On the Road with Jesus III: Setting Out

September 24, 2017 National Presbyterian Church On the Road with Jesus III: Setting Out Joshua 1:1-9, Romans 8:28-39, Jeremiah 29:11 David Renwick In our sermons this Fall we re thinking together about Christian life and character in terms of a Journey Journeys, as an idea, of course, can be understood in different ways. literal and geographical we move from one place to another. Or literal and temporal we move from one time or age to another; we re all getting older and the 60 s, 90 s, 2000 s are all getting further behind us. Or more metaphorical or symbolic the journey can be professional we move from one job or skill to another. Or familial we move from being children, to being parents, and grand-parents, or aunts and uncles And no matter which one of these journeys we re in (geographical, temporal, professional, or familial) they each can be a vehicle for what we call a spiritual journey an ongoing series of changes in our lives reflecting the impact of our relationship with God on who we are, and what we can accomplish with the passage of time. So one of the questions we need to ask about our lives can be couched easily in these terms What kind of a spiritual journey are we on? Are we on a spiritual journey at all? And if we are: are we stagnant? Stuck? Lost? Moving forward? Going nowhere? Or barely out of the gate? So these are the questions, and this is the theme we re thinking about this fall beginning a couple of weeks ago by thinking about the importance of finding the right mentor or guide for the journey. Without the right mentor or guide someone to follow you may never get started or you get started and promptly you get lost caught in the weeds; you may have no real idea where you re going, but they do! a good guide does! AND what Jesus promises, (and what millions of people have found) is that when we look to Jesus as this Guide or Shepherd or Mentor, he s ready and waiting to be the very mentor and shepherd and guide we need to lead us on the best way. Saying to us repeatedly Follow Me! It was when I was 13 that I first asked Jesus to be that person in my life and not for one moment since then -- has he failed me or let me down. So this is how we began the series and then, last week, we moved on to think about the journey in terms of looking back and holding on so that sometimes we never ever really get started at all, we never ever really set out because we re so attached to some-one or some-thing from the 1

past, that we become trapped and paralyzed. Even when we know we need to let go and say goodbye, sometimes it can be too painful, so we don t do it, and never get anywhere! But Jesus is clear: this difficulty is to be expected. In order to follow him, in order to be on a spiritual journey with him, you have to do it! You have to be willing to say goodbye and let go. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it bears no fruit (John 12:24). Which, of course, is a whole lot easier if there s something in the future that is drawing us forward. Last week I shared the story of one of my daughter s at age 3 going to one of the four small country churches I served in graduate school. So Currie and I would head off to two of the churches each Sunday and our three year old would be picked up and taken to one: And she never complained, jumped right in. Never had a problem saying goodbye or letting go of her parents. And there was a reason, as we discovered much later. At Madisonville, they always had chewing gum. So, for her, she saw her future as bright! And saying goodbye and letting go was easy, because the magnetic attraction of the future was far more powerful than the pull of the past. So she joyfully skipped on her way! But for some people this is not how they see life at all. For some people the glass that points to the future is always half empty, not half full. So the future becomes filled with apprehension and risk and fear. Leaving them with no magnetic pull forward at all. So they never get out of the dugout; they never get up to bat! And this was the case for one of the characters in Jesus story that we call the Parable of the Talents. The Parable of the talents is a story about a master who is about to leave home and go on a journey! and he has three servants and he gives to them different amounts of gold called talents. In present day dollars these amounts would be worth about $5 million, and $2 million, and $1 million -- a lot of money. And the master clearly expected these servants to be good stewards of the money in his absence to be confident of his blessing on his return and to use the amounts to invest in business And two of them do this: they invest the money and double it and they look forward with hope to the future and to the return of the master and giving to him an account of what they ve done: The hope of the future to them is a powerful incentive. But what about the one with one million dollars? Well he doesn t see the future or the master -- that way at all! Rather, He s afraid that in the future, when the master returns, he ll be mad at him if he doesn t do well (a fear that the other two simply do not share!) and this unfounded fear of the future cripples him; He goes nowhere, not even to a bank; But just digs a hole, and buries the money in the ground. And on the master s return? It s all a self-fulfilling prophecy: You bet: the master gets mad at him! Both, I think, for doing nothing, and also for assuming the worst. 2

