[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #562, Pentecost 4, 6/24/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Pentecost 4 -- June 24, 2007

Psalm 42
1 Kings 19:1-15a
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

Wait On The Lord

Ready to give up? Elijah was. So was the Psalmist. Paul could have 
given up on the “foolish” Galatians, and Jesus certainly could have 
given up on people who respond to his miracle by asking him to leave 
town. But, they didn’t give up. Why? They were oriented more toward God 
than toward their own success.

It wasn’t so much a show of force that gave back Elijah’s zeal, as it 
was the quiet recognition that God was not through with him. The 
Psalmist can’t get back to his life of worship in Jerusalem. The Bible 
doesn’t tell us why. Faced with the option of despair he receives the 
gift of hope instead. He preaches himself a little sermon:
    “Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
    Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.” (Psalm 42:11)

Paul found out that the church in Galatia had abandoned the cornerstone 
of his teaching and the heart of the Gospel. He could have said, 
“Phooey on them,” but instead he wrote a letter that has helped the 
church better understand the good news Paul preached -- the promise of 
reconciliation among people, e.g. Jew, Greek, slave, free, male and 
female; and people with God: ”for in Christ Jesus you are all children 
of God through faith” (Gal. 3:26)

The man who lived crazy didn’t want to stay with the people who 
preferred him crazy, but Jesus hadn’t given up on them. He told the man 
to stay in his own land and tell people what had happened. We don’t 
know for sure, but it may have been that man’s testimony that prepared 
those Greek cities to become one of the strongholds of the early church.

So, there is no wind in your sail and you are dead in the water? Wait 
on the Lord. God has a future you haven’t dreamed of.


May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

[See Web Page address below for a Children’s Message coordinated with 
these lections.]

http://www.webspawner.com/users/ChildPage/

Multiple Sermon Starter Essays are available at
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  --Copyright 2007, Roland McGregor, all rights reserved—
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