Pushing the Date Back

Scripture Lessons: Romans 8: 26-39 and Genesis 29: 15-28 Sermon Title: Pushing the Date Back Preached on July 26, 2020 Last Tuesday was my 40th birthday. Just before, last Sunday morning, I walked outside to find 40 pink flamingoes, a handful of metal pigs, and a cardboard cut-out of my 18-year-old-self gracing our front yard. Apparently three members of our church staff woke up early on Sunday morning to surprise me, marking my 40th birthday the best birthday I’ve ever had. It was. Truly. From you I’ve received so many cards I haven’t been able to open them all. I was serenaded by Jeffrey and Gordon Meeks on the piano and violin, as well as Van Perlberg on the accordion. I’ve been so moved by the way you have marked this milestone birthday that I haven’t even been sad as I think about how different my 18-year-old body looks from my 40-year-old one. Sara had me go outside to stand next to my 18-year-old frame. As I compare my 40-year-old body to my 18-year-old body it’s clear that my 18-year-old stomach is flatter, my 18-year-old arms are more muscular, and my 18-year-old head has much more hair. So, looking at the cardboard cutout version of my old self has been cause for important reflection this week. Not only has it made me want to join a gym and to start using Rogaine, it’s also made me wonder, if I could go back to talk with my 18-year-old self, what would I say other “Enjoy that full head of hair while you have it?” Maybe I would say that, and, more importantly, I think I would also tell the 18 year old Joe Evans not to do anything too stupid as he galivants around Marietta, GA, because in just a few years he’s going to come back to become their pastor.” Honestly, I can think of many things I’d do differently. Only today I feel strongly that the best thing to tell my 18-year-old self would be, “Don’t be too hard on yourself, because everything is teaching you something. Everyone has something to tell you. Keep going and keep learning. Don’t avoid challenges and don’t have too many regrets, because somehow God is at work in all of it.” Do you believe that? I do. Or I do most of the time. Sometimes I fall into the thinking that it would be nice to have a time machine. That it would be wonderful to have a time machine that I might go back in time to tell my old self: “on that Mexico Mission trip, don’t let Jenny Pratt take a picture of you in an old cut-up t-shirt, jean shorts, and a cowboy hat. It will come back to haunt you.” That’s maybe what we’d like to do. Meanwhile we’re being shaped by all kinds of things and all kinds of people, and just as God’s purposes are advanced by the miracles, sometimes God takes the bad things and does something good out of them. The question our Scripture Lessons for today ask is: could God be at work in all of it? Has God used any number of both miracles and tragic events to shape and change us into the people we are today? My 18-year-old-self had not yet met Sara Hernandez who would become for him one of life’s greatest miracles, but neither had he seen planes fly into the Twin Towers. Neither had he learned much about disease or despair. Today, as we look back on our lives, can we be bold to see God at work in the bad people, like Laban, or the tragic events, like being tricked by him, to internalize Paul’s conviction from the book of Romans, “that all things work together for good”? That’s a tall order. That’s a great challenge. But in a time of global pandemic, this is the question we must be asking ourselves, because if we don’t dare to see God at work today, then God’s light may shine upon us without us noticing. We may miss out on important opportunities to grow in our faith. Back to Jacob. I know he might have told his 18-year-old self to avoid Laban, but his life would have been so different if he had. Thinking about Laban and the story of Jacob and Rachel in our Second Scripture Lesson, I’m glad that Jacob and Rachel didn’t come to me for their pre-marital counseling. Can you imagine? What a mess. Some of their relationship was typical enough. It started when he saw her. Maybe it was love at first sight. Immediately, he wanted to impress her, so he rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered her sheep for her. It’s the perfect beginning of a romance, and those of you who know what it is to fall in love can think back to what he did that first got your attention, or how when you saw her you would have lifted any number of stones to get her to look your way. Jacob and Rachel have their first kiss that very day. In Genesis chapter 29 Jacob kissed Rachel. Scripture tells us that when it happened Jacob “wept aloud.” It was as every first kiss should be. Then, before things go any farther Jacob goes to meet her father. Rachel’s father agrees to allow this relative stranger to marry his daughter when Jacob