Ya Got Two Choices...

Since this global pandemic became a real part of our lives in so many disruptive ways, I've been focused more on looking ahead then looking back. Later this afternoon, I will be producing a pastoral message video that marks the fact that it has been one month today since our congregation last worshiped together in our sanctuary on a Sunday morning. One thing that I'm going to be observing is that no one, individually, as a family, as a church, as a community, as a world, no one can expect things to go back to normal or to go back to the way they were. This is literally changing the lives of everyone in the world. There's no way of going back to exactly how things were and to spend time wishing and hoping for that is unhelpful at best, and crippling at worst.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there aren't things we can't wait to get back to. Like you, there are many things that I can't wait to have as part of my life again. But I'm not talking about that as much as I am talking about the challenge being not so much looking back to anticipate what is coming, but rather to be intentional about asking ourselves for what we might be looking when we come out of all of this. And part of Matthew's account of the post resurrection Jesus, we observe some fear and some uncertainty from those who went looking for one thing and discovered another.

Matthew's gospel chapter 28, starting at verse one. I'm reading from the Common English version:

After the Sabbath at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb. Look, there was a great earthquake for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven, coming to the stone, he rolled it away and he sat on it. Now his face was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so terrified of him, that they shook with fear and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Don't be afraid. I know that you were looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn't here because he's been raised from the dead, just as he said, come see the place where they laid him. Now hurry, go and tell his disciples, he's been raised from the dead. He's going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. I've given the message to you."

As I read that account earlier this morning, I couldn't help but think that we see a lot of ourselves in our current situation there. The guards were not expecting this angel and the shook with fear and they pretty much passed out. But the angel of the Lord said to the women, "Don't be afraid. I know you were looking for Jesus who was crucified."

The message that I think we have for today is this. We can be people who look at life one of two ways. We can be people who react negatively to what we expected to be there, that wasn't. Or we can make the conscious decision to be people of hope who instead of dwelling on what isn't or what wasn't there or what we were expecting and all that jazz, rather than being people who are focused on the past, we can be people who say, "Oh, okay. So that isn't the way that I thought it was going to be. I wonder what's around the corner. I wonder what God has in store for me next."

Friends, we're a month into this. There's all sorts of speculation about when and where and how and all that jazz. And I understand it. I get it and in some ways I kind of participate in it. But what if we allowed ourselves, instead of focusing on the returning of what was, what if we allowed ourselves to anticipate a joyful discovery of what is coming next in life.