Anomaly Series

I. Most of the sermons that I preached are birthed from still moments in my life where I am removed from the noise of everyday living. This sermon is no different. I was on my way to take pictures of the Eagles at Morrow Mountain and as I was on the road to the boat ramp when out of my peripheral vision, I saw something white moving in the woods. I pull over and looking at me is an almost white deer with brown spots. Without frightening the deer, I get my camera and begin to take pictures of it. I knew I was capturing something unique. It would soon take off with the rest of the herd. It didn’t take long and the Lord began to speak to me, and I started doing some research on the deer and He kept speaking to me.

A. This kind of deer is called a piebald, and it stands out from the other deer due in part to a mutation that only appears within 1-2% of the deer population. Now I am a bit of a word nerd, and I noticed a pattern in my research because one word kept popping up to describe these types of deer, they were called an anomaly. Anomaly is a word that is usually used negatively that references something that is a malfunctioning error, unnatural, a deviation from intent, a glitch. The word anomaly itself does not appear in scripture but there are synonyms like stranger, alien, special, peculiar, and miraculous moments that break the natural.

1. It’s an anomaly for something to come from nothing, for an elderly woman to become a first time mother, for a bush to burn and speak, for 10 plagues to disrupt a community but not affect another, for waters to part and dry ground to appear, for water to go from bitter to sweet, for meals prepared and delivered without door dash, for a rock to become a water fountain, for a donkey to converse, for sound waves to topple walls, for the earth to hold its rotation just to keep the lights on without causing complete destruction, for a jawbone to become a weapon of mass destruction, for a river stone to become a lethal weapon, for the bottom of a barrel to become an endless buffet, for an axe head to defy physics and its molecule composition, for a shadow to change hemispheres, for fire to lose its burn for three boys, for lions to lose their appetite, for a whale to become a prayer closet, for a virgin to give birth, for water to become wine, for a fish sandwich feed over 20,000 people, for a liquid to become a solid walkway, for the blind to see again, the lame to walk again, the deaf to hear again, the dead to live. What is unnatural to us is natural to God.

B. Society claims to embrace distinctions, differences and varieties. While that may be the messaging the world promotes the reality is that the world does not accept differences that go against their established order of what is acceptable. It is more of a message of you can be different as long as you look like us.

1. Christians are looked down upon and seen as the world’s anomaly. Any google search or a scan of comment sections and forums reveal that this is not the shared view of a few atheists but is a collective consensus. In the minds of those in this world, it is take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. They are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Sin is celebrated and honored. There is no shame anymore. The World now calls evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Children of God are seen as unnatural. We are a glitch in the system.

2. We are witnessing the merger of the thoughts and intents of the heart of those from the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah, a life of decadence and debauchery. In Acts 17 the house of Jason is accused of these that have turned the world upside down, a sentiment that is still following children of God today. Obedience to God is seen as rebellion to the world’s system and culture.

a. Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Job, Samson, Ruth, Hannah, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, Miciaiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Hosea, the disciples were all anomalies, but the greatest anomaly of them all was Jesus.

II. There in the garden from my opening text, Jesus prayed for His disciples and us. Through His prayer He proclaims that He and those that choose Him will be hated by the world, but His followers are not to be removed from this world but kept from its evil that we may be sanctified in truth. Piebald means, from dark to light.