“Standing Alone?

”
October 24, 2010

Joel 2:23-32 Luke 18:9-14 2 Timothy 4:6-18

On the night of August 30, 1988, 19 year old Marine Lance Corporal Jason J. Rother was dropped off in the
Mohave Desert near Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Corps base in southern California. Corporal Rother was
ordered to act as a guide for a troop movement that was to happen overnight during a military exercise. For
obvious safety reasons, in such an exercise, standard procedure requires that soldiers and marines be assigned
with a buddy but Cpl. Rother’s buddy was stationed 200 yards away. After the last vehicle of the convoy
passed, the buddy, who was near the road, was picked up, but Jason Rother was left, in the desert, utterly and
completely alone and forgotten. Apparently, neither his squad, platoon nor his company commanders took a
headcount or noticed that he was missing. In fact, he was not reported missing for nearly 40 hours. I have
been to Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Corps base. This military installation is more than an hour’s drive from
Palm Springs, CA to the west and over two hours from Needles, California, to the east, both of which are
themselves in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Temperatures during the day can reach 120 degrees and
at the time that Cpl. Rother was abandoned easily reached 107 degrees. When a search was finally mounted
almost two days after he was forgotten, all that was found were a few pieces of his equipment and stone
arrows that he had constructed to mark the direction of his travel. As second unsuccessful search was
mounted in November and a finally a third search in December discovered his remains. Investigators found
evidence that Cpl. Rother set out, on his own, across the desert and eventually became delirious from
dehydration. They believe that Cpl. Rother died more than 24 hours before anyone had begun looking for
him. After travelling, on foot, for more than 17 miles, he died just two miles from the base at Twenty-Nine
Palms.

This is an extreme example but has stuck in my memory for years because, I believe, that it reveals one of
our worst fears, that of being abandoned, forgotten and alone. For generations, we survived just fine without
all of the technological wonders that we now carry around in our pockets and for all of their convenience, I
wonder, how much that the explosion in popularity of cellular telephones and other gadgets relates to our fear
of finding ourselves, forgotten, vulnerable and alone.

This is also a nagging spiritual fear as well. We fear that if we trust too much, we will find ourselves
abandoned and alone. We hold back from trusting God because, somewhere inside of us, we fear that God
isn’t going to be there when we need him most. Particularly in our culture where a gigantic emphasis is
placed on personal independence and resourcefulness, we are often trained to believe that we have to utterly
self-sufficient and we forget that it is sometimes necessary, even good, to rely and trust in others and
especially to rely and trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God. Not surprisingly, this tendency is not
new to modern humans or our modern culture. This has been a reliably recurring flaw in human thinking
throughout the ages and again, not surprisingly, has often been addressed by God in scripture.

The prophet Joel writes to the people of Israel at a time when their nation has been devastated by plagues of
locusts. Many people thought that God was judging the nations in the region around Israel and Judah but
that they would be spared. They were not. After the devastation, we can easily imagine how downtrodden
and hopeless that the people must have felt. Joel writes to tell the people that God has brought judgment
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upon their nation because of their unfaithfulness but call the people to repent, to return to faithfulness in God
and brings God’s promise of forgiveness and restoration. (Joel 2:23-32)
23
Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in
righteousness. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.
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The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
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"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm — my great army that I sent among you.
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You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
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Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God,
and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed.
28
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old
men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
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Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
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I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the LORD.
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And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

God says that the destruction brought upon Israel by the locusts was his doing but that the intent was to teach
them so that they would know without a doubt that there is no other God in Israel. God tells them that he has
brought about this great destruction but reminds the people that even in the midst of it, they were never
alone. God tells the people that he will restore to them what was lost and give them even more than what
they had lost. In the midst of horror and tragedy, in the midst of natural disaster, in a time when the people
are feeling abandoned and alone, God reminds them that there is hope for the future and that he has not left
them or forgotten them.

