My Dad's Last Sermon: Part 3 Be not dismayed

But he goes on to say something else:  “Be not dismayed for I am thy God”.  I understand that word dismayed really means panicking, looking this way and that, being desperate, not knowing which way to turn.  In the earlier verses we find that was the attitude of the pagan nations in the face of the advancing armies of Persia.  They were panicking and not knowing which way to turn.  But for the Lord’s people he said, “There’s no need to do that.  Be not dismayed for I am thy God.”  He reminded them of his covenant with them through Abraham and we have an even greater covenant through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  The apostle Paul says in Galatians, “if we are Christ’s then are we Abraham’s seed.”  In other words, those promises made to Abraham about God being with his people hold good for us as much as for any Jew descended from Abraham.

So, we thank God that we do not need to be dismayed.  Those words would have had a familiar ring to many Jews who were familiar with their history because they’re very similar to the words that God spoke to Joshua when Joshua led God’s people into the Promised Land.  In Joshua chapter 1, verse 9 we find that God said to Joshua, “Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed for I, the Lord thy God, am with thee withersoever thou goest.” 

A Son's Tribute - Enduring

As my Dad lay in hospital for the last month of his life the only book he had with him was his Bible.  He was very sensible.  It was the Word that would outlast him in the most emphatic of ways - for ever.  So at his Thanksgiving Service we read . . .

 

¹Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

² Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

³ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

⁶ The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

⁷ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

⁸ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

 

This Old Testament reading appears, at casual reading, to be a strange combination of comfort and brutal truth.  After all, what real comfort is their that God has forgiven us (2) when we are all on the way out anyway (7)?  All that lasts is the echoing voice of the Divine (8).

 

It all hinges on what the Word of the Lord actually says.

 

If the enduring Word of the Lord had said, "Good Riddance" we could hardly blame him.  But the Word that outlasts our little earthly life-slot speaks instead of eternal salvation.  We also read . . .

 

¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

² And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³ And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

 

The Word that lasts is the Word that brings the greatest comfort of all.

 

 

 

 

 

Franklin

Approaching the Royal Wedding fixes our thoughts on Westminster Abbey and marriage.  A marriage with an extraordinary end is commemorated there and today is important in the story.

Among the very many monuments in what is our National Shrine is a monument to Sir John Franklin - 'This monument was erected by Jane, his widow, who after long waiting and sending many in search of him, herself departed to seek and find him in the realms of light.'

Today is his birthday and his birth is a lot easier to understand than his death.  For sure his remains are not in the Abbey.  Indeed they are somewhere quite unknown and very, very cold.

Born on April 16, 1786, John went to sea at age 15 with Admiral Nelson. He survived the Battle of Copenhagen then returned to England only to leave again, this time on a voyage to chart Australia. He next joined the Battle of Trafalgar, and later the attack on New Orleans.

He fell in love with Arctic exploration, and when the ships were forced to return to England, he joined another expedition to chart the northern coasts of Canada.

One of his crew wrote of him, "We have church morning and evening on Sunday. The men say they would rather have him than half the parsons of England."

In 1845 he sailed from England to look for the Northwest Passage and to explore the Arctic. Two letters came from him, then news ceased. Years passed.  His beloved wife Jane spent a fortune searching for him. Finally a boat was found frozen in the north complete with two of the crew's skeletons  - and Sir John Franklin's Bible.

Psalm 139.9,10 was underlined: If I. . . dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 

A hand that reaches further even than the hand of a loving wife.