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"Marching Off the Maps with Confidence"
January 4, 2004 The Rev. Dr. John Ward
I invite you to turn to page 10 in the Old Testament section of our Bibles--and that is Genesis chapter 12. We'll be starting at verse 1 and reading through the first part of verse 5 as part of our Scripture lesson this morning. Again, that's page 10. Let's read together now.
Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
This wonderful passage is one that reminds us of what it means to be called--to not necessarily know what's going to happen to you, but what it means to then not only be called, but to heed that call in faith, which is what I think of every time a new year comes by. We're called to a new year, yet we have no idea what that new year entails. We are on the cusp of a new ministry with regard to our future at Faith Presbyterian Church. We properly said good-bye to Will and Nancy Eisenhower last week. Will and Nancy are still in the warm lands of the Twin Cities area right now. They're just finishing up their time of some leftover vacation and I think Will has until tomorrow to clean out his office and to make ready for our new Chris Carlson, so we'll see Will in the office tomorrow doing that last-minute packing before he and Nancy head out to Fargo. Who knows what the weather's going to be like there? We're always told it's a little colder. Those of you who are familiar with that area (I've never been there) know it's flatter and windier, so you've got a little bit more of cold weather there. I'm trying to compare that with today. I don't know about you. This whole weekend I've been freezing! I thought I know that we've had 20 degree below days here in the Twin Cities area, but I forgot all about them, so I'm cold enough right now! I don't know. It's just like California where it was just the opposite and people would brag about, "It was 105 today in Sacramento!" And I always thought, "Past 90, who cares?" In my mind, here in Minnesota, when it gets to 5, it doesn't make any difference to me personally between 5 above and 20 below. It's time to put the wool on!
Well, we said good-bye to the Eisenhowers and now we say hello to Chris Carlson and welcome him to the weather of Minnesota, as he's been spending the last several years in Texas. We've been given a new pastor. We just met him for a brief moment a couple weeks ago, didn't we? And we voted him in and how he will take the reins. I mentioned to you Discipleship Seminars coming up next Sunday. We always have our annual Discipleship Seminars, a great time for adults to come and to learn in that wonderful kind of break in all the other activities outside the life of our church and also in the church. So for the next three Sunday evenings, starting next Sunday, at 5 o'clock, we begin with dinner, then we break up into four classes. Those classes are printed in your bulletins. One is called "The Love Languages of Children and Teenagers." That's led by Bill and Ellie Slack. The second of the four classes is "Prayer and Personality," learning what your personality type is and how you use prayer. That will be led by the Rev. Judie Ritchie. "Becoming a Contagious Christian," how to help people know Jesus Christ without risking insensitivity. That will be taught by Debbie Knudson, Dean Halvorson, and myself. And also, our final class "A Year in the Bible in Three Evenings" taught by Trace James. But we also have a special treat, and that is opening words and devotions by Chris Carlson. So we'll have the opportunity to meet Chris personally and get to know him as he eats with us and sings with us as we do some praise music before we go off into our classes. Then I invited Chris to be part of our discipleship seminars and to give opening devotions for the church, and he agreed to do that. And here are his three topics: Number one, "Who in the world is Chris Carlson?" That's appropriate, isn't it? And the next two are, "Where do we go from here?"-- "Where do we go from here? Part 1" and "Where do we go from here? Part 2."
As we were putting this together before he came, I also received a wonderful article from the outgoing president of Princeton Seminary, Tom Gillespie, having to do with what it means to ask the question, "Where do we go from here?" So I thought it was kind of interesting. I do want to remind you, before I get off the subject of Discipleship Seminars, to please sign up in the atrium. We have to know how many people to cook for. We have childcare available. And we want to be sure our teachers know who's going to the classes. So be sure and sign up in the atrium today and have the opportunity to receive some great instruction from those classes, but also have a chance to meet and dine with Chris Carlson and hear what he has to say about the future.
But, again, I've been thinking a lot about what it means for us to face the future without really knowing what that entails. And that's why I was reminded of this passage. Here, then called "Abram and Sarai" are called by God out of the middle of nowhere. There was really no setup in this Genesis passage with regard to this. A little bit is said about who Abraham and Sarah are (or "Abram and Sarai"--we're going to continue to call them "Abraham and Sarah," their names given by God after that. But Abraham and Sarah were doing very well in their land of Haran. They had done well for themselves and all of a sudden, according to Scripture, God calls them and says, "I want you to get up and leave and go where I tell you." And they do so. They were given a call, but they weren't given, really, any road map. And it's amazing the journey that they were put on. That journey took them from a place that they were used to and had settled in, to places like Sodom, and Gomorrah, and even to Egypt. And they had, in their journey, to deal with the likes of powerful kings of their day, such as Melchizedek, and Abimilech, and even the great Pharaoh of Egypt. And they had no idea that that was part of the plan of God as they were called.
