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The Invisible Connector
A sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, November 6, 2005
I come today with an early invitation, an invitation
to invite you during this service into the invisible presence of the Living God
with a deep conviction He knows your name. He knows the world you live in. He
knows your special needs. I invite you to respond. The scripture says “as many
as received him to them gave ye power to become the children of God.”
Margaret Wheatley in her book Leadership in the New
Science has some incredible insight for the average person, like I am, who
is not a scientifically-minded person, to understand what has been happening in
scientific investigation in these past decades. She describes, for example, the
new technology that has allowed science and scientists to be able to explore the
vastness of the universe but perhaps even more significant, to be able to
explore the tiniest of the galaxy of an atom and that atom is made up of teeny,
teeny … is that small enough?
When I was going through school, an atom was the smallest
particle of anything. Now, we know that is not true at all, that an atom has a
universe all of its own. Part of that universe are the electrons. If you take
one electron and join it with another electron, like my two fists, now it is the
function of electrons joined together apparently that they operate on one of two
types of an axis, either up or down or side to side, and if you manipulate it so
that one of those electrons goes up, the other one will go down. Why? I have
no idea. That’s the way it works. They have done experiments where they have
taken those joined electrons and separated them and this one … now these are my
phrases not scientific phrases … they have sent to the next county. And what
they have discovered is that this electron if it is left still, this electron
will stay still, but if this electron is manipulated and moves upward, this one
in the next county will move downward. How in the world does this one know?
Margaret Wheatley in her book coins the phrase “invisible
connectedness,” and she says that science is bumping into the invisible part
that everything has. When I was reading all of that and trying to understand it
all, I wanted to get up on a chair and say, “What took you so long?” Because of
course in areas of faith, you’re always dealing with the invisible. And this
morning, I want to invite you to please open yourself to the invisible presence
of God that is most certainly here. Now let’s baptize that phrase invisible
connectedness.
When you pray, you are involved in invisible
connectedness. All of a sudden, the Lord is there with you and you are
connected. When you read the Scripture and some phrase or verse just jumps out
at you, you are connected. When you are seeking God’s will for your life, there
is an invisible connection that is going on there. When you are asking for
God’s forgiveness and when you are forgiven and you really know it and your
heart is clean and your spirit is freed, all of that has happened invisibly but
certainly.
Now the Holy Spirit is the invisible connector, the one who
brings it all about, who reaches up and grasps heaven’s answers with the deep
needs of those of us on earth and brings them together. This was clearly
portrayed on earth in Jesus Christ our Lord, who as the very son of God with
heaven’s answer became part of us and knew our deepest needs and brought them
together.
In 1930 when radio was just about to really get on its
feet, there was a rather worldwide phenomenon of a broadcast that was going to
be made in England—King George to address the London Arms Conference. When it
was going to be broadcast here in the States and they were all ready for it, a
technician tripped over the cord, broke it, was about to come on the air. The
one, who was in charge of the CBS radio then, Harold Vidian, looked frantically
for something that he could tape those two wires together, and he couldn’t find
a thing. I can’t imagine, that but that was in 1930. We would have some duct
tape around there somewhere I’ve a feeling. And so what he did, he took one of
those wires, and he took the other of the wires and he just put them together.
No danger to him because of the insulation and everything, but nobody had
thought about bringing them together.
That’s what the Holy Spirit does for you. Through Jesus
Christ our Lord, that’s what the Holy Spirit does for you and that leads us to
the invisible presence of the Lord in prayer. Some people say prayer is
communication and of course it is, but let me take it up to the next level.
Prayer is the processing, the invisible processing of the togetherness of your
heart and God’s heart.
Now let’s just suppose you are a mother and it’s carpooling
Monday and it’s your turn to pick the neighbors’ as well as your own kids and
you are on your way to school and you are behind the wheel and all the noise is
going on right behind you and around you, and in your own way, in your silent an
invisible processing, you say to the Lord, “Well, Lord, here we are Monday
again. Such a beautiful morning, you know I am carpooling the kids to school.
The neighborhood kids are with us. Help me to be the kind of person that is so
radiant and positive and full of joy that when these kids get out of the car I
will have given them a good start.”
You’re a salesman and you are about to go into a place you
have never been before and meet people you’ve never seen before and you say on
your way from the car to the first door, “Lord, I’m frightened; I’m nervous.
I’ve never been here before; I don’t know these people. Help me to walk in with
the kind of presence that in some remote way reflects you. Give me confidence
and allow me to know what to say at the right time and in the right place.”
Invisible connectedness, that’s what prayer is.
Suppose you are unemployed. Why not process this in the
presence of the Living One so that it goes “Lord, you know I need a job. Help
me to be at the right place at the right time with the right resume. Be my
prompter. Help those who can help me be there. Lord, you know my needs. I
just needed to talk to you about it. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus.” Prayer —
prayer you see is the connecting with God at any time in any place invisibly but
oh so essentially.
Keep in mind also the invisible power of obedience. In
Luke 11:10 and 11, Jesus has some of his most important of all teachings.