Still, we wrestle with our own temptations. Our culture of self-sufficiency and our relative wealth often
cause us to believe that we can make it on our own. Worse, we often begin to believe that we have made it
on our own and that we have become great because of our own strength, intellect and cunning. We think that
we’re “all that” and we’re not. This temptation is also not new. In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus tells a parable of a
man who thought too much of himself…
9
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this
parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The
Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers,
evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
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"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and
said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
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"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts
himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Jesus reminds us that we’re not “all that.” We are not the captains of our own destiny and we are not so good
that we can gain God’s favor simply because of our inborn talent, intelligence, sophistication and goodness.
When we being to think too much of ourselves, we have crossed a line into a very dangerous place. Instead,
we are called to think less of ourselves, not to think poorly of ourselves but to be humble. We should not fall
into the trap, as some Christians have done, of saying “I am just a worm; I am unworthy of God’s love.”
Instead, we are called to be realistic. To recognize that our best falls short of God’s standard and that we are
continually in need of God’s grace, but also to remember that Christ died for us. We find value in our lives
in knowing that the Son of God places value in us. Jesus valued our lives so much that he was willing to
give up his own life in order to save ours.

Finally, we need to remember that we are not alone in our fear of being abandoned and alone. In fact, there
will be times when we, much like Cpl. Rother, will feel like we have been forsaken. Near the end of his life,
the apostle Paul was in this very same place, but through it he found that God was faithful. (2 Timothy 4:6-
18)
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For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I have
fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but
also to all who have longed for his appearing.
9
Do your best to come to me quickly, 10for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has
gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11Only Luke is with me. Get
Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. 12I sent Tychicus to Ephesus.
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When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.
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Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.
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You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
16
At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.
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But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully
proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. 18The Lord will
rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever
and ever. Amen.

Paul’s own friends, colleagues and students had turned against him, preached false doctrines, attacked him,
or deserted him. No one from the church came to support him at his trial and left him to defend himself
against his accusers. Even as he faces his own mortality and sees that he will likely not survive his
imprisonment, only Luke remains at his side. At this time, Paul is likely imprisoned in a cold, damp dungeon
and for comfort asks that Timothy bring him his warm coat and some of his favorite things to read. In these
dark times Paul does not attempt to stand on the merit of all the things that he has done. Neither does Paul
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weep over his abandonment. Instead, Paul proclaims that through everything, God has stood by him. Even
in the darkest of times, God gave Paul the strength that he needed so that the message of Jesus Christ might
be proclaimed and the will of God might be fully accomplished. Paul recognizes that God has rescued him,
that he will continue to rescue him, and will eventually, in his own time, bring him safely to his eternal
home.

Lance Corporal Jason J. Rother was abandoned and left to die in the California desert. After an investigation
two sergeants were court martialed and the lieutenant in charge of Cpl. Rother was tried and convicted of
crimes committed in relation to Cpl. Rother’s death. Corporal Rother was well trained but had limited
resources at his disposal. He did an admirable job in attempting to survive and in trying to direct his eventual
rescuers in following his path through the desert. Even so, like him, we may sometime find ourselves in
situations beyond our control where we are, or at least feel as if we are, abandoned, forsaken and alone.
Throughout history, scripture has reminded the people of God that appearances can be deceiving and that
things are not always what they appear to be. God did not abandon Israel because of their unfaithfulness or
leave them to fend for themselves after the destruction of the locusts. Paul was not alone even when his
friends abandoned him to defend himself in a Roman court and to rot in a Roman dungeon. They were never
alone.

Throughout scripture we hear echoes of the same message. We hear it in Deuteronomy 31, Joshua 1:5, and 1
Kings 8:57, we hear it in Paul’s words to Timothy and we hear it again in Hebrews 13:5-6…
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Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." 6So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?"

We are never alone. God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

We will never be abandoned.

God is always with us. Jesus always walks with us through every trial.

We need only remember to act humbly, to pursue faithfulness and to seek his face.

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

No matter what, we never stand alone.

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