Acts 9:2; Genesis 12:1-13:1
February 6, 2022
- Life in Christ as a true journey
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, trying not to scream.
If you were here last week or saw the service online, you will remember my mention of Minoru Saito who in 2011 sailed around the world, non-stop and all by himself, at the age of 77. And as I mentioned last week, he even went the more difficult direction, against the wind, instead of with the wind – because (you know) he could not have taken the easier route. As I was thinking about the sermon this week, Mr. Saito came back to mind. He went on an extreme journey. He made his way across the world by water in such an unbelievable way that it still stuns me to think about it. Going out there all alone in the middle of the ocean would be enough to make any of us lesser beings scream.
Screaming aside, today, we are talking about a different kind of journey and what that means for us in Christ. Don’t worry, you won’t need a passport today. We are not talking about actually taking a trip in Jesus unless God is calling you to a faraway land. OUR path is through the book of Genesis for the next several months starting today. That story begins with a journey carefully laid out in Genesis. Along this road, God brought Sarai and Abram to the land where they began a new people – God’s people. We need to see that path, the actual way that God led them into a new life for us all. We need to see the way that we all go along in their example.
When Mr. Saito, our intrepid sailor man, decided he would try sailing around the world, I seriously doubt that he woke up one day kind-of bored and thought to himself, “You know, I think I will sail around the world by myself today.” He is an incredible sailor who has done all kinds of water travel over his entire life. Sailing was his life, second nature to him, and he was strong and comfortable enough in his skills that he even dared to go the harder way, because that was HIS WAY. His way was a way that seems impossible to any of us who would have trouble canoeing across Wilck’s lake. His way was out over the depths, through the storm, and under the blistering sun. This is my point. His way or anyone’s “way” is more than a simple path. This is a really key point. Your way in life, my way in life, anyone’s way in life is about who we are as much as it is our direction or road. Such a small word as “way” means far more than we realize.
For instance, the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, a massive, serious research tool for biblical word study, devotes over 50 pages JUST TO THIS ONE WORD to explain how the word “way” was used back then. It speaks to us on so many levels. What is your way, friends?
Jesus understood this word when he captured our minds and hearts in John 14 when he said that he is the WAY. Jesus was preparing his closest friends for what was about to happen, the quickly coming day when he would be no longer with them. He was preparing them for his death. He told them to not be scared but to trust in him. He was leaving but he would return – and don’t worry because they knew the way he was going. That’s when Thomas challenged him, “But Lord, we don’t know the way.” Thomas had the word wrong. He was thinking paths, highways, roads. Jesus answered, “I am the WAY….”
Please believe me, Jesus is not saying he is road or a path. He is not a literal travel route that we are meant to walk along on him. He is so much more. He is the very way of life that brings us to God. That is why he is also the “truth and the life” in that passage from John 14. He is all three and all three are related. He is what living in God is all about. He is the embodiment of faith. He is the essence of God’s sacrificial love lived out. He is God’s way to us and our way to God. He is how we know God and how God, in a sense, knows us. By walking in Jesus’ shoes, God experienced humanity in the fullest. By walking in Jesus’ shoes, we can go boldly in faith by the grace of our Savior. This is a beautiful point that Jesus was impressing on his closest friends, and it is still with us today.
Back then, though, this idea rippled across the followers of Jesus in such a profound way that they even called themselves people of “The Way.” They took their very identity in the fact that Jesus is our way to God and God’s way to us. They saw how their life was tied up in his life. He was their one and only way in the world. You know what they did NOT call themselves in the beginning? Christians. That actually shows up later. The word Christian is only used three times in the Bible, and it did not mean then what we think it means today.
This is for the simple reason that the word has lost so much of its meaning and significance today. It is a label more than a real commitment to special living. It is a title more than the act of following our Messiah. It is a name that does not own us or direct us. Literally, the word means “being of or in Christ” but how do any of us know we are of or in Christ? Being a Christian has nothing to do with a word but everything to do with how we live our lives.
We in America have very little idea of what it is really like to sacrifice for our faith. We have not had to give up much of anything to think we follow Jesus. The most that many Christians have to give is a few hours one day a week, and not even every week. Health Research Funding found in their survey that the average churchgoer gives $17 a week. You are better church attenders than many so-called evangelicals who go to church far less often than we would believe. But it is not about offerings and attendance. Giving to Jesus is giving all that we have and all that we are. It is about sacrificing for the good of others and for the sake of God.
Case in point is Abram and Sarai. If you have never paid much attention to this couple who literally birthed a nation, you need to see this. Abram was a walking embarrassment. For a guy whose name means “father,” he had no kids and no prospects for kids. He was a man of means with a household, but God found a greater purpose for him. His WAY was not to sit still and grow older getting richer. Instead, God challenged him to leave his whole way of life for a new one – one of following God. It is safe to assume that God brought Abram (who became Abraham) even out of his religious practice to a new identity as God’s father to the people. That is what Abraham means – father of the people. To be that kind of father, God called Abram and told him to travel more than 400 difficult miles for the first journey to a part of the world he had never seen, in a day without GPS or gas stations or motels. This was a HUGE act of faith, and THAT is what God wanted in Abram. This was Abram’s way. Before he and Sarai settled in Canaan, they travelled more than 1000 miles, following where God led them.
God wanted someone who would follow. Abram was not picked because he was the first name in the phonebook (though, he could have been the first name). God needed a follower, someone who was trusting and faithful enough to go where he was needed and to do what God needed him to do. In the end, Abraham, proved to the man of faith that God wants, but before we get there, he has to be remade on the road. He became a new man and Sarai a new woman as they followed God through their trials of life.
When we can identify our way, we can begin to see ourselves for who we really are. What is truly important to us? What defines us as people? What are our commitments? How do we invest ourselves? How do we treat others? How do we live out God’s love? Since God is love, when we love, God is with us and within us; we abide in God and God abides in us. That is the WAY we have in Christ Jesus.
I read that passage from 1 John yesterday evening with Carl and Sadie Kelsey in the hospital. Maybe somehow God opened his heart to hearing that wonderful, wonderful passage. The reason I share this is Sadie then went on to describe what a good person her husband was through his life – constant, reliable, kind, and compassionate – considerate of others, a good and faithful servant in the Lord. This is Carl’s way. The way he lived his life day-in and day-out filled her with appreciation for Carl, and I want you to know how important this is for us all. We all have a way that is who we are. If that way is in the way of Jesus our Christ, then we are being more the faithful followers that Jesus desires for us. When our way is more about us, however….
When you are as large as I am, it is hard to not be in the way, especially in spaces that are on the smallish size. I resent being in the way of others, but this is one time I desperately WANT to be in the way. God brought us here today to see ourselves for who we are and how we live. Our Holy and Almighty God wants us to find where we are headed in life and what guides us. Our path is more than a direction, it is who we are. Our way is the journey, how we walk, and who is walking. It is everything about us.
Do not wander from one day to the next. It is easy to do that, to set the auto-pilot and coast, but Jesus demands more from us. It is not enough to be Christians. We have to be in Christ and of Christ. This is our Way. Everything we do, everything we say, everything we are is an offering in service to the one who gives us our Way. If we want to be serious about being in the way, we must be all in. Jesus is all in for us. To God be the glory. Amen.