Be Strong And Take Courage

                       

Prayer:

In 1835 a man visited his doctor in Florence, Italy. He was filled with anxiety and exhausted from lack of sleep. He couldn't eat, and he avoided his friends. The doctor examined him and found that he was in excellent physical condition. The doctor concluded that his patient needed to have a good time, the physician told him about a circus in town and its star performer, a clown named Grimaldi.

Night after night he had the people rolling in the aisles with laughter. "You must go and see him," the doctor advised. "Grimaldi is the world's funniest clown. He'll make you laugh and cure your sadness." "No," replied the despondent man, " Grimaldi can't help me. You see, I am Grimaldi!"

Everyone gets despondent at some time, and the depth to which a person is depressed depends on the individual. What may be a difficulty for you, may not be a problem to others. At the time you are depressed and discouraged it seems that you are the only one who has these problems and burdens.

There are times when you and I lie awake at night worried and upset about something that happened during the day, or what someone had said to us that upset us. Everything goes out of focus, we lose perspective as this problem looms so large in our life and it becomes all consuming.

When I think of disappointment and despair there is one character in the Bible who really stands out – Elijah (see 1 Kings 18 &19). He became so discouraged that he wanted to die rather than keep going. He had been an extremely active man, a prophet, and a preacher and had been seen great results in his life.                               

·        He prophesied a drought and it dried up the land.

·        He prayed for rain and it came to revive the land.

·        He protected a widow during a famine.

·        He restored to life a young boy.

His greatest moment was a show down with the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel. Baal was a god of the Canaanites that was worshipped even by the people of God. Elijah had challenged those who worshipped Baal to set up a sacrificial altar and to call on Baal to set it alight. Nothing happened.

Elijah likewise set up an altar, doused his sacrifice with water. He called on Jehovah God to light his sacrifice and we are told, "The Lord sent down fire, and it burned up the sacrifice, the wood and the stones, scorched the earth and dried up the water in the trench (I Kings 19:38). He put to shame the prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel.

But his victory is soon followed by a despair. Queen Jezebel became really angry. She was the one who had introduced the worship of Baal in Israel. Jezebel sent Elijah this warning: "May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I don't do the same thing to you that you did to the prophets."

She was a woman who was used to getting her own and there was no doubt in her mind that Elijah’s days were numbered. Jezebel’s anger knocked the wind out of Elijah. He went into hiding, depressed. He became so upset that his whole view of life became distorted. He was blinded to the great things that happened to him. He ran away into the wilderness and finally collapsed under a juniper tree.

He exclaimed, "It's too much, Lord. … I want to die." Can we understand the way Elijah was feeling? I think most of us can to some degree.

·        We become so discouraged that we can no longer see the good in our lives.

·        We may judge ourselves as worthless and useless.

·        We may think that we aren’t able to do anything that’s right.                  

·        We may think that everyone has abandoned us and feel so terribly alone.

·        We may want to curl up in as ball, hide from everyone and wish we could die.

·        We may think that God has given up on us.

But remember that when we are discouraged and despairing, we have a distorted view of reality. It is our feelings that have gone on a downhill slide, the bigger picture, what is real is still the same. And that’s what happened to Elijah. He felt he was all alone.

He felt God had abandoned him. He thought that he was the only one who had remained faithful in spite of everything that had happened. He felt as if there was only one thing left to do, and he might as well lie down and die.

But God had other ideas. He came to the prophet and reminded him that he had not been forgotten and that there was still a lot of work to be done.

I know it’s easy to say, but when we are in the middle of some discouraging events and we feel miserable, we should remember that we are only looking a small part of the picture.

Often it is when we look back that we see that we had a false view of reality. Things weren’t so bad after all. They just seemed that way. God intervened in Elijah’s case. He doesn’t leave us high and dry even though we may think that way.

He is there when everything else may be taken away. He has promised to stand by us through days of plenty and the days when we lose everything. When friends leave, when money is lost, when families fall apart he has promised to stand with you through the good and bad.

Both St. Ansgar and Good Shepherd congregation have had their respective annual meetings. I noticed a red thread, the spirit of uncertainty of the future that ran through the meetings. Are we able to keep our doors open for worship and ministry for the next

5-10 yrs.? And beyond. This is a valid concern. We are at a cross road, no doubt, and if we go into the head for certain, we will find 1001 reasons to be despondent, despair, and discourage.                                                   

On other hand are we going to let fear and uncertainty of the future paralyze our call as God’s people to do ministry now? Be strong, and take courage. Again and again the Scriptures remind us of God’s presence and providence: ‘But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.’

