Thinking about how to cry
Notes
Transcript
I have some good news to announce in my life
Sub Para
There’s other good news I’m sure in your life
What’s good in your life right now?
What’s good in your life right now?
Good news is great, but God has a place in bad news as well.
I’m sharing with us a series on Blessed Grief
1 Year Anniversary Feb 29 Washington State reported the first death
we didn’t know but the first deaths actually occured in Santa Clara county 3 weeks earlier
On March 10 San Joaquin County announced first case
On March 13 SJC school’s announced they would close on March 16.
this will be the 1 year spring break
On March 19 is the 1 year anniversary of governor Newsome’s stay at home order
Anniversary’s are important, grieving is important.
5 The Passover to the Lord comes in the first month, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month.
Describes the passover, a time of slavery but also a time of God’s providing
The remembrances like passover and four other feasts reminds us that God calls on us to remember hardship as well as glory.
The act of grieving, the wailing, the calling of those who are gone reminds us of how beautiful and precious life is to God and to us.
It also bonds us to one another. It may not change the intense sadness but it matters to have others besides you in your grieving.
The eternal word of God commands us to
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
Its ok to weep. It’s important to weep .
You may recall that Jesus had a friend who died. ...
Jesus’ upon talking with his sister, Mary is the shortest verse in the Bible
35 Jesus wept.
If Jesus weeps than we can weep.
But why when we come to church, on a beautiful Sunday, in a beautiful time, as some of us are getting the vaccine and others are awaiting, and if you come tonight we will help you find more of these things on your cell phone.
Why when things are going good am I calling us to grieve?
Richard Baxter said it well back in the 1600s
When the earth is soft, the plough will enter. Take a man when he is under affliction, or in the house of mourning, or newly stirred by some moving sermon, and then set it home, and you may do him good. Christian faithfulness requires us not only to do good when it falls in our way, but to watch for opportunities of doing good.
All around us is depression, hardship and sadness. We do not have to think that if we cry, weep, and wail that this will be all that ever becomes of us. We need to think our personal happiness to the needs of those who are still in need.
So perhaps your not in mourning, honestly things have not been that bad for you. Praise God! And then
look around you for the opportunities to do good.
look around you for the opportunities to do good.
This week, many in Texas were enjoying the warm weather coming back and thanking God they it was not too tough for them.
But what should a follower of Christ have been doing according to the scriptures and the quote I just read?
Look around for those who didn’t make it out unhurt.
Look around for those who didn’t make it out unhurt.
I heard of a woman who is still having to walk to the spigot at the apt complex to get water for her apt which has no water. Her expensive Yeti cooler she now thinks about how many toilet flushes she can get out of it.
Apartment complexes that still don’t have water. Imagine if a person in Texas would allow a family to use their washer/dryer? Or bring them home cooked food because without water it is almost impossible to cook and definitely impossible to clean. If the family knew this was done for Jesus, they might still be frustrated and miserable without water but they would know that God is with them. If they didn’t know why, it’s still what God would have us do.
How much more those who are hurting over the loss of life of others in this past year. It doesn’t have to be from Covid. The two people I will be thinking about this anniversary are Eddie and Roger. I think of Maria, Belinda, and Megan. Joe lost his grandmother. But Brother Dave Babcock lost his father to the Coronavirus, Pastor Harry his grandmother, and Sharrel lost her business partner Leonard Gabbuat. These are just here in our small community.
Did I mention Ariana losing her senior year of High School, others losing their jobs, and still more being so overcome and overwhelmed by the hardships in this past year?
So yes its valuable to take time to memorialize and grieve.
We can remember those we lost.
We can remember the hardships we took went through.
I want you to ponder how are you going to grieve in this memorial anniversary?
I want you to ponder how are you going to grieve in this memorial anniversary?
In the book of Job, its a part of the Bible that tells the story of a man who is faithful to God and loses everything.
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and reported, “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, 15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
16 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “God’s fire fell from heaven. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
17 That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
18 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. 19 Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,
He lost his family, his property and all his wealth. He wept and worshipped.
You know people who haven’t had all of that happen but you know people who are in the midst of grief and hardship. You might be able to remember what that was life for you. You might be in it right now.
I want to say that even in the harshest of times, God doesn’t say he will remove all harshness He says He will be with you.
2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you
and the rivers will not overwhelm you,
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be scorched
and the flame will not burn you.
Something else happens that is good in the book of Job.
His friends showed up
11 Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.
It is said that if this is all we heard from Job’s friends they would be geniuses in how to do evangelistic grieving.
That this verse is the perfect way to help others in grief.
Help a friend grieve by showing up, have a desire to comfort, cry with them, stay with them and shut up.
Help a friend grieve by showing up, have a desire to comfort, cry with them, stay with them and shut up.
I want to say have a desire to comfort not a demand. Sadly Job’s friends started trying to fix the situation and only made it worse.
As we think about how we will grieve during this memorial time let’s not worry about feeling better, about making people happy. Let’s be present with God in our grief and let God fulfill his promises
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Chaplain Roger told me once “they will remember that you were there. Presence is more important.”
Many years ago we sat besides Alicia Mellinger as she lay in the hospital bed in what we thought might be the last time.
She had battled pneumonia, needed a trache, the doctor reminded us of her life expectancy
We prayed together and we cried together. Alicia slept.
I don’t remember what was said, what I do remember that Roger and I were together.
Make the opportunity to be present with someone in their grief.
Make the opportunity to be present with someone in their grief.
Jennifer Berni once had me go with her to see her Father’s grave. She lost her dad when she was 16. She remembers him every birthday and I believe every anniversary of his passing. So we went out there and talked, enjoyed the day, we did not go to commune with the dead. That wouldn’t be right.
31 “Do not turn to mediums or consult spiritists, or you will be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God.
We went to remember, to acknowledge what was, what has passed. To acknowledge that God made us with feelings and mental needs. To acknowledge the hurt and the loss.
In the eternal word of God, have you ever read the first part of the Bible, the Hebew Bible, also known as the Old Testament? The people often mention those who came before when they say, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is good to remember those who came before.
13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him.
It’s good to remember. It’s good to acknowledge that God doesn’t demand a happy and joyous response from us always.
it’s good to remember that we have a role to play with those who may not share our joy.
So in these coming weeks you have some issues to think out:
How will you memorialize this time?
How will you memorialize this time?
How should we memorialize this time?
How should we memorialize this time?
Who do you need to come alongside and grieve with?
Who do you need to come alongside and grieve with?
On March 14 two weeks from today we are going to have a worship of God in our grief. It will be the Sunday before the year anniversary.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.