These Three Remain

People died, children were conceived, hearts were broken lives were changed and history was made.  But now the summer of love was over.  By October of 1967 the movement known as the Summer of Love, when over 100,000 hippies and flower children had descended on the Haight Asbury district of San Francisco was but a memory.  A mock funeral processional was announced for October 6th it was called “The Death of the Hippie” and it was to officially signify the end of the Summer of Love. 

L. Frank Baum wrote in the The Marvelous Land of Oz  “Everything has to come to an end, sometime.”

Since June we have been celebrating the Summer of Love here at Cornerstone as we have dove into 1 Corinthians 13, the so-called love chapter of the bible.  And for the 12th time we are going to invite you to stand as we read the chapter together.   And for our last reading of 1 Corinthians 13 we are going to read responsively. 

Which simply means I will read a part and then you will read the next section. 

1 Corinthians 13:1-13  If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others,

I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 

If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains,

but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 

If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;

but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. 

Love is patient and kind.

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.

It does not demand its own way.

It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 

It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 

Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 

Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 

But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless. 

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child.

But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 

Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.

All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Thank you, you may be seated.

And now we arrive at the end of our Summer of love with the last verse of 1 Corinthians 13.   1 Corinthians 13:13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

For the Christian, when everything is finished, when the last page is turned, when the credits have rolled and the story is done, it won’t be finished.  

There will still be three things that remain.  Faith, hope and Love. 

Paul reminded the early Christ followers in  Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--  not by works, so that no one can boast.

It is by grace that you have been saved.  How?  Through faith.

So we begin with The Faith We Have in Jesus The bible defines faith this way, Hebrews 11:1  Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Sometimes I think it would be so much easier if when we claimed the promise of our salvation and forgiveness it came with a “Something” that was tangible.  Maybe a certificate signed by God, or a plaque we could put on our living room wall.  But the reality is, that if you are anything like me you’d misplace it anyway.  I haven’t seen my Social Insurance card for forty years.

And if you didn’t misplace it, then it would become the assurance of your salvation, and you would come to depend on that piece of paper as the assurance that your sins were forgiven and that you were indeed saved. 

Whenever you doubted, you could pull it out and read it and if anyone questioned your salvation you could show them your certificate of authenticity. 

And if you ever lost the paper or if it were destroyed then you’d wonder about your salvation. 

Our relationship with God begins with faith, later in Hebrews 11 we read Hebrews 11:6  And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

There are times that people will tell me, “I guess I just don’t have that much faith.”  But we have faith all the time. 

We have faith in the things around us that we don’t understand and can’t explain.

 When we drive we have faith that our cars will stop and go and won’t behave erratically.  We have faith that the other drivers will stay in their lanes.

When we go to the doctor we have faith they know what they are doing and will make the best decisions for our health.

Most of us will fly somewhere, if not this year then probably next year.  And flying has to be the biggest example of faith that we have.

You are sitting in a chair in the sky.  Seriously.  And you think you know how flying works, but really. 

The shape of the wing causes the air to move faster and faster moving air exists at a lower pressure than slow-moving air, so the pressure above the wing is lower than the pressure below the wing, and this creates the lift that keeps your chair in the sky.

We have the bible, the word of God that tells us things like Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 

Repent of your sins, turn to God and your sins will be wiped away.  That’s the promise,  It is faith that claims the promise. 

Martin Luther wrote “Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.”

And Paul reminded Timothy in  1 Timothy 1:19  Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear.

Cling to your faith in Christ.  When everything seems to fail, cling to your faith in Christ.

Because when everything else is gone, faith remains.

But there has to be more than simply  faith, Paul wrote in  1 Corinthians 15:19  And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

The Faith That We Have in Jesus Gives us a Hope for Eternity

Every one of us has birth in common, we were born.  There isn’t one of us who just suddenly appeared.  And regardless of what your parents told you the stork didn’t bring you to them. You were born.

The other thing we have in common is that we will all die.  Some sooner than others, but life is a terminal condition.  It was Robin Williams who said  “Death is nature’s way of saying, ‘Your table is ready.”

But while we may all share the experience of death Christians share a hope that extends beyond death.

Maybe you’ve heard the statement “as long as there is breath there is hope.”  But for the Christian that hope goes even beyond death.  It was the Apostle John, one of Christ’s first followers,  the one who stood at the foot of the cross and watched Christ die, the one who rushed to the garden three days later to find an empty tomb. 

