BREAD FOR THE JOURNEY
About a week and a half ago, a woman in this church by the name of Averyl Under-wood gave me a marvelous book to read. The book is called The Shack, and it was written by a man named William Paul Young. Actually, I think she really gave the book to me to read and then put into our church library. But like I do to all the books I read, I kind of marked it up. So Averyl, I owe you 14 dollars and 99 cents!
The story of how the book came to be published is really quite fascinating. William Paul Young initially printed just 15 copies of the book for his friends. It was his friends who encouraged him to get the book published, but Young was unable to convince a publisher to do so. As I understand it, he talked about God too much for the major publishing houses to be interested. Then the so-called religious publishers weren’t interested either. They tend to have a bit of a fundamentalist/evangelical outlook. So when Young talks about God loving Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and Jews as well as Christians in his book, they declined to publish as well.
Thus, William Paul Young published the book himself in the year 2007. Word-of-mouth referrals eventually drove the book to number one on the New York Times best-seller list. The Shack was the top selling fiction book in America in the year 2008. I’ll bet there are a few publishers out there today who wish they hadn’t been so quick to decide against printing Young’s book. I’m sure it’s made a lot of money to date.
I want to tell you a little bit about the book without giving too much away, in case you decide to read it yourself. The principal character in the story is a man named Mackenzie – or Mack for short. Mack did not have an easy time growing up, but eventually he landed on his feet in life. He had a wonderful wife and he had five children, the oldest two of whom were in college.
One weekend when his wife was out of town, he took his three younger children on a camping trip to the Oregon wilderness. He took his teenage son, Josh, his adolescent daughter, Kate, and his six-year-old daughter, Missy. To make a long story short, Missy was coloring at a picnic table while Josh and Kate were out canoeing. Suddenly the canoe tipped over and Mack rushed to rescue his son and his daughter, leaving Missy behind. After a successful but stressful rescue, Missy was nowhere to be found.
Thankfully, the author doesn’t go into great detail about this, but six-year-old Missy got kidnapped and murdered. She was carted off and killed in an old, abandoned shack. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. This event brought into her father’s life what the author calls The Great Sadness. You can well imagine that it did.
A few years later, Mack – still in the throes of grief – gets a strange note he believes to have come from God. God is asking Mack to meet him at that old, abandoned shack. There Mack encounters God in the three persons of the Holy Trinity. It’s an interesting concept and it’s an intriguing picture of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This doctrine of the Trinity, of course, comes from the Nicene Creed. Interestingly enough, when the early church bishops constructed the doctrine of the Trinity, they never explained just how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit could be three persons in one. They just said, “Scripture indicates it and we believe it.” John Calvin would later simply call it a mystery.
It’s a mystery William Paul Young tries to unravel in his book, The Shack. The point is this. A man encounters great tragedy in his life. He desperately longs for answers from God. And in the end, God comes to him and gives him what he needs.
Now let me also say this. William Paul Young is a Canadian by birth and was raised by missionary parents in Dutch New Guinea. His own upbringing was far from pleasant. He was molested at a Christian boarding school by some of the people to whom his parents used to preach. Thus, as you might suspect, William Paul Young does not have a very positive view of the church. He once gave an interview to a Susan Olasky of World Magazine. In it he said:
The institutional church doesn’t work for those of us who are hurt and those of us who are damaged. If God is a loving God and there’s grace in this world and it doesn’t work for those of us who didn’t get dealt a very good hand in the deck, then why are we doing this? Legalism within Christian or religious circles does not work very well for people who are good at it. And I wasn’t very good at it.
William Paul Young presents an interesting picture of God in his book. It came to him after a traumatic experience in his own adult life. He had a three-month affair with one of his wife’s best friends. As he said in Maclean’s magazine in August of 2008, “I either had to get on my knees and deal with my wife’s pain and anger, or kill myself.”
Please don’t misunderstand. I am not putting him down, nor am I telling you not
to read the book. His theology is interesting and in many respects it’s a breath of fresh
air. It’s just that perhaps he privatizes faith a bit too much. After all, faith is not meant to be hoarded in isolation, faith is meant to be lived in community. And perhaps it also places some unrealistic expectations on God. A man in the midst of ungodly trials and tribulations demands an audience with God, and God acquiesces. The Old Testament book of Job aside, I just don’t think that’s quite the way God operates…at least not any more.
Case in point, let’s take a look at the passage we read from the gospel according to Mark. Jesus has been preaching and teaching. He’s been healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and mending the lame. The crowds are crying out for more. The disciples are thinking they’ve got the world by the tail. After all, they’re the closest allies of the very Son of God.
