Messages Through the Window

Children’s Sermon

Animals matter! God really uses them in extraordinary ways at times…AND, I think they often have more view to the spirit world than we do. Dogs have been known to warn of the demonic, that sort of thing. Dolphins have been known to protect humans from sharks, there are numerous documented cases. Often, as we’ll talk more about in a bit, God sends messages to us through animals…birds, butterflies, etc. And through other elements of creation. Did you know that penguins are highly intelligent? They really are. You may not have known that if a member of their pod dies while they are traveling, or marching long distances as they do, they have a kind of funeral? They will dig in the snow/ice, bury their friend, and circle around. Then they actually SING…FREEZE A JOLLY GOOD, FREEZE A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW, FREEZE A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW…WHICH NOBODY CAN DENY.

Seriously, though, treat animals with the utmost respect…as vital members of God’s creation

Scripture

Acts 8:26-31 - An angel from the Lord spoke to Philip, “At noon, get up and go south to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza (this is a wilderness road). So, he did. Meanwhile, an Ethiopian eunuch of high status under Queen Candace of Ethiopia, who was in charge of all her treasury, had been in Jerusalem worshiping and was returning to Ethiopia via that same road. The man was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah. The Spirit told Philip, “Approach that chariot and stay close to it.” Once alongside it, Philip heard the Ethiopian reading Isaiah and asked, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” He replied, “How could I, unless someone guides me?” Then he invited Philip to come in and sit with him.

Engage

Friends, we change and time moves along for us, but God has always been and will always be the same. Some people of faith, some Christian denominations even, believe God’s miracles have ceased in the world. They think the miracles found in Scripture happened, but that they don’t happen anymore. Or, they may even believe they never happened at all and certainly don’t continue to happen. Nonsense. God’s ability to act in this world is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And, I believe we have evidence that God doesn’t just have the ability to act, he DOES act. Often.

Encounter

Our attitudes about mystery impact our abilities to experience majesty.

Big miracles happen sometimes, personal miracles happen often, and miracles abound around us! When we don’t see them, we need to adjust our prescription! In that case, we diminish, or lose altogether, the grace God can impart through messages that come from the other side of the window. Science can’t even get close to explaining everything. Leave room for faith!

So, what are some of the more common methods God sends, or allows someone else to send, a message through the window? We’ll cover them in a few moments. But first, a reminder. It’s best to seek, or be open to, these messages from a desire to comfort or complete. NOT from a desire to have cause to believe. I covered this in more detail a few weeks ago in the introductory message for this series, Why a Window? Check it out if you missed it.

One way God sends messages through is by setting up divine appointments. Sometimes these appointments are clearer than others. Sometimes it depends upon the clarity of the connection to God a person has. In the case of our Scripture today, Philip is full of the Spirit and it’s not too long past the first Pentecost. The Spirit clearly tells him what to do, but not why. It’s a divine appointment. His divine appointment with the Ethiopian Eunuch is God’s response to the Eunuch’s worship and desire to learn more. I didn’t read the end of the story, but the Ethiopian man learns of Jesus and is baptized into the young Christian church. It’ll be fantastic to see how far this divine appointment spread on the other side of the window. Often, the spiritual nudge behind an intended divine appointment is quiet, easy to overlook, and internal. I’ve told the story before of my encounter with Gonzalo, fleeing the drug violence in Mexico on a Tuesday evening…the only Tuesday evening I would’ve been at FUMC Alice over many months…and how something led Gonzalo to me and me to him, once he entered. Many times I have been nudged to call, text, or write a person and thought afterwords that it may well have been a divine appointment. A man named Bart was surfing in California at age 22 and was taken out to sea by the undertow and plunged 25 feet below the ocean by the riptide. He prayed for God to save him. When he finished the prayer, he was instantly at the surface and a young man swam over to save him…The young man said he wasn’t going to go to the beach that day…but a voice spoke to his mind saying he HAD to go that day, so he did. God answered Bart’s prayer BEFORE he prayed it. Have you experienced nudges? You may have… Our attitudes about mystery impact our abilities to experience majesty.

God can also send messages through worship or in churches. David of Los Angeles felt compelled to go to his church at a time it wouldn’t normally be open. It was open. As he prayed at the kneelers, God sent him overwhelming warmth and comfort. I have experienced powerful moments in worship several times. In Costa Rica once, the Spirit was so thick I would best describe it as out of this world…in a good way. Once on a Kairos weekend, we had a brother in white attending who spoke no English. He was older, maybe 50s or 60s and hispanic. He had lived most of his life in Mexico, as I recall, but had been arrested in the U.S. as part of his leadership in one of the drug cartels. He had definitely seen some stuff and done some stuff. Toward the end of the weekend, as we worshiped, tears were streaming down his face. One of the volunteers who spoke Spanish asked him what was going on. He explained that he hadn’t seen, or heard from, his son in many years (he had been incarcerated for some time at this point). During the worship, he FELT the presence of his son and knew his son was safe. A gaping hole in his heart was filled that day. He certainly didn’t doubt the experience away, or dismiss it because he couldn’t explain it scientifically. His attitude about mystery allowed him to experience majesty.

