Never Alone

Never Alone
I hate quiet… I just cannot have it completely silent when I’m sitting at home. Usually that means that I have some music playing in the background, but it can also be the TV just on. And, I’m not going to lie…Sometimes I talk to myself just for the noise. I can’t even get to sleep without noise. Usually, I have some DVD playing in the background for some light as well, but mostly for the noise. I was explaining this to a friend of mine earlier this week and he was just astounded that I needed to have that much noise and just asked, “Why?” So, as I thought about it for awhile and I couldn’t give a really good answer, so he said, “Well, it always goes back to something as you were a kid…” Now, I can’t say that’s the complete answer, but I did think of something after he said that… How many of you have a basement that you really don’t like to go down into? My basement growing up was like that. Oh, it was great when my brother & sister and I would haul our Barbies down there and play or we would sit at the desk and play school. But, when I was home by myself it was a different story. I hated to go down there by myself even for just a quick trip. I must have watched a movie one time or something, because I was convinced that there must be someone living in our basement. How I got that idea is just preposterous, but I was convinced that a man was living in our basement. So, now being older and wiser and further away from the basement, I started to think about why would I think that? So, I turned off the TV at home to think about it… and that’s when I heard it… when you’re sitting all by yourself in whatever room or house and you know that nobody else is around… The “every day noises” get loud and suspicious. You know, the wind blowing outside is suddenly some one scratching at your window… Or the water dripping is something more ominous… Suddenly, it turns into a scary place… So, of course after I realized that, I turned the TV back on and a little bit louder this time…
There’s something about being alone that is just so scary. It’s why babies usually cry when they wake up… They can’t see anyone around them and can’t logically process anything, so they think that they’re all by themselves… If you ask most people one of their top fears is being alone…What is it about being alone that just shakes us to the core? We are so afraid of being alone...
Maybe there’s some validation to that, you know… I mean who knows what’s lurking around that door, right? Who knows what that sound is really, and who’s going to check it out? Paranoia can attack suddenly and no matter how rational we think otherwise, when we’re alone… it’s different. Suddenly, that noise must mean that there’s a man living in the basement.
Jeremiah was a prophet and was one of the youngest prophets. That didn’t stop him from having a message for the nation of Israel or being called by God to preach to the people. In the passage from Jeremiah, Jeremiah is still not comfortable within his calling…He’s still unsure of what he’s supposed to do and if people are really going to listen to him. God’s response reminds me a lot like the kind of speech that my mom would rattle off when she would leave me home alone. You know the list, phone numbers, don’t answer the door, I’ll be right back…A very important list of things to have and to know… And God knows the list to give to Jeremiah also.
“I knew you before you were born.” This isn’t the first interaction that God & Jeremiah have had with one another…God tells Jeremiah that God knew Jeremiah before he was even born…Before Jeremiah’s mother or father held him…God created him…And not only did God create him, but God called him to do God’s work…
“Don’t say you’re too young.” Because God is talking to Jeremiah, it wouldn’t make sense to say anything else, but God could have easily placed something else in there for any one of us…Don’t say you’re too big…Don’t say you’re too small…Don’t say that you’re too young…Don’t say you’re too old…Don’t say you’re too tired…Don’t say you don’t have enough….Don’t say any of those things…God gives a very simple answer to that…. “You will go where I tell you to go and you will say what I tell you to say…” God doesn’t take Jeremiah’s excuse, God basically says, I don’t care…Do what I tell you to do! And when we give our excuses to God…God says, I don’t care…Do what I told you to do!
Then, before Jeremiah could say anything else, God touched his lips and he was filled with the message…God didn’t let Jeremiah come up with anymore excuses, but sent Jeremiah…But didn’t send Jeremiah alone…God was with him…Just as God is with us…
Then there’s the passge from Luke…The story of the 99 sheep who are left to find the one who is lost…The one sheep who has wandered away from the group and needs to be found…And the shepherd goes to find it…
Now this parable can be looked at many ways and you’ve probably heard it different ways before! You may have put yourself in the place of the 99 or maybe you’ve put yourself in the place of the 1…Or maybe you’ve even seen yourself as the shepherd…No matter what—if you see yourself as the 99 or as the 1 or even as the shepherd…One thing that was constant…None of them are ever alone…For the 99, they have one another….For the shepherd and the 1, they have one another until they return to the flock…
The one sheep that wandered off seemed to be alone for a short time, or however long it was lost…But there was someone to pursue it, someone to come after it…Even if the sheep didn’t know it, it wasn’t alone…
How can you accept that someone is there when you don’t know who or what they are? It’s easy to know that when you stand up and walk out from the pew that you’re going to step onto the floor… you can see that and you can feel the floor underneath your feet. But, what if you close your eyes? How do you know that where you step there is going to be floor there? You have a few different options… You can snap your eyes open and look for yourself… You can just take a step out and believe that where you step there will be floor…Or you can ask the person next to you to help you find a place to walk…Now relate these three options to your faith walk… You can snap your eyes open and make sure that it’s okay to take a step out and you may see a minute detail that makes you think that you should stay still… You can step out in blind faith and just know that there is going to be something there to step on…Now, there will usually be something there, but what if you continue walking and you head to some steps? The third option… You can ask someone to help you… That’s the role of the shepherd…. You have to believe that there is someone there who will take your hand and make sure that nothing happens to you…The shepherd will not leave you alone…The one thing that we need to do in order to be able to see this helper is just love… It is through love that the shepherd starts out…It is through love that Jeremiah was created and called…
There’s the story from Exodus where Moses first encountered God in a burning bush and God told Moses, “I am, I AM.” God’s name is “I AM”… And just as Jesus said, “I am there among them.” I AM there among them…I AM there…I AM…It’s a bold claim, strong and daring, but so comforting at the same time. It’s comforting to know that God is with us at all times…No matter what happens in life. There can be the disputes or there can be something that’s exciting or something that’s mundane and ordinary….God is there…There can be those things that just take your breath away and those things that are so devastating that you can’t bear to talk about them or face what’s just happened…And God is there…There are devastating events that happen…And God is there…
I received an e-mail from a friend of mine who wanted to share a story of a friend of hers… This girl was a freshman at college in New Orleans and had just gotten there in late August 2005, she was dropped off by her grandparents when the news of Hurricane Katrina came in and she wanted to evacuate…Her grandparents didn’t have a cell phone and she didn’t have any way of contacting them, nor a car of her own. As she was trying to figure out what to do and where she could possibly go, a girl from down the hall popped her head in and asked this girl if she wanted to leave with her. They traveled east and staying with the driver’s family, safe. The new freshman was able to contact her grandparents and they were reunited with tears and many hugs. God is there…
We’re not alone—no matter what you think when you’re sitting alone somewhere… You’re not alone at least not completely. We’re not orphaned… We have someone will be with us at all times… We are not alone. Those noises… they don’t mean anything, we do not need to be afraid of them...No matter where you go or which direction you turn, you’re guaranteed to run into God, because you are not alone…We are not alone…That’s so comforting to hear and to know that we are not alone...It’s even more comforting to say out loud…So, say it with me… I am not alone… I am not alone… Praise God! Amen.

