Hope: Learning to Walk in the Dark

Series: Hope for the Holidays

 “Hope: Learning To Walk in the Dark”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, Dec 2, 2018

Text: // Series: Hope for the Holidays

 

Good morning.  Welcome here, friends.  My name is Brad Sumner, I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge and it is our privilege and pleasure to have you here with us this Advent season.

 

When our kids where little and we would go down to the beach, whether it was White Rock or somewhere else, one of the things I loved to do was to build sandcastles together.  How many of you loved building sandcastles growing up? I have to admit, I still kind of like building sandcastles.  I like to live dangerously when it comes to sandcastle building.  I build ‘em close to the water. 

 

For some people, when they build a sandcastle, they want to build it as far up on the beach as possible. Far away from the big bad waves and water.  They put the walls up nice and high thinking that it will block everything out.  But here’s the thing about sandcastle building… You need a little water. If you take completely dry sand like this, with no moisture in it whatsoever, you will not be able to keep that sand together.  You can try to build all the walls you want, but your castle will not hold.  On the flip side, if  you have too much water your castle will collapse or get washed away. 

 

Today we are going to talk about DOUBT. And to me, when we talk about doubt, to me, the interaction between doubt and faith is like building a sandcastle.  Doubt is like the water…  Some people try to build really, really high walls to keep it out.  They might do it theologically or insulate themselves experientially.  But into every life a little doubt must fall.  Too much doubt, and you begin to feel like you a drowning or being sucked out to sea. But there is a dynamic interplay that author and pastor John Ortberg highlights in his book Faith and Doubt. He suggests that  

“We often think of them as opposites. Many books argue for one or the other. But while in some respects they are enemies, in other ways they are surprisingly alike: both are concerned with ultimate issues; both pop up unasked for at unexpected moments; both are necessary.”                                                                    –John Ortberg

 

This month, our theme here at Jericho is Hope for the Holidays.  We talked last week about the fact that if we have to hope for something, that means we don’t already have it.  It is something we are still waiting for, wrestling through.  We see this so powerfully in the Christmas story… People wanting for centuries for God to fulfill God’s promise of a deliverer. 

And as we read the Christmas stories and the texts in advent devotionals, we often see the Themes of Darkness and Light at Advent

The Scriptures read during Advent highlight      themes of light (good) & darkness (bad)

  • “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.” (Isaiah 9:2)
  • “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (John 1:5)

So we can come to associate the image of light with goodness and darkness with evil.  And this is certainly a theme in Scripture.  Darkness can often signify chaos or in Wisdom Literature, darkness often means a lack of understanding (someone’s mind or heart is darkened). 

 

But when we think about the theme of HOPE, Hope implies that we are still stumbling our way through or in the darkness.  And so the question to ask ourselves is But is Darkness Always Bad?

The challenge here becomes that  

When we find ourselves in places that feel dark or where doubt is our constant companion, we can feel lost, alone, afraid.

We feel that the light might be shining into other people’s lives but our own feels heavy, gloomy, lonely, scary.  And what I began to reflect on as we prepared to walk through this advent season, is that nobody every taught me how to live with doubt.  How to wrestle with the darkness or not knowing and survive.  How to ask the hard questions or have hard conversations that feel very, well, dark.  And so I want us to acquire what for some might be new skills here and start into a healthy conversation this Advent.  One where we begin Learning to Walk in the Dark

There are things we can learn in the dark that we cannot learn in the light

There are profound gifts that times of darkness and doubt bring to us if we are willing to receive them, that we cannot learn under any other circumstance or in any other way.  So let’s talk, shall we, about DOUBT.

 

It’s in the Christmas story… We see Mary, visited by the Angel Gabrielle and told she is going to have a child without having had sexual intercourse with a man.  And she asks a very normal question “How can this be?”  She wrestled with doubt.  Think about Joseph’s experience.  Mary shares the news with him and his first reaction is not that of the faith-filled, wondrously calm images we often see of Joseph in the manger scene with Baby Jesus and Mary.  His first reaction is doubt.  “Yeah, this is NOT happening to me.  This is NOT how my life and my marriage and my parenting was supposed to play out!”  What do you do in those times? 

I want to suggest three things today that could be helpful for us in this discussion.  First of all, we do well to remember that  

  1. DOUBT is not the enemy of FAITH

Just like my sandcastle needs a bit of water, my faith requires me to wrestle with elements of doubt.  I love the way that German theologian Paul Tillich says it: “doubt is not the opposite of faith, it is one element of faith”  Doubt and faith are part of the same process of questioning and wresting and wondering and exploring.  And this is present in the pages of Scripture.  

