6-19-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE WAY: PART IV

    Five weeks ago, we began a sermon series based upon the sixth verse of the fourteenth chapter of the gospel according to John. There Jesus said to his disciples, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father…but by me.”  Perhaps we could even say, “The Jesus way plus the Jesus truth equals the Jesus life.”  While we seem to speak often of the truth of Jesus Christ and the life of Jesus Christ, very seldom do we speak of the way of   Jesus Christ. The question thus becomes, “What is the Jesus way…and how do we go about following it?

    As we noted initially, the Jesus truth – in and of itself – is not enough to attain the Jesus life.  Jesus calls us to follow the Jesus way as well.  Then we noted that the Jesus way is not a list of rules and regulations. The Jesus way cannot be codified or simplified or summarized. The Jesus way is meant to be lived.  Then when we examined the life of Abraham, we discovered that the Jesus way involves testing and sacrifice. God has a unique way of sifting people when he wants to use them to accomplish great things for his kingdom.   

    Today we come to Part IV in our sermon series on The Way.  Two weeks ago we examined   the life of Abraham.  Today we’re going to be examining the life of Moses.  Thus, if I were to come up with a subtitle for this sermon, it might be The Way of Moses, or The Way of God’s Purpose.  In any case, I invite you to come along with me as we seek to discern the Jesus Way.

    The other day, my wife and I were walking the dog out at Woodcock Dam.  As we passed a group of fishermen, I heard one of them say, “They’re just a couple of educated idiots.  I’ll bet they don’t even fish!” I said to my wife, “Are they talking about us?” She said, “I don’t know!”  The fact of the matter is, I have no idea who or what they were talking about.  But their impressions of someone had clearly been formed…probably on the basis of one particular issue or encounter.  I guess we all have a tendency to do that.  We tend to pass judgments on people based upon our own perceptions, regardless of how limited those perceptions might be.

    A lot of people have passed judgment on a man named Jim Tressel of late.  Jim Tressel was   the head football coach at The Ohio State University from 2001 until 2011.  He won a national championship in 2002.  He recently lost his job, however, amid accusations that some of his players exchanged sports memorabilia for tattoos at a Columbus tattoo parlor.  What got Jim Tressel into trouble was the fact that he supposedly knew about it, and then he lied about it to NCAA investigators.  Someone also told me that a recent Sports Illustrated article iterated a number of other rules violations that supposedly occurred while he was coaching at Youngstown State before he moved to Ohio State.  The name Jim Tressel will forever be associated with cheating and lying and deceit in many minds based upon this one incident.

    Let me tell you a story about another side of Jim Tressel.  In my last church in Salem, Ohio, I had a member by the name of Jack Rance.  I loved Jack Rance.  He was on the Personnel Committee from the time I arrived in Salem in 1996 until the day he died in 2003.  The thing I loved most about Jack was that he was always in church and he was always on my side.  Now Jack was known in Salem, Ohio as Mr. Buckeye.  He was the biggest Ohio State fan I ever knew.  Even the most rabid of Penn State fans would have a hard time rivaling Jack.  He had an autographed picture of Woody Hayes hanging in his living room.  He had a football autographed by former Heisman Trophy winners Archie Griffin and Eddie George.  He had an Ohio State Buckeye emblem on the toilet seat in his bathroom, and a Michigan Wolverine emblem inside the toilet bowl.  That’s all I’m gonna say about that!  Jack Rance was affectionately known as Mr. Buckeye.

    In the spring of 2003, Jack was diagnosed with terminal cancer.  For a time, he was at the James Cancer Research Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.  Someone from Salem called the Ohio   State football office and told them that Salem’s own Mr. Buckeye was in the hospital there.     Jim Tressel went to visit Jack Rance himself.  He sat by that man’s hospital bed and talked    football – and life – with him for 45 minutes. Nothing on God’s green earth could have made that dying man feel any better. That’s how I will remember Jim Tressel. He didn’t have to go     visit a dying man in the hospital, but he did.

