I Am No Longer My Own, but Thine

What’s In The Box?

[As the Children’s Message begins, a Delivery Person enters with 2 boxes:]

Delivery Person: Special delivery for First United Methodist Church!

Mike: Who are you?

Delivery Person: I am here to deliver your packages.

Mike: I thought deliverymen were guys!

Delivery Person: Nope. The best man for the job is usually a woman.

Mike: Who are the packages from?

Delivery Person: Let’s open one and find out: [She opens box #1, takes out the Bible, and reads:] Jeremiah 29:11-13

Mike: What’s in the other one? I wonder. We’ll have to wait and see.

[Mike shakes the other box. He shows it to the children. There is a brief Children’s Message. And then the children return to their seats or go to Children’s Church? The sermon continues here.]

Boxes. I have been thinking about boxes all week. Life is like a box. Sometimes life is like a cardboard box. You are in the same old rut. All you can see around you is brown cardboard. No flowers. No sun shining. No warm embrace from others. Just the box. If this is your life, God has a word for you: A word of hope, filled with color and life. A word of love, God’s love. There is nothing that can compare to that. God’s love is too big to fit in the box. Yes, God’s love is way outside the box!

And then there’s Pandora’s Box. Do you remember Pandora’s Box? She opened it up. (She wasn’t supposed to open it. Kind of like the story of Adam and Eve.) Anyway, she opened it up, and all the troubles of the world came pouring out. Sometimes, I feel like I have opened up Pandora’s Box. It seems like the floodgates were opened somewhere and all the troubles of the world have rushed out on me. Do you ever feel like that? There’s hope for you. Jesus Christ died on the cross to forgive all our sins and to comfort all our sorrows. There is more blessing in Christ than there will ever be troubles in Pandora’s Box!

Sometimes life comes at you like a Jack in the Box. Did you have one of those when you were a little kid? I did. There you were. Pleasantly turning the crank, and listening to the happy music, when Bang!!! A clown jumped up in your face and scared the wits out of you. Life is full of surprises. (Not always happy ones. But sometimes they are.) Yes, life is full of surprises. Do you hate distractions? Do you hate it when you are trying to get a job done and something interrupts you? Or are you glad when a distraction comes? It gives you a chance to procrastinate from that job, that you didn’t really want to do in the first place. At times, I can be either one of those people. Sometimes I love distractions. Sometimes I hate them. Either way, I am so A.D.D. that I get really lost. {Pause} Now, what was I talking about??

Is the box half empty, or half full? Let’s face it. For most of us, the box is pretty full. God has blessed us in a lot of ways. We have all kinds of material things. In this season of Christmas and gifts, we count our blessings, remembering all that God has given us. And even more than our material blessings, God has given us the blessing of family and friends, and Christ has brought us spiritual blessings. He has given us his salvation. He has loved us with an everlasting love. It is all about the gift of Christ, who is the “reason for the season.”

For these reasons, we reach out in love, to fill up the boxes of others that are empty. We share our gifts; we share our love with others. What a blessing it is, when your box is empty, and someone fills it up. It’s like our Christmas for Colombia gifts: When those little children come up. Bare feet. Tattered clothing. And they receive one of those gifts, and they light up like a Christmas tree, with a huge grin of happiness. Their box is filled up. And my heart’s box is filled up when I see it. The Ark of the Covenant, in Exodus, was a box. It was more than just the place where the Ten Commandments of the Law of God were kept. It was a symbol of the very presence of God, the Holy of Holies. The New Testament tells us that it is our souls, our hearts, where the presence of God is meant to dwell. It is that container that the Psalmist is talking about when he says, “My cup is overflowing.”

In the heart that is overflowing with God’s Spirit, there is faith. And God blesses faith. That’s why the Lord says of the Ark of the Covenant, “I will meet you there.” What a promise! When your heart is filled with faith, the very presence of God will meet you and bless you.

Faith means trust. That can be a hard assignment for us control freaks. Let me go back to the other box. {Shake} I wonder what is in it. I shake it. What is that noise? I have to know. I have got to find out what is in it. I can’t stand it another minute! When you were a child, did you ever pick up and hold your Christmas present? And shake it? And wonder what was inside! {Shake} I can’t stand it! I’ve got to know!!!

We won’t open this box today, because it represents the future. Even more than we do not know what is inside the box, we do not know what will happen in the future. We want to know. We are dying to know. We would like to be able to control it. To protect ourselves. To make sure we will be OK. Alas, we cannot know it. We cannot control it. We are going to have to trust God. We are going to have to think outside the box.

In our scripture from Jeremiah 29:11, the Lord says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me, and come, and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me, and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

It is so easy to take these words for granted. But don’t forget that they were spoken to God’s people who were about to spend a lifetime in captivity. Even in their darkest hour, God is saying: “I have a plan for you, and a future for you. I have hope for you, and a blessing for you!”

These words are for us. We may not know the future. {Shake box} We may not know what is inside the box. But we know that God has plans for us. We can trust him. Listen to some of these scriptures: Jeremiah 17:7 Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. Psalm 56:3 When I am afraid, (Lord,) I trust in you. Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who trusts in Him. Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose mind is steadfast, because they trust in you. I Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on God, because he cares for you.

John Wesley, the Founder of Methodism, developed a covenant prayer for committing ourselves to God in the future. I know at least one pastor who prays this prayer every day. I want us to conclude with this prayer. Turn with me to p. 607 in the Hymnal, and let us pray this prayer together:

I am no longer my own, but Thine. Put me to what Thou wilt, rank me with whom Thou wilt; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee, exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Thou art mine, and I am Thine. So be it. And the Covenant, which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

{After prayer, shake box.} What’s in the future? {Shake!} I don’t know, but God does. And I know I can trust him.