Tears and the Metanarrative

The following is from a brief talk I gave to the women at Summit TN Session 2, 2016.  Like most good things, many of the ideas I shared are borrowed from other thinkers – and I desire to give them credit as I type this out. 

We are glad that you are here at Summit!  We have people here from all kinds of backgrounds – some who are excited to be here and some who are not as excited.  J  But we, as a staff, are excited to have you here, regardless of where you are in your journey. 

We have two goals for tonight:

1.       To love you

2.       To invite you into the Great Story…because you are wanted.

Josh Bales has been walking us through the Great Story, the Metanarrative, during worship each night.  He has talked of Creation, Fall, Redemption & Glorification.  Whether we realize it or not, the Bible is the story of a loving God, not a vindictive one.  A God that pursues us.  So, let’s do a brief overview of the story of the Bible…and see how God wants to interact with people.

·       CREATION:  God created Adam & Eve, and it was good.  God walked with them in the garden.  They enjoyed perfect communion with Him.

·       FALL:  But then, because God gave them free will, they decided not to choose Him…and the relationship with God was broken as they disobeyed Him.  A Holy God cannot live with evil.

·       ***From this point on, the story of the Bible is a record of God reaching out to restore that relationship.

o   He chose Abraham and the nation of Israel to reveal Himself.  It wasn’t because Israel was better than anyone else, but He wanted to use them to reach the world.

o   He gave Moses the design for a tabernacle so that He could actually be present with His people as they traveled.

o   He had Solomon build a temple, a more permanent place for His name to dwell with His people.

§  But because God is a gentleman and doesn’t force Himself upon us, He allowed His people to yet again not choose Him.  And when they didn’t, He had to leave.  But He did so slowly…giving so many chances for them to change.  Ezekiel 10 is the record of the glory of the LORD leaving the temple.  First it leaves from above the cherubim, then goes to the threshold, then to the east gate, then to the east mountain. 

o   In Luke 2, God's glory returned to the temple again...this time in the form of a baby.  Jesus came in the flesh to restore our relationship between us and God.  He paid the debt we owed on the cross (REDEMPTION).  ***God coming in flesh?  What?!?!?

o   Jesus returned to heaven, but sent the Holy Spirit, so that God no longer just dwells in a tabernacle or temple…but He dwells in each of us.  The church is where God dwells now.

o   Eventually, the Bible tells us to look forward to GLORIFICATION, when all things are made right.  Listen to the words in Revelation 21:1-5:  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now (at last!) the dwelling place of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’  He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”

God is a loving God who pursues us…who exclaims at the end of time “At last!” because He has wanted to be with us since time began.

When God lives inside us (as hard as it is to fathom) – we are in the process of becoming more like him.  But our own flesh gets in the way, and we live imperfectly.  We, as a staff, are imperfect – but our goal has been to notice you, to find you, to make you feel like you belong, and to show you how you fit into this Great Story.

This story has a great ending that’s described in Revelation 21.  We get to be with Jesus…and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. 

Tears are important.  Every tear contains a story, a memory.  In that day, when He wipes them away, He will tell us the rest of the story.

I heard a beautiful illustration from a sermon by Tom Hendrikse on January 31, 2016. (http://riovistachurch.com/message-series-archive-living-in-the-rhythm-of-grace/)  These are essentially Tom’s words verbatim…but not all of them.

“There is a beautiful illustration in the 7^th book of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  It is the scene in which Professor Snape dies.  Professor Snape is one of the most heroic characters in the series – and no one knows it until after this scene.  He was considered the bad guy the whole time. 

Snape is lying on the floor dying from the bite of a poisonous, magical snake…as he lies there, slumped against the wall dying from the repeated bites of the snake, Harry, Ron and Hermione come in and Snape points to the tears streaming down his cheeks.  He says, “Collect them.  Collect them.” 

Harry gets a bottle from Hermione, and he presses it against the cheek of Professor Snape.  The tears stream down into the bottle and Snape says, “Take it to the Pensieve.”  The Pensieve is a magical ball in which you can literally re-enter your memories.

Harry takes the tears and pours them out into the Pensieve and discovers that they contain the memories, the stories of Professor Snape.  He enters into it…and everything makes sense.

Everything in Harry’s life suddenly makes sense – the rest of the story is revealed. 

Is it possible that J.K. Rowling borrowed this idea from Psalm 56:8?

Psalm 56:8 tells us that God collects our tears and keeps a record of them...of their story.

Why?

So He can sit down with us in the new heaven and new earth and pour them out into His magical pensieve (if you will) and enter into them with us…and walk through them with us and say,  “I know you didn’t think I was here, but I was right here.  Do you see me now?

I know you had no idea what I was doing in this, but let me show you what I was doing.  I was doing this over here with this person.  I was doing this over here with this person…I know that you could not possibly conceive of how this could be good – but I am the God who delights and reveals His glory by bringing good out of the things that you can’t conceive…ways for them to be good. I’m going to wipe that tear away now for forever because for forever now you will praise me for what caused you to cry it….”

Can you imagine that?  It’s hard to imagine… Shouldn’t that be the case, though…as finite creatures of an infinite God?”

We, here at Summit, are aware that we all have brokenness in our stories.  We all have a bottle of tears.  Some of you have cried tears while you’ve been here.  Some of you have kept yourselves locked up for protection.  We understand.  And regardless of if you really let us into your stories, tonight we do want you to experience a bit of the love that we’ve gotten to experience as part of the Great Story.

Each of your small group leaders is going to take you tonight and love on you by sharing the beautiful and excellent things that they’ve seen in you.  Too often our tears have come from believing the lies that culture and sometimes, sadly, the church tell us.  We realize that, for some of you, talk is cheap because you have been burned by family, friends, church, etc.  But we, at Summit, believe that your true identity will only be found in recognizing your worth in God’s sight.  You are equally made in the image of God – yet uniquely gifted to be athletes, wives and mothers, politicians, teachers, nurses, landscapers, cooks, etc. 

We have noticed you.

We want to call out the good in you and affirm you.

And although we will do this imperfectly, we serve a God who loves each of us perfectly.  We want you to get a small taste of that tonight. 

We love you.

We are “all in for the cause of Christ in you.”