HELP!!!!! Help, thanks, wow Reinbeck UMC 1/14/18

HELP!!!!! Help, thanks, wow

Reinbeck UMC

1/14/18

Most of us know this much about Jonah. He spent time in the belly of a fish but there is more to his story you might not know. Jonah is not just an average person. He is a prophet of God. He is a preacher with a special call to speak a particular message from God’s to the people… in his opinion that meant Israelites. You know, God’s chosen people.

When God called Jonah to go to Nineva. His response… “NO WAY!” Now don’t be too hard on Jonah. You might have the same response when you discover that Nineva is in modern day Iraq.  Have you heard about the battle with Isis for control of the town of Mosul? That’s what Nineveh is called today. I’m afraid that if God called me to go to Mosul and preach the Christian gospel, I just might find myself in the belly of a fish somewhere. And if I found myself in the smelly belly of a fish, I’d certainly pray for help like I have never prayed before.

That’s what Jonah did. The passage John just read for us is Jonah’s prayer from the fish. Check out page 800 in your pew Bible. I did a lot of research into the Hebrew language used there and there is a better translation.  HELP! That is the best translation ever HELP!!

We have all been in the belly of the fish. It is dark, it stinks, we are in ick up to our knees (or sometimes up to our chins), we can’t believe we are there, we can’t figure out how we got here, let alone imagine how we are going to get out. We feel alone and powerless and hopeless, and we don’t know where to turn… here only one logical response scream as loud as you can… HELP!!!! SOMEONE HELP!!!! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME????

The instinct to cry out for help is right in our genetic code. What is the first thing a baby does when they need something…anything… cry out. They don’t know what they need. They don’t know who can help. They don’t have a plan. They don’t blame anyone. They just cry.

Somewhere along the way we stumble into thinking “I can do it myself,” “I shouldn’t have to ask for help.” “I am an independent 2-year-old, or teenager, or adult and I don’t need anyone’s help.” That works pretty well…until it doesn’t. And then we are right back to crying out for help. We cry, “Mommy!” “Daddy!” “Teacher!” “Doctor!” “Plumber!” “Preacher!” “Anyone who can help!” It is just part of who we are.

And sometimes we find ourselves in such a deep hole we pull out the big guns and cry out to God. Although OMG it is used much to casually in our language, when we are in deep trouble, a deep heartfelt Oh My God... might be all we have.

 But what I want to tell you today is that’s all we need.

The belly of the fish comes in a lot of different shapes. I’ve rarely felt so helpless as I did during Amber’s heart surgery. HELP! I have rarely felt so out of control as I did the day Richie was born and they loaded him up in the neonatal ICU ambulance and whisked him off to Iowa City. HELP! I have rarely felt so defeated as I did the day the church burned down. HELP! I have rarely felt as alone as I did when I got laid off for the first time. HELP!

 Those are the gut felt and honest of all prayers.

Anne Lamott who wrote a little book called HELP, THANKS, WOW You’ll find it at the top of your KNOWW, GROW, GO sheet. Ms. Lamot defines prayer as “reaching out to be heard, hoping to be found by a light and warmth in the world, instead of darkness and cold.” Prayer is not at is essence words. Praying help is the heart or the gut reaching out, grasping for, yearning for, begging for something outside of the belly of the fish. For some people that is fate, or nature, or human intervention. When you are that deep in the belly of the fish. The only real answer is calling out to God. Prayer is “reaching out to be heard, hoping to be found by God.”

Simple right? And prayer should be simple and it is… getting to the point of praying HELP is a different matter. Why is it so hard to pray help?

•            Perhaps pride is the number one reason. We will try anything and everything we can think of until we run out of good ideas or even bad ideas… before we admit we need help and turn to prayer.

•            The second reason is the opposite of pride. It is a feeling of being unworthy. Thinking God has more important things to worry about than me. Occasionally someone in the hospital says, “You didn’t have to come… you are so busy… I want to tell them, ‘You’re in the HOSPITAL! This is exactly what I’m supposed to be busy doing.’” I don’t, but there is something in us that says we are not important enough to get help.

