Of course, my love for him didn’t let me overreact to his claims against my character, that I could actually be the kind of father who would let his children drown.  Only with time will Cam be able to have another perspective.  That he only had breath in his lungs to curse his father because his father’s arms had already pulled him out of a watery grave to a higher place where he could breathe and where he would live and not die.  That no matter how desperate he felt, his father had bigger plans for him than drowning and the will and the power to carry them out.

Cam’s problem was one of perspective, a perspective confused by a few seconds of fear and pain and his limited understanding of the plans his father had in mind for him that were greater than what he was experiencing at the moment.  The only thing I could do was stay silent and keep holding him until what was actually happening became clear to him, that even as he screamed at me I was in the process of saving him.

When you feel like you’re the one drowning, when you could swear that dull thud you hear is the next shovel of dirt being dropped onto your casket, who helps you keep your perspective?  Sometimes, most times, isn’t it the voice of a dear friend, someone you trust very much, someone you’d trust with your very life?  When I finally knew Ron McMillon well enough to ask him how he and his wife survived the death of their little boy years before, his answer caught me off guard.  Ron is one of the finest men of faith I’ve ever known.  I would have expected him to say “prayer” or “faith.”  But, when I asked him what had helped him survive, his one word answer was, “friends.”

That must have been the way Paul’s voice sounded to the Ephesian Christians.  We don’t know for certain that Paul wrote this letter.  It could have been one of his disciples.  It’s certainly close enough to what Paul believed to have been him as the author.  As best we can know, these words were written sometime around 30 or 40 years after Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and his promise to return again.

Thirty to forty years out, the church was beginning to face rejection and persecution.  Thirty to forty years out, Jews weren’t as accepting yet as they should have been of Gentiles.  The previous letter to the Galatian churches told them to get their heads out of the clouds and love the Gentiles as sisters and brother in Christ.  Now, in Ephesus, the Gentiles were having trouble accepting the Jews as fellow believers.  Can you believe it?  In the church, they were arguing over things like who was more Christian than whom, who really knew the truth!  Not much ever changes, does it?

Thirty to forty years out, Christians were beginning to doubt that Jesus was actually going to ever return.  Thirty to forty years out, Paul was in prison facing a life sentence with no possibility of parole, literally chained to his work.  The church was drowning in a sea of cultural and political hostility, in a sea of institutionalism, the church was already beginning to fossilize around those who just couldn’t accept the fact that someone else who thought differently might also know the truth.  In the middle of all of this chaos, Paul raises his voice and says, “Look at what God is doing!”  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

When you’re drowning, who is that voice for you?  I got word that Becky was sick a few weeks ago and immediately called Mitch in Abilene.  You never forget the voices of people like Mitch and Becky.  They kept me from drowning in a sea of over-institutionalized religion by blessing my humanity and always having a way of saying, “Look what God is doing!”

When I first called, I was told that Becky had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had maybe six months to live.  They asked me to help with the service when the time came and I promised to drive to Abilene and visit before then.  I thought I had six months.  This past week, the doctor said, “two weeks.”  Like anyone would, they’re struggling with all of this.  But, when I called, in so many different ways they said, “Look what God is doing!”

Isn’t that what we just celebrated at Christmas?  “With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”  We just got through singing and celebrating, in Christ, “Look what God has done!”  Paul would ask us to bring the past tense into the present, Look what God is doing!  Just as he said it to a church only thirty years old, he would say it to a church 2000 years old.  Where would be without those voices that help us keep that perspective? 

As a pastor, I do funerals all the time and I have a very pastoral perspective of funerals.  More and more, I go to funerals not only as a pastor but as a fellow griever.  More and more, I’m not just burying church members, I’m burying friends.  This past week, I went as a member of the family.  It gives you a different perspective. 

Nancy and I were just amazed at what a difference it made when people from our church showed up, wrote cards and sent flowers.  In the middle of death, it helped us keep our perspective about what God is up to.  We often don’t know what to do when someone dies.  May I suggest?  Show up.  Write cards.  Send flowers.  In one way or another, while the body laid in the casket, each of them helped us to think about what God is still doing beyond the grave.   

Rick Warren has written a very popular book, The Purpose Driven Life.  Though I have not read the book yet, I saw him interviewed this past week.  Rick said that all of life now is nothing but preparation for eternity.  I understand what he meant and in one sense I agree with what he said.  It’s just that saying that and that alone tends to cast all of the good things God is doing into a future tense.  If we’re not careful, we’ll lose sight of what God is doing now!  Some of the Ephesian Christians had brought their pre-Christian immorality into the church.  It’s easier to do that when you think that nothing matters until eternity gets here.

In celebrating the birth of Jesus into this world, we are celebrating that, in Christ, eternity has broken into this moment now and reclaimed it for all of God’s eternal purposes.  “He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

From my earliest years in church, I remember singing or hearing sung, “His eye is on the sparrow and I know he’s watching me.”  From the time I was afraid of playground bullies to high school chemistry tests to going off to college just after dad lost his job, those words would ring true, “I know he’s watching me.”  The rock star Sting still makes $2000 a day in royalties off of a mid-80’s hit with these words, “Every step you take, every move you make, every breath you take, I’ll be watching you.”  Those words meant something else to Sting but they express our faith.  It’s as if, no matter what the circumstances of our lives, we can hear our heavenly father saying to us, “Every step you take, every move you make, every breath you take, I’ll be watching you.”  It doesn’t feel threatening.  It feels comforting.

What do you need?  Do you need purpose in life?  “He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.”  Do you need family?  “He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ.”  Do you need forgiveness and a chance to start over?  “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”  Do you need to know the will of God?  “With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ.”  Do you need hope?  “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.”

Even in this we find part of the answer to our struggle to reconcile our belief in a loving God with unexplainable suffering.  This week, 40,000 people died in Bam, Iran in when the earth shook for ten 10 seconds.  Do you believe that all that God has planned for those pour souls in eternity was changed by ten seconds of earthquake?  I don’t.  Our perspective is distorted by time.  In the fullness of time, well beyond the measure of ten seconds, we will know what God is doing when our heavenly father proves that he doesn’t let his children drown with no hope of being raised to life. 

In you own life this morning, are you having a hard time keeping your perspective?  Pray this prayer.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”  You’ll be amazed at how praying this scripture as a prayer will help you refocus.  Share this witness.  “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”  Even as you share it with others it will reinforce your faith in what God is up to beyond what you may be experiencing in this moment. 

Anne Lamott story tells the story of her pastor who was a tall African-American woman named Veronica.  One Sunday, Veronica told a story of her own from childhood.  A seven year-old friend of hers got lost one day in the big city where she lived.  She was very frightened; she couldn’t find even one landmark.  A policeman finally stopped to help her and drove her around looking for something that looked familiar.  Finally, she spotted her church and told the policeman he could let her out.  “This is my church, she said, and I can always find my way home from here.”  Lamott went on to write about hearing that story, “that is why I have always stayed so close to mine, because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home (Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies, Pantheon, 1999, pp. 54-55).”

God has given us each other so that, when we are lost or drowning or losing, through each other’s voices in this family of faith we can regain our faith, our focus, our perspective.  We’re here for each other to remind each other, day in and day out, no matter what, “Look what God is doing!”

Do you have a family of faith like that?