offers to work seven years in exchange for her hand in marriage. This is the part of the story where I can imagine Jacob wanting a time machine. He says, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Then Laban said, “It is better that I should give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” Never mind that these two men are talking about this poor young woman like she’s a piece of property or an old Ford, a deal is struck. An agreement is made. Jacob is ready to do what he needs to do so he goes and does it, only we know it won’t be that easy, because it almost never is. In fact, these seven years make me think of what we were all told at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak: “Just stay at home for three or four weeks and this thing will be over.” Do you remember them telling us that? Then three or four weeks stretched out into three and four months. Now we’re being told we’re still not getting anywhere. Likewise, at the end of seven years Jacob goes to Laban to make good on their agreement and Laban gives him Leah. There’s always something that makes a marriage hard. There’s always something that must be overcome. But never in premarital counseling have I heard a couple say: “Pastor, the thing that makes our relationship complicated is that he’s already married to my sister.” Can you imagine? Had I been doing their premarital counseling I’d ask for clarification: “So, Jacob, you were tricked into marrying her sister, by your father-in-law?” “And you didn’t realize it wasn’t Rachel until the morning after?” “And you’re still married to Leah?” What are we to say about these things? Surely, we expect better of the heroes of the Bible. Surely, we expect better out of our family members. Surely, we expect more out of life, but it only gets worse, more twisted, more complicated, for at times, God’s people, regardless of the generation, all wonder to themselves, “God, why are you doing this to me?” No doubt, like Jacob, if we had a time machine and could go back to tell our 18-year-old selves something, some of us would go back to voice a warning: “I know she caught your eye but keep walking.” “I know he seems nice enough, but don’t trust him.” “I know it’s dark in the tent, but before you do anything, make sure she’s not your sister-in-law.” Likewise, there are plenty of things I would love to do over again and there are some people I would love to have avoided, but sometimes, in dealing with difficult issues we’re actually dealing with ourselves. It’s true. It’s true that Laban tricked Jacob, but who did Jacob trick? As we read the book of Genesis and consider Jacob’s character, we remember that before he met Rachel, he had already stolen his older brother’s inheritance. Therefore, I believe we must wonder if it might be that what Jacob hates most about Laban and his tricks is what Jacob hates most within himself. What he learns then in being tricked by Laban, is how he must have made his brother feel. What he learns in getting hurt is what hurt feels like. What he learns in having to put his life on hold is that life requires, we not just get by, but grow. Today, what I realize about this time of quarantine, is that as much as I want it to be over and as much as I wish it would have never happened; that as much as I might wish that someone could go back in time to stop that virus from ever spreading, what we Christians must be bold to do is to consider that in this moment, it’s as though God has hit the reset button on this nation. That in this moment, it’s as though God has hit the reset button on our lives. Before now, few among us had time for self-reflection. Few among us had the chance to consider, not only where we’ve been but where we’re going. In this moment when it seems most of us have plenty of time, turn off the TV and put down your phone for just a moment to ask yourself: “What is God trying to teach me today?” In looking at that cardboard cutout of my 18-year-old-self, I see that despite whatever mistakes I had made or was yet to make, because of that Mexico Mission Trip I was on when the picture was taken, I was already learning that the way toward a full and abundant life was marked, not by selfishness, but service. That the way toward happiness is a movement away from self and towards the other. That life is not to be lived by tricking people as Jacob tricked Esau or as Laban tricked Jacob, but in loving my neighbor as myself, regardless of who my neighbor is. In this self-centered, defensive, ego-driven culture of ours, God is giving us a chance to choose a new path. Don’t spend so much time wishing you could go back to change what has already happened that you forfeit your chance to start making a better future today. And know that as you grow and change, as you learn and live, God is with you fulfilling His promises. Halleluiah. Amen.