Sermon Text
Session 2: The Power of an Unsettled Life
We are walking toward the mountain of God, but is not about us, it’s about God who seeks you. It doesn’t matter which direction you are walking in, you are walking towards an encounter of God. That is a reassurance and that is the basis of our faith. That it doesn’t matter what we are doing, God is waiting, and expecting to encounter us.
Last night, we reflected on faith as the key to an empowered life. Faith is the assurance that God is present even when you don’t feel it. Yes, belief that we are walking on right path whether aware of it or not. It is the belief that God is there, and that the presence of God is our power, and faith is the key. It’s your superpower for life
When you have a good relationship with your parents, you know they love you. It doesn’t have to be said or consciously thought about, you just know they do. And without realizing it, knowing that they love you unconditionally is a great comfort and strength for you. That is what faith is like.
Faith gives you a new set of eyes. It’s like getting a pair of 3D glasses to see a new dimension. It opens up your eyes to see God’s presence. When I see my sin, I also see God’s forgiveness. When I’m worried, I feel comfort. When I’m confused, I feel peace. Faith is an incredible gift given to us.
This morning, I want to reflect on what this faith looks like, and the conditions in which it flourishes. I think that for many people, empowerment is to have everything under control. To be settled and on top of things. To be put together in every way: financially, socially, emotionally. It’s to be settled in all these areas. To be calm and confident in that settledness.
The reality of life, though, is that so many times, life is very unsettling. There is always something weighing on our minds: money is a concern, jobs are a concern, the well-being of children, family members and friends, relationships that are not in a good place, conflicts with co-workers or friends.
Any time you feel like you have something under control, there’s always something else that comes along and unsettles you. Even if your outer circumstances are peaceful and good, life itself is always changing and unsettling you. Many of you are transitioning stages in life; from school to adulthood, from career to retirement. All these things can be very unsettling.
If empowerment is to live a life free of unsettling moments, then no one can live an empowered life. To live an empowered life, you have to be empowered even when life is unsettling, because that is a reality of life.
But I think empowerment is more than just coping with unsettling moments. Empowerment doesn’t just get you through to the other side where you’re no longer unsettled. The stories of the Bible have a very different take on unsettling situations. All stories of the Bible take place in unsettled situations. They never take place in nice, serene situations, they reveal how God led them through very unsettling situations. But it’s more than just that.
The basic pattern of stories in the Bible is this: people are called away from their settled life and toward an unsettled life.
In the Bible stories, the unsettled state is where true empowerment is found. It’s not about how God took them out of unsettled situations, but about how God actually called them toward unsettled situations. The whole story of faith begins this way with Abraham:
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)
God is calling Abraham away from his settled life and toward an unsettled life. No destination is specified, that’s quite unsettling.
In fact, all stories in the Bible are like this: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Ruth, Samuel, David, Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Peter, Paul, the Samaritan woman at the well, and on and on. Each of them is a story about being called away from the familiar, settled life they know, into an unknown and unsettled life.
That’s the story of St. Paul; he was very settled in his life as a Jew, he was at the very center of his society and established in his life. It was what anyone would consider a good life. This was how he describes that life:
Circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (Philippians 3:5-6)
He checked off all the boxes of a settled, empowered life. He persecuted the church because they were unsettling his faith and way of life. But then something changed.
On the road to Damascus, he met Christ. After that encounter, his life changed, he turned away from his settled life and lived a very unsettled life. His whole life after this would be very unsettled.
When I realized this pattern, that all stories in the Bible are a calling away from the settled life toward an unsettled life, I wondered: why is this the case? Why does being unsettled seem like a precondition for an empowered life? Why was it almost necessary for people to be in unsettled situations to find true empowerment?
And that’s when I realized: an unsettled state is where empowerment is found, because that’s where faith is formed.
We reflected last night on how faith is the key to an empowered life. Faith gives you connection to the presence of God, even when you can’t see it or feel it. The greatest incubator for that faith is in unsettled situations. In unsettled situations, what you lack most is control. You just don’t have control over your situation. That’s why you’re unsettled in the first place.
There are many ways we can respond: We can hide or run away from our problem, try to control your situation and overcome it. Resign yourself to the situation and let it take over you, or turn to God in faith and trust.
We can always be a mix of these responses. At one point there may be one response, and at another, be a different response.
I was working at a securities law firm, and it was the most difficult year of my life. I had taken the job because I was so desperate to get a job. But the work itself was so against what I’m good at. My boss had it in for me. I think the only reason he kept me around was because he needed the help and didn’t want to pay me severance. I was chained to my desk from 8am to 8pm, I felt like a slave. It was the hardest year of my life; how I was responded was avoiding my problems. I would party on weekends to forget about my miseries. Grit my teeth and try hard at work, I let myself be depressed. But this is also when I started to find my faith again. I had been away from church for a while, I would be praying on the streetcar, went to a big church during my lunchtime to pour out my soul. I then started attending church again, I even went to mass.