 

I think about the story of Jacob – he schemes and dreams and plots.  And at a crucial moment in his life, he stays up all night and physically wrestles with God. If Jacob can do it, you can do it.  It is OK to wrestle with God!  

 

Or I think of the parent who comes to Jesus asking Jesus to heal their sick kid.  And Jesus often talks to people about their faith in non-binary terms.  He musters up courage to tell Jesus the truth: I believe, help my unbelief. 

 

Or my absolute favorite verse on doubt in the whole Bible: Matthew 28:17 – The meet with the resurrected Jesus and the text says “they worshipped him, but some doubted.”  In the middle of a worship gathering, doubt is present.  You might feel like others here are all singing these songs like they really believe them. I’m not in a place where I am sure.  That’s OK.

 

Doubt is normal.  Having a season where you feel like you are fumbling around in the dark, spiritually, emotionally, even physically… this, too is part of life.  And so if you are listening and you feel like you are walking in the dark, know that [1. DOUBT is not the enemy of FAITH] 

God is present, even in the darkest darkness

There is nowhere in all the universe – seen and unseen – that God does not inhabit or where God is not present.  Psalms 139 says it this way:

 

“I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.”  (Psalm 139:1-12)

God is kind and gentle and can hold our darkest emotions, our hardest questions, our deepest moments of struggle and darkness and pain and longing.  I love what writer MADELEINE L'ENGLE says: “Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself.”

So Doubt is not the enemy of faith, it is one element of faith.  Second thing to  embrace as we learn to walk in the dark is that

  1. DOUBTERS are not the enemy

Some people have been banished from churches for asking questions. For slowing down and embracing mystery.  For not being with the program!  Doubters sometimes get a bad reputation.  Even one of Jesus’ disciples named Thomas got a reputation for being a doubter.  But it is helpful to note what kind of tone Jesus took with Thomas in his interactions.  Even in Thomas’ questions and doubts, Jesus is gentle and invitational. 

 

And so Jude writes in his very brief letter as to how to treat doubters:

  • “Be merciful to those who doubt.” (Jude 1:22)

Being merciful is hard work.  Doubters ask questions at inopportune times. They sometimes shock you with their boldness or their perspicacity. Doubters come in all shapes, sizes and backgrounds but let’s be clear… Doubters are NOT the enemy. 

 

Let’s also be clear that there is a kind of doubt that is corrosive to faith.  I find it helpful to distinguish between doubt and unbelief.  We see this again in the Christmas story… Zechariah is a priest who doesn’t trust God’s character and promises. He goes into his own season of darkness when he is unable to speak until his son John is born.  So there is a line that you cross where doubt begins to be corrosive and unhelpful.  But even there, the council of Jude verse 22 still applies.  Be merciful to those who doubt. 

 

Here’s what we need to recognize, Jericho… 

  • Our core value of Authentic Community invites us to get comfortable with those who are in dark places & express it openly

If you want to be part of a community that values and crates space where people can be authentic, that is a messy proposition.  Because when we actually start to do that, people actually begin to tell you what they are thinking and how they are doing. And not all of us are down for sunshine and roses all the time.  Even those of us who are hope-filed optimists.

 

In her book “Learning to Walk in the Dark”, episcopal priest and author Barbara Taylor Brown writes about the limitations of what she calls full solar spirituality.  By full solar spiritually she means a kind of faith that is sunny and upbeat 100% of the time. That refuses to acknowledge pain and loss. That spins every tragedy or hardship into a quasi-magical and often very trite and tidy tale of “well, everything happens for a reason”. 

 

What she asks us to consider is why we want that kind of faith experience.  It may be that we want our faith to mirror our values as suburban, western Christians.  But when you stand with the global community of faith like we do with our friends in Guatemala or working with Global Aid Network in Syria, you realize that full solar spirituality is not normal and it’s not healthy

 

I mean worship songs about the happy-clappy Psalms sell albums. And there are Psalms of praise but there are many Psalms that express that sense of raw emotion and questions and doubt.  That essentially say “God, where are you? I am not feeling it right now.  It feels dark.” Turn with me in your Bibles or on your devices to Psalm 42.  Start of Book 2 of the Psalms

“Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!”

 

“Now I am deeply discouraged…I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me… O God my rock,” I cry, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I wander around in grief, oppressed by my enemies?” Their taunts break my bones. They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?””

