EUROCLYDON

"When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, a tempestuous head wind arose, called Euroclydon." Acts 27:13-14

It began a difficult journey: a ship bound for Rome, and the apostle Paul bound in chains. Paul had been apprehended for preaching God's word. Paul's scripture-based preaching infuriated the Pharisees and Sadducees, two sects which denied the resurrection of Jesus. Fearful of their loss in power, as Paul's preaching was converting many away from their doctrine, they sought to capture and kill Paul. They accused him of sedition (noun. conduct or speech inciting or causing people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch). 

Paul's Roman citizenship meant that his captors had to hold his trial in Rome (Acts 25:10-11). Not only did this preserve Paul's life, his supposed crimes might have gotten him killed in Jerusalem, but would not qualify for death in Rome, but it also fit neatly into God's plan. God had previously informed him that He intended Paul to be in Rome: "the Lord stood by him and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome'" (Acts 23:11).

And so they set out for Rome, but the waters were tumultuous and dangerous. It was immediately apparent to Paul that the voyage would result in disaster: the loss of the cargo and possibly the lives of those on the ship. But the centurion (commander) decided to take the advice of the helmsman rather than that of Paul.

They sailed right into the Euroclydon winds, a cyclical, tempestuous wind. Control of the ship was lost as it tossed in the sea; the crew did all they could to keep it afloat. Days passed of the fight to stay alive. Storm clouds blocked the sun and stars and stifled the hope of the men on the ship. As the winds and waters continued to beat down on them and their ship, no longer did they believe they would survive.

Meanwhile, Paul appealed to God through abstinence. If the journey was to be survived, Paul knew that it would be by the Hand of God. Paul's fast allowed him to review the situation, reflect on the decisions made that led to it, and hear with clarity God's plan of restoration out from it. From here, the journey documented in scripture helps us to survive the Euroclydon winds in our own lives.

• NEITHER SUN NOR STARS

Hopelessness and defeat are perhaps the most able to extinguish a person's faith. Sometimes the darkness of the storms in our lives are so comprehensive that we lose sight and even remembrance of the light. The crew on the ship were not like Paul. They followed the advice of men rather than the plan of God. Their rejection of God's plan may have been inadvertent but the result was the same. 

Sometimes our desire to do something or for something to be done is so fierce that we ignore common sense in favor of impatience. Like the men on the ship, we have it in our minds that we must be certain places at certain times. Things to do. People to meet. Money to make. Prospects to take. We want all of it to occur on a timely schedule, a schedule in accordance with our impatience rather than God's plan.

Paul presented the men on the ship with a choice: wait and have a smooth voyage, go and possibly lose your life to a difficult one. They chose difficult, and so often do we. But that sort of thinking propels us directly into cyclical winds too. We go around and around making the same mistakes, beating back the same fierce seas, desperate to stay afloat until we finally lose the hope that its even possible anymore.

The absence of sun and stars made it impossible for the crew to navigate the ship. They were tossed, lost and without hope. Which is a place many of us find ourselves to be in at times. Distress causes us to lose all ability to navigate the sometimes-rough waters of circumstance and emotion. Feelings of rejection, hopelessness, isolation, fear, anger, and impatience cause to behave erratically. That erratic behavior directly contradicts God's promises to us:

Rather than rejected we are chosen by Him, Ephesians 1:4. There is no such thing as hopelessness for a child of God, within the kingdom of God, hope is in constant supply, Malachi 3:10. We cannot be isolated from the presence or promise of God, Matthew 28:20. 

That erratic behavior directly contradicts God's instruction given to us: 

Do not fear, John 14:27. Do not be angry, Ephesians 4:26-27. Wait on the Lord, Psalm 27:14.

Extraordinarily, God has provided the emotional and practical instructions on how to survive the storm. Sometimes, in order to actually apply them to our behavior, we need to lighten the ship.

• LIGHTENING THE SHIP

Paul knew what to do in that darkness. Paul knew that he would make it to Rome because God had told him he would. Paul's advice and prayer and fasting was for the purpose of the preservation of the people with him. They were sinking. What do we do when we are sinking? We toss out the things that are causing us to sink. We remove from our ship, life, the things causing the water to weight us down. Paul did this through a fast. Sometimes a fast is about food, but other times a fast is the jettison of distractions. Secular distractions: attitudes, activities and other things that have no religious or spiritual basis. 

