|
“Taking Direction” (The Scripture lesson for this sermon is from Genesis, Chapter 18, verses 1-15; and the Gospel lesson is found in Matthew, Chapter 9, verse 35 thru Ch 10, verse 8)
Pastor Stan Larson Central Presbyterian Church, Russellville, Arkansas Sunday, June 15, 2008 |
|
If any of you have been reviewed on a job, one of those things that they may look at, especially if it is an entry level job, is “Do they take direction” not, can they follow directions, but do they take direction? Can you tell them to do something and they will actually do it? That’s one of those things we try to instill in our children. You want to be able to tell them to do something, and have them do it so that they are trustworthy. And we do that in our life. Part of the problem that we have as Christians is if we came up for a job review, and God was asking how well would we take direction, for the most part we might not do very well. Now it doesn’t mean that anyone else does very well either.
We have a wonderful example today in Abraham, Abraham, who last week was given the promise from God that he would become the father of a great nation, that he would have at least “a son”, and now some chapters later and some years later we have God coming to Abraham and talking about that same promise. Along the way it has been some time, and Abraham was told, “You will have a son.” On that way and during that time, Abraham had made some contingency plans that God said “NO” to. First, Abraham had adopted one of his leading servants who worked for him, Eliezer, and made him his heir, thinking that if God didn’t provide a son, then I will make sure that at least my property doesn’t go to people I don’t know. And God said, “No, that’s not the way I want you to do it.” Secondly, Sarah had come up with a plan. She said, “Well, if I can’t have a child by Abraham, I will let him sleep with my handmaiden, Hagar. So, Abraham had a son, Ishmael, by Hagar.” And if you read the verse before, you will find that Abraham and Ishmael had both been circumcised. Abraham thought he had it fixed; he had a son. Now, God comes and says, “No, you’re not taking direction very well. I told you that when I come next Spring, Sarah will have a son. That’s what I told you…Sarah and you will have a son.”
Most of us have some real problem taking direction because we want to be in charge. We like to be the ones setting the tone. We like to say, Okay, God, I’m going this way and I would surely love it if you would come with me. More often than not, God says, “Well, I’m going to be over here, and I would love it if you came with me.” But we keep saying, “ I would like to go this way” and God keeps saying, “No, I’m over here; you need to be looking at where I am, not finding yourself lost and alone.”
There’s a wonderful commercial, I believe it’s for one of the Baptist Health things. It’s about one brother calling another brother, saying, “You know that website you told me to go to and look up, so that when I’m out in the wilds I will know what I need? Well, I didn’t go there! Now, I’ve gotten on a boat and I’m stuck on an island, I am out of gas and my phone has no bars, and I’m just about to run out of phone. There’s wild animals here! Can you help me?” That’s more likely what we do with God. We say, “Well God, I was sure you were with me, and I kept going and going and going; yes, I was supposed to check in with you, but all of a sudden I find myself way out here, lost, without any resources…God, can you help me?”
It hasn’t been that many years ago that a very popular bumper sticker told us, “God is my co-pilot”. Now, what’s wrong with that? If God is our co-pilot, it means we’re in charge, which means that’s totally wrong. God is supposed to be our pilot, and we’re there, along for the ride, not trying to take over, not trying to say that we know which direction to go. It’s God who is supposed to be in charge.
If Abraham couldn’t get it right, it’s no problem that we can’t get it right either. But it does mean that we need to be doing better. We need to be looking at ourselves and saying, “How do we work at taking direction”? Most of us like to think that, well, we can be on the job awhile, you know, be a Christian for awhile before we have to take some direction and begin doing some things out in the world. Not so! Gospel reading: …the disciples have just finished being fully called. Jesus has finally got up to twelve, and what does he do? He says, “Here’s your task. I want you to go out. I’m going to send you out, first of all, into safe territory, just going to the people of Israel. You’re going out two by two. You’re going to have a companion with you.” Now, when did you start out two by two? Kindergarten, right? You had your buddy. When you went to the swimming pool when you were at camp…you had your buddy. You’re going to go out there and we want you to be successful. Now you’re going to go out and do everything that Jesus has done. And then we say, “We’re supposed to do what Jesus does”? And the answer is “YES”. It’s one of those little things that kind of gets lost at times. When you talk to people who have been elected to be elders, they’re getting training and getting ready to be ordained to be elders, there’s this little part in there that says that elders are supposed to be ready to preach and teach at any time. And they say, “What? I thought I was just supposed to sit on Session and only come one night a month, and just cruise the rest of the time”; and we say, “No, elders are actually expected to work.