    Perhaps there is more to us than meets the eye. Perhaps there are two sides to all of us.  I think the side of love and compassion and goodness is the side of us that God tends to see.  God sees the best in us.  And because God sees the best in us, he knows what we can be.  He knows what we can become. He knows what we can accomplish if we will but set our minds to it…and trust him to help us along the way.

    Case in point, consider Moses of whom we read earlier.  Moses, as you know, had a fairly interesting background.  Moses was of Hebrew descent, and the Hebrew people were being    held in bondage in Egypt.  Yet the Hebrew people were becoming so numerous – and in the mind of Pharaoh posed such a threat to Egypt – that he ordered Hebrew midwives to let all female babies live, but to put all male babies to death.  Yet the Hebrew midwives disobeyed

Pharaoh’s orders, so he subsequently ordered that all male Hebrew babies should be cast into   the Nile River.

    Moses’ mother gave birth to Moses, but she couldn’t bring herself to drown him in the Nile.  So she hid him as long as she could, then she sent him floating down the Nile in a basket.  She sent Moses’ sister to follow the basket on the shoreline to see what would become of him.  As luck would have it, Pharaoh’s own daughter found the basket and wanted to keep the baby for herself. Moses’ own mother was commissioned to nurse him and when he came of age he went to live in Pharaoh’s house as Pharaoh’s adopted grandson. 

    I have a sneaking suspicion that Moses knew something of his roots.  As a young man, he saw the suffering of his people and he was filled with compassion. When he stumbled upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, he put a stop to it.  He killed the Egyptian, and hid his body in the sand.  The next day, when he tried to stop two Hebrew slaves from fighting, one of them said to him, “Who made you a judge over us?  Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

    Moses knew his deed had become public knowledge.  Thus, he fled from Egypt and landed in a place called Midian.  After rescuing the daughters of the priest of Midian from marauding shepherds, he settled in Midian and married one of the priest’s daughters.  He became a shepherd himself.  He had a wife and a family.  Egypt was now but a blip on the radar screen of his life.      

    One day, as Moses was minding his own business, leading his flock of sheep, he noticed a burning bush.  The bush seemed to be on fire, but somehow it was not consumed.  When he turned aside to see that great sight, the voice of God cried out to him, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses did the only thing he could.  He answered the call of the burning bush.

    God was calling Moses to do a great thing for him.  He wanted Moses to go back to Egypt   and say to Pharaoh, “Let my people go!”  Moses was a murderer.  He was literally a fugitive from justice.  Yet perhaps there were two sides to Moses as well.  Perhaps God saw in Moses what he could become.  He knew what Moses could accomplish if he would but set his mind     to it, and trust God to help him along the way.  The trick here, however, would be convincing Moses of it first.

    God said to Moses, “I have seen the suffering of my people, Israel.  Come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.” To which Moses replied, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out?” God said, “I will be with you. And this shall be the sign for you, when you have brought my people out of Egypt.  You shall worship God on this mountain.”   

    Moses replied, “So I say to the Israelites, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what will I say to them then?”  So God told Moses what to say. “Say, ‘I Am who I Am.  I Am has sent me to you.’”  To which Moses replied, “But what if they don’t believe me?  What am I supposed to do then?”  Then God showed Moses how to turn his staff into a serpent and how to make his hand become leprous.  To which Moses replied, “But I don’t speak so good. Don’t you think someone else could do a better job?” Why it almost sounds like a church nominating committee trying to recruit deacons and elders, does it not?  Moses came up with one lame excuse after another. It’s an absolute wonder that God stuck with him. 

    Eventually Moses acquiesced.  He went into Egypt and faced down Pharaoh.  Imagine the courage that must have taken. Pharaoh knew Moses had killed one of his subjects. Moses was literally walking into a lion’s den.  Ten times Moses spoke God’s word to Pharaoh: “Let my people go.”  And ten times Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he would not let God’s people    go.  So ten times God sent plagues upon Egypt.  After the last plague – the angel of death who took all of Egypt’s first-born sons – Pharaoh relented. Then he changed his mind again. When the Hebrew people were up against the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s chariots came charging after them. And that’s when God parted the Red Sea.  The Hebrew people passed safely to the other side, while Pharaoh’s army was swallowed up by the sea.