The world is full of secular distractions. The attainment of power and celebrity are cultivated by cultures around the world. The desire for control and admiration distracts us from giving and humility. The abundance and attainability of material wealth induces a desperate want of things. Our value of the material causes us to undervalue the actual substance of life. We corrupt the even the biosphere we rely on to exist in order to make and buy and have and use things. We neglect others' basic human rights and needs to pursue our own agendas, secure our own borders, protect our own reputation, clear our own day, have our own fun, claim our own rights and needs.

And so sometimes we need to jettison the things that perpetuate in our lives the distractions of our culture: the social media and music, biased news sources, commercialism and celebrity. We need to clear our lives of the distractions which cause the cloud coverage that blocks the sun and stars. The hope and the lighthouse that is God. We need to learn to be more aware of our susceptibility to the things our world says we should want. 

God is able to strengthen us. His love and instruction render us less vulnerable to the desperate desire of filling our bodies, souls and lives with those corrosive distractions. We need to clear the space, we need to jettison those things.

• TO TAKE NOURISHMENT

And then we need to be filled in. Once we have thrown overboard the distractions, we need to fill ourselves with something ordered and solid. We need meat and bread, that is: the deep and thorough word of God. Paul encouraged the crew to eat: "Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival..." Indeed this is for your survival. God urges us to stop ingesting empty calories. To stop taking in the secular world as though it could ever possible sustain us. 

Our souls need actual, spiritual nourishment. Things and fame and vanity are empty. The fruit of impatience is unsatisfactory and insufficient. Like Paul, fast the distractions and then take the bread. Live with gratitude for the One who pointed out the problem and then solved it. 

Paul cautioned that only those who remained on the ship would survive. The people who decided to solve their problems on their own would fail. God has capabilities that we do not; the impossible for us is possible for Him, Luke 18:27. The meaning of this is that we cannot leave  the kingdom of God and expect to thrive or even survive. It is God's path that leads to life and safety and blessing. We cannot just abandon ship (pun definitely intended) and expect to be nourished. All along God's path are the fruit and meat that nourish us. Away from from God's path, we might sustain ourselves but God has bigger plans than for us to be merely sustained. He has plans for us to live, thrive and survive. 

We must throw the junk out and fill ourselves with love and patience, humility and compassion. Easy as it is to give in to our cravings and binge on our temptations, we have to train, spiritually, until we are stronger than that impulse. The impulse to let loose our anger, feed our desire, act on our impatience. It is the nourishment that God provides which grows within us the muscle subdue the things, people and emotions that have power over us. 

God will get you to where you need to be. The storms become irrelevant when you choose God as your helmsman, the One to navigate your ship. Your life. You may not, at times, see the sun or stars. You may feel hopeless, but you must remember that God is the light. God provides the hope. Jettison the distractions and the clouds with dissipate, the sun and stars will be visible once again.

HE IS THE HOUSE

This is a sermon about David, but this story really begins much before David's birth. Even before his parent's or grandparent's births. God called forth a family out of the earth, out of slavery, and then out of the wilderness in order to lead them and their posterity, steadily, into His kingdom. That journey takes place throughout the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Judges and Joshua. All before David existed, but crucial to his story; because David would represent the pinnacle of all of it. 

The tribes of Israel, (that is, the people who had made a commitment to be God's people in life and law), finally arrived in a land they could call their own. Blood, sea water and prayers had brought them to a home. What made their place a home was the King that precipitated it and presided over it: God. Yet the people did not so attribute their new place to their God. They wanted a king, lowercase. They wanted a man to preside over their territory, despite dire and specific warnings against it (1 Samuel 8:10-18).

Thus began the reign of a man named Saul. Saul's reign began well enough, but very quickly, he began to descend into corruption and paranoia, to injustice and outright lawlessness. God's solution to the problem was David. A young boy, the youngest son of a man named Jesse. David, a little shepherd with a big heart for God. A humble human with a courageous spirit. 

God chose David as Saul's predecessor. David quickly evidenced why: deep faith in God allowed him to slay his peoples' fiercest enemy against all odds. David then grew into a successful soldier; so successful that he garnered the attention of all the people. They loved David so much that Saul begin to hate him. 

Saul clung greedily to the throne. He desperately endeavored to kill David. But Saul's position on the throne was only precarious because he had made it so. It was his own unrighteous action that caused God to seek another, someone who would not simply obey God's instruction, but someone who would enjoy God's instruction. It was a requirement for the position. For God's people could only be properly led if led in accordance with God's will. And someone who did not love God's will, would not choose it as their path. Saul did not love it, but David did. Saul noticed that and caused David's life to spiral down into a frenzy. 

