Reflections on "Reading the Signs" Deuteronomy 6: 20-25; I Corinthiansw 1: 18-31

I'm not sure I ever had this sermon figured out.  In fact, I'm not even sure what I said during the sanctuary service when I was in the "foolishness" section near the end.  I do remember thinking, "how do I work my way out of this?"  It reminded me that not having the discipline to stick to what I have prepared can lead to some problems when I preach.  I generally free lance some, but usually I have thought about where I might go.

I also found the variety of biblical narratives on signs to be overwhelming.  Paul seems to not think we should look for signs, although he had a pretty big sign from God on the road to Damascus.  I actually think the Deuteronomy passage shows a misuse of signs to blackmail the Israelites into obeying the rules.  Jesus offers a mixed bag on whether we should look for signs.  Maybe "signs" was not the right approach to get at the question:  "How do we know what God is telling us?"

“Reading the Signs” January 15, 2012; FPC, Troy Deuteronomy 6: 20-25; I Corinthians 1: 18-31

Introduction: As many of you know, while I was gone last summer I heard lots of stories from different people about their faith journeys. I discovered the repetition of statements like “this seemed like a sign from God,” or “I was looking for a sign, and...”

It has me puzzling over how to recognize signs from God. I don't have it figured out, but

Move 1: When you are looking for signs, you are more likely to find them.

a. Sound simple, but it seems to work that way.

1. Story I heard last summer went something like this: a man is praying for guidance; he is at a time in his life when he wants or maybe needs; he has been asking God for guidance. He discovers an opportunity to participate in a new ministry that seems to fit them. A welcome sign from God.

b. chick flick – Fools Rush In.

1. female lead character is a spiritual, Roman Catholic who has grown up in an Hispanic family.

2. the male lead character is a WASP, where the P not only stands for Protestant, but Presbyterian in particular.

3. She believes in signs; he does not.

She share this conversation when she becomes pregnant and finds herself stuck in traffic next to a huge Catholic church.

Isabel Fuentes: It was a sign, Alex.Alex Whitman: Of what?Isabel Fuentes: That the baby would be Catholic.Alex Whitman: Oh, well, then it's a good thing you weren't stopped in front of an IHOP.

1. One person was looking for signs and found them.

2. The other person was not looking for signs, so he did not see the sign.

3. I might add that add the critical moment in the movie when the music changes and the story line shifts so that everything will come out well, the man suddenly is looking for signs.

4. then, everywhere he looks, he sees signs.

100. when we look for signs, we probably will find them.
     
     
     Move 2: If you interpret your life through the lens of faith, you discover signs as well.
     a. Not necessarily on the look-out for signs, but reflects on life through faith and discovers signs from God.
     
     
     b. Heard the story from a woman this summer. She had been living her life normally. She had her routines; she knew what the next day and the next day was going to bring. Satisfied with her life.
     
     
     1.  Cancer disrupts her life. Diagnosis and treatment. Good results.
     But her perspective has changed. She looks at what has happened and asks the question: “Where is God in all this?”
     
     
     2.  Her answer – my medical battle and recovery is a sign from from God that I need to change my life. Off she goes. Same husband. Same home. New attitude. New job. New sense of who she is and what she wants to do with her life.
     
     
     3. She does not say, God gave me cancer as as sign.
     
     
     4. She does say, my battle with cancer was a sign that God had something else for me to do.
     
     
     b. Deuteronomy.
     
     
     1. While in the wilderness, the people are being reminded of these incredible events that took place back in Egypt.
     
     
     2. Remember those plagues – the locusts swarming the crops for example; or the death few the first born Egyptian sons; those were signs from God that Pharaoh ignored.
     
     
     3. But we are going to remember these signs.
     
     
     4. they will continue to speak to us.
     
     
     5. In fact, when we think about why we should obey God, these signs inform us.

100. You may not be looking for signs from God, but when you reflect critically on your life through the lens of faith, you can often find signs from God.

Move 3: Signs can be interpreted differently.

a. This, of course, is what making reading the signs so difficult.

1. One person's sign from God is another person's explainable event.

2. The plagues mentioned in Deuteronomy? Surely Pharaoh's advisers were arguing that they were just natural phenomena.

3. To the Israelites, they were signs from God.

b. Worked one summer in Port Aransas, TX at a presbytery camp. We worked all day cooking, life guarding and doing maintenance work. Most nights we had free after dinner, so we would ride bikes around town. Go down and watch the local softball league. There was a place that was part pool hall, part arcade with several pinball machines.

1. In the middle of the night, it burned down. It made the front page of the newspaper. In fact, the photos of the fire covered the front page. It was the biggest story of the summer.

2. Until the next week, when the story on the front page was the arrest of the owner of the pool hall for arson. It seems that the night before the fire he had a dream, a sign from God he said, that told him to move everything out that had value.

3. One person's sign from God; another person's clue in an arson investigation.

Reading the signs is not easy.

Move 4: Signs point to Christ crucified.

a. In some ways, Paul dismisses looking for signs.

1. Jews demands signs, he writes.

2. He compares them to Greeks who seek wisdom.

3. then he suggests that these new Christians do not need signs or wisdom; they need only took at the cross and see Christ crucified.

4. I do not believe that Paul is suggesting that God no longer will send signs.

5. But, he provides the litmus test for how we interpret signs from God.
   
   
   b. If the sign from God points you in the direction of Christ crucified, then it may, in fact, be a sign from God. If not, then you might want to rethink whether that is a sign from God.

1. Think about the Israelites – the signs they saw while in Egypt lead them out of slavery and into a new way of life. That means they fit as signs from God.

2. This, of course, challenges us to avoid the trap of deciding God has sent sign that leads us to a decision or place where the only benefit is ourselves and our own selfish interests.

3. I am always suspicious when the sign from God leads someone to make a decision that only benefits that person.

b. Paul also frees us to see “foolish” signs.

1. That crazy idea for ministry that grew out of some silly sign.

2. Or looking back at a battle with cancer and seeing in it a sign from God.

3. the foolishness of the gospel to which Paul points us allows us to explore signs we might otherwise dismiss.

Conclusion: I suspect you might have liked this sermon better if yo had been left with specific guidelines for knowing what is a sign form God and what is not. Or knowing where to look to see a sign from God.

Sorry. A life of faith is not that simple. But, into the complexity of our lives, God sends signs, signs that lead us to the Cruficied One. Keep looking.