    Now you would think that such a dramatic rescue would convince the Hebrew people that their God was a God who could be trusted.  Their God was a God who could do anything.  Yet once they were in the wilderness, they did nothing but complain.  They complained when they had no water, so God brought forth water from a rock. They complained when they had no food, so God sent bread from heaven. They complained when they grew tired of bread, so God sent quails that they might have meat.  Then what did they do when Moses was atop Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments? They built a calf out of gold and said, “This is your god, O Israel; the god who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

    The Hebrew people spent the next forty years wandering in the wilderness.  The trip from

Egypt to the Promised Land should have taken closer to forty days than forty years.  Why did they wander for forty years?  It has been suggested that Moses was a man. And being a man, he refused to stop and ask directions! Now that may very well be, but I think there might be a little more to this story than that.       

    The Hebrew people, led by Moses, wandered in the wilderness for forty years.  And in those forty years, they were utterly dependent upon God.  They relied upon God for food.  They relied upon God for water. They relied upon God for protection and they relied upon God for guidance.  They were literally being shaped into the people of God.  And what happened to Moses in the end?  He climbed atop Mount Nebo and looked upon the Promised Land.  And there it was that he died. He led his people for forty years in the wilderness, but he never set foot in the Promised Land himself.

    What does that mean?  For years my answer was always this: It’s the journey that counts, not the destination.  And that’s a good answer, I suppose.  But when it comes to Moses living out the Jesus Way, I think there just might be another answer as well.  Moses fulfilled God’s purpose for his life.  And once he fulfilled God’s purpose for his life, he was granted rest from his labors. 

    The message here is clear.  God has a purpose for our lives as well.  We need to discern that purpose and do our best to fulfill it.  But here’s the catch.  There may be more than one purpose to our lives.  And once we fulfill one purpose, we would be wise to look for the next one. 

    Of all people, Conan O’Brien has a marvelous take on that in a speech he recently delivered

to the Class of 2011 at Dartmouth.  Now I’m no Conan O’Brien fan.  I don’t think I get his brand of humor.  That aside, listen to what he had to say.  O’Brien said:

Your path at 22 will not necessarily be your path at 32 or 42.  One’s dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course.  This happens in every job, but because I have worked in comedy for 25 years, I can probably speak best about my own profession.

 

Way back in the 1940s, there was a very funny man named Jack Benny.  He was a giant star, easily one of the greatest comedians of his generation.  And a much younger man named Johnny Carson wanted very much to be Jack Benny.  In some ways he was, but   in many ways he wasn’t. He emulated Jack Benny, but his own quirks and mannerisms, along with a changing medium, pulled him in a different direction.   And yet his failure   to completely become his hero made him the funniest person of his generation. 

 

David Letterman wanted to be Johnny Carson, and was not, and as a result my generation of comedians wanted to be David Letterman. And none of us are. My peers and I have all missed that mark in a thousand different ways.  But the point is this: It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.  It’s not easy, but if you accept your misfortune and handle it right, your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound re-invention…Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.

    Now Conan O’Brien was talking about fulfilling one’s dreams.  I’ve been talking about fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.  But the point remains the same.  You may sense God’s purpose for your life changing as well.  And that’s okay.  Keep searching for God’s purpose for your life every day.  Live it out as best you can, and when you fulfill one purpose, start looking for the next one.  The Jesus way plus the Jesus truth equals the Jesus life.  A part of the Jesus way has to do with fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.  Once Moses did so, his life came to an end.  If we fail to do so, perhaps our lives will never even begin.  Amen.

 

6-5-2011 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE WAY: PART III

    The Jesus way plus the Jesus truth equals the Jesus life.  As I mentioned in Parts I and II of this sermon series, that’s a line quite similar to one Eugene Peterson uses in his book, The Jesus Way.  What Peterson actually says is, “The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life,” but in my mind the meaning of those two statements is essentially the same.  Perhaps the question thus becomes, “What is the Jesus way, and how do we go about following it?” 

