Jogging with Jesus

Here's today's sermon. You have to read to the end to find out about my running experience this morning. :o)

Genesis 22:1-18 and Matthew 10:37-42

The Lord Will Provide (Sundaes on Wednesday)

I headed out of the church a couple of days ago, thinking about my sermon for today. As I pulled to the end of the drive, preparing to turn towards town, I noticed our marquee which had just been changed, and I began to laugh uncontrollable. I don’t know if any of you noticed it or not. (There’s a picture of it in your newsletter!) The marquee says, plain as day, “The Lord Will Provide Sundaes on Wednesday July 9.” I sent a picture of our sign to my clergy friends around the country. Within days, I had responses asking if the Lord would provide Sundaes for them as well, as the heat around the country is pretty astounding! One of my friends commented – “It’s like free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s only it’s the Lord!” I’ve even discussed our sign with one of the ICU nurses at Highlands Regional. It’s a great discussion starter.

In the readings for today, we discover the meaning of blind faith. Abraham hears God’s call to take Isaac and sacrifice him as an offering to God. And he set out to do exactly what God had asked him to do, not knowing why, not knowing that God would save his son at the last minute. In the Gospel according to Matthew, we discover the cost of following Jesus as we too are asked to enter into the covenant call of faith which often seems absolutely absurd. We are asked to love the Christ more than our own family members. In other words, we are to be willing to let go of that which is most important to us if we want to call ourselves followers of Christ. Matthew’s Gospel even goes so far as to say, “whoever does not take up the cross to follow me is not worthy of me.” Jesus spoke these words before his own crucifixion. He was being real with those who wished to follow him. Jesus was letting them know that to follow him was radical enough that they would, most likely, be killed.

Why are our churches as full as they are? Because we want to skip ahead to the place where the ram comes into view and the sacrifice is no longer necessary. We want the promise of eternal life. We want the ice cream sundae with the cherry on top, that’s why people gather. We want it to be known here and around the world that the Lord will provide!

(at this point, we’ll get interactive as I tell the story. Practice: (me) “Abraham thought,” (kids) “How wonderful!” (choir) “I have followed God!” (congregation) “Now I can receive my blessing!”)

Abraham started out living life in hopes of the ice cream sundae with the cherry on top too. In faith he walked through the desert, leaving behind family, and came to the place where the Lord provided for him. He thought, “How wonderful! I have followed God! Now I can receive my blessing!” But Sarah, his wife, did not conceive the child that was promised him. So he set about helping God fulfill God’s promise by doing as Sarah instructed and sleeping with her servant, Hagar. Soon Hagar conceived and bore him a son, and he thought, “How wonderful! I have followed God! Now I can receive my blessing (of descendents as many as the stars)!” But with Abraham’s new attachment to his son, Sarah and Hagar began to argue over who was the most important to Abraham, and for the safety of the child, God sent Hagar and her son to live elsewhere. And Abraham was childless yet again. But his faith must not have dissipated there because some messengers from God came to Abraham and told him that Sarah would conceive a son in her old age, and she did. And once again Abraham thought, “How wonderful! I have followed God! Now I can receive my blessing!” But then Abraham heard God’s voice to take his son into the wilderness, to an altar 3 days away, and sacrifice him. He heard God’s voice telling him to kill his own son. And Abraham, who loved God and revered God more than his own son . . . Abraham, whose faith had brought him through hard time after hard time after hard time . . . Abraham left once again for the place God would lead him, and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, a sacrifice we today cringe to think about, a sacrifice we would easily see as insanity in our culture, a sacrifice that would make the news as a tragedy saved when Child & Family Services stepped in. Abraham began to make his altar. He placed his son upon the rock and took out his knife, instilling fear in his child . . . fear that no child should know. And then the Lord provided . . . the Lord provided a way out for both Abraham and Isaac. And Abraham, through tears of relief, thought, “How wonderful! I have followed God! Now I can receive my blessing.” And he did. But by that time, he realized and God realized that Abraham’s life was no longer about walking in faith to receive a blessing. Rather, he came to experience God’s provision at the moment as enough. Abraham, long before the days of Christ, experienced Grace. He received a gift that he knew was not due him. He acknowledged the reality that nothing mattered except God, and he followed, believing that God knew what was best. The blessing that Abraham sought was no longer important. The fact that God’s will would be done throughout eternity was all that mattered.