David's life became tumultuous: called forth from his childhood home, David went from battlefield, to battlefield; to the king's house. From the king's house, David went from hiding place to hiding place; to enemy territory. He had no obviously linear path. He lived in a constant state of fear and flight. Except for his faith, he had no security; but his faith, his God was the one constant. God was the core of security beneath all of the tumult surrounding David. 

• PLEA FROM THE WILDERNESS 

Some of the best Psalms were written by David during this time of extreme duress. Each verse narrates David's emotional journey from fear, to trust, to reassurance. In essence: I am scared, but I trust you, and have good reason to, as you have saved me before. Psalm 53 is an example of a Psalm written by David while he feared for his life, homeless from the wilderness. Let's break it down with that sentence:

I am scared . . .

Save me, O God, by Your name,

And vindicate me by Your strength.

Hear my prayer, O God;

Give ear to the words of my mouth.

For strangers have risen up against me,

And oppressors have sought after my life;

They have not set God before them. 

. . . but I trust you,

Behold, God is my helper;

The Lord is with those who uphold my life.

He will repay my enemies for their evil.

Cut them off in Your truth. 

. . . and have good reason to,

I will freely sacrifice to You;

I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good.

 . . . as you have saved me before.

For He has delivered me out of all trouble;

And my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.

David began the Psalm with fear. He communicated to God his desperate situation and the character of his enemies. Likely, none of us are praying to God from a cave over fear of our enemies. But, metaphorically, we have caves and enemies of our own. We too life in fear and flight and homelessness. From David, with scripture, we know how to pray such situations into hopeful coherency. We  take inventory of our fears and enemies and we pray them into God's hands. Finally we trust, because God has proven trustworthy; moreover, God has proven capable. Such a prayer reminds us of the times we have been in similar, seemingly-impossible situations and simultaneously reminds us that we are no longer in them. God moved us from the previous seemingly immovable state and can do so again.

The ability to trust is not something that can be learned then mastered. Trust is a constant effort that, at best, is more and more easily applied when it is needed. David moved from place to place with no assurance except for the same promises, on the same pages, from God that we are reading now. And though his situation seemed uncertain and his circumstances volatile, God kept David safe and fed and positioned precisely. God ensured that David always had the upper hand; despite Saul's organized pursuit of David, David was the one with the opportunity every time Saul was near.

The reason was because David clung to his faith, communicated through prayed and committed to God. Three actions often rejected and even sneered at by much of the world, rescue God's children every day. 

• WHO AM I AND WHAT IS MY HOUSE?

Eventually, Saul died and David became king. And he was a king, a man, after God's own heart. David remained aware and grateful for God's presence and action in his life. His busy life as a soldier past, David committed his life to honoring God. He wanted to build a house for God.

But God explained that a house was not necessary for him. He was, and is, always, where His faithful children are. God never needed a house. He never needed to be settled. For God has been and is The House. We are the settlers, and He is the land. Indeed, God reiterated, he did not need a house and did not ask for one. Instead, God committed to building a house for them. For us. 

David was stunned with amazed humility. God, who had already given so much, vowed to give more rather than receive. The news was delivered through the prophet Nathan, from God to David: the Lord tells you that He will make you a house. God vowed to give His people a place, to plant them in it and to secure them in it. To grow, to thrive, to last. To rest. And that place is His kingdom. He is The House. No matter where we are, or what circumstances befall our lives, He will make us a house. 

As the Lord did for David, so will he do for all of His children who love Him; for all of His children who make their own variations of the same prayer David prayed in Psalm 53: I am scared, but I trust you, and have good reason to, as you have saved me before. The same fulfillment of promise is promised and fulfilled by God to us right now. He will make us a house. 

God's goodness is so absolute that each time we receive it, we are stunned by the magnitude of His generosity. He gives so much; He fills our cup, and as it spills over we wonder how He could love us so much. That love, that relationship is built over time spent with him, praying to him, trusting in him, from the wildernesses, from caves, in the trust and hope that He will make us a house.

• ABIDE IN ME 

And while that house is being made, we have been given Jesus, who has invited us to abide in Him. Because it is not always easy to wait with trust. God has given us, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, a space to abide in peace. The assurances of Jesus are alive and proffered, we need only to remember to claim them.

God is not looking for monarchs anymore, Jesus has been established in that position now and forevermore. But God is still in the business of establishing His children. He is still a protector. He is still constructing safe places for His children to grow, thrive, last and rest. During the development, He has provided shelter, direction and instruction:

Shelter, John 15:7

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Direction, Matthew 6:33-34

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 

 Instruction, Matthew 6:34 

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

And He also provided reassurance, for the times when we are feeling homeless, hopeless, or fearful.