    As we noted three weeks ago, the Jesus truth – in and of itself – is not enough to attain the Jesus life.  Jesus calls us to follow the Jesus way as well.  Then, two weeks ago, we noted that the Jesus way is not a list of rules and regulations.  The Jesus way cannot be codified or simplified or summarized. The Jesus way is meant to be lived. Today we tackle Part III on the Way of Jesus Christ.  If I were to come up with a subtitle for this sermon, it might be, “The Way of Abraham,” or perhaps better still, “The Way of Sacrifice.”

    Back in the 1940s, there was a well-known radio host/comedian/song writer in Hollywood by the name of Stuart Hamblen.  He was actually the son of a Methodist preacher, but had long since given up his traditional Methodist ways.  By the late 1940s, he was known as a drinker, a gambler and a womanizer.

    One day, a young preacher came to Los Angeles to hold a tent revival.  Hamblen made arrangements to have the young preacher on his radio show, presumably to poke fun at him.  Then, in an attempt to gain material for his show, Hamblen actually went to one of the tent revival meetings.  Early in the service the preacher said, “There is one man here tonight who is living a lie.”  Now in the city of Los Angeles, there were probably a lot of people who thought he was talking about them, but Stuart Hamblen was convinced the preacher was speaking right to him.  At first he was defiant, but the preacher’s words began to eat away at him.

    A couple of nights later, Hamblen showed up at the preacher’s hotel door at 2:00 a.m., drunk as a skunk. He demanded that the preacher come out and pray for him. At first the preacher refused, saying, “This is between you and God, and I’m not getting in the middle of it.”  Eventually, however, the preacher did invite Hamblen inside and they talked until five in the morning. In the end, he dropped to his knees and cried out to God.  One might say he had a conversion experience.

    Stuart Hamblen quit drinking, quit gambling and quit chasing women.  He quit everything he had once referred to as “fun.”  Soon he began to lose favor with his old Hollywood cronies.  Then when he refused to accept a beer company as a sponsor for his radio show, he was fired.  Hard times were upon him.  He tried writing a couple of Christian songs but the only one that had any success was a song called, “This Old House,” written for a friend named Rosemary Clooney.

    As he continued to struggle, a long-time friend named John took him aside and said, “You know, all your troubles began when you got religion. Was it worth it?”  Stuart quickly replied, “Yes, it was worth it.”  His friend added, “You liked your booze so much. Do you ever miss it?” When Stuart said, “No,” his friend John said, “I just don’t understand how you could give it all up so easily.”  To which Stuart then said, “It’s no big secret.  All things are possible with God.”  His friend replied, “Now that’s a catchy phrase.  You should write a song about that.”

    Stuart Hamblen did write a song about that.  It goes like this: “It is no secret what God can do.  What he’s done for others, He’ll do for you.  With arms wide open, He’ll welcome you.  It is no secret what God can do.”  By the way, the friend named John who questioned him about his life was John Wayne.  And the young preacher who counseled him in the wee hours of the morning was Billy Graham. The point, however, is that for Stuart Hamblen to learn to walk in the way of Jesus Christ, he had to make a sacrifice.  He had to give up what had once been nearest and dearest to his heart.      

    Abraham faced a somewhat similar predicament in the passage we read from the book of Genesis.  This passage is one of the most traumatic and hard to understand passages in all of Scripture.  God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac to the top of a mountain and make of him a burnt offering.  It’s a little thing we call child sacrifice.

    Abraham prepared to do as he was told.  He gathered some wood, took a couple of servants, and set his son upon a donkey.  They travelled to the place God told them to go.  Then Abraham took wood and fire and Isaac to the top of a mountain.  Isaac said, “Father, the fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  Little did he know that he was to be the burnt offering himself.

    Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order.  He bound Isaac’s hands and feet and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.  Then Abraham drew back a knife to slay his only son.  And you think your parents gave you psychological issues with which to deal!  At that moment, God called to him from heaven saying, “Abraham! Abraham! Do not lay your hands on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, you only son, from me.” Then suddenly, there was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.  Abraham slew the ram and used it as a burnt offering instead.

    Did God really want Abraham to offer his only son as a living sacrifice?  Is that the God to whom we turn for comfort and assurance and hope?  A lot of people who interpret this passage try to soften it a little bit.  Child sacrifice was, in fact, a fairly common thing in the Middle East some 4000 years ago.  Thus, some interpreters say that this event was actually God’s way of showing Abraham that child sacrifice was a bad thing.  For those of you who need a gentle, passive God who always makes perfect sense and wants us to live a life of comfort and ease, there’s your explanation.  Let’s say Abraham misunderstood God’s request, and God was able to rectify things before it was too late.  If that’s the kind of God you need, then you’d better tune out now.  Because I think there may be another explanation as well…one that isn’t quite as innocuous.

    As it says in verse 1 of chapter 22, “After these things, God tested Abraham.”  In other words, the Bible doesn’t say that this passage is a testament to the evils of child sacrifice. It literally says that God was testing Abraham.  Well, “Testing him for what?” is the first question that comes to my mind.  And the answer is: God was testing Abraham to see if he was ready to receive God’s blessing and covenant.  Again, God was testing Abraham to see if he was ready to receive God’s blessing and covenant.

    Let’s face it, whether this is a comforting thought or not, God has a habit of first testing those he plans to use to accomplish great things for his kingdom. For example, what happened to Jesus Christ immediately after he was baptized?  The Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil.  Jesus passed the test and the rest, as they say, is history.  Abraham himself had already had some experience with God’s testing, as well.

    The story of Abraham really begins in the 12^th chapter of the book of Genesis.  As the story goes, God called Abraham at the tender age of 75 to leave his family and his homeland and go to the land that God would show him. Abraham did as he was told, not knowing where he was going.  One could conceivably say that Abraham passed his first test right there.  But when a famine struck the land and Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were forced to go into Egypt, Abraham was concerned for his own safety.  You see, Sarah was very beautiful, and Abraham was afraid Pharaoh would want her for himself, and maybe even kill him in the process.  So he told Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister, and Sarah went along with the plan. 

    Pharaoh then took Sarah into his house and made her his wife.  And he gave Abraham oxen and camels and sheep and donkeys to boot. Then God afflicted Egypt with plagues and Pharaoh perceived it had something to do with Sarah.  So he gave Sarah back to Abraham and chastised him for saying that she was his sister.  God was testing Abraham in Egypt, and it was a test that Abraham failed quite miserably.  He took matters into his own hands and tried to live a lie.

    Abraham was wealthy beyond measure, but there was one thing he lacked – one thing for which his heart literally ached.  He wanted an heir.  He wanted a son.  God told Abraham his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.  God promised Abraham a son.  But Abraham was now 86 years old…and still he had no son.

    Sarah offered Abraham her maid – an Egyptian slave girl named Hagar – that Abraham might obtain a son through her. Hagar conceived and she bore a son named Ishmael. While God came to bless Ishmael and his descendants, I see this as yet another example of Abraham’s failing a test from God.  God had promised Abraham a son.  Abraham became impatient and again took matters into his own hands. The story of the bitter rivalry between Sarah and Hagar, and the later clashes between Isaac and Ishmael, is proof of the fact that Abraham had once again failed a test from God. 

    Finally, a son was born to Abraham and Sarah.  As the story goes, Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born.  Perhaps they measured years differently back then.  Let’s not get hung up on details here.  A few years after that, we come to our passage in chapter 22 which begins by saying, “After these things, God tested Abraham.”  Now listen to this. Abraham had become wise in his many years of life. This “test” that came upon him was nothing new to Abraham.  God had been testing Abraham all his life.  Abraham was prepared this time.  Listen to a couple of details in the story that are really quite easy to miss.