Life can be cycles of these responses. But unsettled situations creates an opening for faith. That’s when things slowly started opening up. After one year, I decided to switch gears and go into criminal law. Rev. Kim heard about me going to mass, we met up – and started Tuesday Bible Study. I believe it was faith that slowly started opening new doors for me.
When an unsettled situation is beyond your control, when everything you try doesn’t make a difference, there comes a point where your back is against the wall. There’s nothing more you can do. That’s when there’s no choice but to turn to faith.
When everything is in your control, you don’t see the need for faith. You feel empowered because you have things under control. But when things are not in your control, there is a ripe possibility for faith. Faith is not what you say with your lips. Faith is not what you do when things are going well. Faith reveals itself most clearly when things are not in your control, when you’re desperate.
That was what Jesus saw in the Canaanite woman:
Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed from that moment. (Matthew 15:21-28)
In her desperate moment, we see an unshakeable faith. Faith that won’t let go. Faith that’s not bothered by a rude response. Faith that won’t accept social conventions. Faith that trusted that Jesus could do something. Faith that wouldn’t accept no. Faith is our key to empowerment.
So I believe this is why God calls us toward unsettled situations. It’s almost like God knows us too well God knows that if we remain so settled, we won’t have faith. Our sense of empowerment will depend not on the strength of our character, but the good fortune of our circumstances. And that’s not really empowerment at all – that’s called having good luck. Yes, hard work on your part, but good luck with all the other factors that are beyond your control.
What does the process of going from settled to unsettled look like? The journey of faith begins with something that shakes you from a settled life or situation to an unsettled life or situation. Sometimes, an unsettled situation is thrust upon you that calls for decision, that moment reveals who you are.
Esther was a descendant of Jews who were deported to Babylon. She became the queen of the empire after the king took a long search to find the most beautiful spouse to be his queen. She was settled and comfortable in her position, but then, her cousin Mordecai insulted the king’s military leader. He developed a hatred for Jews and made plans to kill them. Mordecai, hearing of this, came to Esther to ask her to do something, but if she approached the king without being invited, the penalty was death.
This is what Mordecai said in response:
Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. (Esther 4:13-14)
Esther faced a grave moment of decision, this was her reply:
Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:16)
In her moment of decision, I see a courageous decision of faith. I pray that when such a grave crisis is thrust upon us, that we too can respond with such courageous faith as the situation calls for.
But it’s not only circumstance that shakes you, sometimes nothing might be happening on the outside, but then God meets you. When God encounters you, it leaves you shaken. A real encounter with God is not merely some feel-good experience. An encounter with God is an encounter with your whole self, it changes you.
St. Paul was on his way to Damascus to arrest the followers of Jesus there. But on his way there, he experienced a dramatic encounter with Christ, a light from heaven flashed around him. This is what happened:
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” (Acts 9:4-6)
After this encounter, his life was completely transformed. Later on, this is how St. Paul describes his encounter with Christ:
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin, for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:10-11)
St. Paul’s encounter with Christ was a revelation. The word revelation in Greek is “apokalypsis”. That’s where we get the word apocalypse from. The word revelation means: unveiling, uncovering, disclosure of something previously hidden. I think our image of apocalypse comes from the fact that this revelation often comes unannounced, or unexpectedly. It ruptures the normal flow of events and breaks in even violently.
The theologian Daniel Migliore describes revelation this way:
A revelation of this sort may humble or elate us, disturb or even shock us. The effect of such revelatory experiences may be dramatic, possibly changing the way we think about the world or the way we live our lives. (Daniel Migliore)
Paul’s encounter with Christ was a revelation. He thought he was living a good life, but realized that he wasn’t. His whole belief system crumbled, it had to be built back up.
An encounter with God is a calling to leave the settled life into an unsettled one. We examined Moses’ encounter at the burning bush last night. Moses was living a settled life when God met him, he attended to sheep, he had a wife and kids. Life on the outside was very peaceful.
But when God met him, this is what he said to Moses:
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:7-10)
What a shake-up of a settled life!
Now go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. After living for 40 years in a peaceful, settled life, he was being called to go back to Egypt and face down a mighty power with nothing but a staff and faith.
This is what Daniel Migliore says:
Revelation is the disclosure of the character and purpose of God, and when it is received, it radically changes the lives of its recipients. (Migliore)
When God reveals himself, God reveals his character and purpose. God was the God who heard the cries of the Israelites. God’s purpose was to liberate them from their suffering in bondage. When God’s purpose was revealed to Moses, it changed him. Moses objected fiercely and hesitated with so many questions. But in the end, he accepted the call and his life was changed.
Why was Moses called? Was it just a random call that anyone could have received? The answer, as you may guess, is no.