Reassurance, Matthew 28:20

"... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” 

Everything David lost or lacked was given back or created by God. David's life, once devoid of so much was filled to bursting by God with shelter safety, rest, redemption, establishment, purpose, family, love... and so much more. Abide in God, for He is The House. He knows what you need (Matthew 6:8) and it is His great pleasure to give it (Luke 12:32).

I HAVE BEEN A NAZIRITE

In scripture, when something important and divine is about to happen through a person, it often begins with their parents' temporary infertility. It happened to Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, and in this bit of scripture, to Samson's mother. Though the parents interpreted their childlessness as faultiness, God had simply placed a pause on their ability to conceive. And the reason is because He has a plan and a place for that child to be born into. He arranges the perfect circumstances for that child to live out his specific purpose within the grand scheme of God's plan; we learn how that applies to our own life through the life of Samson in the Book of Judges.

Superficially, Samson comes across as a bit of a contradiction; in comparison to the sanctity that surrounded his conception, the choices Samson makes in his life seem rather reckless. But God was behind all of it, and the intended end result achieved. 

• BIRTH OF SAMSON, THE NAZIRITE 

An angel was sent to the mother of Samson both to inform her of her impending pregnancy and to instruct her on how she was to rear the child. God wanted Samson to be raised as a Nazirite, which meant that from conception, his mother was not to imbibe alcohol or eat any unclean foods. She was also instructed to never cut her son's hair. God was arranging for a child to be born as a representative of dependence on the will of God. 

Samson's parents heeded the word of the angel once Samson was born; he grew and the Lord blessed him. So is it then strange that once grown, Samson's first recorded act was to deliberately contradict God's word? For Samson fell in love with a woman forbidden to him, a woman of an ancient people called the Philistines who believed in false gods and lived corruptly. In Deuteronomy 7:3, God taught His people to marry like-believers, because non-believers would lead them away from their faith. Samson's parents were troubled by their son's request for the Philistine woman. Yet Samson insisted, and the reason why was given to us: "it was of the Lord,... he sought an occasion against the Philistines."

God had a plan to infiltrate the Philistine nation, via Samson and make a display of His power against the power of their false gods and corrupt lifestyle. So God encouraged Samson to marry a Philistine, creating an opportunity for another region of the world to hear what He has to stay about corruption. 

• STRONGER THAN A LION

While walking through a vineyard, Samson came across a young lion. Normally this would be a terrifying situation. But actually this was a personal moment between Samson and God, arranged of course, by God. For the Spirit of God came mightily upon Samson, and Samson was able to tear open and kill the lion. And this occurrence happened to exhibit the strength of God within Samson; the famous strength of Samson, so wrongly attributed to Samson, actually came from God. 

The whole situation serves as this metaphor: within the vineyard, that is: the protection of God, we have strength enough from God to be stronger than the enemies that happen upon us. All of this happened before Samson took the woman as his wife. When he returned to the place to retrieve her, he came across the deceased lion. This time, the lion was filled with honey, and Samson ate it. 

In other words: Samson recognized that his strength came from God. It's not important that Samson ate honey out of a lion, his strength was not sustained by the honey. It is important that Samson was sustained by the honey, the word and strength and will of God. He took all of it into his life, body, mind and soul. It was sweet. 

Psalm 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 19:9-10... The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Samson then turned his experience into a riddle in order to churn up the Philistines: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." The riddle captured the attention of the Philistines. Samson's experience with the lion procured an audience, and Samson the Nazirite was on the stage. The riddle churned up the people. They wanted the answer, but of course were unable to guess it. They did not witness Samson with the lion or the carcass with honey. But the real reason they were unable to answer the riddle was because they did not know the word of God. They did not have the spiritual wisdom to figure it out.

So the people told Samson's wife to pull the answer from him and to pass it on to them; they were desperate for the answer because they had made a large bet that they did not want to lose. She agreed. She wept and guilt-tripped Samson into telling her answer to the riddle: "What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?"

Indeed Samson answered the riddle with two questions. The answer to those two questions was the heart of the issue: God. Not the machinations of people. Not the might of a man. God. A lesson the Philistines needed to learn. In Deuteronomy 9:4, God explained that His campaign against nations such as the Philistines was due to their wickedness. God infiltrated their camp with His message in an effort to teach them about righteousness. Samson told the riddle, not because he was tricked but because it was meant by God to be told.