Then Jesus begins to tell them of how he must suffer and die at the hands of those who do not understand. Peter – bold, impetuous Peter – cries out, “No, Lord! We will never let that happen to you!” And what does Jesus say to Peter at his undying pronouncement of loyalty? He says, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men!” How devastating Jesus’ announcement must have been for his disciples, particularly for Peter.
Shortly thereafter, Jesus took Peter and James and John up a high mountain by them-selves. There Jesus was transfigured before their very eyes. What does it mean to be transfigured? No one knows for sure, but the insinuation is this. Jesus was transfigured – he was transformed – from an earthy body and appearance to a heavenly body and appearance. Like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, he took on all the glory and radiance of a heavenly being. Then Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.
The disciples were dumbfounded. It was a high moment of vision for them, yet they were uncertain as to what they should do. Peter offered to make three booths – one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. In other words, he wanted to make little huts for them so they could relax and stick around for a while. Peter wanted to preserve his high moment of vision, but that was not in the cards. Instead, God spoke to them from a cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!” Then everyone was gone, save for Jesus and Peter and James and John.
God gave them a high moment of vision atop that mountain. It was a clear confirmation to the disciples that Jesus was the Son of God – the Messiah the world had long awaited. It was a moment to which the disciples could return in their minds after Jesus was put to death. In the days that lay ahead, the disciples’ worlds were about to come crashing down around them. The disciples could then remember the transfiguration and rest assured that it was all a part of God’s divine plan. Why, it was almost as if God was giving them bread for the journey. Their journey would be long and arduous. They would find themselves in dire need of spiritual sustenance.
God gives all of us bread for the journey. God gives all of us high moments of vision to carry us through the trials that lie ahead. Take parenthood, for example. You know, I’ve often joked, “The teenage years are God’s gift to parents. If it weren’t for the teenage years, we’d never want to see our children grow up and leave home.” Perhaps there’s some truth in that.
I have a 20-year-old son in college who seems to be in constant need of financial assistance. I have a 16-year-old daughter who once was “Daddy’s little girl,” but who now finds her father to be a bit of an embarrassment. Can you imagine that? I have a 15-year-old son who has a bit of an explosive temper. He gets it from his mother, of course.
I remember when those kids were little. I remember holding them in my arms and beginning to comprehend what love was all about. I would have given my life for theirs. I like to call that spiritual memory. God gives us those high moments of vision to carry us through the trials that lie ahead. Spiritual memory truly is bread for the journey.
Speaking of high moments of vision that serve as bread for the journey, I stumbled upon an old church newsletter from my church in Salem, Ohio. My successor there was a man named John Besore. He wrote a beautiful story in the church newsletter that I think depicts a high moment of vision very well. Listen to this.
I enjoy flying, and some things are humorous in the airport, but some things just annoy me (but then again, I am an old geezer). When I flew to Kansas City for my (continuing education) weekend, I was sitting in the airport waiting for the P.A. announcement that it was time to board. Before that announcement came, some people rose up and stood near the ramp door. I can only guess that they looked at their watches and it was getting close to the supposed time of boarding. Of course, when the announcement came, their seating assignments were such that they were not the first group to board. But they had to stand near the door for some unknown reason, blocking others from getting to the door. Did they think the plane was going to leave without them?
Then when on the plane, getting to the seat is an experience because everyone in creation brings those luggage bag things on wheels which they stuff, beat, and/or shove into the overhead bins, which takes more time. By the time you get into your seat and buckle the belt you are ready for a “come to Jesus” moment, for you are just thankful you got into your seat. Then when the plane lands and stops at the gate, everyone on the plane immediately stands up in the aisle, waiting to be the first off the plane. As if the flight attendants are going to stop some people and say, “Sorry, you have to stay on the plane forever.”
I tell you those parts to share with you something very cool which happened on the K.C. flight. There were three service individuals going home on leave from serving in Iraq on the plane. When we got close to landing, one flight attendant got on the P.A. and asked if everyone would stay seated so they could disembark first as families were waiting for them.
When the plane got to the gate, everyone was quiet and remained seated. When
the three service people began going down the aisle, everyone began clapping and continued until they left the plane. Then, strangely, people got up in the aisle – not in a hurry – but with a different attitude.
God may not come to us to answer all our questions, but God does give us signs that he is in our world. When we see God in the little things in life we can lock them away in our spiritual memories and bring them to mind when we need them. That, my friends, is how God operates. That, my friends, is how God gives us bread for the journey. Amen.
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