    As I mentioned before, Abraham gathered some wood, rounded up a couple of servants, and set his son upon a donkey.  They arrived at the mountain to which God directed them.  Now pay close attention to what Abraham says to his servants.  He says, “Stay here with the donkey.  The boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham did not say, “The boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then I will come back to you.”  Abraham said, “The boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”  I don’t think Abraham thought for a minute that he was going to actually have to sacrifice his son.  I think he knew all along that it was a test.  I think he knew all along that somehow …God would provide. 

    Yet God still gave the test, did he not?  In the test God discovered that Abraham’s first loyalty was to God, not to the things of this world…or even his beloved son. Abraham’s first loyalty was to God – not to God’s attributes or to what God could do for him or what he could get from God.  Abraham was willing to sacrifice what was nearest and dearest to his heart…in the name of God.  Abraham’s primary loyalty was now to God.  Abraham was finally ready.  He was finally ready to receive God’s blessing and covenant.  And it only took him a little more than 100 years!

    God has always had a way of testing people when he wants to use them to do great things for his kingdom.  Don’t think for a minute that God has changed his ways today.  God tests us each and every day as well.  Perhaps the question then is not, “Did we pass or fail?”  Perhaps the real question is, “Do we even see the test when it’s placed before us?”

    Along those lines, I have an absolutely marvelous story that was given to me by Dr. John Robb, and I use it with his permission. John and his wife, Marilyn, were on their way back to Meadville after wintering in Alabama.  They were in a hotel restaurant near Birmingham.  In walked a man with a cane.  He was obviously a double amputee.  The man sat down at a table by himself.

   Marilyn said to John, “Go and see if you can help him.”  John said, “I’m not going over there.”  Marilyn said, “Go and see if you can help him.”  John said, “I’m not going!  He doesn’t want my help!” Marilyn said, “Go and see if you can help him.” So John went over to see if he could help.

    John sat down at the table across from the man.  He said, “My wife wanted me to come over here and ask you if you needed any help.”  The man said, “My wife is just like that, too.  Aren’t we lucky?” 

    The man explained his situation.  He said, “I’m a World War II double amputee.”  John said,   “I was in World War II.”  The man said, “I was drafted right after high school.”  John said, “I was drafted right after high school.”  The man said, “I was in the infantry in the Pacific.”  John said, “I was in the infantry in Europe.”

    The man continued his story.  He lost both of his legs in Okinawa when he was 20 years old.  He came back to the United States and went to college on the G.I. bill.  He became an accountant and eventually started his own business. He said his customers were wonderful.  He even went to their children’s weddings and graduation parties.  He finally sold his business because – as he put it – he didn’t want to die with his boots on.  Throughout their conversation, John was struck by the fact that the man kept saying, “God is good.”  He’d suffered for more than 60 years without his legs, but still he said, “God is good.”  At the end of his story, he looked at John and said, “Aren’t we lucky?”  What a beautiful outlook on life!

    John told me he was so moved by this man’s story that he’s been telling it ever since.  In fact, he was recently in the hospital and he told that story the woman who was drawing his blood.  She said to him, “Aren’t you glad you listened to your wife?” 

    Ladies and gentlemen, I see this story as a test from God.  Dr. John Robb passed the test – thanks in no small part to his wife – and he has been truly blessed because of it.  Abraham was more than 100 years old when he finally passed his test.  Dr. Robb is only 86!

    The Jesus way plus the Jesus truth equals the Jesus life.  A part of living the Jesus way necessarily entails testing and sacrifice.  Abraham found that out when he was asked to sacrifice his only son.  Of that story, Eugene Peterson says, “Why did our ancestors place this story so imperiously on the very threshold of the Way? Didn’t they know that many of us coming on this story so early on, offended and outraged, would just shut the book and go shopping for something or someone more benign to guide us on our spiritual quest, like, say, the Buddha?” 

    Along those lines, I think of what Teresa of Avila once said of God.  She said, “Lord, if this is how you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you have so few!” God may not have an abundance of friends, but the ones he’s got – the ones who are doing their level best to walk in the Jesus way – are probably pretty good ones.  Amen