Also, messages often come through the window, if you will, through dreams. Dreams about divine encounters that WILL happen or dreams containing important messages about the present or future. This happens several times in the great, true, story recorded in the book Same Kind of Different As Me. Messages contained in dreams are numerous in Scripture. Also, those who’ve crossed to the other side of the window often appear in dreams of those who remain here. This has definitely happened with people in this congregation and within my own family. One person told me of meeting her brother who had died in a dream. Another told me of meeting his spouse in a dream. In these cases, even people who don’t normally even remember dreams have clear, crisp, vivid memories of their encounters. Mary Neal has had three vivid dreams where her deceased son Willie was present. She said in her book, “I call them dreams, but like so many other people who have shared their stories of nighttime visitations, I believe my son’s spirit was actually present.” Visitors in these experiences are almost always loving, without anger or disappointment, regardless of what the earthly relationship was like. If your attitude about mystery is open to it, you may experience this particular type of majesty!

Perhaps the most easily dismissed way of messages coming, by those who doubt, is through animals, other members or elements of creation, or through sights, sounds, and smells. One congregation member told me about the smell of smoke she sensed VERY strongly numerous times after her chain-smoking husband died. It’s as if he was standing there smoking, she said. But nobody was, anywhere near! A neighbor of Stella Hodges told me the story of a balloon, not long after her death. She looked in her backyard and there, floating above the grass, was a single red balloon. And, it said something. As she focused in, she could read it. Printed on the balloon, with nothing else, was “Stella.” Amy Lindemann, who was going to paint for us today but is ill, can tell you all about butterflies appearing to her as messages allowed by God from her brother Chase. Butterflies appearing in places and in ways that they have no business appearing. Lone butterflies in the dead of winter, for instance. One woman talked of the sudden appearance of blossoms at her mother’s home on the bradford pear tree immediately after the death of her beloved stepfather…at a time when the tree shouldn’t have bloomed. A gift from her stepfather and from God. Mary Neal talks of the same type and shade of alpine rose blossoms appearing in her yard after her sons death that were in the field where he died…since then, she has found a single alpine rose growing in every place that is, or has become, important to her. Messages of comfort from her son Willy, and from God. Other talk of birds, or feathers, or rainbows, or countless other signs. There are SO many of these stories, friends. Praise God for his love and grace...

Sometimes, the message are even more obvious. I’ve talked before of the sign at U.S. Plastics in Ohio that simply says, “Jesus is the Answer,” and how many interstate truckers and travelers have been metaphorically smacked over the head into life changing faith by that sign. A man named Justin, from Amarillo, shares this story, “About ten years ago, I was in the depths of terrible depression following a devastating divorce. I was agnostic at the time, though beginning to question that belief. I was driving on the highway in a moment of total despair, and I said out loud, “God, if you’re real, if you really exist, show me a sign, a really obvious sign, and then maybe I’ll believe.” Now, I’ve cautioned against asking for these types of things as a cause to believe, and rightfully so…but really, Justin’s plea was a plea for comfort and grace as well. And, as if often with people in deep despair, God answered. Justin continues, “at that precise moment, I felt a loving presence was with me, and I saw a stand of trees in a field with a gap, revealing a billboard. On this large billboard, the single word “Jesus” appeared. Stunned, I then said, “are you really here?” And then a semi changed lanes to a position directly in front of me. On the back of the truck was the phrase, ‘Right on time.’”

Empower

One of my old acquaintances from a previous church, before I was clergy, I’ve lost contact with, though I have other friends who regularly speak to him. Darryl started with nothing and built a mini empire. He’s doing less now, building stuff in the hill country. As he experienced the fruits of his Midas touch, he was cheating on his wife and running from God in numerous other ways. His infidelity was discovered and his tower of lies came crashing down. Distraught, despairing, he decided to end it all. Driving a brand new F-150 Ford Truck, King Ranch edition I’ll bet, on I-35, he picked out a concrete bridge pillar that would win a high speed collision and take away his pain. I never asked him, but I wouldn’t doubt Satan was speaking voices into his head that crashing into that pillar was the answer. Liar. So, he pressed hard on the accelerator, getting faster and faster, and was about to turn toward the pillar. And suddenly, his truck died. For no explicable reason, deader than a doornail. Message received, Lord. You think his life was changed? I’ll guarantee you it was...

Albert Einstein once said that there are two ways to live life. One as if nothing is a miracle, other as if everything is a miracle. Will you keep your attitude about mystery open…and, thereby, be available to experience the majesty of God that no scientist can explain?

Pray