NEVER ALONE

Romans 8: 31-39

 

Sunday, March 5, 2006

 

                When you’re twenty, you don’t always make good choices.  Those of you who can look back at twenty probably can relate to that statement—those of you at twenty, take heart, you will survive what seemed to be a good decision at the time.  Thinking about being twenty reminds me of one of the two times I really felt alone in my life.

                I was in college.  I attended a junior college within the University of Wisconsin system and was a member of a committee that had a meeting scheduled in Madison.  I thought this would be a great weekend to spend seeing some friends of from high school, so I decided I would catch a ride with a friend down and take the bus back.  I did buy my bus ticket—that was the only plan I made.  I just figured the rest would happen—hey, I was twenty.

                So, my friend dropped me off in Madison and explained she was going on to Beloit, and wouldn’t be coming back through Madison.  That was fine, I told her, I had a bus ticket back.  I would be fine.  You know, I didn’t call anyone to see if they’d be around.  After my meeting was over, I found that all the folks I’d hoped to connect with were out of town.  Finally, I connected with someone I’d met through a mutual friend who let me bed down on the floor in the co-op in which he lived.  So, I slept on the floor in a stranger’s home, with instructions to be quiet when I left in the morning.

                I had to be up early to walk to the bus station—it was a couple of miles.  So, I suddenly realized myself at four o’clock in the morning out and about in Madison, Wisconsin, completely alone.  I had no one to call no money and saw no one as I walked to the bus station.  I felt all alone.

                Have you ever felt completely alone?

                Think about Abraham in our Old Testament lesson today.  As he left his servants at the campsite, he headed up the hill with Isaac, alone with his task.  What must he have been thinking?  God had given this promise that all the nations of the world would be blessed through his descendants—and now, God was asking this terrible thing.  Abraham must have felt cut off from that promise—maybe even cut off from God.

                Have you ever felt cut off from God?

                Mark shares the story of Jesus alone in the wilderness as our Gospel lesson today.  Alone, Jesus was, driven by Spirit into the wilderness—alone with the wild beasts and with Satan’s temptations.  You and I can’t even imagine what that must have been like—our times of lonely temptation only give a clue.

                Then, there’s Paul.  Paul—who had many times when he was rejected, shunned, left alone—does not talk about feeling alone.  He rather rejoices that he is never alone.  Jesus is his Savior.  Jesus is with us and for us, Paul rejoices and because He is—regardless of what we face or how things seem—you and I are never alone.

                Even as the echoes of Paul’s encouragement fade, memory brings to mind those times of being alone.  What makes us feel so alone?  For some of us, it is living in a hostile world that leaves us feeling apart.  There are Christians today in our world who live under governments hostile to their faith, which are left out of society and pushed out of families and jobs—that are alone. 

                In Paul’s day, Christians were persecuted and probably felt alone and cut off from God’s promises—and even, from God Himself—as they found themselves arrested and in the arena with the gladiators and the wild animals, facing death.  Perhaps, Mark has these folks in mind as he writes these words about what Jesus faced, as encouragement.  Mark perhaps writes about Jesus with the wild beasts to encourage those folks that they face what they face with Jesus.

                Some others of us feel lonely and cut off because someone they love has left them.  Someone they loved has died and left them behind with all of the thoughts of what might have been and the memories of what was once.  These folks look for encouragement in the midst of these circumstances because they feel so alone.

                The rest of us have another reason that we’re left alone.  If we’re honest, you and I have to admit that we’re responsible.  Maybe you’re sitting alone eating your lunch, because you’ve pushed others away by your attitude or by your actions—are you a gossip?  Maybe you’re finding yourself alone because of mistakes in judgment or poor planning or because of choices you’ve made.

                If you’re feeling cut off from family and friends is it really their fault?  Betrayal of others is a fruit of selfishness.  Choices we make for ourselves sometimes can not be supported by others and stands we take for ourselves deliberately set ourselves apart—thinking we’re above, we end up only apart.

                If you’re feeling cut off from God, maybe it isn’t God who’s left.  Sin is the word—giving into those temptations that serve us rather than God’s desires—that describes all of the above when it comes to our relationship with our Lord.  When sin comes between us and God, it feels very lonely—even terrible.  Adam and Eve felt that kind of alone in Eden.  Imagine the intimacy they knew with God and each other—He met them face to face in the cool of the evening. 

                Now, that’s all ruined and gone.  Adam and Eve feel cut off from God and each other—and they are!  So are we.  We need Someone to help.  We need Someone to intervene.  God promises such a One to Adam.  God has sent such a One to us.

                The story of God’s mercy is that He does intervene.  With Abraham, God provided the lamb for the sacrifice—the ram stuck in the thicket, not Isaac.  For you and me—keeping His promise with Adam and Eve—God intervenes in Jesus Christ.

                We can trust this promise in which Paul rejoices.  We can count on God to intervene and Jesus to intercede as Paul describes in our text.  We can hope because our God has a record with us.  Instead of abandoning us—turning His back on us as we have turned our backs on Him—to our sin, the Father abandoned His Son on the cross, with the burden our sins in His body.  The Father didn’t abandon His Son completely or in the grave, but raised Him up on the third day, sealing our trust in His promises forever.  He who did not leave His Son alone has promised to never leave you alone.

                We are never alone.  No accusations can separate us from God’s presence or love.  Those nagging doubts and memories of sins—how Paul must have been so painfully aware of Satan’s accusations, accusing him from his past and shouting out his weaknesses—that wake you and me up in the night and make us wonder how much God can forgive can not separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. 

                As Satan nags, Jesus speaks.  Paul says that Jesus intercedes for us before His Father.  As on the cross, so also at the throne, Jesus speaks on your behalf, “Father, forgive….”  No accusations can leave us separated or alone.

                So also, Paul goes on in joy and hope, neither can any circumstance.  In all of the messes you and I can get ourselves into there is not a place where God cannot meet you in His mercy.  Paul quotes the Psalmist to echo those feelings that we Christians sometimes have that our faith has put us at risk or to put into words those doubts we have about the direction in which things seem to be going with God.  Whether it was Madison, Wisconsin or wherever it is you are right now, God meets you and me there with the mercy and forgiveness He has in Jesus Christ. 

                Remember Who is for you and with you.  I told you there were two times I felt so very alone.  The second time was on an airplane.  I had taken off from Madison and had landed in Saint Louis, Missouri.  I had the idea I was supposed to be a pastor.  As I sat on that plane, I realized that I was by myself.  No one knew me in Saint Louis.  No one knew me at the seminary.  If I didn’t show up, I wouldn’t be missed.  I could just stay on the plane and go to Little Rock, Arkansas.  But I didn’t know anyone there, either, the Holy Spirit, reminded me as He nudged me off the plane, encouraging me into the future.  I have never looked back.

                He nudges you and encourages you, too.  He is with you and for you, too.  You are never alone because no circumstance, no mess, no accusations, no Satan can come between you and the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.  The wild beasts and gladiators couldn’t accomplish it with those first recipients of these words from Paul.  Feeling and being alone, feeling cut off from God’s promises—even our sins—can not accomplish it now.  You and I are never alone—we are with Jesus.