Dear Friends,
We’re into October now and every month I seem to be caught by surprise that time really has gone by as fast as it has! It reminds me of a quote from the movie Simon Birch, “Time is a monster that cannot be reasoned with. It responds like a snail to our impatience, then it races like a gazelle when you can't catch a breath.” I think we might be in the gazelle state, but breathing seems to come okay!
We’ve been doing some new things around the church for the past couple of months, new classes, new additions in worship, and new ways of exploring faith. Hopefully in the new and different ways of doing things, you’ve been able to explore your faith and faith questions to come with new ways of understanding the message of the Gospel and the message of faith. Some ways may work better for some people than others, but we keep trying!
And there are still new ways to explore. Beginning in October, there will be a weekly sermon study guide to take home to reflect on and continue in study. After the Sunday morning worship service, there will be questions to help guide discussion while you drink coffee and fellowship with one another. At Norway there will be an opportunity on Wednesday morning to engage in these discussions further. Both the study guides and sermons will be posted on the internet at www.sheridannorwayum.blogspot.com where the conversation can also continue through posted comments and additional opportunities for conversation.
In addition to all of these new opportunities to have more conversation, I will be at the Norway Store for breakfast on Wednesday, October 10 at 8:00 am and at 2Morrow’s Café for dinner on Thursday, October 25 at 5:00 pm. We can continue to grow with one another in these more informal settings.
I’m very excited about these new opportunities and see them as ways to enhance our growth together! Please try to participate in one or all of the ways and bring a friend along as well!

Blessings,
Pastor Melissa