When We Feel God Has Moved And Left No Forwarding Address
Sermon
When Trouble Comes!
Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Last Third)
There are times in our lives when we have a greater awareness of God's absence than we do of God's presence. Indeed, this is the experience which confronts Job in our text. In the midst of his suffering he has tried to lay his case before God. He goes forward and backward, to the left and to the right, seeking in every place to find God. To be sure, Job wants to find God because Job knows that he is an innocent sufferer, that he is an upright person. And since God is just, Job is confident that he would gain his acquittal, if only he could gain a hearing before God. But to Job's dismay, God seems to have moved and left no forwarding address. Therefore Job is moved to cry out, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling!" (Job 23:3).
There are many of us who can say "amen" to Job's anguished cry when, in our time of trouble, it seems that God has moved and left no forwarding address. We hear the cry of the troubled Psalmist who said, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, 'Where is your God?' " (Psalm 42:2-3). We hear the cry of the Hebrew exiles who had trouble finding God in the strange land of Babylon. They said, "By the Rivers of Babylon -- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.' How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:1-4). We hear the cry of the prophet Isaiah who said to God, "Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior" (Isaiah 45:15). We hear the lonesome cry of the black slaves who sang in their spiritual, "O way down yonder by myself, an' I couldn't hear nobody pray." We even hear the suffering cry of Jesus on the cross when he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). This is scarcely a word which anyone would have invented and put on his lips. This is his own cry, feeling God's absence, identifying with the human cry of feeling oneself shut off from the face of God at the very time when God is needed the most. Indeed if that happened to Jesus himself, then it should not come as a surprise that it happened to one of God's faithful servants like Job or that in spite of our faithfulness there are troubled times when it seems that God has moved and left no forwarding address.
For several months a pastor had been making pastoral calls on a lady who was waging a losing battle against cancer. She was the mother of four small children. She was a faithful Christian, both in the profession of her faith and in the manner by which she lived it. The calm, quiet air of assurance which she always maintained had led many of her friends to declare that she possessed that perfect faith in God which results in simple trust. A few days before her death her pastor stood by her bedside. As he made conversation about ordinary things, a look of eager longing came into her eyes. "Tell me," she pleaded, "where is God now that I need God the most?"
Like Job, she was faced with the challenge of how to remain faithful when it seemed that God had moved and left no forwarding address. To be sure, this is the challenge which faces us in the midst of any crisis in life.
It is a challenge which tempts us to ask: Where is God? What is God doing? Well, God may be giving us the freedom and honor of having a part in determining the final outcome. Or God may be allowing us to experience God's absence so that we can grow and mature in our human responsibility.
One evening when I was leaving a meeting at a church I pastored, I saw one of my members acting very strangely. As he moved along a tree-lined sidewalk he was darting around and behind the trees as if he were hiding from someone. He would pause for a moment behind each tree or bush before quietly moving ahead. When I recognized him, I became curious and concerned, so I called his name. When he heard me calling his name he turned to face me and put his fingers over his lips signaling me to be quiet. He quickly rushed over to me and said, "I know you're wondering why I'm acting so strangely, but I'm following my six-year-old son and I don't want him to see me." He explained that he had allowed his little son to go to the neighborhood store all by himself for the first time. In other words, he was teaching his son to experience the growth that would help him take some initiative in doing something for himself. He had not deserted his son. He was nearby even though his son did not know it. In a loving way this father was giving his son some room for growth.
So sometimes when it appears to us that God has moved and left no forwarding address, it does not mean that God has abandoned us. It may only mean that even though we may not see God, God sees us and God is allowing us room for our faith to grow up. In such times, like Job, we have to keep on seeking God. For faith has been defined in the New Testament as a conviction of a thing not seen.
William Hinson relates the experience of seeing a baby owl in his front lawn as he went out to get the morning paper. He said he did not know what to do about it, so he called a naturalist. The naturalist said, "Don't do anything to that baby owl. If you look up, somewhere in a tall tree you will see he is not alone. His mother has told him to sit very still in order that he might not be seen by a cat or anything else. It takes about two dark nights for a baby owl to spread his wings and fly. In the meantime, if you will look up, you'll see his mother."
William Hinson said he and his wife went out into the yard and looked up into the top of an oak tree and there they saw the mother owl with dark, unblinking eyes fastened on the baby owl and everything and anything that came near him.1
When we feel alone and it seems that God has moved out and left no forwarding address, be assured that God knows where we are and God can reach us when God gets ready.
Why should I feel discouraged,
Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely
and long for heaven and home.
