“I Will Not Let You Go” 2012

Isaiah 12:2-6 John 6:35-40

Isaiah 12:2-6

2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. 3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. 5Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously; let this be known in all the earth. 6Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.

John 6:35-40

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

Welcome to a new year.

For me, last year wasn’t entirely easy, and I’m glad it’s over…

… but I also sense that the year ahead may be quite a ride

and I expect we will face some tough choices,

challenges and difficulties in the days to come.

And I find it reassuring to know that this isn’t the first time

the people of God have faced a challenging and uncertain future.

When the Isaiah 12 passage was written,

it was after centuries of warnings from the prophets of Israel

urging the nation to repent and reform their ways,

but now, warnings were over, Jerusalem would fall,

and the people taken in exile to Babylon…

…truly the people were facing a grim and disturbing future.

Yet into that situation, the prophet Isaiah writes, vs. 2, 4

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. … And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted.

*How could the prophet promise something so hopeful & reassuring?

Actually, Isaiah was repeating the words that Moses sang

when Pharaoh’s pursuing army drowned in the sea … Exodus 15:2

The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

These words of praise and thanksgiving were in celebration ofà

God’s faithfulness in liberating them from Egyptian slavery.

Drawing on words of promise familiar to his listeners/readers,

Isaiah’s point is that even as they struggled and endured,

just as God provided for the people in the time of Moses,

so now God would provide and care for them,

and be their true hope, strength and salvation…

… for God never abandons or lets go of the people He loves…

… therefore, vs. 3

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

It was a simple message and clear truth,

that just as God was faithful in rescuing slaves from Egypt,

so that same God will now faithfully provide for you,

sustaining you through whatever trouble you face.

The Gospel of John was also written amid trial and challenge,

and intended to be promise and reassurance for the people of God

as they struggled with difficulty and an uncertain future.

The situation when this gospel was written was grim and tenuous.

Jews who become Christians were being kicked out

and excluded from synagogues and their communities,

and increasing persecution by the Roman authorities.

The passage of John that we read today

was intended to provide hopeful promise and reassurance,

that despite all the troubles & trials they were facing,

yet they were secure in Jesus their Lord.

This part of John’s gospel infers and points out a connectionà

between Moses leading the people out of Egyptian slavery,

and Jesus leading the people of God out from

their bondage to this world’s sin and darkness.

God had protected and provided for the people through Moses,

and now through Jesus, the struggling & persecuted believers

were assured that God would also protect & provide for them.

The author further suggests a connection of Jesus with Moses

by noting that the people ate manna in the wilderness,

and Jesus feeds a crowd of over 5000 in the wilderness;

and then identifies himself as “the bread of life”,

which came down from heaven

and gives life to the world (vs. 33)…

leading to the promise of vs. 35

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

To the Christians of the faith community addressed by John

the writer is reminding them of what Jesus had promised ---

- I will always be with you as the bread of life,

and with me you will not hunger or thirst…

just as God faithfully always provided

abundant manna and water in the wilderness.

God will surely accomplish your salvation as intended,

and will never abandon you or ever allow you to be taken from Him.

vs. 39-40

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.

As we are beginning our new year; Moses, Isaiah, John and Jesus

all proclaim a message of hope & reassurance we need to hear…

… and a reminder of the truth & promises of the Lord…

… which is the point and purpose

when we gather to celebrate the sacrament of Communion.

Starting all the way back with Genesis in the Old Testament

and on into the New Testament through Revelation, (vs. 7:16-17)

two of the great themes or spiritual metaphors of Scripture

are that our God reliably and consistently provides

food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty.

At the Lord’s Table, as we eat the bread and drink the juice,

we are symbolically acting out the hope and promises of God.

We are remembering that Jesus came to save us,

sent the Holy Spirit to nurture & nourish our souls,

and through God’s presence with us guides us

to the joy, peace and hope,

to the true blessings & meaningful life

that our loving God desires for us …

… and who alone will feed our hunger, and thirst, and longings,

who alone can satiate our emptiness, our fear and anxiety.

So how do God’s promises and faithfulness strengthen us?

In Europe, right after WW II,

there were thousands of displaced and lost children

who had suffered unspeakable depravation and hunger.

The Allies set up hospital camps for these broken orphans,

trying to heal them and restore them to normal living.

These children had been so crushed, starved and damaged,

that despite excellent care and abundant food,

they were still so anxious and afraid,

that memories and nightmares kept them from sleeping.

At one of these children’s hospital and care camps

a psychologist came up with a remarkable solution.

Each child was given a piece of bread,

not to be eaten, but to be held while they were sleeping,

as a promise and assurance

that there would be food enough to eat the next day.

These war-broken children were then able to rest in assurance,

feeling secure in the knowledge of enough food for tomorrow.

So too, as we read in Isaiah, vs. 2-3

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

The evidence of God’s promises faithfully fulfilled in the past

becomes our assurance and guarantee for the future,

which we remember when we gather at the Lord’s Table.

The question that challenges me, approaching the Table today, …

… am I really trusting, believing God’s promises are true,

and reliably, my present help, strength and salvation,

or I am relying on my own wisdom, efforts and strength?

And the way I can measure that, is by the level of my dread,

by how fearful and anxious I am about trials of the year ahead.

Have I really got my eyes and my trust and my focus on Jesus,

so that when I do face a challenge, disaster or uncertainty,

I am attentive and listening, feeding on the bread of life?

Is my confidence in the Lord, or in I trying to handle it on my own?

When life blows up in my face, and sometimes it does,

rather than trying to avoid, manage or escape from it,

the faithful question is, where is God in this?

How can this be useful, and what could God be up to in this?

And even though I may not be able to figure it all out,

at least I am looking, and focused in the right direction!

Finally, am I willing to believe, to accept and trust that

indeed I am exactly where God put me to serve His purpose;

that according to the wisdom and will of the Lord,

my uniqueness and gifts are exactly what’s needed,

and that God will not ever allow this world’s darkness

to defeat or overwhelm the true light of God?

So how do we deal with life’s challenges and tribulations

with authentic faithfulness, truth and integrity?

At the end of WW I, Lawrence of Arabia

brought some Arab leaders with him to visit Paris.

They were most impressed by faucets in the bathroom,

that water would flow simply by turning the handle.

When they were getting ready to leave and return home,

they wanted to take the hotel faucets home with them…

… an ever-flowing faucet would be very welcome back in the desert.

Lawrence had to explain to them that the faucets can only work

when they are connected to the reservoir of water …

… and our faith works something like that,

we too need to be well-connected to our Lord.

As we read in Psalm 34:8 and Lamentations 3:22-23;

O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed are those who take refuge in him. For the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.