When God encountered Moses, Moses was living a very settled life, but that outer peace masked an unsettled heart. Moses had a very unique and distinctive life. He was born during the time when the Pharaoh had all Hebrew boys killed. But Moses’ mom was determined to save his life, so she put him in a basket and placed it in the Nile River. By chance, Pharaoh’s daughter came upon the basket, was moved with pity, and brought him to be raised in the palace. So Moses essentially grew up as a prince of Egypt. But he must have been so confused about his identity growing up. He was a Hebrew by birth – part of the enslaved and inferior people, but raised as Egyptian royalty. He was an insider and outsider to both sides, but belonged to neither.
This confusion played out when he was a young man. He saw an Egyptian overlord abusing a Hebrew slave. In solidarity with the Hebrew, he killed the Egyptian. He thought this would gain favour among his fellow Hebrews, but instead, they resisted his act of solidarity. Report of his actions reached Pharaoh, and he had to run away.
He ran away to Midian, a land full of pastures and calm land. That’s where he found his wife and had kids. But when his first son was born, it revealed the state of his heart:
She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, “I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.” (Exodus 2:22)
You can feel the pain in his heart. He belonged nowhere, he didn’t know who he was. Was he Egyptian, or was he Hebrew? What was he doing out in Midian? This was something that earlier second generation Koreans in Canada often felt. We were born or raised here, so we were Canadian, but we weren’t always seen or treated as a normal Canadian. Identity was a big issue for many of us. I wasn’t fully Korean, and I wasn’t fully Canadian, it seemed like I belonged to neither.
Moses remained there for 40 years. He learned to be comfortable and settled, but his heart was not settled. This was when he met God. When you really meet God, God reveals his purpose in a way that uncovers what’s in your heart. Your aches, pains, desires, and hopes, your joys, sorrows, good and bad experiences.
Revelation is discovering a coherent pattern to all of these random events in your life. That revelation is your calling. It’s a weaving together of all these things that make up who you are. There was no one else who could have received this particular calling. Who else knew the Egyptians as an insider? Who else knew how they thought and lived? The pain and confusion he experienced and lived with became the energy and fuel that God used for his good purpose of liberating his people
God has good desires for this world, and specific desires for you to do good. God wants to bring all of you to bear in a way that only you can. Each of you here is a unique blessing to this community. No one else can bring what you bring in terms of who you are. You are God’s unique gift to this world.
But to fully unlock your uniqueness, it requires a journey of leaving behind a settled life into an unsettled life. What shape this takes is unique for each of you. Not all of you are required to make a dramatic career change, or support a spouse who does – although some of you might. But it is a journey into the unknown based solely on faith. It is a call into an unsettled state of being.
Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt with amazing deeds of power, but after they escaped Egypt, they spent 40 years in the wilderness. Moses’ time of action was very short, most of his 40 years in leadership was in the wilderness. He never got to go into the Promised Land. It was almost anti-climactic after the amazing things they did while escaping from Egypt.
The wilderness was an unsettling time of waiting. They often grumbled, they were fearful and anxious. They even wanted to go back to Egypt, they were impatient.
But this is where they developed faith. They witnessed God’s miraculous provision of manna and water . For 40 years, they lived off of what God provided each day. They saw God’s presence in the pillar of cloud that led them by day, and the pillar of fire that watched over them at night. In their unsettled time in the wilderness, God became so real. In the wilderness at Mount Sinai, they formed a new identity as the people of God when they entered into a covenant with him.
They lived an unsettled life. They didn’t get anywhere, that whole generation lived and died in the wilderness. But they are seen as most blessed generation ever. Generations after would find inspiration from their experience. They are the most blessed because they found faith. Faith that made God so real. They found power in their unsettled life.
The life of following Jesus is to live an unsettled life. The disciples left their nets and followed him. They had no idea where they were going, only the promise that they would fish for people. The life of discipleship is a life of permanent tension.
This was Jesus’ last prayer:
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. (John 17: 14-16)
We are in the world but not of it. We are always unsettled, never too comfortable. Always unsettled, always turning to God in faith. If you’re too comfortable and there’s nothing driving you toward God, perhaps it could be a sign that something is off. That something is hidden and waiting to be uncovered.
Some of you have lived in an unsettling situation for a long time. There is real suffering that comes from it. I don’t want to minimize it. But think of how this has affected your faith, in your desparation, you’ve had nowhere else to turn. God has become so real for you. The suffering is hard, but you have been blessed because you found God
St. Paul said this:
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-4)
Your suffering produces faith when you turn to God in prayer. That faith is your superpower for life. It will open your heart for God’s love to be poured into.
Life will always be unsettling, whether you want it or not, but when these moments come, don’t hide or run away from it. Turn to God in faith. Let your unsettled situation unlock the power of faith in your life
Reflection Questions:
- Feeling unsettled makes us anxious. We have learned to run away from it or ignore it. Take some time to reflect on anything that is making you feel unsettled. What is unsettling you? How have you been dealing with it?
- Faith consists of waiting and the moment of decision. God reveals what time it is. What time in your life is it – is it time to wait, or time to decide? What is it that you are waiting for? Or what is the decision in front of you? Do you need more patience, courage, or both? What else do you need from God?
Leave a Reply