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June 16, 2002
Sermon: Faith Rhythm (or)
OUR GOD IS NOT AN OZSOME GOD!
Genesis 12:1-9
Larry M. Gerber

Take a look at the MTV hit series chronicling the family life of the Ozzy Osbournes. If you can get past every other word being an expletive, the series offers some troubling insights into what many people regard as "normal" family life.
Not former Vice-President Dan Quayle, however. He applauds the show because it highlights in a negative way everything a family should try to avoid.
Rocker Ted Nugent told the New York Post that the MTV show is "an indictment of the soullessness of modern man... We get a kick out of witnessing a magnificent creature reduced to a blithering hopeless idiot." He went on to say that "the reason that [the Osbourne's] is so successful is that everyone wants to see a train wreck--but no one wants to be in one." Our God is not an Ozsome God!

Well.....let's get on with the subject at hand. We need to focus on God's rhythm. Our God is an awesome God, and we need to have a faith rhythm that follows God's path for us. How do we track our moves and our paths in life, especially in this day and age?

The computer support person you call on Tuesday using an 800 number doesn't live in Silicon Valley, or North America, or even the Western Hemisphere! He lives in Bombay, India, where it's already Wednesday. To keep time with his work, he sleeps with the sun and rises with the stars.

Simultaneously, it's day to you; it's night to him; he lives in your tomorrow; and you in his yesterday - yet you're both at work. You are in step with each other, and the system works.

Eastern Standard Tribe members choose to set their clocks according a different standard. They live out of step with their culture, with an eye on a world out there, valuing what they cannot see - like Abraham.

Abraham lived like that. He lived with an eye on a world out there, valuing what he could not see. His rhythm was set according to a different clock, a higher time zone, one to which he was connected, with whom he communicated long-distance, but regularly, talking and listening to God.

When Abraham decided to set his clock to DST (Divine Standard Time), perhaps he didn't know the disruption it would cause in his life. He moved the entire clan away from their home, embarking on a perilous journey to an unknown destination, with sheep, tents and slaves. This happened not once, but twice. First, to Canaan to settle there at the Lord's direction. Later, during a famine, he was forced to move his family down to Egypt. Living on DST (Divine Standard Time), Abraham had to strap in and hang on to a new rhythm to life.

He also found that there would be wars and prosperity, alliances and lies, mistakes and successes, births and deaths, jealousies and laughter, and promises - promises made by God to Abraham, that if he would live by faith's rhythm, rising in God, sleeping in God, breathing and eating and everything in God, then the Lord would make him the father of nations, whose children would number as many as the grains of sand in a desert, as many as the stars in the night sky.

Abraham agreed to live by Divine Standard; to live according to his faith in God. He lived a long, long time without God's promise being fulfilled. But he stuck it out. He trusted. He kept the faith, believing the Lord would keep his promise.

Which begs the question: How does one find his or her faith rhythm? Our natural rhythms come from signals such as the sun, light and darkness. Recall the emotional relief, when after days of rain, drizzle and gray skies, the sun breaks through to shine again. Our spiritual pace is likewise developed in concert with symbols of light and darkness. Spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, reading, worship and experiencing life in a community of faith are crucial for the development of a strong sense of DST.

Granted, Abraham's life was not an untroubled one, simply because he had developed a faith rhythm that generally kept his life in sync with God. He found trouble in Canaan when a famine came. He courted trouble in Egypt with the Pharaoh. There were problems with Lot, his nephew, and the Sodom and Gomorrah thing, and then the time when he got ahead of God by having his first son with Hagar the maid.
Abraham had his share of troubles, but he had adventures, opportunities, happiness and possibilities, too, because he lived on Divine Standard Time, sticking to the rhythm of his faith.

This is what happens to us when we listen to the faith rhythms in our lives. We're transported to new places, new opportunities, new possibilities - not without difficulties or troubles, of course, but ultimately we discover a life that is rewarding, fulfilling and sustaining.

