sermon poem: hidden with Christ in God

Each of us has a “life hidden with Christ in God”.

Each of us was CREATED for a reason. Each of us has a special place within the heart of God. Each of us are profoundly KNOWN and deeply LOVED by the One who created planets and stars, galaxies and quasars, quarks and atoms.

The One who knows the hidden depths of the ocean, and who sees the hidden glories in the heavens that none of our telescopes can observe, who sees the unseen causes of the particles our most powerful microscopes can barely make out – this is the ONE in whom YOUR LIFE is hidden with Christ.

The One who whispers into the deepest recesses of your soul is calling you into the fullest life imaginable.

The echo of every dream and desire that has resounded in your heart, the deepest yearnings you can’t put into words; the tears that have come at unexpected times – the disquieting sense that there MUST be more to life than just paying the bills and getting food, shelter and clothing.
There must be more to life than buying more stuff you don’t need, there must be more to life than merely projecting an image of success.
There must be more to life than investing all of your hope in staying one step ahead of the eventual shut-down of your body. This is a battle that 100 percent of us eventually lose anyway.
There must be more to life than CONSTANTLY revisiting past glories, failures and regrets or the fear of the unknown future.
There must be a FULLNESS available NOW.

We all have this feeling we can’t put into words.
As if there’s MORE out there but we don’t know exactly what it is or how to get to it. There’s some BULLSEYE out there that we can’t seem to hit.
Missing the BULLSEYE is the literal meaning of the word SIN.
And so we try to bring it about in our own power.
We try to measure our worth by what we can afford; by what other people seem to think of us. There is a desire to be truly KNOWN and UNDERSTOOD and above all – truly LOVED.
But Christ comes into our PRESENT, reconciling PAST and FUTURE.

Our shadowy pasts, our dirty secrets, our buried shame – these are all brought into the light. He reaches deep into our murky souls and brings every failure, regret and disappointment to the surface.

He does this not so that He can draw attention to the darkness, but so that these HIDDEN, sad and scared places can be HEALED by His nail-scarred touch.

The MAN OF SORROWS, who tasted every grief and felt every human groan of despair while on the cross, can heal our deepest hurts with wounded hands.

He doesn’t heal these things by making them hurt less; they hurt MORE as they are brought into the light. But He sees them all – He knows them all, and HE DOES NOT LEAVE. He experiences them with us. He takes them into HIMSELF. He enters each of our deaths FOR US. He removes the sting of death that has mortally wounded each of us.

He descends with us to this dark night of the soul. He knows every wound you bare. The wounds that have made you leery of revealing your true self to anyone.
The wounds that keep YOU hidden.
The deep wounds of rejection that have burned themselves on your identity.

But in your past, He also finds OTHER THINGS.
He sees your first laugh, your first step, the first time you danced to music.
Those raw, beautiful moments of PURE LIFE that you have also lived.
The first time you felt the joy of loving and being loved.
The first time you made a real friend and knew you weren’t completely alone.
He shares your ENTIRE life with you, and He calls to you NOW from your past and says:

FORGIVEN! REDEEMED!
FOUND! UNDERSTOOD!
DEEPLY LOVED!

Your past does not need to be revisited with regret and despair.
He IS NOW redeeming it, untangling it, TRANSFIGURING it. He will make it beautiful.
He makes ALL THINGS beautiful in time.

And He also goes before you, into your future.
He sees the very things you fear happening, happening.
He sees the dark story that the Evil One whispers into your heart.

A dark story full of bitter, crushing disappointments; in which your brightest hope is to blend in, to not make waves or stand out too much.
To try to scratch out a decent living and have a nice, normal, predictable, manageable life.

The serpent gives you this apple.
Be like God. Have it all under control. Get everything nailed down, laid out in advance, ironed and neatly folded. No surprises.
This is the best you can hope for, says the Serpent.

Right before a nail-scarred foot crushes it’s boney head.

Christ, who redeems your past, also calls to you from your future
LAUGHING
saying, “If you only knew the surprises I have for you!”

The plans that will be frustrated, the easy way out that will cave in on itself, the daydreams of a perfect life that exists somewhere else in an imaginary future.

When we find these things crushed in our lives it is because they are serpent-lies.
Whoever LOSES their life for MY sake will FIND IT, He says.

And so, today, if you listen for His voice,
He is calling from your future, saying,
If you only knew
THE ADVENTURE I am leading you into
the unexpected places you will find yourself
the people you will meet
the unlikely friends you will make
the fears you will overcome
the dangers you will see past
the abyss you will out-stare
the darkness you will squeeze sparks of light from

IF YOU ONLY KNEW, He says
that everything sad and scary will eventually be proven untrue
that every longing and desire I have planted in your heart will bloom eternally
that every life you touch with My love will cause ripples that will effect places you will never go and people you will never meet

IF YOU ONLY KNEW the plans that I have for you
the glories you were created to taste
the heights you were created to scale
the adventure you were created to LIVE
you would never waste another single moment being afraid.

There is a reason I say FEAR NOT so much
Because I see things as they ARE.

TODAY
where you are
look to the past that I have redeemed
and to the future I am artfully crafting for you
to find as you go
there are deep treasures to be found in your redeemed past
and in your promised future
deep treasures that are available TODAY

when you set your sights on the things above
and look past the messiness of everyday life
and see that your life is HIDDEN WITH CHRIST IN GOD
ASK, SEEK, KNOCK for what’s GIVEN, FOUND and ALREADY OPEN to you, child.