We really don't know, either, what the plan of God will be for you and me for 2004. We don't know what's going to happen to us personally. We don't know what's going to happen to us as Faith Church. But we know that we're called and we'll obediently trust God for our future. Now, to trust God for our future doesn't mean we don't make plans. Plans are what we do constantly. I'd like to also have you look at the passage that I gave to you as well as our second reading, and that is in 1 Corinthians. You'll find that on page 78 of the New Testament section in our Bible. I'd like to remind you about the apostle Paul. He's writing here in 1 Corinthians, talking about plans that he is making, his travel plans. Now Paul was planning, in his life, to be a very great and successful Pharisee. In fact, he was on that fast track to success. But God had a different plan for Paul. He called him to a ministry, specifically away from Jews specifically, and now moving into Gentiles, to those who were non-Jews. Here Paul was dedicating himself to the specific Jewish religion, but Paul became one of the first (along with Peter and the other disciples) to begin to preach well outside of Israel and into all of the non-Jews, all of the Gentile areas. And Paul became that because he was called by God.
We sometimes wonder what plans we should make. Or sometimes, when we hear sermons like this, should we make any plans at all? Well, the apostle Paul himself even made plans. Let's read from verse 5 of 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Interesting--it says there in the top subheading "Plans for Travel." Here was Paul's original plan as he was finishing up his letter to the Corinthians.
I will be visiting you after passing through Macedonia--for I intended to pass through Macedonia--and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may send me on my way wherever I go. I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me and there are many adversaries.
Now, this is what Paul originally wrote, but we do know that his plans were disrupted and we see that, actually, as you look on the next page over, in his second letter to the Corinthians. If you look on page 179, starting a verse 23, there about a third way up in the right-hand column:
But I call on God as witness against me: it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth. I do not mean to imply that we lord it over your faith; rather, we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand firm in the faith. So I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit.
If you remember, it was a very painful visit that Paul made the first time because he needed to hold people accountable to the faith given to them and, in fact, he writes about that specifically in the first Corinthian letter. But even Paul, as he made plans, had those plans changed. We don't know exactly all the reasons why he didn't come to Corinth the second time other than that he wrote in 2 Corinthians he didn't make that meeting. He was accused of vacillating by those who didn't like him in the Corinthian Church and you can read about that just above verse 23, but mainly we see also that he decided to stay in Ephesus and do a major work there, for there was the opportunity to do ministry. For each one of us, friends, the good news about being a Christian and going into the new year is that each one of us are called to be faithful to the Lord. We may not be given a road map, but we're called to faithfulness and we can begin the journey just like Abraham and Sarah did, only with a call to faithfulness. Not specifically knowing the road maps, but, indeed, knowing that we have a call. For if we have a call, then, we have faith enough to be in the journey.
I was reminding you of Tom Gillespie, who is now the outgoing president of Princeton Seminary, where I did my divinity study. Back in 1982, in the summer of '82 I arrived there with my family, and so did president Gillespie. That was his first year as well. He is now retiring after a great 17 years in leadership there. He was asked by a student what plans he had made to make himself the president of a seminary. The answer he gave back to that student was a hearty laugh. I remember as a student hearing Tom Gillespie talk about his ministry career and warning people (all of us students who had great plans in mind of what we wanted to do after we graduated from seminary--where we'd like to go next, what pulpits we'd like to take, where we'd like to do ministry). And president Gillespie said,
When I graduated from Princeton, I went back to California, which is were I'm from, and I started in Garden Grove in 1955. That was the height of church attendance among Americans. And Garden Grove was a citrus grove being now taken over by a flood of new construction. And our practice of evangelism in 1955 was open the doors and get out of the way! They didn't have to work hard [he said] to bring people into the churches. They were looking for churches. They were building churches.