•            One the final reason I think praying for help might be hard for us is we doubt that God can or will help. Our brains sometimes tell us that that

–            God caused our suffering... Don’t believe it.

–            Or we have the idea that God doesn’t care… Don’t believe it.

–            Or we have the notion that God can’t do anything for us. Don’t believe it!

We have to jump over those hurdles and just cry out “Help me God!”

Let me point out two lessons from Jonah’s story. Take a look at Jonah in the belly of the fish on page 800 of your pew Bible.… In verse 2 he says, “I called to the LORD out of my distress. But how long did he wait?  This was his last resort. In verse 7 we read ““7 As my life was ebbing away, I remembered the LORD.” It was after three days and with his last dying breath that Jonah called out to God.

When I was at one of the lowest points in my life, when we left the church and moved to Bettendorf without a plan, or jobs, or anything… I’m sorry to say It took years…. And a thousand little tiny steps before I was able to open up to God and cry “help.” It took folks from the church doing a hundred kind things for us…it took our friends from the church inviting me to do kind things for others with them… It took my going back to worship, not for me, but to be a good example for Richie (and the crack began to open) …. It took being rooked into chaperoning a mission trip (a little bigger crack) It took hitting rock bottom and realizing that I had no options but to cry out to God. And the light began to shine through e crack. Even then I didn’t have the strength to reach out… I opened a crack and God’s grace began to shine through… and it wasn’t long before God reached in and saved me again.

Lamont says, “Most good, honest prayers remind me that I am not in charge, that I cannot fix anything, and that I open myself to be helped by something, some force, some friends, some something. These prayers say, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t see where I’m going. I’m getting more lost, more afraid, more clenched. Help.’”

God will still be there if you wait, that’s not the issue… but how bad does it have to get?  Just do it.

Just do it and TRUST. It is hard to trust. But when we have run out of ideas, and excuses, and blaming, and cursing what is left but to trust someone else. Trust that God didn’t put you in this bad place. That is not the way God works. Trust that God cares… and he does. Trust that God wants to help… and he does… trust that God can help… and God can!

Notice the second half of the 2nd verse in Jonah’s prayer. Jonah almost sounds surprised! “and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead, I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”

I believe every time we can trust God actually deepens our relationship with God. When we pray, “OK, God. I’ve got nothing left. Did you really mean it when you said you loved me no matter what? Well, here I am, warts and all.” It’s at that moment, in that moment of helplessness and. vulnerability, and trust that our healing begins.

One more thought. Our prayers for help are not always for ourselves. Often, we pray prayers of help for others. How does that work? How do our vulnerability and our trust in praying to God help someone else?

In NASCAR or competitive cycling, they call it drafting. Geese do the same thing. The front racer faces the headwinds so those behind can have an easier time because of the front rider’s work. When the front rider nor goose needs a break someone else steps in. Isn’t that a great image for prayer in the church? I’ll stand here in prayer and face the headwind for you when you are weak… then when I need help, you step up and pray against the headwind for me. Praying prayers of help for one another is one of the things that defines who we are as the church.

What is your belly of the fish right now? Think about it. If everything is good right now think about a time when it wasn’t or think about a friend who needs help right now. Take your piece of yarn. Tie one knot about ¼ of the way up the strand. Fold it in half and fold it in half again to estimate ¼ of the strand. And tie a knot right there. And pray for help. Feel that knot and pray for help. Hold on to that knot like your life depends on it and pray for help. You know they say when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. That is kind of what we are doing. Tie one knot there. If you want you can make it a double knot so you can feel it better, but not two knots next to one another. Bring it back next week and we’ll do that. Today only one knot. And pray for help. Now take it home and hold on to that knot and pray for God’s help for you or for others.

Remember there is “KNOT” one thing that can separate us from God’s love. KNOT angels KNOT principalities, KNOT life, KNOT death. KNOT anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It’s to pray “help.” It’s a good and indispensable prayer. “Help!” For now, and evermore. Amen.