Which stands in contrast to the father and son in another story of Jesus. A story we call The Prodigal Son. This son has taken his inheritance from his father, even though his father is still alive. He heads off from his father s farm to a foreign country and squanders every last penny, and ends up feeding pigs. And nobody cares a whit that he himself has nothing to eat. So he decides that if he s going to be poor and hungry he d be better off poor (and not so hungry) on his father s farm rather than on a farm far from home. What s interesting is this: he has no illusions about a really bright future just a future that is brighter than the present: the cup is half full, if only barely! BUT it s enough to get him to get him to set out, and make the hike back home. And with this inkling of hope (probably still mixed with fear, and certainly apprehension) he sets out and arrives home again only to find to his amazement that his fears are unfounded, and that his father has been weeping for him all these years, and hoping for his return. The father embraces his son with open arms. And the son experiences this love because he had just a grain of faith that the future was going to be better the present, and so he put one foot out after another, and left the pigs and set out on the journey home. Of course, having fear and apprehension about the future is not abnormal. As many have said: courage is not the absence of fear, but the handling of your fears so that they do not control or paralyze you. And so some of the great stories in the Bible some of the great spiritual adventures and journeys are precisely ones about people who really do have something to fear, and could easily have buried their whole lives in the ground or stayed in the pig-sty, but chose instead to set out on adventure with God. Think for example about the great 7thC BC prophet, Isaiah and his response to God s call in Isaiah 6 (Eugene Peterson s Paraphrase -- MSG) And then I heard the voice of the Master: Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? I spoke up, and said, Here am I -- Send me! And God said, Go and tell this people: Listen hard, but you aren t going to get it; Look hard, but you won t catch on. Remember, these people have fingers in their ears and blindfolds on their eyes, so they won t see a thing, won t hear a word. Astonished, I said, And Master, how long is this to go on? (the fact that no one is listening?) God said, Until the cities are emptied out, not a soul left in the cities, houses are empty of people, the land totally empty... the country will look like pine and oak forest with every tree cut down (DR: In other words, for a long, long time!) Imagine? Who wants to live a life like that? Who wants a future like that? You re a preacher or a teacher or a salesperson: and no one listens- ever! You can almost hear God whispering to Isaiah: Are you still on board? And Isaiah, remarkably still says YES! And why? Well, he s driven forward by a confidence (which we can read of in Isaiah 2) that beyond the pain of human rejection, God s purposes for his Kingdom would prevail in the future; and he s been given a part to play along the way. And so -- even if he s playing defense, and taking all the hits, he s okay, and still chooses to set out with God. 3

OR think about the story of Queen Esther in Persia (if you haven t read it, the story in the Old testament Book of Esther is a great read!) The story takes place 4-500BC, at a time when Esther s people, the Jews were facing a persecution that could wipe them off the face of the earth (anti-semitism has been going on for over 2500 years!). And her older cousin Mordecai tells her that she s the only one who can do anything about it: she s the queen! He tells her that she has to go to the king and get him to stop the impending slaughter of the Jews. But, even as the queen, Esther knows she has no automatic right to walk into the king s presence, and that if he s grumpy, he can whisk her off to die or never be seen again. And so, for a while, her decision is touch and go. She can operate out of fear, and bury this opportunity in the ground and act as if the ball is not in her court. Or, as she chose to do, she could reach the conclusion that Mordecai was right! that God had led her to this moment; that God had already miraculously guided her journey in the past; and that despite the fearfulness of it all, God would be with her in the future. So stepping out taking the next step forward no matter what happened would be okay! And she did it! And so it was little Esther who took the step forward that saved the nation! Or think about Joshua in our passage of scripture (Joshua 1:1-9) He s always been second in command, never in charge. Always been able to follow around after Moses the great leader But then Moses dies, life moves on and there s no one left to lean on! He s it! He s now the adult. And to make matters worse God points the finger at him and confirms it, as if to say Yes, you re IT! You re the one. You have to take it from here. You have to lead God s people on the next stage of the journey. And it won t be easy. There are all these people hanging around in the land Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites! And on top of them: the big city of Jericho with its huge walls! So there s plenty of reason all around to doubt and fear! And to make matters worse God makes no promise at all to remove the fearful aspects of the future. But instead, simply tells Joshua -- three times to buck up! be strong! be very courageous and not to let his fears control him Joshua 1: 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. 5 No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 7 Be careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful. Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And Joshua believed the promises, and obeys the command: he d seen God s control of history in the past with Moses (at Red Sea); he believed that his life was safe with God in the present; so He pulled himself together, trusted God for the future and led God s people on their journey forward. ************** 4

These challenges and promises in Joshua are amongst the most important ones in Scripture when it comes to trusting God for the future and setting out on a spiritual journey with God. And they stand right beside four others that I think of as of equal importance: One of them is Psalm 23 that we have as today s Affirmation of Faith One is also in the Psalms (37:5) Commit your way (your journey) to the Lord, trust in him and he will act One is in the Book of Proverbs (3:5-6) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6 In all your ways (your journey) acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. And one is in the New Testament in Paul s Letter to the Romans 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 31 If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us (IN THE FUTURE) everything else? 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38, 39 For I am convinced that nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord And earlier in Romans 8: 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. It s this knowledge, this trust, this assurance that the Sovereign God remains in charge of the present and future -- even in the most difficult and fearful of times that has been a source of enormous power to countless people not only in the Bible but throughout history, inspiring and empowering them to leave the past behind to control their fears for the future and to set out on a journey with God wherever it may lead. The late Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, once wrote this We who lived in the Nazi concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. How could they do this? Make this choice these amazing people in the concentration camps? embodying grace and setting out on their daily journey to walk through the huts comforting others? How could they live without crippling regret for the loss of the past or paralyzing fear for the probabilities and possibilities of the future? I cannot look into their minds and hearts and give you the answer. BUT what I can do is look to the faithful in Scripture and say that the stories of Isaiah and Esther and Joshua, and the story of Scripture as a whole show us repeatedly, and tells us repeatedly, that God has designed life to be like a journey. 5

That God promises to be with us in Jesus Christ and lead the way; He promises to take care of the past and all our losses; and he also promises to take care of the future, wherever it may be and however apprehensive or fearful it looks. And our job is to make the choice to trust Him. To trust him with our lives and to set out and follow. Follow me! he says. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. (John 10:27-28) David A. Renwick Copyright 2017 All Rights Reserved. To listen on line go to: http://nationalpres.org/sermons To watch full services go to: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nationalpres THE NATIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 4101 Nebraska Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016 www.nationalpres.org 202.537.0800 6