So set your clock by God's time, DST. Join the time zone of Abraham and Sarah, of Mary and Joseph, and of Jesus Christ and countless saints through the ages, who learned, who lived, according to a new faith rhythm decreed by God.

You may recall that I was born and raised in a farming community in upstate New York. I went to Arkansas for my college years, in the early 60's. There was a lot of tension between blacks, known as Negro's at that time, and whites. I visited my cousin in Auburn, Al during my spring break, in 1964. He was an automobile salesman, so had the luxury of driving a brand new car. His was a 1964, baby blue Ford Thunderbird. He allowed me to borrow it and drive around town. One evening, it was time for his maid to go home. He asked me if I would be so kind as to drive her home. She was an attractive 18 old black girl....... I was a muscular, moderately handsome 20 year old white boy, with a New York accent. Sure I would take her home. I had nothing in mind, except to deliver her to her home, in the brand new baby blue 1964 T'Bird. As we approached the car, I went to the passengers side and opened the door for her. She said: "You want me to sit in the front seat?" I said: "Sure, why not;" We drove and talked a little. She told me of her husband and two children, etc. As we approached the housing project, surrounded by chain link fence, where she lived, she said that she could walk the rest of the way, that I didn't need to drive through the chain link gate. I said that I would take her to her house, that there was nor reason for her to walk the distance to the other end of the project. She was silent as I drove through the gate. Others, all black of course, stopped whatever they might have been doing. They backed away as to make a path for us. A young black girl and a young white boy, in a brand new baby blue T'Bird. They knew her of course..... I stopped in front of her apartment, got out, walked around and opened the door for her. She thanked me and briskly walked away. As I turned around to exit, the whole neighborhood was standing in awe of what they saw. I felt like I was in a one car parade! I waved and smiled. They gawked and wondered. Then I wondered too....but I kept driving. I had never seen a black housing project before, let alone drive through one.

When I returned to my cousins house, he inquired as to my opening the car door for his maid, and especially my allowing her to sit in the front seat! When I told him the rest of the story, he said that I should count my lucky stars that I was still alive, and that his brand new baby blue T'Bird was still in one piece! Little did I know............after all, I was a young innocent, ignorant white boy from upstate New York. I didn't know that things were different between folks on the farm in New York, and the folks from the city in Auburn, Al.

I was in a faith rhythm that I didn't even know existed. I was surely living in DST (Divine Standard Time). As I look back upon , what appeared to be downright stupidity, I am ever so glad that I did what seemed right, rather than what was expected of me.

I am glad that the Dan Quayle's of this world can look upon me as one that lives on Divine Standard Time, and am ignorant of any other time. I only hope that my little excursion through the ghetto of Alabama in 1964 spoke of God's love for all people. I am very pleased that I was ignorant enough of the "sure consequences" of my actions, that I went through with doing what I knew was right and courteous, and not learned enough to be afraid of what might have happened.

During that same time period, back in Batesville, AR. where I was attending college, upon entering a Sears store at the same time that an elderly black lady did, I held the door for her. She immediately took the door and said: "Naw Sa, I holds the door for yous. I knows my place." Reluctantly, I walked ahead of her, into the Sears store. I knew better than make a scene that would only come back on her.

We must find our life by living in the Faith Rhythm. If we live on Divine Standard Time, we will never be late for our next appointment, nor will we miss our appointment. Abraham, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and so many others have found new life by moving with the new rhythms of God, and keeping their appointment. Trust God. Live fully and committed in the DST zone. You won't be alone there - God, and heaven's host, will be with you, even through the most terrifying places in your life.

I now know that the values that my mother and father gave to me in my formative years were values that put me in rhythm with God. My father was not much on words, but his actions taught me more than he will ever know. He was called "home" 13 years ago, but his rhythm in life continues through me.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad.

Let us pray..........

Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766