A FEELING OF PEACE

Back when I was young and newly married and didn’t have any children, I began working on a Masters Degree in Genetics. It was fascinating but the down side to this program was in order to finish the program I had to take a class in statistics. Understanding statistics is pretty key to being able to work in Genetics but the process and the charts and graphs and the numbers about did me in. I did finish the statistics class, but it was a struggle.
Later on when I began working on a Masters in Education, statistics was also a requirement for that program as well - I thought that since I had taken it before maybe I could count that first course for the statistics credit, but no - they decided since I had Statistics part one I would need to take Statistics part 2 which had more charts and graphs and more numbers and I was a wreck by the time I made it through that class…..
Statistics are all around us right now. You cannot watch or listen to or read any news that isn’t full of statistics - COVID statistics. We are at 8% now and we need to get to 5%. 4% of the people who are exposed end up in the hospital. There is a 92% recovery rate except if you are part of the 30% of the population who are of A+ blood or over 65 and on and on. And each day there are new statistics and different statistics and we end up looking for ourselves in those statistics and where we fit in….
What this social distancing and this bombardment of statistics has done for us is to make us feel like we have been reduced to a number. We look at the charts and graphs and try to see where we are and this creates anxiety if we are in one of the categories where the statistics done’t look so good…… Those who are spouting these statistics seem like they forget that these are not just numbers and percentages, but they are real people…. Those are not just numbers, they are Moms and Dads and Grandparents and Sons and Daughters and friends and colleagues……..
And we begin to feel less like a person, we begin to believe that we are nothing more than a number……. And our anxiety and our worry grows……
We do have reason to be anxious. Decisions we took for granted before now were simple - I’m going to jump into the car and run to the grocery store. But now that decision is much harder - simple tasks like going to the grocery have become real life and death decisions - we have to think about what the statistics are on going into the store……
And you cry out to God to just make it all go away and when you wake up in the morning and COVID is still there and you still have to think twice before you do just about anything you wonder if God even heard you…
That is where the Hebrew people found themselves. They had been living in slavery, times were hard and they cried out to God who sent them Moses to free them - and he did……. They packed up and headed out - they were on their way to their own land; they were going to be free. And then they looked back and Pharaoh had changed his mind and now the Egyptian army was baring down on them to recapture them and take them back to slavery - and right in front of the them was the Red Sea. They had no boats; it was too wide to swim across - there truly was no where to go. They yelled at Moses - what have you done to us… you got our hopes up and we thought we were going to be free and now we are going to die! There is no where to go. Either the Egyptians will get us or we are going to drown….
We all kind of felt that way when we first thought this COVID was going to be gone in a couple months and Phase One came and went and we went into Phase 2 and we thought there was light at the end of the tunnel - only to have Phase 2 extended again, and again and we see those statistics which proclaim doom and we begin to feel like the Hebrews who are on the bank of the Red Sea and the Egyptians are bearing down on us and we begin to lose hope.

And then the Hebrews see the big cloud that has led them away from their captivity rise up from in front of them and move to behind them to hide them from the Egyptians - and then God opens the sea and leads them to safety…..
We are God’s people and we can never give up hope….. God knows exactly what is going on and no he doesn’t often clue us in on what he is doing but he keeps trying to assure us that if we just have faith, if we just trust, if we just wait…. if instead of reacting in fear or anger we remember how God shows us in his word how he always is working…..
But we can relate to those Hebrew people - they thought everything was going to be OK. They thought they were home free, they had a moment to take a deep breath and think everything was going to be fine and then they found themselves between the Egyptians and the Red Sea….
And right now in the midst of all this we just want God to somehow open up the world again like he did the Red Sea cause this waiting and not knowing and this wondering and this feeling of being reduced to a statistic just weighs heavy on us. We are tired of making real life life and death decisions….
We are all suffering in our own way. From isolation, from things going on in our lives that are unrelated to COVID but still affected by this pandemic, from having to work in situations where we are concerned we might be exposed, from trying to decide what to do with our children….
But you know, if we are certain of anything, we are certain that Jesus understands. Think about Jesus on the cross who calls out “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”
Are there not moments where that is how you feel? And Jesus lets us know that is OK…..
for a moment. We can’t stay there… God didn’t allow the Hebrew people to stay between the Egyptians and the Red Sea. Jesus may have felt abandoned the cross, but he rose from the dead.
While God says it is OK to cry out in moments of weariness and weakness, we see that Jesus isn’t alone in his suffering. There are two others with Jesus when he is on the cross. There is one person on each side of Jesus and these 2 people are there because each of these ‘thieves’ on the cross show us the choices we can make when we feel like we are between the Egyptians and the Red Sea….
The one criminal lashed out at Jesus in anger - If you really are the Messiah, you have the power to end this right now! You can get us all off these crosses and save our lives! He was saying to Jesus - if you want me to believe you are the Messiah then prove it to me by doing what I want…. by stopping this suffering right now!
But the criminal on the other side of Jesus says to the one talking - ‘What’s wrong with you? Why are you angry at the only person who can help us? Why are you disrespectful to the one who can save us? And this thief looks at Jesus and doesn’t say - ‘End this suffering right now’ - but “Have mercy on me. I know you are the Messiah - you are our only hope.” And Jesus looks at this theif and says, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise’.
Now I want you to notice something important - the cross didn’t go away. The suffering of having to die on that cross didn’t go away. But the thief knew now that he wasn’t alone. The thief knew that Jesus was hanging on that cross right with him - the paradise the thief received was not relief from the suffering - but the peace of knowing that Jesus was right there; that Jesus knew precisely what the cross was like…..
We can react to this COVID in anger and anxiousness and fear and wondering why God isn’t ‘fixing’ everything, or we can reach out to Jesus and ask him to be with us and to help us through and live in the assurance that Jesus can give us something no one else can; that Jesus can give us peace in the midst of however we may be suffering through this time…..
As the Hebrew people continued their journey it wasn’t easy. There were problems, their were issues, there were anxious moments and sometimes they reacted in anger and sometimes they cried out for mercy…. and God continually says to them: The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
As we continue forward, always remember that. Even though the current situation doesn’t go away remember:; 8 The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” You are going to have moments - of anger, of fear, of discouragement, of feeling weighed down of wondering why circumstances don’t change… But don’t let that be where you stay….. reach out and Jesus is there and Jesus will bring you peace…. Amen.