What’s Happening Around Us?

Homily – Trinity Sunday, the 4th June 2023

Let us a close look at this picture.

This comes from North Eastern Indian state of Manipur

Tribal clashes led to the destruction of churches and people had to flee

Posting this picture from Pentecost Sunday in Facebook the Pastoral Concerns Desk of my church wrote

No more Church bell sounds,

No Children Sunday School.

No Praise & Worship services.

No Messages/Speakers.

No sweet hour of prayers.

No Offerings & tithes.

No friends to give hand shake.

Yesterday, no Sunday church services in more than 220 Churches in Manipur.

By the side of jungle trees of mountains there we sat down,

hey……we wept When we remember our churches.

O’ Lord! how shall we sing our songs in a strange forest with fear & pains. Restore us O’ Lord Almighty God.

Make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

Lord, heal the wounds and bestow your grace on Manipur to prevail Peace and Harmony in the state. (Courtesy: WhatsApp forwarded post)

The Pain that Conflicts and Wars Create cannot be explained in words

What are the effects of Wars and Conflicts?

Displacement of People

Disbanding of families

Death

Disabilities

Destruction of Assets

Disruption of social and economic systems

Devastation of Mental and Emotional Health

Depression

We just heard the news of the appointment of the new Chaplain of Stuttgart. Bishop Antonio Ablon from Philippines- an activist who campaigned against the mining lobby and could not return home.

Imagine the pain of a people in exile

Who had to flee from their homes because of conflict, war, struggles for Justice

The Call to Comfort

The passage we read from Isaiah is also in a context of war and a people living in exile and displacement.

Yes, the text of Isaiah 40 is addressing a very similar situation of pain and people not able to even dream of a future with hope

How does trust in God help in such situations

Written around 538 BC Deutero Isaiah is in fact comforting a people in the experience of exile and displacement

How was the broken people given hope?

Comfort Comfort My People

Tell them of the Nature of God

The Nature of the Triune God

The Everlasting Nature of God

The Lord is the everlasting God

Age to age He stands, and time is in His hands,

Beginning and the end, beginning and the end.

The Godhead, three in one: Father, Spirit, Son,

The Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and the Lamb.

He is not a God who gives up when in our times of trouble but who stays with us through tough patches of life.

The Creative Nature of God

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

Do not underestimate the creative possibilities of God.

The Ever-alert Nature of God

He does not faint or grow weary;

Do not think set backs happen because God is not in control

Like the goldsmith uses fire to purify tough situations could sometimes come our way

But be assured that God does not grow weary

The Understanding Nature of God

his understanding is unsearchable

Yes we might say NO ONE UNDERSTANDS WHAT I AM GOING THROUGH

We as pastors are taught never to tell a person in pain

I understand

Because in fact you don’t understand.

But the assurance is that we have a God who understands

This ultimate understanding is the essence and nature of the Triune God.

How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke your name into the night

Then through the darkness
Your loving kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope

The Empowering Nature of God

He gives power to the faint

When peace, like a riv-er, attend-eth my way,
when sor-rows like sea – bil-lows roll;
what-ev-er my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul

The Strengthening Nature of God

and strengthens the powerless.

In the darkness – we were waiting
Without hope  – without light
Till from heaven – You came running
There was mercy –  in Your eyes

When we become powerless God empowers us

Isaiah also a makes a comment on

Spiritual Tiredness

The Generations that Get weary

³⁰ Even youths will faint and be weary,
    and the young will fall exhausted;

Wars and Conflicts affect the young people the most

Even a conflict within homes affect the young the most

The devastation that happens in the lives of young people because of conflicts cannot be explained

Isaiah sees that picture- young people becoming tired and becoming weary

And then preaches hope

The Blessings of those who wait on the Lord

but those who wait for 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.

There are several elements in this promise that we need to closely look at

WAITING for the LORD

One of the most rhetorical questions in the Bible in times of pain is this- HOW LONG O LORD

But the promise is that the WEAK shall RENEW their STRENGTH

They shall mount up with wings like eagles

The two images that I like are

They shall run and not be weary

They shall walk and not find

They shall rebuild their future

Conclusion

Is our spirituality going through a tired phase?

If you want to take home one message today it is

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength

Vinod Victor

4th June 2023