This was also the same year and the same area that Tom Gillespie's personal friend Robert Schuller got his start. Robert Schuller started his church, as well, and you've heard of Robert Schuller and the Crystal Cathedral. All these pastors in Garden Grove, all they had to do was start a church, open the doors, and get out of the way, and it flooded. Tom Gillespie counted that as one of the successes that people thought he had in ministry and so he moved to Burlingame, in the Bay Area of California, and had a growing ministry there, as well. He said because of that, he was called to be president of Princeton Seminary--because people thought that he did well in growing churches. He always laughed about that and he talked about how he never specifically knew what he was going to be doing for Princeton once he got there because he was more of a pastor than he was a theologian. He had a Ph.D. in theology, yet he was always a pastor all of his life. And here he is after 17 successful years, summing up his life with regard to that, telling his students that he, too, had to rely upon a call, not specifically a road map.
And none of us can predict what's going to happen to us--not next week, not even the next few minutes. Quite often we've been asking God what He's going to do for us, but we're reminded that God never tells us what He's going to do. God does not tell us what He's going to do. Instead, though, through every action of life, He reveals who He is to us. If you are at all thinking about your life and about plans for your life--and, indeed, we must make some plans. We must make plans. Our church makes plans. We make plans as to how we're going to educate you. We make plans as to how we're going to have a budget. We make plans as to how we're going to do worship. I mean, we're called to do that. But we must be understanding that every time we make plans, sometimes those plans work, but sometimes God has something different in store for us--completely different. And all we're called to do is to be faithful to God and to listen to Him. For in all of what happens in life, what this is about is God revealing who He is for you and for me. Remember that when you make your plans, and your plans are changed. Friends, as we know, as the old saying goes, "Life is what happens to you as you're making other plans."
I want to remind you of Abraham and Sarah. And as we step off 2004 with no real picture as to what that is, we have every great hope as to what that will be because of our faith in God. One pastor likened Abraham and Sarah's journey to that of Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great, after he had done much of his conquering, decided to go even further. When he completed his conquest, in particular, in Persia, he headed eastward. And he had no maps for the lands that we know today as Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and India. And, as one pastor put it, this great Greek general literally "marched off his maps."
Well that's, in a sense, what we're going to be doing as well. For 2004 personally, and as well for 2004 as Faith Church. We have a new pastor coming, but we're really marching off our maps. We have some ideas as to what we'd like to do, but we're going to trust God and see how God reveals Himself to us in all that we think and all that we do. Not only in our great anticipations, but also in the way in which sometimes things are thrown in our way that we do not want. They're not at all part of our plans.
I was touched by a message that I read off the Internet from Rick Warren. Rick Warren, as you know, was the author of that wonderful book, The Purpose Driven Life. The New York Times list came up with its 100 top-sellers of 2003 and The Purpose Driven Life came in at number nine. That's unprecedented for a religious book, for specifically a Christ-centered, evangelical book. Well, Rick Warren pastors a church, Saddleback Community Church in southern California. Fifteen thousand people, minimum, run through their services every weekend. (Yes, I said 15,000 people!) He has written this book and another book before it. He has a national ministry to pastors, and yet as much as he makes plans, and teaches about making plans, and being effective in leadership, his Christmas Eve message on the Internet goes this way. He entitles it, "When God Messes Up Your Plans."
So many of you have asked about Kay's progress [this is his wife] in her treatment for cancer, so we wanted to give you an update. We are a little over half way through her 12-week chemo regimen. After that she'll have six weeks of daily radiation. She's healing well from the incision, the surgery that was given to her, but her pain level has gone up. Specifically, yesterday she had a hard time as the chemo effects began to kick in. [continuing on in this letter:] Today Kay feels wiped out from all of the meds they've given her, along with the expected fatigue and nausea from the chemo. I've kept all visitors away so that the room is quiet for hours. The less going on for her, the better. Between caring for Kay's basic needs, I sit quietly and think a lot and thank God for my wife and God's amazing invention of marriage. These will be the first Christmas Eve services that Kay and I will have missed in Saddleback's 23 years, so I've prepared a message entitled, "When God Messes Up Your Plans." How appropriate! I've always been struck by the fact that everyone at the first Christmas had their plans messed up by God, because God had a bigger and better plan. When life doesn't work out the way we intended, God wants us to trust in Him. [He highlighted this. This is basically the thesis statement for his article.] When life doesn't work out the way we intended, God wants us to trust in Him.