It was John who would spend forty days with Jesus after the resurrection and who would watch Jesus ascend into heaven and it was the same John who wrote 1 John 5:13  I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

So what?  So that you will know that you have eternal life.  And not just any eternal life listen to the description that John gives us of the eternity we will share with our creator, it’s found in Revelation 21:4  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

That is the hope that the Christian has, all the other descriptions that we might have of heaven pale in comparison to those words. Listen to it again,  Revelation 21:4  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

It is a hope that goes beyond breath.  Which was why John Wesley on his death bed was able to say “The best of all: God is with us.”  And why William Wilberforce told his family “My affections are so much in heaven that I can leave you all without a regret; yet I do not love you less, but God more.”   And why Puritan preacher Richard Baxter would die saying “I have pain; but I have peace, I have peace!”

My favorite dying words story is about Samuel Upham a Professor at Drew Theological Seminary.  When Upham was lying on his death bed his family gathered around to be with their dad at the end. 

After a period of silence one of the brothers asked “Is he gone?”  Another responded “I don’t know, feel his feet, nobody ever died with warm feet”  Suddenly Professor Upham opened his eyes said “Joan of Arc did” and then he died. 

If you google dying words of believers you will find scores of statements of hope and faith. 

If you google dying words of atheists you find Voltaire saying, “I am abandoned by God and man!”  And Anton LeVey, author of the Satanic Bible dying with these words on his lips "Oh my, oh my, what have I done, there is something very wrong … there is something very wrong …” And the atheist philosopher Thomas Hobbes who said "I say again, if I had the whole world at my disposal, I would give it to live one day. I am about to take a leap into the dark."

Sir Francis Newport was the head of an English Atheist club and as he was dying he told those who gathered around his deathbed: "You need not tell me there is no God for I know there is one, and that I am in His presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping.”

The Apostle Paul wrote these words of Hope in 2 Timothy 4:6-8  As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.  And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

And the hope that Paul had was the hope found in Christ.  In book of Matthew we read this about Jesus  Matthew 12: 21  And His name will be the hope of all the world.

If you haven’t experienced that hope you can.

Because when everything else is gone, faith and hope remain.

And the reason for that hope and faith come from John 3:16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The Faith That We Have in Jesus gives us a Hope for Eternity and it's all Grounded in the Love of God

It all goes back to God’s love for us.  John Ortberg wrote  “People sometimes think it's a miracle that God loves them. No. God simply IS love. It would take a 'miracle' for God to NOT love somebody.”

And that love was so great that God gave us the ultimate gift, himself, he took our sin on his own sinless nature so we could be forgiven. 

Which is why we are told in Romans 5:8-9  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

John Wesley wrote “Faith, hope, love - Are the sum of perfection on earth; love alone is the sum of perfection in heaven.”

Because when everything else is gone, three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Love ties it all together.  William Barclay wrote “Faith without love is cold, and hope without love is grim. Love is the fire which kindles faith and it is the light which turns hope into certainty.”

And as we come to the conclusion of our Summer of Love we ultimately have to ask the question that burns on all of your hearts when I preach and that is “So what?  What does this mean for me?”

One of the greatest descriptions of this agape love is given in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

We are all familiar with that passage, or at least we should be after this summer.

And last weekend that passage was read at both of the Cornerstone weddings that were celebrated. 

I want to finish the series by looking at 1 Corinthians 13 a different way.  The way that God displayed his love for us was that he came to earth as a baby, lived 33 years and died on a cross for us.  Jesus was love personified. That’s why the Bible tells us in John 1:17  . . .  but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.

And if that is the truth then we should be able to see the character of Christ reflected in 1 Corinthians 13.  Let’s try.  Here’s 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

So if Jesus is Love then we should be able to change it from Love to Jesus and see how it reads:  1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Jesus does not demand his own way. Jesus is not irritable, and he keeps no record of when he has been wronged. He never rejoices about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Jesus never gives up, never loses faith, he is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

What do you think?  Works?  Let’s take it a step further. 

What is a Christian?  A follower of Christ?  Would it be fair to say that Christians are to be Christ-like or like Christ?  Ephesians 4:15  Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.

Ok, so let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 13, we changed the word love to Christ, now let’s take it a step further let’s change Christ to Christian and see how it reads 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Christians are patient and kind. Christians are not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Christians do not demand our own way. Christians are not irritable, and they keep no record of when they have been wronged. Christians never rejoice about injustice but rejoice whenever the truth wins out. Christians never give up, never lose faith, Christians are always hopeful, and endure through every circumstance.

