“Taking the Long View” 6 December 2009

Pastor Shelley Cunningham Philippians 1:3-11

I want you to humor me for a second. We’re going to try a little science experiment. Take your hands and touch your fingers to your thumbs. Now hold them up to your eyes like binoculars. Look through them for a minute. What happens to your vision? Everything looks a whole lot closer, doesn’t it? Do you know why that is? Lack of perspective. That’s because when we look at something, say, the face of the person next to us, we don’t just see their face. We see the things around them. We see the person behind them, their collar, their hair. We see the edge of the pews or the shadows on the wall. Those other things help our brain put what we see in the proper place. We can tell how close or far away something is, its size and shape, proportion. But take those other things away, and all of a sudden your brain doesn’t have any reference points. And what you’re looking at becomes dominant, almost overwhelming.

The ability to keep one’s perspective in the midst of life’s challenges is one of my favorite themes. Maybe because it’s something I struggle with more than I like to admit. Some days it doesn’t take much to make me feel as though I can’t see the forest for the trees – a fight with my kids, deadlines at work, a rotten night’s sleep. I’m tempted to throw my hands in the air and say, “I give up!” Do you ever feel like that? When it happens it’s like I’m seeing the world through my fists – I can’t see the long view, that whatever moment of crisis I’m in is just that: a moment – a moment that, in time, will come to pass.

That’s why Paul’s letter to the Philippians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Paul’s got every reason to give up. He’s locked up in prison. He’s far away from his friends. And he’s just gotten some discouraging news. Another Christian, Epaphroditus, has paid him a visit. It seems one of the churches Paul’s started is having some trouble. Some of the women in the group are sniping at each other. Some of their preachers are more concerned about themselves than the community. The people can’t agree on what Gentiles have to do to be included at the communion table. And they’re worrying about whether there’s enough money in the budget to support their missionaries. It must have torn Paul apart to hear about it. You see, this particular church in Philippi was the first one he’d started. These people had a special place in his heart. And now without him, it seemed they were falling apart.

But Paul doesn’t get angry or frustrated or throw his hands in the air and say, “I give up.” Instead, he writes them a letter. In it he reminds them of all the amazing things they have going for them. He calls them to be generous. He commends their rich, supportive relationships. And he encourages them to rejoice, to be filled with joy – joy that comes from knowing you are loved and saved by Jesus Christ. Paul takes the long view – that we only have one go around at life, and we need to make the most of it.

It can be hard to take the long view when it seems things are changing around you. Many of you received the letter this week that I have been called to serve a church in Rochester. I’ll be leaving Christ the King in the middle of January. When a staff person, especially a pastor, leaves a church, it feels like everything is up in the air. There are lots of questions: Why now? Who will lead us? What will our new pastor be like? What’s going to happen to us in the meantime? It feels like discouraging news. It’s hard to get news like that. It’s hard to give news like that. Christ the King is a great congregation and you are some of the most faithful, friendly people I have ever met. I have been so grateful for your support and encouragement over the past 3-1/2 years. But I know that God doesn’t leave us when change comes or life gets hard; no, at those times God is the one showing us the way. God will continue to raise up teachers and mentors and leaders from this church who will make kids feel welcome and provide support to parents and families. And God will bring Christ the King a new pastor who will come to know and love you as my family and I have. Let me say that again: God doesn’t leave us when change comes or life gets hard. At those times God is the one showing us the way.

A friend of mine has been going through a couple of particularly rough years. She’s gotten out of an unhealthy, abusive relationship. She’s raising a couple of teenagers. She isn’t sure she finds her job all that fulfilling anymore. It’s helped to rely on her friends and her faith, but she still has plenty of days when she wonders if she’s doing the right thing. She worries about if she can make it on her own or if all the hard work and misery is really worth it.

Not long ago she asked: how do you just keep going? It’s a great question. So what would you have said? How do you keep going when life hands you more questions than answers? What helps you see the long view, that whatever moment of crisis you’re in is just that: a moment – a moment that, in time, will come to pass?

I’ll tell you what’s my friend has been doing. She’s started keeping track of God – those times when God shows up in her life unexpectedly. She used to see them as weird little coincidences. Like an email from a long-ago acquaintance that says just what she needs to hear. Or dreams that show her a more peaceful future. Or a sense of calm in the midst of a tense situation. Only now, instead of weird little coincidence, she’s started naming those things as God at work. I think she’s started to look for them. And expecting God to be there has given her a whole new perspective.

Sometimes we need a Paul or a John the Baptist or a weird little coincidence to shake us out of our turned-in, closed-off, worried selves. We need them to remind us that whatever crisis we seem to be in, we’re not alone. Someone is right there with us, walking with us every step of the way.

You know what else helps me just keep going? Philippians 1:6. Paul writes, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” That verse says to me that God isn’t finished with any of us yet. We’re still a work in progress – as individuals, as a church, as a community. We’ve got a long way to go. But we’ve got a promise – no, we’ve got two promises to hold on to along the way. The first is that God is the one who’s there with us. It doesn’t matter if we’re old or young, healthy or sick, happy or sad, wealthy or poor – what matters is that we’re God’s. And God is up to something good in each of us.

And the second promise is that God will be with us until the job’s done. There won’t be any loose ends. God will find a way to make all of our days count, our lives count. Because God will stick it out with us even when it seems we’ve lost all perspective.

You see, my friends, God gets to sit back and take the long view – a thousand years is but the blink of an eye for God, scripture says. But God doesn’t stay removed from us. God gets up close and personal. He shows up in our world in the form of a baby in a manger, a baby who would someday die on a cross. And he tells us “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So what do we do to just keep going? What do we do when change comes or pastors go or life gets real hard or we feel like we can’t see the forest for the trees? We wait. We trust. We make time for coffee with a friend. We spend a couple of hours helping someone who needs it. We light a few candles and say a few prayers. We look for those times when God shows up to surprise us. And we hold on to God’s promise that God is doing something good in our messed up lives, and that God will stick it out with us until the end. Because God will be faithful to complete what he’s started. And for that we truly can rejoice. Amen.

GUIDED BY THE GOSPEL: GATHERING • GROWING • GIVING