Rick goes on to say that he videotaped this final point of this message and will actually share it, along with their team of teachers, in all 13 Christmas Eve services. You see, a pastor's plans are not to be absent during one of the two largest attendance events in the life of churches: Christmas and Easter. Yet Rick Warren and all of his leadership skills was making the right decision to be by his wife's bedside as she was facing chemotherapy after her cancer surgery. And instead of being able to be present at all 13 Christmas Eve services, he was present by his wife's bedside. What came to him was, "When life doesn't work out the way we intended, God wants us to trust in Him."
Rick Warren was called to obedience to God. He had no idea when he started out his ministry, where God would lead him as well. Neither did Abraham, or Sarah, or Paul, or president Tom Gillespie, or you and me. I think of all those this year so far who've been coming up with plans that were changed by God. I think about little Jenny Slack, the newest-born of the Slack family who was supposed to, on Christmas Eve, as we remember, be here in the cradle for that wonderful family service on Christmas Eve. Instead, she spent that night and many more days in the hospital, suffering from pneumonia. Many of you remember Gary Olsen, whose memorial service was the day before Christmas Eve. Can you imagine Kathy Olsen and the family and friends as they faced that? That certainly wasn't part of what they thought they were going to be facing for Christmas Eve. I think also, as well, of the Allen family--Matt and Susie--as Susie is also facing her chemotherapy now, after her cancer surgery. I think of John O'Keefe, who successfully had a tumor removed, but at the same time has to go back to the doctor every three months. We also think of many people in our life who have lost loved ones during this time. We never expect in our plans of Christmas to include the death of a loved one, or the surgery of another person, or the cancer scare, or someone being in the hospital with an infection that is life-threatening.
We're called, every one of us, friends, to a calling. What is that calling? That calling is to let God reveal Himself in our lives today and in our future tomorrow. Yes, indeed, to be responsible with what God has given to us, to make the best plans we can, knowing what we know today. But that means, then, being ready for any plans that God has that override ours, so that God may reveal Himself in specific ways to us.
As I said before, Paul was planning to be a successful Pharisee. God called him to preach, instead, to the Gentiles. Abraham and Sarah were planning on living well with their family in Haran, but they were called to begin the blood line of the covenant people of Israel. Again, Rick Warren: His plans were to continue to do successful work in the ministry. Instead, he was called to be a faithful husband by his wife's side. Our new pastor, Chris Carlson, is called to be our pastor. Not given any specific road map for that, but to be obedient and faithful to God. As you and I come to 2004, as we face it, let us continue to make plans. But be aware that God may have bigger and better plans. And the one thing we can always count on in the unknown of our future, is that God's grace already precedes it. God is the center of life. Time is something that only you and I use to measure your life. God is eternal. There is no beginning or end to Him. In other words, there's no time. Wherever God is, is the present. God present with us now, God present in our future, which is always where He is. Then we can trust the life in the future in front of us.
Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, we're like one pastor said about Abraham and Sarah, we're "marching off the maps," Lord. But we do so with confidence. Just as Abraham and Sarah knew nothing of where they were going and what it would mean. They knew, however, that you spoke to them, and you called them. And so they were obedient in faithfulness. Lord, the apostle Paul was literally floored by you as he was making his plans for success in the life of a Pharisee. You had greater plans for what he would do for you. And he was obedient. Lord, I've given names of other people who were surprised very much by what you have given to them. And each one of them has intended to glorify you in it. Lord, as we come to our future at Faith Presbyterian Church, having said good-bye to the past and now looking forward to the future, we don't know what you're going to give us, Lord God. We ask that you don't let us resist you because you always have greater things in mind for us, that your glory may be revealed. We thank you for the coming of Chris Carlson, Lord. We ask for a happy landing for him. We ask, Lord God, our obedience together with him, to your plans. Bless what we think we're being called to do by you. And let us be wide open in terms of what you will give to us. And finally, Lord God, personally in our own lives, some of us may be very anxious about our futures. Some in the way of health personally or in the way of the health of a loved one. Some may be vocationally--"Where do we go now?" Perhaps someone here is still looking for work after a long time of job loss. Perhaps another knows that his or her livelihood is threatened because of the economy. Many of us face a future, Lord God, that makes us afraid. I think we're reminded now in this passage, and in your Word for us now, to know that you're already there for us. You know the outcome. And your goal is to call us to faithfulness in you, that you might be glorified. In Christ's name we pray. And all God's people said, "Amen."
Rev. Dr. John Ward Associate Pastor for Discipleship Faith Presbyterian Church Minnetonka, Minnesota
[Transcribed from an audiotape of the worship service on January 4, 2004.] |
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