WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
A couple of years ago, my oldest son and I were walking the dog in the woods at Colonel Crawford Park. Suddenly we heard a loud crack off in the distance. I said to my son, “Rob, did you hear that? What would you do if that was a bear?” Rob said, “I’d run!” I said, “Rob, you can’t outrun a bear!” To which Rob replied, “I don’t have to outrun a bear. I only have to outrun you!” Great! This child I have loved and nurtured for 22 years – for whom I have sacrificed my all – is going to outrun me and let me get eaten by a bear!
I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. I was getting ready for work in our house in Columbus Junction, Iowa when my wife said to me, “I think it’s time!” We raced to the hospital in Iowa City as fast as we possibly could. The doctor who delivered Rob had the fastest scalpel west of the Mississippi. My wife had to have a C-section. Rob was delivered, and my wife was being wheeled out of the room in less than 25 minutes. Once they had Rob all cleaned up, they stuck him in my arms. It was the first time I’d ever even held a baby. I thought, “What am I supposed to do with this?” It was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. Suddenly I realized that along with God’s great blessings comes great responsibility.
Consider Abraham of whom Susan read a moment ago. God came to Abraham some 4000 years ago and promised to make of him a great nation. But was Abraham blessed that he might hoard those blessings unto himself? Was Abraham blessed that he might stockpile his wealth? No, he was blessed to be a blessing to others. He was to share the grace of God with the world. This story answers what has become my new favorite question of late. My new favorite question is this: Does God exist to serve us, or do we exist to serve God? We exist to serve God because – as we see with Abraham – along with God’s great blessings comes great responsibility.
The same thing was true for the disciples of whom we read in the gospel according to Matthew. Twelve men Jesus called, and they all began to follow; ever so slowly at first, doubting him every step of the way. They watched as he healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, and mended the lame. They listened as he spoke of a kingdom that had no end. What had begun as mere curiosity had turned into a call to discipleship. What had begun as mere friendship had grown into a deep abiding love. The more they saw – the more they heard – the more they came to love this man called Jesus with a love they had never known before. They were with Jesus as they celebrated their last supper together. They prayed with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then they watched him get arrested, and they saw him hung on a cross to die. Yet after Jesus’ death, he made several appearances to his disciples. In the passage we read from Matthew, he gave his disciples what we call the Great Commission. He said, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” The disciples were blessed to have walked with Jesus Christ. Yet along with God’s great blessings comes great responsibility.
Let’s talk about this sacrament of baptism the disciples were told to administer for a moment. Baptism is meant to symbolize three basic things. Number one, baptism symbolizes our admission into the Church universal. Number two, baptism symbolizes our cleansing from sin. And number three, baptism symbolizes our reception of the Holy Spirit. What exactly is the Holy Spirit? We know God the Father as God over and above us. We know God the Son as God with us and for us. And we know God the Holy Spirit as God in us. And this is what worries me. We are raising a generation of young people apart from the church. Thus, we are raising a generation of young people absent the sacrament of baptism. Can we not thus infer, from a theological standpoint, that we are raising a generation of young people bereft of the Holy Spirit? Ladies and gentlemen, that should scare us to death. For apart from the Holy Spirit, human beings are capable of almost anything. Yet the sacrament of baptism is not some magic elixir guaranteeing that your children will live a godly life. The sacrament of baptism is like planting a seed. And how do you make a seed grow? You must water it and fertilize it and nurture it. Along with God’s great blessings comes great responsibility. In other words, we – as parents – must become disciples ourselves.
The real question thus becomes, “How does one become a disciple of Jesus Christ?” Here at the First Presbyterian Church of Meadville we have devised what we call the seven covenants of a disciple of Jesus Christ. Those seven covenants are printed on the blue inserts in your bulletins. Each discipleship covenant has three separate parts: Discipleship Practice, We Begin By, and We Aspire To. Now I’m not going to go over all of them. Let me just say this. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ, one must worship regularly, pray daily, study diligently, live faithfully, serve joyously, give generously, and witness boldly. Ah, along with great blessings comes great responsibility. But if we, as parents, manage to do just that…then perhaps the fate of our children will no longer be in our hands. The fate of our children will be in God’s hands. Frankly, I can’t imagine a better place than that, can you? Amen.
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