February 27 Sermon

Here is the sermon from Wednesday, February 27.

Awake at Night

In one pocket, you’ve got 3 nickels.  In the other pocket, you’ve got 3 $100 bills.  At some point in the day, you reach your hands down into your pockets and discover something unsettling.  Both pockets are empty.  There’s a sudden tightness in your chest, and your stomach feels like it’s falling through the floor.  When you lay down to go to sleep that night, you know you’re going to be thinking about what happened all night.  You won’t just be able to get it out of your head.

But which one is the one that’s giving you the sleepless night?  Are you going to lay awake all night wondering who just made themselves 15 cents richer that day?  Are you really going to lose sleep over three lost nickels?  While there may be a few of us here that might venture to say yes, I would dare say that most of us would lose far more sleep over the three lost $100 bills.  That’s a much larger chunk of change.  We probably have more plans for that $300 than we do for that extra 15 cents.  One of these two is going to cause us more sleepless nights than the other, and it’s probably not the smaller of the two.

Think of this scenario, too.  You lay down to go to sleep at night.  You are perfectly at peace with how your life is going.  You haven’t had any big issues come up, and there are no major decisions on the horizon that you have to make.  How likely are you to lay awake all night, wondering about how long that peace will last?  Aren’t you much more likely to just close your eyes and get a good night of rest?  Don’t you tend to find that you stay awake at night more often when there are significant, major decisions that need to be made?  

We don’t often lose sleep over the little things in life, or when our minds are at peace with the world around us.  We’re much more likely to lose a little sleep when we face a major decision in life, or when we’ve lost something big in our lives.  The little things just don’t seem to affect us as much as the big things.  We may need to think about the little things from time to time, but by and large, we’re probably not going to find ourselves lying awake at night, wondering how we will make do without that extra 15 cents, or worrying about why the world seems to be bringing us peace at that particular moment.

Today, we heard a story of Jesus staying awake all night.  It was fairly early in His ministry.  He had been baptized by His cousin John.  He had been tempted by the devil in the desert.  He had called a few followers to follow Him and to be His disciples.  He had begun healing and teaching.  Things seemed to be proceeding along just fine.

But then, here in chapter 6 of Luke’s account of the Gospel life of Jesus, we’re told that Jesus encountered a night that He spent staying awake.  He was up all night, praying to God.  And then, as He finished up that sleepless night of prayer, He went down from the mountain, called His disciples to Him, and named 12 of them as apostles.  The way that Luke writes it, it doesn’t seem to be that big of a deal.  We’ve heard the stories about these men a few times before.  It doesn’t seem all that remarkable that Jesus would need to spend all night in prayer just prior to naming these twelve as His apostles.

But let’s focus for a moment on just how big of a moment this really was in the life of the Gospel.  In naming these twelve as apostles, Jesus was actually making a pretty significant choice.  These were the men who would be entrusted with the leadership and spreading of the Good News of His life, death, and resurrection once Jesus had ascended into heaven.  The sharing of this message of good news would affect the eternal destiny of untold numbers of people, not only during their lifetime, but in the years to follow.  This small group of men would be the starting point of a message that would spread to the ends of the earth, and would eternally affect every person born in this world.  Not exactly a small decision, when we think about it like that.

On top of that, think about some of these names that we see Jesus choosing as His apostles.  We’re familiar with some of them, and others are a little less well known.  But as we peruse those names, think about the last one on the list I read to you.  Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.  In picking these twelve men, Jesus was not only choosing those who would change the world with the message of Good News, He was also choosing the one who would initiate the whole thing.  Judas would act in a way that would bring Jesus more suffering than we could ever imagine.  Jesus knew this at the time of this choosing.  In fact, Jesus knew these names and what would happen with them even from before the time the world was made.  These men had been set aside for their tasks even before the act of creation took place.  And yet, the task that they faced was so large that Jesus took the whole night before naming them as His apostles to speak to the Father in prayer.

Jesus did what came naturally.  You and I, when we face major decisions, may face a sleepless night, but we have a tendency to approach it differently than Jesus did.  We think about what we have to do, or even, perhaps, what might go wrong if we decide wrong.  Our focus tends to be on our actions, on what we will do, and on how it will reflect on us.  That’s what tends to come naturally to us.  But for Jesus, the thing that comes naturally is to talk to the Father about it.  Even if it means that He loses a night of sleep, He talks to His Father before making the monumental choices and decisions.

Jesus seeks out the will of the Father when it comes to the big decisions and choices of life.  That’s something that you and I also make a regular part of our prayer life, even if we tend to do it without thinking about it.  As we think about the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples, one that we continue to speak still today, we reflect upon one little phrase in that prayer.  “Thy will be done.”  In fact, please turn with me to page 324 in the hymnal, and let’s read the meaning of this all together.  “Thy will be done on heaven as it is on earth.  What does this mean?  The good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayers, but we pray in this petition that it may be done among us also.  How is God’s will done?  God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word and faith until we die.  This is His good and gracious will.”

