mountains and the hills saw the face of God, they trembled, skipped, fled or turned back.

The Psalm concludes with more water imagery. The God of Jacob turns the rock into a pool of water and brings springs from stone. In Exodus 17 and Numbers 20, while they children of Israel were wasting away in the desert, God brought water from the rock.

The apostle Paul gives us this commentary on what was happening out in the desert when God brought them water from the rock. 1 Corinthians 10 was a Core 52 verse from week 6.

1 Corinthians 10:1–4 ESV

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.

As we reflect on Psalm 114 how the presence of God can move mountains and seas and rivers, we can find encouragement that God makes the impossible possible. It was true for the children of Israel. It was true for he followers of Dr. King in Birmingham. And it can be true for us as we move through these days. How is God going to write His story on your heart.

As, I look back over Psalm 114, I want to see how the presence of God makes the impossible possible. The presence of God as Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit can lead us through life’s obstacles.

First, God the Father’s presence should inspire our reverence. In the words of Psalm 2.11, we are called to serve God with fear and rejoice with trembling. Psalm 2 will be our Core 52 passage next week.

Psalm 2:11 ESV

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

Second, the Son’s presence should inspire gratitude. Jesus shows up in the water from the rock. Will you drink the living water that Christ has to offer. Will you unite with Jesus in baptism? If you find yourself in an emotional desert, will you drink the living water of Christ?

The God of Jacob gave His people water when they were thirsty. In John 4, Jesus finds his way to Jacob’s well at midday and tells a woman that He can give her living water.

John 4:14 ESV

but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Third, Holy Spirit’s presence inspires wholeness. He shows up early in Psalm 114.2, in the word, “Sanctuary” or Holy Place. I want to invite you to ask the Holy Spirit to clean house so that God can use you. Maybe you need to ask the Holy Spirit to help you move through those stages of the grief cycle. Maybe the Holy Spirit needs to start pulling some tent pegs on those campsites of denial or anger and move you to wholeness and holiness.

I’d like to invite you to experience God’s presence and respond with reverence, gratitude, and wholeness. I invite you to pray to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to lead you through life’s challenges.

5 Day Devotional Guide

Dominant Thought: God makes the impossible possible.

You may want to refer to the sermon notes for further discussion. Take a moment to read the assigned Scripture and then reflect or discuss the questions. Customize this outline to your situation. Here are some questions to ask from the Discovery Bible Method:

What are you thankful for today or this week?

What challenges are you facing?

Have 2 or 3 people read the scripture out loud.

Can you summarize this passage in your own words?

What did you discover about God from this passage?

What have you learned about people from this passage?

How are you going to obey this passage? (What is your “I will” statement?)

With whom are you going to share what you have learned?

Based on this passage, what can we pray about?

Day 1: Psalm 114

Day 2: Exodus 14.21-22

Day 3: Joshua 3.16-17

Day 4: Exodus 19.18

Day 5: 1 Corinthians 10.1-4