 

This is written by and for people who are learning to walk in the dark.  Who are not skipping merrily through their lives whistling Disney tunes all day long.  This too is part of the journey of walking with God.  I want you to know and understand and hear that this is normal.  Doubt is normal. 

 

Doubt is not the enemy of faith. Doubters are not the enemy…  Thirdly, can I talk for a minute to those who are not currently in a place of doubt but who are walking with those who are in dark seasons?  Let me say this kindly but clearly so we are all on the same page with this…

  1. Doubt & darkness are not ‘fixed’ with a casserole or a quick prayer

Here’s what I mean by that.  Churchy people are good at mobilising when there is a specific, concrete need.  Someone is in the hospital. We visit, we bring a meal to their family as an expression of compassion and love.  Someone dies. We bring a casserole over to lighten the load of meal prep so there is one less thing to think about.  But can we at least agree that there ain’t no casserole gonna fix nothing when your teenage looks you in the eye and says “I don’t believe this stuff anymore”.  Or when you friend says to you “I feel so abandoned and alone. I’m not sure that God loves me.”  or “I’m not finding the Bible helpful right now”.

Churchy people are super awesome activists in the care and love department.  We can spring into action and bring a casserole or say and mean it “I’m praying for you”.  But there is a limitation to activism.  Shocking as it may sound, there are some things in life where a casserole or a quick prayer simply will not do. 

 

A few yeas ago when Meg and I were experiencing a season of darkness in our own journey.  And one of the gifts of grace that God gave us in that time was people who simply came alongside us to listen. To sit quietly with us. To process things.  They would ask things like “what do you need right now?” and when we couldn’t even answer that simple question, they were OK with that.  They simply opened up their home and their lives. They didn’t listen simply till they could find the right Scripture verse to parrot back to us about how God works all things for good.  They didn’t try to fix us. They simply said “we are here. This is hard. Let’s do this together”

 

  • There is a ministry of faithful presence; of bearing witness to suffering & hardship

And this is not an easy ministry.  It is hard work. This is not to minimize at all the challenge of the one walking out the hardship or loss. But when you put yourself right next to someone who is walking in the language of Psalm 23:4 through the darkest valley, and you say I am here. I love you. I don’t fully understand but I will go into the dark with you and we will walk this journey together, friends, that is a powerful ministry that reflects the heart of God.  In the book of Galatians, writing to those enduring incredible persecution and hardship, the Apostle Paul writes… 

  • “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

 Sometimes burden sharing looks like brining a casserole or praying. And sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes it requires something else altogether.

 

And if we are going to learn to walk in the dark together there are two things we need.  Two virtues and actions and attitude that we will need to put into practice.   

 

The first is Humility.  Hope Requires Humility.

One of the first things that disappears when the lights go out is that ability to see your way forward with confidence.  When everything is completely illuminated, you don’t need humility. But when you are walking in the dark, you stumble over stuff. You need to slow your pace down.  This is one of the gifts that darkness offers us if we choose to embrace it.  The gift of humility. 

 Humility means I don’t have all the answers

When the goal is certainty about everything all the time, and something breaks into our world that you can’t fit into your pre-existing theological box, you can double down to prevent being un-nerved by this OR you learn to utter what I consider a deeply holy phrase: “I... don’t… know.”

 

  • When you lead with prescriptive answers, it tends to shut down honest questions

And honest questions are a part of faith.  We tend to use phrases like

  • “Honest doubt is the devil's advocate that honest faith requires” – John Ortberg

Maybe in discussions this Christmas with family and friends, lead with your heart and not always with your head.  Maybe the Christmas table is not the best place for an apologetics discussion on the veracity of the virgin birth.  Maybe create some space for mystery and uncertainly this Christmas season.  It is definitely hard work, but it is also most definitely a rich and rewarding experience.  Could we let go of the idolatry of certainty and instead seek deeper commitment to Christ in the midst of uncertainty?  If so, that may mean that your doubts have saved your faith! 

 

I like to keep around me objects that remind me of lessons I have learned along the way.  So if you come into my new office, you will notice on my shelf an empty bottle of 2006 Nuits St. George.  Those who know me know that I am a student of wine, that study of which is called Oenology.  And I like oenology for the same reason I love theology: the more I learn, the more I realize I will never learn it all. Oenology reminds me how l little I know!