• WITH THE JAWBONE OF A DONKEY

Samson continued to pretend to be out-played by the Philistines. He allowed himself to be captured by the Philistines after a retaliatory attack he made on them when they remarried his wife to another man. While bound at wrists with cords, the Spirit of God came mightily upon Samson once again and the cords came off of his hands. Freed, Samson picked up the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men. The metaphor in this, even when the resources are limited, the strength of God is not. The Philistines were unable to subdue or even thwart Samson because of God's spirit over his life. 

Samson thanked God for the victory, and then became thirsty. He thought the extreme thirst would kill him. The symbolism is that without provision from God, the spectacular display of strength would have killed him. But because Samson remembered God in victory, God remembered Samson in his near moment of defeat. God provided water, the living water (John 4:13-14), and revived Samson's spirit. If we are going to achieve beyond the boundaries of human ability, we need divine sustenance. 

If we are going to achieve as soldiers within this righteous army, we need God. If we are going to change the world with the mere, metaphorical, jawbone of a donkey, we need to remember God. Our spirits need to be sustained and revived by Him.

• FOR I HAVE BEEN A NAZIRITE 

It became the sole intent of the Philistines to find out where Samson's strength came from. God had neatly arranged the situation. The answer they were so desperate for was the message God wanted, all along, to give them. 

Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, but their story was not of love. Delilah worked with the Philistines in a deceptive plot to unearth the "secret" of Samson's great strength. Once they found out, their plan was to overcome Samson, bind and afflict him. In three attempts, Delilah asked Samson the source of his strength. Three times Samson lied.

• “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.” And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

• Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

• Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.”And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—

Every time Samson gave Delilah an answer, she betrayed him and called the Philistines to attempt to subdue and capture him. They were, each time, unable to do so. In allowing himself to be betrayed by Delilah, Samson displayed to the Philistines that the source of the strength he had was different than all other sources of strength.

And then Samson told Delilah the truth.

Samson explained that his strength came from his vow as a Nazirite: "for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb." But to Delilah and the Philistines, it seemed as though he was saying that his strength came from his hair. They would soon learn to discern the difference. They heard: if you cut my hair, my strength will leave me. But Samson actually meant that if he was ever cut off from God his strength would leave him. If he ever betrayed his vows to this cause of righteousness, his strength would leave him. The hair was merely symbolic. 

With the truth, the Philistines were finally able to capture Samson. They shaved his hair and bound him. When Samson attempted to run away as before, he realized that the strength of God left him. They put bronze chains around Samson's hands and imprisoned him.

But Samson's hair began to grow back.

Delilah is infamously known as a betrayer. But did her manipulative antics cause Samson to succumb to temptation and abandon his God?  No, God, with Samson, out-maneuvered Delilah and everyone else. Samson divulged the "secret" precisely when he was meant to, as he was meant to. As he was destined to do even before birth! 

Indeed Samson's hair began to grow right back. His hair, the symbol of God as His strength, his vow of a Nazirite never to cut it or change faith. It grew back, immediately. His strength grew back, because strength from the Lord is not something someone else can ever take away from you.

• THE TEMPLE OF THE FALSE GOD

The Philistines were so ruthlessly excited about capturing Samson that they decided to offer a great sacrifice to their "god" Dagon. And this is where God's plan finds fulfillment. The Philistines were ignorantly convinced that their false-god was stronger than Samson's God, our God. They thought that Dagon had broken Samson's strength. But it was actually God who had temporarily, and for the purpose of teaching the Philistines a lesson, removed Samson's strength and allowed him to be captured.

With the temple of their false god filled with men and women, the Philistines brought Samson up from his prison cell to perform. They thought the performance would lame and weak; after all, they believed they had subdued Samson. They meant to mock him. Samson entered the temple, thousands of Philistine eyes on him. And as all of them were gathered together for their false god, Samson called aloud to the True. Samson prayed aloud for the strength of God he had known all his life... and he received it. Samson placed his hands on each of the two supporting pillars the temple and pushed. The temple of the false god came pouring down in a great display of the strength of the True God. God's campaign against the Philistine's wickedness accomplished through Samson.




God placed Samson in perfect position to make an incredible display of God's unbeatable strength. Samson will not have been the first (or the last) to discover that what God considered to be the "perfect position" was often a prison cell surrounded by enemies. Because God, and Jesus, have the intent to spread the righteous word of God throughout the world. This message of righteousness is meant for the people who live in opposition to it. In order for the message to be heard by the right people, God places His people in what at first appear to be the wrong places. Betrayed, captured and imprisoned, Samson was exactly where God wanted him to be! 

The takeaway for us is that if we are committed to God's cause of righteousness, He is working through us to accomplish His purposes. Whether we realize or not, God is working in the details of our lives. He is expertly using our life and voice and choices to accomplish the plan He made for us before we were born.