So now let’s personalize it and read it together as the body of Christ, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 We are patient and kind. We are not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. We do not demand our own way. We are not irritable, and we keep no record of when we have been wronged. We never rejoice about injustice but rejoice whenever the truth wins out. We never give up, never lose faith, We are always hopeful, and endure through every circumstance.

Hmmm, maybe we could stand a little work.  Jesus told his disciples in John 13:35 “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”  Is that how people identify you as a Christian? 

Two secrets to exhibiting this type of love.  You ready.  1) It has to be intentional.  It’s not just going to happen; you are going to have to want it to happen.  You are going to have to come to the place that you intentionally say, “I am going to exhibit agape love in all my relationships” 

2) You can’t do it.   Or maybe it would be more accurate to say You can’t do it yourself.  And you don’t have to.  Do you remember the scripture that we started with?  Galatians 5:22-23  But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

It doesn’t say we will produce, but the Holy Spirit will produce.  Is that your desire today?  When you look at your life does it match the description given in 1 Corinthians 13?  If not it can. 

And while the Summer of Love in 1967 came to an end, I hope that what we’ve learned this summer about love is only the beginning.

Frank Herbert wrote “There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”

You will choice to live a life characterized by love or not.

Let’s pray together:   Lord help me to be patient and kind.   To not be jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Help me to not demand my own way. Help me to not be irritable, and to keep no record of when I’ve been wronged. Help me to never rejoice about injustice but help me rejoice whenever the truth wins out. Lord, I want to never give up, never lose faith, always be hopeful, and to endure through every circumstance.  In Jesus name AMEN

Through a Glass Darkly

Summer of Love 10  Seeing clearly

By September of 1967 the residents of Haight Asbury had fallen out of love with the 100,000 hippies and flower children who had descended on their neighborhood for what had come to be known as the Summer of Love.  The bloom was coming off the rose for the participants as well and many of the university students who made up the group left San Francisco to resume their studies. 

On October 6th a mock funeral was held that was called “The Death of the Hippie”, organizer Mary Kasper explained the purpose of the funeral:  “We wanted to signal that this was the end of it, to stay where you are, bring the revolution to where you live and don't come here because it's over and done with.”

And like the original Summer of Love we are drawing close to the finish of our summer of Love as we have spent the past 10 weeks in 1 Corinthians 13, the so called Love Chapter of the Bible.

And through the summer we’ve been taking the opportunity to read all 13 verses together.  This morning we are going to read it in unison.  Please stand with me as we take the opportunity to read God’s word.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13  If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.  If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.  Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!  Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!  But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.  When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.  Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Thank you, you may be seated.

Last week we looked at the childish things that we need to put away as we mature in our faith and this morning we are going to focus on verse 12,  1 Corinthians 13:12  Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

In the NIV we read 1 Corinthians 13:12  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

In the King James Version we read 1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

And while “through a glass darkly” is more poetic, and has been the title of a number of novels, several poems, umpteen television episodes and at least one movie it really doesn’t convey to us the meaning that Paul had in mind 2000 years ago.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of seeing through a glass darkly, I picture myself peering through a darkened window.  Which along with being just kind of creepy is historically impossible because when Paul wrote this letter there were no glass windows, either darkly or not to peer through.

The Romans had glass, but it was used to make containers.  Angela actually has a cross with Roman glass that came from Israel and dates back to the time of Jesus.  But the technology wasn’t there to create sheet glass. 

That was all said to say that the glass that was spoken of here was a mirror.  And not the mirror that you have in your bathroom.

Mirrors, as you know, are made of glass coated with a reflective surface, and two thousand years ago they didn’t have the technology needed to make flat thin glass.  So mirrors were simply pieces of polished metal, often times using brass or bronze because they polished well.

And because of the colour of those metals your reflection was often times dark and not detailed.

So you could tell that you were wearing a hat but you might not be able to tell that you had some of your lunch on your chin.  And It was puzzling.

And this was the metaphor that Paul uses to describe our understanding of our lives.

I’m not sure how you feel about mirrors, I kind of feel like Rick Wakeman who wrote “There must be something wrong with the mirrors in our house because every single one I gaze into makes me appear somewhat overweight.”

And the mirror in our bathroom is ever changing, when I look into it at 4:30 on Sunday morning I look a lot older than I do when I look into it in the afternoon.

1 Corinthians 13:12  Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

And maybe that doesn’t resonate with you at all, maybe you don’t find things puzzling,   maybe you have everything figured out and when things sometimes go off the rail you shrug and say “whatever”.

Or maybe your faith in God is so great that you never question what’s happening, you never ask

“Why?” or say “How come?

