DO WE DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE?

This past weekend pastor Dave Roberts spoke to us of our call to make a difference in the world, our call to work with Jesus so that His prayer will be answered, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). In the message he shared with us the Serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity 


The things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things which should be changed, 


And the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Living one day at a time, 


Enjoying one moment at a time, 


Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, 


Taking, as Jesus did, 


This sinful world as it is, 


Not as I would have it, 


Trusting that You will make all things right, 


If I surrender to Your will, 


So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, 


And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

                                                        Amen.

           

            Then Pastor Dave spoke to us of Caleb, an eighty-five year on man of God who refused to retire to the sidelines, and took upon himself a challenge that forever endears himself to people of God who really do believe that in God they can make a difference in this world.

           

Caleb had a dream he needed to see through.  It was a dream that got placed on hold for some forty-five years because of a 10-2 vote not to do the will of God.  Caleb was one of the two that voted to do God’s will, but he, along with Joshua, were outnumbered, outvoted, and overruled.  The future was put on hold.  The dream had to wait.

           

The future belongs to those who believe in God, however.  In time the condition was right, the attitude of the people was right, and the dream catapulted itself to the surface once again.  Caleb, with his eyes on God, went to his old friend, Joshua, and asked of him to let the dream loose again, with the promise, “The Lord helping me,” I can do this (See Joshua 14:12).  Joshua agreed, and gave the hill country of the Promised Land to Caleb, knowing that the work there was not yet completed, and that Caleb would, indeed, have to lean hard on God to achieve the fulfillment of the dream.

           

Pastor Dave got us to thinking about Caleb and about how, with the prime of his life behind him, gave it all to God and made a profound difference in the life of God’s people and in his world. 

           

Caleb sets me talking to myself and listening to God.  The conversation goes this way: “God, how can I make a difference for you in this world?  If I gave myself to You, and let You help me step-by-step, what dream would you dream in me and let loose in my sphere of influence?  What might you do with a thousand people who began praying, ‘With the Lord helping us we can ….’”?

           

Our congregation is being called day-by-day to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  With this in mind, pastor Dave has called us over and over, and will most likely do it again and again in the future, to pray with “shameless audacity” (See Luke 11:5-13, NIV).  Montrose Church has stepped out by faith, praying with “shameless audacity,” that God will raise up a healthy church in the East Washington Village of Pasadena.  How might you be apart of the answer to that prayer? 

           

Our church is stepping up and coming alongside a sister church in Santa Monica to make a difference so that congregation might have a fresh start in this new day of ministry, and that it might know there are people praying with “shameless audacity” for God’s “Good and pleasing and perfect” will to be done in that town and in the surrounding communities.

           

Our church is shamelessly praying that God will lead us as we consider the possibility of uniting with another congregation in coming alongside the people of Swaziland in Africa, to minister for Christ in a place in desperate need of grace and hope.

           

What dreams shall we dream?  What mountain are we asking for with “shameless audacity?”  “Do I dare disturb the universe?” T. S. Eliot asked in his poem (“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”).  Do we dare?  It’s a big universe and there are just a thousand of us.  Do we dare disturb the universe? 

           

What was it Reinhold Niebuhr?

God, give us grace to accept with serenity

The things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

Which should be changed,

And the Wisdom to distinguish

The one from the other.

           

There are most likely things over which we have no control, and we ought not to fret over the fact that we cannot change them.  There are some things, however, “which should be changed,” and in these we ought to rise up with our God and “dare disturb the universe,” and with “shameless audacity,” pray, “Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

           

Is it too dramatic to speak this way, too grandiose a thought?  I will leave that to others to debate.  I only know that to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” captivates my heart and stretches my imagination.  Give me Caleb’s spirit.  Give me the hill country.   

My old professor, J. Kenneth Grider, who is now in heaven, prayed it this way.  May we pray this prayer with “Shameless audacity,” and then give our lives to Jesus as He gives His life for the world.         

Father,

I am Your bread. Break me up and pass me around to the poor and needy of this world.

I am Your towel.  Dampen me with tears and with me wash the feet of people who are weary with walking and with working.

I am Your light.  Take me out to where the darkness is thick, there to shine and let Christ shine.

I am Your pen.  Write with me whatever word You wish, and placard the word where the least and the lost of the world will see it and read it and be helped by it.

I am Your salt.  Sprinkle me on all the things that You want for people, so that my faith and love and hope will flavor their experiences.

I am Your water.  Pour me into people who thirst for You but do not even know that it is You for whom they thirst.  Pour into them the trust that You have helped me to place in You.  Pour into them the inward witness that is in me.  Pour into them the promise that soon the summer drought will pass and refreshing rivers of water will gush down over them.

I am Yours, Lord God.  Use me up in what You will, when You will, where You will, for whom You will, even if it means that I am given responsibilities that are considerable and costly

Amen!!

This article is too long, and for that I apologize, but allow me one last word, please.  Whether it be Montrose, Pasadena, Swaziland, or wherever, count me in.