The Subjunctive Space
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
I hated English in School
I hated English in School
I just didn’t enjoy it — to much detail and too many rules and exceptions to the rules
They say the English language is one of the hardest to learn — it is just too easy to use bad grammar
Signs that use bad English
Remember when you hated a subject in school you would say, “I’ll never use this!” — I already speak English — why do I need this?
I thought that — said it too but then I had to take 2 years of Biblical Greek in my undergrad and more in my masters work — guess what — When you start learning another language bad English makes it harder to learn — When I started translating the Greek I had to understand Nouns, verbs, pronouns, prepositions, clauses, subjects of verbs, and more.
And then I had to start parsing verbs! Each verb had a PERSON - NUMBER - TENSE - MOOD - VOICE
Did you know sentences have a mood? Not like we have mood swings
Indicative = states a fact — The sky is Blue
Imperative = states a command — Make your bed!
Subjunctive = states a wish — I wish the sky was green.
What if our faith has a mood?
What if our faith has a mood?
Follow me — I think we often get stuck in life because we live in indicative mood — especial when it comes to our belief about who God is...
We like our faith all wrapped up in a nice clean package — we want to know and believe the facts of our faith — we want to be certain — we actually believe that faith must be grounded in certainty — faith lived in the indicative mood says: God is… good — kind — holy — Love
We like our God to operate in black and white — leave no room for doubt — we get nervous when our god lives in the gray areas of life — the what if’s
But what if we get so comfortable with “God is” we suffocate out the subjunctive mood of faith the “God could, would, might” — the possibilities of a God who sometimes surprises us — does the unexpected — performs the miraculous — brings the wonder and mystery to life
We get stuck in the facts of life and slowly stop dreaming or imagining what could be (subjunctive space)
YES — God is… BUT … God also could…
I know what you are thinking...
I know what you are thinking...
It is easier to just stick to the facts what we can explain — why dream or imagine — we will probably just be let down - why get our hopes up only to face the reality of what is...
The promises of God aren't always visible in the reality of now. God is good but we live with evil…God is love but we live with hate around us…God is a healer but we live with disease — God is all powerful but we things happen to us that are out of our control
And here is our crisis of faith — why you left the church and God — why you won’t all out follow Jesus — you aren’t sure you can trust him — If God is....the why? The facts of our reality don’t always line up with the God who is...The evidence in our world often is stacked against this all powerful — all knowing God who is infinite by seems limited when it comes to my life
We are not alone...The Psalmist lamented over this tension…he felt the same way and wrote about it...
I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.” You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah
But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant; you have defiled his crown in the dust. You have breached all his walls; you have laid his strongholds in ruins.
How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?
“You promised Lord!” Why have you gone back on your promise — why are you not intervening for your people?
The two characters in our story today felt it too...
The two characters in our story today felt it too...
Elizabeth — the wife of Zachariah was a barren old woman (according to our toilet sign — she was half way there to getting to use it!). Unable to have children — she lived in a time and place where this was a curse — children were a blessing from God — to be barren was often looked upon as God’s punishment — Elizabeth believed and worshiped a god who “IS” but in her reality he “WASN’T”
Mary — a 12-14 year old young girl promised to a man to be his wife — she was very poor and from a “non-place” called Nazareth — “Can anything good come from Nazareth” — Her fate in life was set — perhaps she had no dreams except to get married — have children — and try to live past 40. Mary believed and worshiped a god who “CAN” but in her reality “HADN’T”
Elizabeth and Mary are two completely different people — different ages — marital status — circumstances — Yet their story reveals something very profound to us today — something about God and us — different by yet still two women who believed in a God who is but their reality wasn’t.
BIBLICAL TEXT
BIBLICAL TEXT
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.
At the time Israel is divided into three major territories (Galilee, Samaria, and Judea)
Galilee was the most northern territory — nothing significant happened or came from Galilee
Why Nazareth? Why Mary? Why Joseph? Nothing in Nazareth except two insignificant people who would become very significant in God’s plan for the world
God is not limited to the places and systems we elevate — God chose this place and these people because places and people become significant as God shows up and places his fingerprints on them — in this world it is not about status or importance but God’s presence.
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
Why was Mary favored? Why her?
God often works out his will on earth by favoring common — seemingly insignificant people like Mary — and us
The key here is that it really isn’t about Mary or us — it is about God’s will being a reality on earth — and he often does it through people
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
Jeshua — the later form of the OT name Joshua = Savior
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Finally! God is going to keep a promise! His King is coming…but not exactly as they might have expected
2 Samuel 7:1-11 — God makes a covenant with King David that his kingdom will be forever — not the one forged by sword and man’s will but one build by God and his Son — the king of this new Kingdom
Nations that are forged by human plans are but dust in the wind — God’s kingdom will never end
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
Even Mary knew the basics of the birds and the bees — the basic biology of how this works and what the angel is saying is impossible
So the angel explains it and Mary says, “Oh that is all — okay”
And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Why does Luke bring Elizabeth (Auntie Liz) back into Mary’s story?
Why did the angel feel it important to tell Mary about a relative named Elizabeth and her impossibility now made possible?
Was it to help Mary believe?
Perhaps if she saw the existence of what is possible for God it would reveal to us there are no bounds to what God can do!
No despair too Deep!
No pain too unbearable!
No situation too helpless!
No sin unforgivable!
APPLICATION
APPLICATION
What about you and me?
What about you and me?
We want a faith that makes sense in the reality of now — we want to believe in a God who gives us reason to believe
Perhaps this is why so many said to Jesus, “give us a sign, a miracle and then we will believe”
Faith in the indicative mood = faith grounded in what we can explain, prove, the facts, experience in reality
Perhaps this is why we Christians are so obsessed with trying to prove God’s existence, the bible is really God’s word
Faith is believing — I am not saying this is wrong — we need to know what we believe…but...
What do you do with a God who says...
“Fear not” — yet we are faced with so may things to fear every day
“I am with you always” — yet we experience the pain of lose and loneliness
“I have plans for you” — yet we hear those words “it is terminal”
“I love you” — yet you are suffering and hurting
What should we do:
What should we do:
Like Mary and Elizabeth...
Like Mary and Elizabeth...
We hold on tightly to the indicative nature of who God is and we embrace who we are — we hold tight to the truth that we know and have known
We also embrace the subjunctive space of what God can do…like them, we must connect the dots between what we know and have known and the God who is guiding us into a future — As we wait for this Kingdom that will never end — where everything that is wrong with the now will be redeemed and made right
The truth is — life will come at your with all she has — it will challenge you — lift you up and tear you down — it will overwhelm you and there will be times of great joy and times of suffering
However, the message in the story of Mary and Elizabeth is this: God is active in those impossible places of your life — He is Emmanuel — the God who is with us!
There will be days you will want to give up — there will be days you will want to give in — there will be days you want to walk away — there will be days you feel that God isn’t trustworthy — when his promises aren’t your reality
But the message in the story of Mary and Elizabeth is also this: Those who wait on the Lord — those who trust even when the evidence is against God — will be joyfully surprised by a God who loves a faith that can imagine the our God can do
So — when you are stuck and feel the doubt — remember the words of the angel, “For nothing will be impossible for God”!