When Jesus is my portion,
my constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.2
____________
1. William Hinson, A Place to Dig In, (Abingdon, 1987), pp. 27-28.
2. Charles H. Gabriel, "His Eye Is On the Sparrow," Songs of Zion, Supplemental Worship Resources 12, (Abingdon, 1981), p. 33.
There are many of us who can say "amen" to Job's anguished cry when, in our time of trouble, it seems that God has moved and left no forwarding address. We hear the cry of the troubled Psalmist who said, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, 'Where is your God?' " (Psalm 42:2-3). We hear the cry of the Hebrew exiles who had trouble finding God in the strange land of Babylon. They said, "By the Rivers of Babylon -- there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.' How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:1-4). We hear the cry of the prophet Isaiah who said to God, "Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior" (Isaiah 45:15). We hear the lonesome cry of the black slaves who sang in their spiritual, "O way down yonder by myself, an' I couldn't hear nobody pray." We even hear the suffering cry of Jesus on the cross when he cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). This is scarcely a word which anyone would have invented and put on his lips. This is his own cry, feeling God's absence, identifying with the human cry of feeling oneself shut off from the face of God at the very time when God is needed the most. Indeed if that happened to Jesus himself, then it should not come as a surprise that it happened to one of God's faithful servants like Job or that in spite of our faithfulness there are troubled times when it seems that God has moved and left no forwarding address.
For several months a pastor had been making pastoral calls on a lady who was waging a losing battle against cancer. She was the mother of four small children. She was a faithful Christian, both in the profession of her faith and in the manner by which she lived it. The calm, quiet air of assurance which she always maintained had led many of her friends to declare that she possessed that perfect faith in God which results in simple trust. A few days before her death her pastor stood by her bedside. As he made conversation about ordinary things, a look of eager longing came into her eyes. "Tell me," she pleaded, "where is God now that I need God the most?"
Like Job, she was faced with the challenge of how to remain faithful when it seemed that God had moved and left no forwarding address. To be sure, this is the challenge which faces us in the midst of any crisis in life.
It is a challenge which tempts us to ask: Where is God? What is God doing? Well, God may be giving us the freedom and honor of having a part in determining the final outcome. Or God may be allowing us to experience God's absence so that we can grow and mature in our human responsibility.
One evening when I was leaving a meeting at a church I pastored, I saw one of my members acting very strangely. As he moved along a tree-lined sidewalk he was darting around and behind the trees as if he were hiding from someone. He would pause for a moment behind each tree or bush before quietly moving ahead. When I recognized him, I became curious and concerned, so I called his name. When he heard me calling his name he turned to face me and put his fingers over his lips signaling me to be quiet. He quickly rushed over to me and said, "I know you're wondering why I'm acting so strangely, but I'm following my six-year-old son and I don't want him to see me." He explained that he had allowed his little son to go to the neighborhood store all by himself for the first time. In other words, he was teaching his son to experience the growth that would help him take some initiative in doing something for himself. He had not deserted his son. He was nearby even though his son did not know it. In a loving way this father was giving his son some room for growth.
So sometimes when it appears to us that God has moved and left no forwarding address, it does not mean that God has abandoned us. It may only mean that even though we may not see God, God sees us and God is allowing us room for our faith to grow up. In such times, like Job, we have to keep on seeking God. For faith has been defined in the New Testament as a conviction of a thing not seen.
William Hinson relates the experience of seeing a baby owl in his front lawn as he went out to get the morning paper. He said he did not know what to do about it, so he called a naturalist. The naturalist said, "Don't do anything to that baby owl. If you look up, somewhere in a tall tree you will see he is not alone. His mother has told him to sit very still in order that he might not be seen by a cat or anything else. It takes about two dark nights for a baby owl to spread his wings and fly. In the meantime, if you will look up, you'll see his mother."
William Hinson said he and his wife went out into the yard and looked up into the top of an oak tree and there they saw the mother owl with dark, unblinking eyes fastened on the baby owl and everything and anything that came near him.1
When we feel alone and it seems that God has moved out and left no forwarding address, be assured that God knows where we are and God can reach us when God gets ready.
Why should I feel discouraged,
Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely
and long for heaven and home.
When Jesus is my portion,
my constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.2
____________
1. William Hinson, A Place to Dig In, (Abingdon, 1987), pp. 27-28.
2. Charles H. Gabriel, "His Eye Is On the Sparrow," Songs of Zion, Supplemental Worship Resources 12, (Abingdon, 1981), p. 33.
