Sermon for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany
| Text: Job 1:21 "The Lord gave, and now he has taken away. May his name be praised!" |
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I don’t understand but praise the Lord!
You may or may not have heard of Ivan Southall. He was born in 1921 and died last year. He was a writer of children’s books and one of his most celebrated books is Ash Road. A part of the story goes like this. It was a hot day with a hot wind. Three teenage boys camping in the bush inadvertently start a bushfire and it quickly spreads.
87-year-old Grandpa Tanner had been left in charge of his 4-year-old granddaughter, Julie, and Mrs Robertson’s baby. With the fire fast approaching there is no chance of escaping so Grandpa Tanner takes the children to the well he had dug 44 years earlier and with great care puts the baby in a basket and lowers both the baby and his granddaughter down the well. He gently talks to Julie reassuring her that God will take care of her but thinks that it would be too much to ask God to take care of an old, old man. He had to cover the well to protect the children and with a strong wind blowing it took all of his strength to manoeuvre two sheets of corrugated iron over the well and put a couple of heavy stones to stop them flying off. He kept on calling down to his frightened granddaughter in the darkened well, "I’m still here little darling". He was not going to leave the children alone for one minute and kept letting the children know he was at the top of the well and that they would be all right. As the fire rushed towards him he sat down on the leeward side of a stump with a wet blanket wrapped around him and bit down hard on the stem of his pipe.
The story has a happy ending. The children are kept safe thanks to the love and watchfulness of Grandpa Tanner. Stories like these reminds us of the watchfulness of God over us when our happiness, safety and health are threatened. The children trusted Grandpa Tanner as he lowered them into the darkness of the well and covered it over until they were in complete darkness. Julie, especially, knew that her grandpa loved her and that all that was needed was his reassuring words and presence.
This story is not so unfamiliar as we reflect on some of the miraculous escapes in the recent bushfires in Victoria. Remember reading about the woman who hid in a wombat burrow, the family that took shelter in a cellar, or the people who jumped into dams as the fire swept over them destroying everything else in its path.
With the eyes of faith we can see the hand of God at work in rescuing people from the horror of a raging bushfire. Ivan Southall’s story about Grandpa Tanner is almost a parable about the way God cares for us in the most extreme circumstances. When everything is dark and threatening his voice reassures us that he is close by and that he will never leave us alone. By the way, Grandpa Tanner also survives the fire. As he was about to be overwhelmed by smoke and fire as he hid under his blanket, suddenly a shower of rain reduced the fire into hissing steam and smoke. In a realisation that God was not far from him he said, "God sent the rain" and he quickly uncovered the well and found the children safe and sound.
That’s a great story and we recall times when we have felt God ever so near as our physical, mental and spiritual safety is threatened. We know how God guides doctors as they perform surgery, or somehow helps us avoid a car accident. Your stories may be similar to mine. Sitting waiting for traffic lights to change and all of sudden an out of control car that fails to turn the corner and starts heading straight for me. I could see terror frozen on the driver’s face and no doubt he could see mine, but somehow, I don’t know how, our two cars came so close but didn’t actually touch. I have no doubt that God grabbed hold of the steering wheel of that out of control car and steered it right past me.
When we experience God's presence and power we find it
easy to praise God. We feel about God the same way as the Israelites did after
they had crossed the Red Sea. The Egyptian army had been in hot pursuit and with
their back to the sea the Israelites were facing certain death. But God opened a
path for them through the sea and destroyed the enemy. After such a rescue the
people sang this song,
"The Lord is my strong defender; he is the
one who has saved me.
He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God,
and I will sing about his greatness.
The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.
He threw Egypt's army and its chariots into the sea;
the best of its officers were drowned in the Red Sea.
Your right hand, Lord, is awesome in power (Exodus 15:2-6).
That’s all fine and I’m glad that there are times when we can praise God for the rescue that he provides but what about those times when things don’t turn out the way we would have like them to. What about those people who lost loved ones in the fires and floods or the damage to their property, homes and possessions so extensive, their future and their livelihood just swept away by the uncontrollable force of nature. You hear of stories about people just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. A moment earlier or later, or few centimetres to the left or right and they would have been all right.
Events like these lead us to scratch our heads and wonder what on earth was God thinking when he allowed this to happen. But you know that there are lots of examples of people who suffer extreme circumstances and yet they are able to come up smiling - singing as confidently as those who had been miraculously rescued.