If there was a person who had a reason to be discouraged and depressed it was the leper who lived in Jesus’ time. There were strict rules laid down for those who caught his terrible disease. "If you are a leper, you just stay away! You are too horrible to look at!

Most likely you have been afflicted in this terrible way because of some sin you or a member of your family committed. For fear of infecting others you must not have any contact with healthy people. You must live and survive outside of normal society."

When meeting anyone they had to cover their mouths with a hand and shout out a warning of their own "unclean, unclean". I don’t think any of us can really begin to imagine what it must have been like to be leper in those times. Wives, mothers, children, snatched from their families and forced to fend for themselves among the hills and rocks.

Husbands, fathers, young lovers, respected citizens would suddenly be excluded from society. I can only begin to imagine the despair and the depression that followed the diagnosis of leprosy. And what deepened this despair would have been the thought that they were even beyond God’s help.

But what does Jesus do. "Jesus was filled with pity, and reached out and touched him. … At once the disease left the man, and he was clean." God intervened in Elijah’s life when everything in the prophet’s mind was nothing but doom and gloom and all he wanted to do was to escape his misery. Jesus intervened in the life of the leper, the outcast of society, the man who has received what he deserves because of some terrible sin he has committed. Jesus breaks all the rules of his society to reach out and touch a man whom everyone else regarded as an outsider.                                             

There are many reasons why we might begin to be depressed and discouraged about what is happening in our lives, our families, and even in this congregation. You may be an enthusiastic member of the congregation, but no one shares your vision of what the church should be doing.

·        You may feel as if there is nothing left in your marriage or relationship.

·        You may feel as if there is nothing left in your life to live for.

·        You feel as if there is no joy left in your work.

·        You feel down hearted about the path your children are taking.

·        You feel like life has dealt you sever blows, one disappointment after another.

Whatever it is that gives you these feelings of discouragement, remember Elijah and the way God sustained him through all his feelings of discouragement. Remember how Jesus reached out to the leper and gave him as new life free of all the depressing worries of being an outsider in society.

Likewise when we feel despondent we are reminded that we have a Saviour who is always there to help us, encourage and comfort us when things get tough. Jesus invites, "Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy burden, and I will give you rest" (Matt 10:28). St Peter urges us, "Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).

It’s easy to become depressed about circumstances beyond our control. We are despondent about the same old temptation that we fall into again and again. We might say we have the leprosy of sin. We are so caught up going against what God wants in our lives that, like leprosy, there is nothing we can do about it.

In fact, often it is sin that gets us all depressed and despondent about what is happening in our lives. The leper could do nothing about his disease, it was Jesus who reached out and touched him and made him well. Jesus reaches out and with his hand of blessing declares that our sins are forgiven. ‘Be strong and take courage.’

He reminds us that we are God’s children and that nothing can reduce his love for us. He keeps on loving even though we are so depressed and despondent that we can’t feel it. That’s what happened to Elijah. He was so depressed that he really believed that he had been a failure and had been deserted by God. Jesus intervenes in our lives as he did the leper and he intervenes in ours with his love and the life this church.

He intervened in our lives and reminds us of the promise that he made to us at our baptism– "I will be with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28:20). He has promised us that when things are tough and the chips are down that he would be there to help us and support us through those situations that could easily lead us to despondency and despair. Therefore, ‘be strong and take courage.’

Just as God cared for Elijah as he lay under the juniper tree wishing he would die, and just as Jesus cared for the leper who came seeking healing, he cares for us. And how do we know that? Look at the cross.

See there the dying Jesus, and see how much God loved us. It takes a powerful love to give up something you love dearly for the sake of another person who doesn’t deserve that love one bit. That’s what he did for us. Thank God that when we are discouraged, despondent, and despairing God’s love is still as strong as ever for you and me.

There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey,

not a destination. So work like you don't need money,

Love like you've never been hurt, And, dance like no one's watching.

 

"It is not how much we believe, but how much faith we put into believing.

It is not how much we serve, but how much commitment we put into serving."

                                      Be Strong, and Take Courage     

Amen.