In my life, I've always been one to make things happen or watch while things happen. I can never sit on the sidelines. This may be a good thing or a bad thing. I haven't figured that out yet. I might let you know in another post sometime in the unforeseeable future. I knew I needed to send that email for practical training and prepare myself for it, but the reason I actually thought about doing it was because my friend and fellow future Achen Sean John George had gone the year prior. I thought to myself, "This guy is younger than me, and he's already taking steps in preparation for the ordained ministry." I hopped on board, and I sent the email as well. Then, I began thinking, "What will I be doing there? Am I preaching or am I just observing or maybe it's a bit of both?" Well, answers to those questions haven't been provided to me yet, so stay tuned. I realized that if I am to preach in churches where I don't know people, I should probably get a good feel for it in a place where I know the people. I had already preached at St. Paul's on Good Friday, and I wasn't sure if the people wanted me to preach as frequently as the Achens do, so I thought that Sehion might be a good place to preach. It's a small church, and I know many of the people there, so I figured it would be a good precursor to the actual training. I went over to Jaisen Achen's parsonage one day, and as we were talking, I brought this up to him. He thought it was a great idea, and he gave George Varghese Achen a call. George Varghese Achen was up for it as well, so they arranged for me to preach on Sunday, May 29, 2011.
I thought to myself, "Achens don't always get time to prepare their sermons weeks prior, so why don't I wait until the last week and begin then?" This was a great excuse for procrastination, and it's definitely not worth trying. Unfortunately, I did, and I almost didn't have a sermon. The week prior to the sermon, I began to become lazy, and I would play games or waste time on Facebook, but I wouldn't focus on my sermon. Then, Wednesday came, and I began to focus on the sermon. This is when my parents decided that we need to go visit some people, go to the store, etc., and I began to lose my mind. I immediately recalled that episode of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" where Will decided to study the night before for a chemistry test, and his family kept needing him to take care of things, so he didn't get to study. I found myself in the same shoes, but fortunately, by God's grace, I was able to finish my sermon which I entitled, "Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life" after that day's Lectionary.
My sermon was about Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and exactly why Jesus didn't heal Lazarus, but rather, waited to raise him up from the dead. As I began to preach, I felt the power of the Holy Spirit move through me, and I felt the most fluidity and ease to preach. Many times I've preached, and I would be petrified up there, even though I've done this so many times, but this was the first time, it actually felt easy, and I believe that's because the Holy Spirit fueled me. I realized sometimes we begin to question in our lives where is God in certain struggles and obstacles in our lives. When we think He is the farthest, that is perhaps when He is the nearest. If He never delayed, then would we not take Him for granted? If starving children in Africa had a McDonald's on every corner, would they not take their food for granted like we do? It is because the rarity of the food they get that they cherish it, and we tend to often waste it. Even still, we do that with God. We take Him as Savior of our lives and turn Him into Santa Claus 2.0. It is when we realize that God works according to His will and for our benefit that we understand why He delays. In the situation of Lazarus, if Jesus healed him right when he heard that Lazarus was sick, would many people have trusted in Jesus? It was because of the love that Jesus had for Lazarus along with the power bestowed on Him by the Father, that He did such a marvelous miracle and raised Lazarus from his physical death and many others from their spiritual death. I heard many people's positive comments about my sermon which made me feel good, but also very grateful to God for speaking through me. I know it's not me, but it is Him.
As the quote says, don't wait for things to happen or wonder what happened. Go make it happen. Grab life by the horns as Dodge so quaintly puts it. (Yes, I live in Texas, so I will make redneck analogies from time to time. Maybe, I'm slowly turning into a redneck). When we do strive to make things happen, we realize that we are not in control, but rather, God is in control, and that might just be the best thing to ever happen to us.
Now, it's basically ten hours and forty-five minutes from my flight. I'm feeling a little queasy, but I'm excited and awaiting to see what God has in store for me. I pray that He grants me an open mind and heart to see things from the other side of the haikala (Haikala is the space in between the Madbaha and the place where the congregation comes to kneel for Communion).
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
-John 11:25-26 (NIV)
No comments:
Post a Comment