Predictions

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

January 5, 2014

Predictions

Jeremiah 29:11

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord,

plans for your welfare and not for harm,

to give you a future with hope.”

Who will win the Super Bowl this year?

What about the Stanley Cup?

The World Series?

Which political candidates will prevail in the fall elections?

Will the stock market continue to go up,

or come crashing down?

Who will win Oscars? Emmys?

Tonys? Grammys?

This is the time of year when pundits, experts,

and the just plain opinionated

are more than happy to offer their predictions

for the coming year.

What they think will happen.

Most offer their predictions with certainty, authority,

sure that what they say will happen,

will happen.

They know that they are not likely to be checked,

much less criticized at year end

if their prediction doesn’t come true.

It is easy to spin a prediction gone wrong.

Every January we seem eager, even hungry

to peer into the future,

to try to pull the curtain back on what lies ahead:

will the future bring good things or bad things

to us, to family, to friends,

to our community, our country, the world?

Will the road ahead be straight and smooth,

or full of twists and turns, bumps and potholes,

perhaps even impassable?

What lies ahead in the new year for our church?

What will our 147^th year be like?

Will we continue to grow?

Will we continue to be a vibrant place,

lively, faithful,

as we go about the many ministries

we do in the name of Jesus Christ?

I expect so,

but I can’t predict what the year ahead

will bring us for a very simple reason:

I don’t know.

I can consult my Magic 8-Ball,

one of my favorite childhood toys,

but I am guessing that whatever I might ask,

the Magic 8-Ball will respond,

“Outlook Cloudy”

or “Better not tell you now”.

Back in Moses’ time, God told the children of Israel

don’t try to predict the future;

don’t consult those who claim they can divine the future,

who claim that they can tell what is going to happen.

(Leviticus 19).

Centuries later the apostle Paul helped us to understand

why we shouldn’t bother trying to divine the future

writing, “we walk by faith, and not by sight.”

(2 Corinthians 5:7)

We walk by faith into the future,

even if we cannot peer into the future,

even if we cannot see what lies ahead.

We walk by faith into God’s future,

for the future is in God’s hands;

the future is God’s.

We may not know what the future will bring,

but still, we can walk into the new year

with confidence, each of us,

and all of us together.

Because it is God’s future,

we can walk into the new year filled with hope.

The message God spoke to his children

through the prophet Jeremiah

more than 2500 years ago

is a message God speaks to us here and now,

speaks to each of us as his beloved children,

and all of us as members of this body of Christ:

“For surely I know the plans I have for you,

plans for your welfare and not for harm,

to give you a future with hope.”

When God first spoke those words through his prophet,

the people probably reacted by rolling their eyeballs,

even responding with laughter,

or a sarcastic, “yeah, right!”

After all, God was speaking to his children in exile,

after the Babylonian army had invaded their country,

rampaged through the land, destroying everything,

including all of Jerusalem,

and Solomon’s great Temple, the very house of God.

And then, after the Babylonians had destroyed the country

they forced the Israelites into exile,

led them on a march of almost a thousand miles

over rugged, dangerous terrain,

from Judah to Babylon.

The children of Israel,

God’s children,

left their country, “the Promised Land”;

left it ravaged, sacked, burned, looted;

left it in the hands of an invading army.

All they could do was lament,

lament from a thousand miles away,

lament as they lived under the rule of a foreign power,

lament that they would never again see their homes.

Lament as they lived without hope.

But God didn’t want them to give up hope;

God knew what lay ahead for his children;

God wanted them to live in hope.

Not false hope, but real hope for God’s future.

Speaking through the prophet, God calls us

to look forward with confidence, with hope:

Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.
[for] I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

(Isaiah 43)

God is at work,

creating anew each and every day,

creating the future each and every day,

creating a future for you and me,

a future for this church,

a future filled with hope.

So let us begin the new year with confidence,

with joy,

and with hope.

Let us begin the new year

taking our first steps into the future,

God’s future.

Come, let us walk by faith,

all of us walking forward,

all of us following,

following the one who leads us into God’s future,

the head of our church:

our Lord Jesus Christ.     

AMEN