You Are Mine!

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

April 6, 2014

Service of Wholeness

You Are Mine!

Isaiah 43:1

But now thus says the Lord,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name,

you are mine.

“I have called you by name.”

“You are mine.”

“YOU are mine”

Yes, you.

This is the Lord God speaking to us,

speaking to you,

speaking to me,

speaking to all God’s children,

every one of us.

“I have called you by name.

You are mine.”

Can you hear God’s voice?

Here, now in this Sanctuary?

God is speaking directly to each of us.

It’s a voice that soothes,

that comforts,

that reassures.

We can close our eyes and

fall back into that voice,

fall back into God’s words.

They will support us,

strengthen us,

grace us with peace.

The Lord God,

the Creator of the Universe,

says to you and me,

“I have called you by name;

you are mine!”

But God doesn’t stop there;

God goes further,

saying to you, saying to me

“… you are precious in my sight,

and honored,

and I love you.”

You.

Yes, You.

These are God’s words to you.

These are God’s words to me,

to all God’s children.

Women, men;

young, old;

tall, short;

left-handed, right-handed;

dark-skinned, light-skinned;

blonde hair, red hair,

brunette hair… no hair;

Virginian, New Yorker,

American, Mexican,

Iraqi, Kenyan;

Democrat, Republican;

Doctor, teacher,

butcher, baker,

candlestick maker.

All.

“You are mine,” says the Lord.

“I have called you by name,” says the Lord.

“You are precious in my sight,” says the Lord.

“I love you,” says the Lord.

God speaks to all God’s children

in countless ways through the pages of the Bible,

at times through words that teach;

at other times through words that discipline and rebuke.

But these words we hear God speak through

the prophet Isaiah are words of love for you and me.

God wants us to know his love,

for God is love.

God knows us so well.

God knows how easy we find it to turn from him,

to pursue our own way rather than God’s way,

our own will rather than God’s will.

God knows how we take his commands,

his son’s teachings and bend them,

reshape them to fit our own lives,

our own temperaments,

our own comfort.

We don’t fool God.

Still, God wants us to know his love.

God wants us to know wholeness and peace.

God wants us to know that our restlessness,

our hunger,

our fears,

our worries,

can all vanish in him.

We all hunger,

we all thirst deep down in our souls,

and we look for ways to feed ourselves,

quench our thirst.

We try to fill ourselves with things,

with the fleeting, the temporary,

with the spiritual equivalent of junk food.

Is it any wonder that our hunger is never satisfied,

our thirst never fully quenched,

Is it any wonder that we never really

seem to know peace,

never seem to feel whole?

Through God’s love, though, we will be filled.

In God’s love we will be nourished,

our hunger satisfied, our thirst quenched.

For through God’s love we will be fed

the bread of heaven:

“that which comes down from heaven

and gives life to the world.”

(John 6:33)

But before we feed on the bread of heaven,

before we fill ourselves on food that will nourish us

and make us whole,

we should empty ourselves.

We should empty ourselves of anger,

of worry,  

of self righteousness,

of fear,

of callousness,

of doubt,

of grudges;

We should empty ourselves of lukewarm faith.

We should empty ourselves

so we can fill ourselves with good things,

holy things,

healthy things that will make us whole,

so we will know the full meaning of the word shalom:

peace that comes from wholeness,

and wholeness that comes from peace.

The Psalmist wrote,

I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.’

…The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
…Therefore my heart is glad,

and my soul rejoices;

 my body also rests secure.

In your presence there is fullness of joy;

(Psalm 16)

The Psalmist knew that he was incomplete without God;

that he needed God to make him whole,

that neither things, nor riches,

nor fame, nor power,

not even David’s throne,

nothing could make him whole,

nothing could satisfy his hunger,

nothing could fill him other than God’s love.

And then once he learned that,

his heart was glad,

his soul rejoiced,

his body rested secure.

He knew peace and assurance;

He knew wholeness.

We began our Lenten season using ashes

to remind us of our mortality,

ashes to remind us of our tendency to turn from God

and our need to repent.

But God hasn’t created us for ashes;

God doesn’t want us to dwell on guilt or mortality.

God created us for life,

joyful, abundant life.

God, of course, makes no promise that our lives

will be without problems and challenges.

There can be times when life comes at us with too much,

as the preacher and writer Ted Loder put it:

“too much violence, too much fear;

too much of demands and problems;

too much of broken dreams and broken lives;

too much of [poverty and indifference]

too much of greed and cruelty and selfishness;

too much of stale routines and quarrels

unpaid bills and dead ends;

too much of the bitter taste of ashes in my mouth.”

But still we can know wholeness;

Still, we can know peace;

Still, we can know joy.

For we are precious;

we are honored;

We are loved.

AMEN