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Different is Good
Selected Scripture
One of the most important lessons a
person can learn is that people are different. Not everyone thinks like
you think. Not everyone does things like you do them. We learn that
lesson little by little as we grow up. The first time a child visits the
home of another child he notices that this new family isn't like his
own. Even if the families share remarkably similar values there are
differences. They eat different things at different times. They spend
their time and their money in different ways. They have different rules.
Even the way their house smells is different.
The older we grow the more we realize that people are different. Our
first real test often comes in college when we have a roommate. Living
with someone day in and day out really amplifies the differences. But by
far the one place where we learn the lesson that people are different is
in marriage. Sometimes those differences can feel like two different
cultures trying to find a way to live together. Sometimes those
differences are laughable. And sometimes they are so pronounced and so
personal that they become the focus of major disagreements.
But as obvious as human differences become in close relationships like
marriage and family, there is an even more significant place where
differences between us and others show up. As different as we are from
each other, the difference between us and God is far greater. God
himself said it this way once in Isaiah 55:8, 9;
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
God is different. He thinks differently. He acts differently. Sometimes
we forget that. So for just a few minutes tonight I want to relive with
you some old, old stories - most of which you know well. These stories
teach many lessons but the one thing I want to see in them tonight is
how very different, how very other God is.
Story # l: Israel had a problem. Jericho.
Jericho was strategically important to the land of Canaan. If Jericho
fell, the land was vulnerable and open to invasion. If Jericho did not
fall, Israel would forever be looking over its shoulder, worried that
its flank was exposed to a powerful enemy. But Jericho was the most well
defended city in the land. High walls, secure gates, well-armed
soldiers. Jericho's defense was so good that it would have stopped Musa
Smith and J. T. Wahl. Now Joshua had some options. He could place the
city under siege and wait them out. He could build a ramp and go over
the top. He could storm the gates and take his losses. From a human
perspective his options were limited and loaded with negatives.
Then God offered a solution. God told Joshua to have the Israelites walk
around the city once a day for six days. He told them to march silently.
Then on the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times.
On the seventh pass they were to shout when they heard the priests blow
their trumpets. It was an odd command lacking any obvious merit. You've
heard of management by walking around, this was military conquest by
walking around. But despite it's strangeness it worked. The walls fell
and Israel marched right in and took over. God's ways may seem odd, but
they work.
Story #2: Gideon was facing some trouble with the Midianites.
So his solution was to call up 32,000 soldiers and take care of
business. But God's ways are different than our ways. God said, "Gideon,
you've got way too many soldiers. You need to downsize. Tell all who are
afraid that they can go home."
Twenty-two thousand packed up and left. God said, "Gideon, you still
have too many. Take them down to the water and I'll sift them for you."
God chose three hundred men who lapped the water
with their hands.
Now how do you attack an enemy whose numbers are vastly superior to
yours? Sneak attack? Diversionary tactics? Ninja like stealth? Those are
the kinds of options a human general would think about. But God's ways
are different. God told Gideon to give each man a pitcher, a torch, and
trumpet. They surrounded the Midianites, broke the pitchers, revealed
the torches and blew the trumpets. The Midianites ran, crying out as
they fled. God's odd ways often defy human understanding. But God's ways
work.
Story #3. Naaman
Naaman was a powerful military leader, a favorite of the king of Aram,
and man suffering with a terrible des ease. Leprosy. His wife's maid
remarked, "It's too bad Mr. Naaman can't go to Samaria and visit with
Elisha the prophet. He could heal him." So Naaman secured permission
from the king and set out for Elisha's house. When Naaman arrived Elisha
sent his servant, Gehazi, out to meet the military leader.
Gehazi delivered this message. "The prophet of God says that you are to
go dip seven times in the Jordan River and your skin will be as clear
and pure as a baby's." Naaman the leper was livid. "I thought surely
he'd come out and pray to his god and wave his hand over me and do
something spectacular. But he sends his servant out to tell me to wash
in the Jordan? That's not a river - back home we've got rivers!" Naaman
turned in anger and left.
But along the way his servants said, "Master, if the man of God has
asked you to do something great you would have done it. Will you not do
this simple thing?" So Naaman went to the Jordan and dipped seven times.
After the seventh baptism, the healing took. Naaman was cleansed.
God's ways don't always make sense. God's ways aren't always appealing
to our sophisticated sensibilities. But God's ways always work.
Story #4. In fervent hope and love God created a world and populated it
with plants and animals. At the apex of his creative power God created a
man and a woman. They were the object of his love and devotion, created
in his own image and likeness. But one day when they were alone Adam and
Eve crossed a line - the only line God had drawn.
Their trust in God wavered and in that moment of vulnerability Satan
snuck into their hearts and planted a poison seed called sin. Sin grew
and the perfect, intimate relationship had shared with God died. Adam
and Eve were banned forever from the garden, banned from the presence of
God.
The punishments were explained, the serpent was cursed and the greatest
recovery project in the history of the universe began.
How do you restore a hopelessly broken heart? How do you repair a
permanently broken relationship? How do you conquer two of the most
powerful forces on the planet; sin and death? Those were the challenges
God faced.
The sun is only one of fifty billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
With twenty other nearby galaxies ours forms what astronomers call a
galaxy cluster. Beyond our cluster there are upwards of 50 billion other
galaxies, each presumably with about 50 billion stars each. Orbiting
those stars are billions of planets. Surely out of all those options God
could have found one on which to start over. I mean, that is what you do
when things don't work out isn't it? Walk away and start over? But God's
ways are not our ways.
Through his guiding providence God ordered time and nations and history
so that at just the right time in just the right place he could send
just the right person to rescue human beings from sin and death and to
restore them to the intimacy they once knew.
But even the way Jesus went about restoring us to God didn't make sense
from a human perspective. He wasn't a fighter, he was a lover. He wasn't
royalty; he was a foot-washing servant. He didn't conquer with the
sword; he was crucified on a cross. He didn't rest with his fathers in
the family tomb, he rose from the dead, victorious. God's ways are not
our ways. God's ways defy human reason. But God's ways work.
Story #5. I can't tell this last story. I don't know it. You see this
last story is yours. You are living it. You will face challenges and
problems and enemies and opportunities.
Like Israel at Jericho you will at times in your life face
insurmountable obstacles.
Like Gideon you will at times feel surrounded by enemies and severely
out numbered.
Like Naaman there will be times in your life when God's ways offend you,
humble you and embarrass you.
The story of your life will be written by the choices you make, by the
options you choose. In the
face of every obstacle, every problem, every opportunity you will have a
choice.
To choose the way that makes sense to you, the human way, the natural
way - or to choose the odd way of God, the holy way, the supernatural
way.
No one can tell you what to do when you face those challenges. I can
tell you this. Remember the stories. Every single time the people of God
accepted God's way, they found success. Every single time they chose
their own way they were defeated. God's ways don't always seem right to
us. But God's ways always work. And the longer you live your life by
God's ways, the more sensible they
become, the more natural to you they become, the more like God you begin
to think.
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