We hear Abraham’s story and we realize the extent of blind faith that is needed when we enter into this covenant between ourselves and God. When Jesus said, “37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me,” he wasn’t speaking in some metaphorical, allegorical speech. He was speaking the truth, the reality, that a covenant with God is not to be taken lightly. There will be times when God demands of us more than we might be willing to give. If we are not willing to give it, we are not living the covenant life. I’ll repeat what I just said because it is at the heart of faith-living. If we are not willing to give God ANYTHING God asks for, we are not living the covenant life.

And, like Abraham, we are to follow God not because of some blessing WE will receive, but because the One who holds the universe is eternal. God is all that matters. We are only temporal (stuck in time). The covenant life demands that we live in recognition of the awesomeness of God and that it change our priorities so that God comes before the very people we love the most.

Jesus asked his followers for everything. And they left everything, they risked everything (as we pointed out last week), to follow him. His followers wondered why they should follow him because they had been taught to follow God. And Jesus reveals his identity to them. He tells them that if they are a true disciple, they will become their teacher. They will lose their very selves and begin living the life of their teacher. And Jesus admits that’s exactly what he did. God was his teacher and he is God. The lines between Jesus and God have been erased because Jesus became so immersed in God that no distinction could be made between the two of them. He teaches his disciples that they too can follow to the point where the lines become blurred. “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me.” In other words, if you as my students, take in all that I am and the line between us exists no more because what I believe, you believe and who I am you are. This is a different model than our current culture portrays. We offer more of a cafeteria culture – take the part that you like from this teacher and the part that you like from this teacher and become a unique individual. But in Jesus’ culture, the disciples or the “learners” had only one teacher and took all that the one teacher espoused seriously until the lines between the two of them began to fade. Because of this, Jesus is able to say, “Whoever welcomes my disciples also welcomes me.” And then he continues, “And whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me” , and the one who sent Jesus is God. And if that wasn’t enough, Jesus continues by telling about the kinds of rewards followers receive. If you represent a prophet, you’ll get a prophet’s reward. If you represent a righteous person, you’ll get a righteous person’s reward. But, if you as a disciple of Christ who comes in the name of the Holy one, offer anyone ANYTHING, even a glass of water, you have bestowed upon them the greatest blessing ever. You have offered to them God. (Repeat: If you are a true disciple of Christ, you are also a disciple of God, so anything you offer to anyone in the name of Christ is a gift, a blessing, from God.) For you are no longer offering them some reward that is way out there, you have offered to them the knowledge that the blessing of the universe is simply that God is. And you, a follower of God, have shown them that very blessing because of your covenantal relationship with God through your teacher, Christ Jesus.

But the question remains, are we willing to sacrifice it all so that God can do what God needs to do with us? With others? Like Abraham, we frequently have to live a life of trial and error. We ask, “God, have I been faithful enough for my eternal reward?” and God reminds us that even a glass of water coming from one who is in a true covenantal relationship with God is the reward. There is no need for anything else. God’s presence with us here and now is sufficient.

If any of you have been awake at 6:45 AM for the last week and a half, you’ve seen the comedy of me learning to run. My teacher is my neighbor who, ironically, is a nursing home social worker. (I guess that’s how she has the patience to work with me!) We’ve been doing a combination of walk, jog, sprint, for the past week and this morning my teacher got me to jog the whole 1.3 miles with her, finishing with a sprint. After we were finished this morning, I asked her when on earth I was going to feel the euphoria, the runner’s peace, that athletes addicted to running typically experience. She laughed, knowing that my body was aching and patting me on the back nonetheless. Reflecting on my sermon for this morning, I found that what I wanted was the reward. I had told my teacher, “Sure, I’ll follow you!” “I’ll run every morning!” And in the back of my mind I was thinking, “I really want the reward – a long lean body, a feeling of euphoria to start the day, etc.” My motivation will not get me anywhere. Why: Because my teacher is not teaching me to get to the reward. Rather, she is teaching me to endure the stubborn aches and pains of my body as it pounds across the pavement. I run because my teacher asks me to. And I know that my teacher will push me beyond where I think I am capable of going, yet I will still continue to follow. And that should be enough of a reward for me. That IS the peace. Following Christ is the same way. If we are always looking ahead for the reward that awaits us – a gold crown in heaven, a hearty “thank you” from the person we helped, a pat on the back from our congregation, even eternal life, we’ve missed what our teacher, Jesus, is calling us to do and to be. The journey of running alongside Christ Jesus is reward enough. Though we know our teacher will ask us to go beyond what we ever thought possible, doing things like giving up everything to which we are attached, still we continue to follow. And if we are willing to sacrifice all other passions in our life for the experience of being taught by the Holy One, it will be enough. For even the glass of water we are able to offer our neighbor will be the holiest of moments.