In which case, you are a better person than me because I scratch me head so often that you’d think I’d be bald by now.

And that promise isn’t that we will know now, but that we will know someday.  And the promise is that in spite of it all, in spite of the questions in spite of the doubts that God’s love is still there.

But, there’s that word “But” even when we trust him we still have the need to ask: why?

We are a little bit like Job who said Job 13:15  God might kill me, but I have no other hope. I am going to argue my case with him.

Even when we say “God is my only hope” we want to ask “Why”?  And that’s fine.

So, The Question is: Why?

The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk’s asked  “why do the righteous suffer?” and “Why do the evil prosper?”  Those are good questions. David asked the same questions in the book of  Psalms and Job personalized it in the book that bears his name asking “Why do the evil prosper and I suffer?”  That’s probably what we want to know.

The word why is used 595 times in the bible so it would appear that there are some questions in there.

Abraham asked why, Moses asked why, David asked why, Peter asked why even Jesus asked why.  And so I’m thinking that asking God why isn’t always wrong.  As long as we live in an imperfect world and things happen and don’t happen to us the way we’ve planned then we will ask questions.

When things happen the way we were hoping they would happen we never ask God why.  “Why are things going so well God? Why are the kids healthy, why do I have a good job?  I was just curious thought I’d ask.”  We don’t do that, things go well and we presume that we deserved it or we were lucky.

Sometimes when we ask “why” the answer is self-evident.  And many times, the answer is one we don’t want to hear.

We ask why and the answer is very plain and very easy to understand, “Because you were stupid.” 

Now I know that you are thinking, “Well Denn that wasn’t very nice.”  No, but true.  We ask “Why did I have to get that speeding ticket?”  “Because you were stupid and were speeding.”  “Oh, right.” 

“Why do I have lung Cancer?”  “Because you insisted on lighting a noxious weed and sucking the poisonous smoke into your lungs.” “Oh, right.” 

I remember 30 years ago a colleague of mine was in a very serious car accident, and I heard people say, “Why did that have to happen?” They wanted to blame God or blame fate but the blame lay with my colleague who was rushing home in a bad storm and crossed the centre line into the path of an oncoming car.

A girl gets pregnant and she and her boyfriend ask why?  Obviously they had skipped that class in grade 7, grade 8, grade 9 and grade 10.  I skipped various classes in school, never that one.

Not always but many, many times we are the author of our own misfortune.  And that’s tough to accept because from the point when the very first couple sinned we have refused to accept responsibility for our actions. 

It’s so easy to play the blame game and try to shift the responsibility onto somebody else.  And so it’s not our fault that we are fat, and unhealthy it is McDonalds because they make food that is fatting and unhealthy and then obviously they hire people to sit on us and force feed us that very same food.

And people say “It’s not my fault that I smoke, it is the tobacco companies fault. If they didn’t make and sell tobacco then I wouldn’t have that problem.”  Interesting that nobody ever sues breweries and distilleries, I wonder why that is? 

Let me wander into the wilderness of political incorrectness an area that I am quite familiar with. 

A man beats his wife and she packs up and leaves and he asks why his marriage ended?

Duh!  Or a wife cheats on her husband and he files for divorces and she wonders what happened?

You ever wonder when you hear someone on the news saying that it’s not their fault they can’t find work in their community, the economy is a mess and there is no fish or the pulp mill has closed down, and so they have to be on unemployment and social assistance, it’s somebody else’s fault. 

But if everyone had of taken that view through the years then Toronto and Calgary would be empty for that matter the Mic Macs would have a lot more room in Nova Scotia.  We all make choices.

George Bernard Shaw said “No question is so difficult to answer as that which the answer is obvious.”

Of course, the real question that we are often asking is; “Why did it have to happen to me and not to somebody else?” “Why did I have to get cancer and they didn’t?” “Why did I get the ticket and not the person behind me?” “Why did I get pregnant and not her?”  And those are selfish questions.

So, sometimes the answer to why? Is: because of something you did.  And sometimes the answer to why? Truly is: because of something somebody else did. 

Somebody else drove their car over the line, a terrorist set off the bomb.   A girl is raped and becomes pregnant; someone ends up at the mercy of the justice system and is victimized.

We live in a fallen world and as long as people have the freedom to make decisions and mistakes other people will be hurt.  Sometime intentionally and sometimes inadvertently, but that doesn’t make it any easier. 

But we can’t blame God.  Oh, I know that we can say why didn’t God stop it? Why didn’t he make the car miss the pedestrian, why didn’t he keep her from walking down that particular street?   Sometimes he does and sometimes he doesn’t and I wish I could explain that but I can’t.

