Whaddya Say?

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Isaiah 62:1-5

• Monday (1/14/13) there was an Amber Alert in Pennsylvania; a 5yo girl taken from school in Philly. Amber Alert went out on phones, email. The info went out. Prayers went up. Tuesday morning 5am the girl Nailla was found in a park by a passerby and taken into safe hands.

Two popular ways to share information these days are Facebook and Twitter. (200 million monthly users of Twitter, 340 million tweets per day. Facebook over a billion users)

Connection. What would you share right now? Status updates and tweets. Amber alerts. Weather, news, mundane, important. WWYP? 

• Isaiah 62:1 I won’t keep silent, I won’t sit still. Prophet has word of God, will not hide under a bushel, will not sit on it, will be obedient to God, will share word of God.

And today’s is word of hope, word of encouragement.

è    Use your resources and connections. Be connected. Communicate hope.
Listen for what God is speaking in your life, & don’t sit on it.

• Raise your hand if there are skeletons in your closet ;)  

Now, who wants to share? Who has something in their history makes you want to hide your face?

The priest who did Grandpa Joe’s funeral… near fifty but just became a priest about four years ago. Said he’d done about everything there was to do. When complimented that it was too bad he hadn’t been a priest longer, he responded he wouldn’t be the priest he is if he had… he had gone through some dark times and had been saved from those dark times.

We talk about forgiveness of sins, and salvation, about eternity with God, but we would do well to think on the fact that when God redeems us we are freed from our history, freed from our shame. Trading our sorrows, trading our shame, laying them down.

Everybody has some shame. Though it can feel like yours is worse or somehow more indelible, or that people will treat you differently, my experience is that sharing does not lead to shame or ostracism but renewal.

Porn, substance abuse, sexual history, teen rebellion. Leave that in the past. Even if (especially if) you’re active right now. Leave it.

• Isaiah 62:4a You will no longer be called Abandoned, Deserted. 

You will no longer be called (whatever it is you would hide).

• Isaiah 62:4b You will be called My Delight Is In Her. Married.

We talked about this last week. 

God delights in you (your picture is in God’s wallet). 

God delights in you, God renews you, restores you.

In Methodist lingo 

God justifies (sets you right) 

and sanctifies (nurtures growth in holiness in you).

• What’s my point? Take ’em in reverse order: 

God justifies & sanctifies you, 

cleans you & obliterates your shame, 

delights in you… 

so don’t hold back, 

hear and bear the word of God. 

Tell about it. 

Use your resources. 

We’ve a story to tell.

• Hymn 296 We've A Story to Tell to the Nations