God’s will is done even without our prayers.  That’s a good thing.  I mentioned a moment ago that we’re more likely to focus on our role and part in things that keep us awake at night.  We worry about the role that we play, and whether or not we’re going to do the right thing or make the right choice.  And as we worry about such things, it becomes easy to forget to ask God to do His good and gracious will in these things.  We get so caught up on ourselves that we forget that God might also be working through these things to accomplish something.

God’s will is going to happen.  Even when we think that we bear the full weight and responsibility of our choices and decisions, and when these things keep us up all night, we need the reminder that God’s will is going to happen.  God is going to be at work, and it’s not like He’ll only work if we happen to choose the right thing.  Regardless of the path that we choose to go down, God is going to be at work, bringing His will to bear.  

Now, I know how we also think as humans.  Admit it, there’s a part of you that likes it when someone else makes the big decision.  In a way, that takes the pressure off of us, right?  If it blows up, isn’t it nice when we can point to someone else and say that it was their problem, or their doing?  My hands are clean in this.  It isn’t my fault.  And we might even want to think that as we think about God’s will in the major choices and decisions we make in life.  “If God’s will is going to be done regardless of what I do, then it isn’t my responsibility.  God is to blame if it doesn’t work out, or if I fail to plan out responsibly, or if I don’t think things through well.”

My friends, God is going to work out His will.  But that doesn’t excuse us from thinking things through, or from planning responsibly.  Even though we have the assurance that God will work out His will, we don’t just sit on our hands and let God cover up for our lack of planning or thought.  God has still given responsibility to us in this world.  Or, think of it from this angle.  God knew who those 12 apostles would be even before He created the world.  Jesus still had to go down there and name them before God.  They didn’t get some voice from heaven telling them that they were apostles.  Jesus still had to go down there and choose them.

Yes, God’s will is going to be done.  On our part, God still desires for us to be responsible in planning things out and thinking things through.  And that’s actually intended to be a comforting thing to us.  It helps us know that God is going to be working through what we do and plan and choose.  It helps to be thoughtful and well prepared.  But that also doesn’t assure us that God is going to do what we plan.  Our best laid plans may actually be contrary to God’s will, and even if that happens to be the case, God is still going to work to bring His will to pass.  And the other side of that coin is also true.  If we have overlooked something, or not taken something into account, God will still bring His will to pass despite our limitation and shortfall.  That’s to be a comfort to us, even as we are encouraged to give thought and planning to it all.

Jesus spent the night in prayer before making the rather large choice of who would be His apostles.  Jesus did what came naturally, and in doing that, He also shows us a pretty good idea of what we would be wise to do when we come across those nights where we are awake at night.  Talk to the Father in prayer.  If it’s a choice that must be made, bring it to the Father, and ask for Him to guide you in the way that will best bring about His will.  If it’s something that’s bothering you, ask the Father what you can do that would fit in best with His will to bring the issue to resolution.  If you’ve lost $300 from your pocket, as for the Father’s wisdom in how you handle the situation and get through, and maybe even ask Him to accomplish His will in the life of the person or people who suddenly found themselves a bit wealthier.  

Jesus spent that night in prayer, and then made the choices that would change the eternal destiny of countless people in this world, you and I included.  Jesus picked those who would bring the message of the Good News of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to you.  God’s will would be done in the rescuing of humanity from sin, death, and the devil.  Even as Jesus was awake all night, praying, He was planning how God’s will would reach all the way to you with that message of Good News.  God’s will has been done in your life.  You have been given the benefits of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  His night in prayer was not spent in vain, and you are living proof of that.

Last week, I tossed out the challenge to take some quiet time with God each day of the past week.  I hope that you found the time to engage in such an exercise, and that it went well for you.  I find that I can’t really bring a similar challenge to you this week.  If I did, it would have been along the lines of, stay up all night and spend the whole night praying for God’s will to be done.  But I can tell you how I would have responded to a challenge like that, and your response probably wouldn’t have been all that different from mine.  So what I offer you this week is more of a suggestion.  The next time you find yourself awake at night, with something racing through your mind, why not do what Jesus found so natural to do?  Take it to the Father in prayer.  Ask Him to bring His will about, and be reassured that He will do so, no matter what it might be that you are facing.  If you’re going to be awake at night thinking about it, why not bring it before your Father, and ask Him to accomplish His will in the situation?  I won’t guarantee that you’ll suddenly find peace, but I can tell you that God will indeed accomplish His will, and that you will very likely get to see it as events unfold.  And don’t be surprised when God’s will ends up looking differently from what you expected.  Give thanks that God isn’t bound by our planning and the things we ask for.