Seeing Patterns
A Sermon for the New Year
The Rev. Eric H. Carswell
And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD
here, that we may inquire of Him?” So the king of Israel said to
Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, by
whom we may inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he does
not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.” (I Kings 22:7-8)
K
ing Ahab is almost a comical figure, complaining about the bad news he
always hears from a prophet of the Lord. The most amazing quality of his
response is that he seems completely unaware of the fact that he is personally
responsible for the evil prophecy that comes his way. Ahab noted that there
was a clear pattern in what he heard, but it was not in his will to see that he
could do anything about it.
Without patterns in life we could learn nothing. If there was no order
to the world that our minds could recognize, we would be continuously
overwhelmed with a clutter of sights, sounds, smells and senses of touch,
and would be terribly limited in making any kind of choice. For example,
what if sometimes the pews you’re sitting in had no more strength than thin
cardboard, or sometimes held you up as they do now? You would never know
whether they were safe to sit on. What if sometimes your favorite kind of apple
had its normal juicy flavor, but other times, without any change in appearance,
it tasted wretched? Wouldn’t you hesitate before biting into one?
In our relationships with other people the patterns aren’t always as clear.
We sometimes are greatly surprised by the responses that others give us when
we say or do something. We can think we are making a perfectly innocuous
comment only to have someone explode in anger at what we said. We can try
to be helpful but instead only make a problem worse.
We just marked the end of one calendar year and the beginning of a
new one. It is common for people to use this transition to reflect on what
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