Here’s a thought, have you ever felt that you should pray for someone, and you do and later you find out that they were in danger and God seemed to miraculously intervene? 

Sometimes we feel to pray for someone and we do and later we find out that there didn’t seem to be any reason why we prayed.   Unless of course it was because we prayed that things didn’t happen that we will never know about.   

I wonder if sometimes we miss or ignore those feelings. And if we had of interceded that things would have turned out differently.  When you feel you should pray, pray.

People starve to death in third world countries and we ask: Why? and then we pay farmers not to produce certain products, stock pile others and destroy still others.  It’s not a supply problem it’s a distribution problem and a greed problem.  And if we wanted to then we could feed the hungry of the world.

And sometimes there is no answer and nobody to blame.  Last month a mud slide in Sierra Leone left 1000 people dead and 20,000 homeless.  And perhaps if corrupt leadership through the years had of led the country into development then maybe they would have been better prepared, but who knows. 

When a hurricane like Harvey hits a low-lying area like Houston bad things happen.

I remember when Juan ripped through Halifax a paramedic was killed when a tree fell on his ambulance.  What’s with that? 

Or a couple of weeks ago 32 year old Chris Godfrey was playing softball in Courtney BC, was running to 1st base and got hit in the back of the head with a softball, and died.  How do you explain that to his widow or one year old son?

Sometimes stuff just happens and it’s hard to explain why and maybe God does have an explanation but I certainly don’t.

And sometimes a “Why” doesn’t even deserve an answer “Why is it raining?” Because it is. “Why don’t the Leafs win the cup?”

We don’t have answers to a lot of question and we don’t like the answer we have to some questions. 

Paul was telling us that part of the problem with the question is that we now see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror,

And so The Answer Is: Wait.  Often, we have a timeline and we can’t understand why God doesn’t do everything according to our time line.  We look at the puzzling bit of the picture we can see and we don’t understand it and we don’t realize what we are seeing is only see one portion of a much bigger picture. 

Remember when Habakkuk questioned God about why the righteous sometimes suffered? God’s response to Habakkuk was simply; wait.  Listen to God’s response in Habakkuk 2:3  This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.

I am not the most patient person in the world, as a matter of fact I’m not the most patient person in this room, truthfully, if there were only two of us here I probably wouldn’t be the most patient person in the room. 

I want things to happen right away.  If I do something today I want results tonite, at the latest. 

And that isn’t always the way life works or the way God works.  And sometimes just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen.  French Naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon, said “Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; Hold fast; Hold out. Patience is genius.”

It is so tough when we think it should have happened yesterday or at the latest today and it still hasn’t happened. 

We can’t understand why we haven’t been healed, why our child is still rebellious, why our spouse still isn’t a believer, why we don’t have the perfect job, why our church still hasn’t grown. 

And we need to listen to God for he is probably saying “Wait” the story is not finished. 

Angela and I were at a movie once and with 15 minutes to go I leaned over and said “Let’s leave now and guess how it ends.”  We wouldn’t think of doing that, well actually I did but that’s me. 

But we want to skip out on the movie of our lives before we get to the credits.  The prophet Isaiah wrote in one of the verses that we all know Isaiah 40:31 NKJV But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.   We ask “why?” and God says “wait.”

And remember that ultimately, we may discover that what we thought we really, really, really wanted or needed wasn’t what we needed after all.  But we wouldn’t have made that discovery without waiting.

A lot of us are kind of like Margaret Thatcher who said “I am extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end.”   But sometimes the answer when it comes is not the one we want or the one we were looking for. 

And so Paul tells us to trust that Love will win,  If the question is Why and the answer is wait then The Response Is: Trust  Bottom line is that there will come a time that we have to trust that God knows best.  Even if what happens isn’t what we think should have happened.

We learned that lesson from Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when  they were standing before King Nebuchadnezzar after he demanded they bow down and worship the idol he had built or die.  And they said “We believe that God will deliver us but even if he doesn’t we still will not bow.” 

The prophet Habakkuk writes,  Habakkuk 3:17-19  Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty,  yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!  The Sovereign LORD is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.

I heard someone say recently that being born in North America is like winning the lottery.  And the poorest of us are wealthier then the majority of the world, so maybe the next time you are tempted to ask why ask why you were born in Canada or ended up in Canada.

And when we don’t get our own way or when we don’t understand what’s happening in our life we still need to be able to say, “Even though. . . yet I will be joyful in the Lord.”  Because someday you will see everything perfectly.