Particularly this bottle.  In my last exam, to pass my level 2 WSET course, there was a whole section on a test about a mysterious wine that I had never encountered before.  It was worth 25% of the test!  So I was guessing!  That wine turned out to be Nuits St. George.  I still passed but I made a vow that if I ever saw that wine, I would buy it.  Searched high and low, asked wine stores. No one had heard of it or could find it.  One day, I am in Tanzania, sitting down for dinner, I glance at the wine menu and the hotel and what do I see but a Nuits St George!  I can’t remember if it was a great wine, I just know that it reminds me that I don’t know all the answers. 

 

What reminds you that you don’t have all the answers?

  • Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
  • “The secret things belong to the Lord our God” 29:29

In other words, right in the Bible, God says “yup, you are not going to know everything there is to know. So get comfortable with mystery.” And learning to embrace mystery takes humility.  The ability to say I don’t know.    

 

There is another thing that is required if we are learning to walk in the dark and that is COURAGE.  Hope requires courage.  It takes courage to walk in the dark and keep moving forward.  It takes courage to begin to ask questions about things you used to be 100% certain about.  Last week we said that hope requires patience and confidence. But hope also requires a kind of boldness that you can develop and cultivate.  Sometimes we talk about and think about courage as a kind of blind leap of faith into the dark.  But Courage is sometimes a small step into a hospital room to visit a friend undergoing treatment when you don’t like the smells or the beeps of the intrusive equipment.  Courage is texting a friend asking how they are doing knowing that they are likely not going to say “fine” and knowing that you will need to get in your car and drive over to sit silently beside them. 

 

What can you do today that would grow your courage?

Meg wrote another beautiful liturgy for Advent that we posted on our website & we have print copies at WC. You can access it from the front page. She walks us through an imaginative prayer exercise.  One thing that can grow your courage is simply walking off the beaten path a bit.     

Chose a Spiritual Practice that stretches you

  • Fasting (from food or technology) – esp. in a season of excess.
  • Radical Generosity (give your time away) – sometimes we talk about money, but in some ways, a more challenging commodity to be generous with is our time because it feels so finite. Volunteer to be a kettle bell ringer with the Salvation Army Gateway of Hope. Host your neighbours for a non-fancy appy night. Give away a white space on your calendar in December might be a way that you come again to believe that God is enough and that generosity, while never easy, is always a wise investment. 
  • Reading (outside your comfort zone) – Maybe for you it would be a challenge to dig into a deeper book this season. Three I would recommend are here – Learning to Walk in the Dark, God Over Good (Luke Norsworthy), and Benefit of the Doubt by Greg Boyd.  

  

Jared and Ruth Ellen and the team are going to come to lead us in some songs of reflection and response.  We don’t have a big tradition of special music at Jericho Ridge but the first song they are going to sing falls more into that category.  It is a song about doubt.  The words will be up on the screen and you are welcome to sing along, but don’t feel that you have to.  We wanted to create some time for you to reflect on what you’ve heard today without feeling a need to spring into action.

 

While I said that casseroles and quick prayers don’t fix everything, I do want to reiterate that we value prayer here at Jericho.  Because we believe that God is present in power and attending to the voices of God’s people when we join together and pray.  So each weekend, we allow space and trusted people at the back who you can go to and ask them to pray with you.  You may have a burden, you may have something to celebrate.  Maybe you are here and you say “I want to embrace that kind of faith, Brad.  I’ve been wrestling with doubts and I thought I had to have them all figured out before I made that decision but today you feel an inner witness and sense of feeling drawn to God in a way you know you need to act on.  This is your day of salvation.  Head to the back and our team will begin to walk with you through the process of saying Yes to Jesus today. 

 

Novelist E. L. Doctro talks about the difficult and bumpy and sometimes dark process of being a writer, but in a podcast I was listening to yesterday, Suzanne Stabile makes the point that this description is also about the spiritual life: “The spiritual life is like driving down a dark road at night. You can only see as far the headlights but you can make the whole journey that way.”

                                                          -Susanne Stabile

 

Listen to this song and then we’ll move into a time of response in worship with two additional songs. 

 

 

Benediction:

May you go into the world knowing that you are LOVED! Your doubts, questions, anger or fear do not disqualify you from God’s embrace or God’s promises.

What part does doubt play in the life of faith? This is a message of hope for all of those who find ourselves in places of darkness this Advent season.

Speaker: Brad Sumner

December 9, 2018
Psalms 42:1-11

Brad Sumner

Lead Pastor

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