Now, for Kris and me, when we went to Kenya, in East Africa, we saw that being an elder is a full-time job. We went to several churches there, we met a number of pastors, and everywhere that the pastor went, there were two or three or more elders that went with that pastor everywhere. Pastors had anywhere from five to eight churches, each of them with some hospitals and schools and some other things. They were only in a particular church one Sunday every five or six weeks. The rest of the time, the elders were expected to lead worship or find people to lead worship. We talked to people who told us they could only afford to have one person in their family to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church as an elder, because the family can’t support more than one because it’s a full time job. They’re driving the pastor around they’re going places, they’re leading worship. What was even more surprising, when you began worship in a Presbyterian church in Kenya, all of the elders gathered in the pastor’s study before worship, because all of the elders sat up front. And the elders were involved with leading worship. The pastor did very little. That was really nice for the pastor to have to do very little. When we were there visiting, at one church, the pastor didn’t even preach, because he had us preach. The elders did everything. The only thing the pastor did was to celebrate Communion. And that pastor had no qualms whatsoever about, as we gathered to go into worship, to say to one of the people in our group, “I want you to pray for our group.” There were only 30 of them in there. We found out afterward that this was the first time that this lady had ever prayed in public out loud. We never know what God is going to ask of us, what we are going to be asked to do in taking direction. God says, “You need to listen; you need to find out what it is that we are to be about, and finding out how well we do at taking direction…not following directions, but taking direction. We’re supposed to go and do, preach, teach, heal, care for people, do all of the things that Jesus did. This is what he asks of us.
It’s also in this reading that all of a sudden we go from having twelve disciples to having apostles, from being learners to being those sent out to do. You know, we figure when our young people and others graduate from high school or college, that they make that magic transition from student to worker. But, we know that the ones who are the most successful, are the ones who have been working all along, not just waiting for it. Because when they get out into the real world, they’re going to be asked, “What kind of experience to you have? Why are we going to hire you just to give you experience so you can go to a better job?” You need to be working along the way. Not that they want to hear that, not that we want to hear that.
And we know that later, Jesus will give the disciples other instructions as they come farther along in their walk of faith, and at Jesus’ death and ascension, he will send them out one by one to all kinds of places, not just to the safe places, but to all of the gentiles, to all of the parts of the world to all who are also God’s children, not just to the lost sheep of the Presbyterian Church, not just to the lost Christians, but to all of the people of the world. How good are we at taking direction? How good are we at hearing what God has to say to us, and taking His direction?
You know it’s lovely when you’re giving directions, and I have been through that frustrating process here as I announced today, going to Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Shreveport; and I wanted that process to go quickly. But as an interim pastor, I have counseled churches that you have to go slowly. You have to make sure that this is the right person, that you have done things well, that you have gotten acquainted, that you know that this is going to be a good fit; and I am on the other side, wanting it to go quickly; and they take their time, which was right.
How good are we at taking direction, even taking our own advice, even taking the advice of God on how we are to do things. We have to begin by looking at ourselves, and assessing ourselves, saying how well are we doing at taking direction from God? Yes, God will forgive us. God will come back time and time again and say, “You know, you have gone your own way; here’s my way. You’ve made contingency plans; they’re worthless. Here’s the way I want you to go.” That’s what he kept doing with Abraham. And Abraham is the father of great nations, one of our fathers that we always lift up in faith. But he was not perfect. We don’t have to be perfect. We simply have to be faithful in listening, in hearing, and in being willing to take direction from God for what we are to be doing in our lives every day. God comes to us and invites us to follow, and then to make that step in some point in time, generally fairly early on, from being a disciple to being an apostle, from one who simply sits, to one who goes out and does, who does the things that God has asked of us. If we look into our hearts, we don’t have to look very far before we say, “You know, God has said a few things that we are supposed to be about. But it’s so much nicer to do my thing, going my direction, and hoping that God will go with me”. The prayer more often should be for us to go with God, to go where God is, to take direction from God for a life, for all of the activities that we do. We are to be about taking direction from God who is our father.
Most fathers would love it if their children took direction from them. When they get to be teenagers, very seldom do they take direction. Eventually, you get smarter again; and God will allow us also to go through those times where we begin to take direction from Him. It’s challenging—to be taking direction from God, to be listening and not just doing it our way, but God’s way.
We, with Abraham, with the apostles, are called to take direction and to allow God to direct our lives into the pathways He has for us, to be looking where God is, not looking for God to be where we are. There’s a difference there; and yes, quite often, God will come and rescue us; but God certainly wants us to be where He is, taking direction and following Him. Amen.
One of those ways in which we get ourselves back on the right path, is by reminding ourselves of who God is, what God has done. In so doing, we begin to see what it is that God is asking of us, what kind of direction God would have for our lives.
And so at this time, we confess our faith. I invite you to stand and affirm our faith together using the words of the Apostle’s Creed.
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into Hell. The third day He rose again from the dead He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen
|