Luke10--Parable of the Good Samaritan, the experience with Mary and Martha. Go
on to 11, the Lord’s Prayer, his teachings about asking and receiving. He says,
“If you are a father and your son asks you for bread, are you going to give him
a serpent or a stone. ‘no,’ if you then being an earthly father know how to
give good gifts to your children how much more your heavenly father who is in
heaven.” In the midst of all of this, a lady stood up. I picture her being
mother and grandmother and she was just so full. She was filled to the brim and
she just broke out with praise. “O Jesus blessed, blessed the mother that borne
you and nursed you.” There is no greater compliment than a mother in that world
could have given to anybody, and Jesus was a little brusque. It’s one of those
times when the underdog part of me that always wants to root for the one who has
been marginalized, wants to say to the Lord, “Couldn’t you have said it a little
more softly.” Here’s what Jesus said, “Blessed rather the ones who hear my word
and do them.” I’m glad you are here at worship today. You have no idea how
glad the Lord is, but let me ask you something, what are you going to do about
it? It’s great to praise but what happens next. Jesus said “Blessed are those
who hear my word and do something about it.” Obedience, you see.
Darcy was a high schooler on a mission trip. When they
canvassed the neighbor to invite kids to the Bible school that they would be
having, they came across a home with a mother and a child who was about their
size, a little overweight, a little uncoordinated and mentally disabled; and the
mother said, “I want you to know my daughter, Nancy.” They nodded. She said,
“I’m so glad you’ve come by; you can be sure we will be there. I think the kids
must have all said, “Oh my, I hope she doesn’t come.” The next day she came,
and the young people passed her from one person on to another person to another
person and finally got to Darcy and said, “She’s yours.” And that was good
reason behind that because Darcy had a brother who was also challenged in
special ways, but Darcy didn’t want any of that, not on this mission trip. She
looked forward to it so long. She just wanted to be full of joy and help people
and teach the little ones and that night the Lord came to her, came to her
personally, specially, invisibly but very much present and said, “Darcy, you are
the only one that can do this. I am assigning you to Nancy for this week. I
will help you, but she needs you and I want to help her through you.” It was
clear; it was distinct. It demanded from little Darcy “yes” or “no,” and before
the night was over, she said, “yes,” and the next day she took Nancy under her
arm. When Nancy ate, she ate; when Nancy was invited to the recreational time,
to the handcraft time, to the study time, she was always at her side and as the
week went on, the two became close. When the week was over, the mother came up
to Darcy and said, tears coming down her cheeks, “My daughter is changed and
she’s changed because of you. You are a beautiful young lady on the outside,
but I want to tell you something you are even more beautiful on the inside and
you have made a difference in our lives.” The invisible power of
obedience—there is nothing about that whole experience that you can see and
there is everything about that experience that made a difference.
Influence—the invisible power of influence. Listen as I
read. This is Matthew, Sermon on the Mount, Petersen’s translation called
The Message. Jesus says, “Let me tell you why you are here. You are here
to be salt seasoning that brings the God flavors out of people and if you lose
yourself in it, how will people taste godliness. You’ve lost your usefulness
and you’ll wind up in the garbage.” Here’s another way to put it. You’re here
to be liked, bringing out God colors in people and in God’s world. God is not a
secret to be kept. We’re public with this thing, like a city on a hill, and if
I make you a light bulb, don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do
you? I’m putting you on a light stand and now that I’ve put you there on a
hilltop, on a light stand, shine. Keep open house. Be generous with your
lives. Be opening up to others, and you’ll prompt people to open up with God,
their generous Father in heaven -- the invisible power of your influence.
This is such a diverse congregation. Our young people will
be in over 30 schools, middle school and high school tomorrow. Some of you have
driven in many miles from all parts of the compass. Just suppose, just suppose,
just suppose, we really decided in our little worlds to be light and salt --
invisible but indispensable.
Finally, there is the invisible power of the bread and the
cup. Pastor Warren Brandt, Romania, in prison 14 years on occasion speaks in
Europe and in America. Usually when he does, because they broke his feet when
he was in prison, he has such trouble getting around and he will have to sit in
a chair when he brings his talk. He has a way of talking about the wonderful
nothing of being in prison. By that, he means the invisible presence of God,
and he talks about the time that he and the other believers were chained
together because they were Christians and how do you do that. How do you
praise? He says, “You Americans, everybody all over the world knows you love
things, but let me tell you about a thing, it can only be a thing. A house can
only be a house; a car can only be a car, a chair can only be a chair, but
nothing can be anything.” For example, he said when we wanted to praise and
have worship, we would take the chains and we would clank them together and that
would be our instrument and we would sing “This is the day clank clank, clank
clank, which the Lord has made, clank clank clank clank clank, we will rejoice,
clank clank clank, and be glad in it and be glad in it, right? Okay.
They put him in solitary confinement, seven years, I can’t
imagine, and they gave him food that would take away his memory so finally he
couldn’t even remember the Lord’s Prayer any more. All the Scriptures that he
had memorized were gone. Finally, he had to say to the Lord, all he could
remember of the Lord’s Prayer was “Our Father.” He said, “Lord, I can’t
remember it; they’ve put this stuff in my food, but I’ve said it to you many
times. You can remember it; you take it from there. Finally, all he could
remember was his heartbeat as he had trained himself to say, “Lord Jesus, Lord
Jesus, Lord Jesus” and when he got out finally, he discovered that those that
were left had learned how to communicate communion through the Morse code. Even
though they were chained and even though they really had no way of bread or cup.
They could not take bread and eat it. They could not take a cup and drink it,
but because they had imagination and they had the presence of God through the
Morse code, this is my body which is broken for you and there would be a long
pause as each one of them broke the bread and ate, most of the time with tears
streaming down their cheeks—invisible connection. You see on that night he took
the bread and he broke it and he said as he blessed it, “This is my body; it is
broken for you.” And he took the cup and he said, “This is my blood which is
poured out for you for the remission of your sins.”-- The invisible power of the
bread and the wine.
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