Thus Far...

Luke 9:51-62

                Two years ago you all welcomed my family and me into the St. Paul family.  I remember that first summer that I came to preach one Sunday with a gift for each of you.  Do you remember what it was?  I gave each of you a rock.  Do you remember why I gave you the rock?  Because I don’t.  I cannot remember, for the life of me, why I handed out rocks that day.  I could probably guess.  There are lots of references to rocks in scripture.  I imagine we could spend a good amount of time trying to figure out just why I would bring a hundred rocks to hand out.  We would be busy.  We would be in fellowship.  We would be even talking about scripture, but it wouldn’t be worshiping God.  It’s about intent.  It’s about being purposeful; it’s about a journey with Jesus Christ, moving in his direction. 

               

I brought a rock today.  It’s a big piece of granite; it’s not so big that I can’t lift it but its big enough that it’s not going to easily get knocked down the driveway.  It sits in front of my house as a decoration.  It’s a nice rock.  I imagine at some point some farmer’s son or daughter had to pick this rock out of a field, to get it out of the way.  I don’t imagine they thought it was a very nice rock.  I’d guess that whoever may have picked this rock out of the field thought it too big and too heavy.  I‘d guess that if given the choice they would have preferred never to have to deal with this rock.  But at some point this rock made its way to the surface of the earth; someone picked it up and now some pastor with an affinity for rocks is using it as a decoration. 

                So here we are and our intent is to worship God and there I go again talking about rocks.  We have to be purposeful. We have to be intentional about our faith journey or we might get distracted.  And get to talking about such useless things as rocks. 

                Jesus has called us to himself. Jesus has called us to be His workers.  Did you know that we were not saved just for our own sakes?  We were saved first so that we can glorify God.  We freely tell others what Jesus has done for us; we give God the credit for the blessings in our lives, so that others may come to know God for themselves.  We are not called to come to Jesus and then rest while we wait to enter into eternity.  We are called to go and make disciples.

                I have here my garden tiller.  I haven’t used this thing for several years now.  We haven’t had a garden here in Riverton yet; our previous home sat on a big patch of clay, which this little thing could do nothing in. So for the last seven summers this thing has sat silent.  The question is:  what should I do with it?  Should I come to the realization that its time has passed and store away?  Or should I re-purpose it?  Perhaps I could use it as a coat rack. I could give it away.  After all, I’m not using it.  Perhaps I should get to using it.  Perhaps I should take what I have in front of me and use it for its intended purpose.  It may be a little late in the season now but perhaps I could use it to till a patch of ground and plant a garden. 

                But there could be rocks buried just below the surface.  There could be great big pieces of granite like this one and I could damage my tiller.  You just don’t know what’s out there.  So many problems could arise; so many dangers.  And for what the garden might not even grow. But there I go talking about rocks again.  We should focus on worshiping God.

                We sang that song a few minutes ago.  “Come, thou Fount of Every blessing.” In that song, it mentions raising an “Ebenezer.” Well that is from 1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."

            When we get past our challenges and difficulties we can celebrate saying Lord has helped me.  We have come “thus far” because God has helped us. 

                You ever hear the saying, “just because you stand in your garage, it doesn’t mean you are a car. And just because you go to church doesn’t mean you are a Christian.”  The high calling of being a Christian is knowing that God loves us and has saved us so that we can make God known to others; to everybody; to our family and neighbors; to everybody. That includes those who would take advantage of your generosity.  We are called to point people to God whether they are near or of they live in the remotest part of the world.

                The thing is, we can go to the remotest part of the world or we could go to some of our neighbors and tell them about the spiritual nourishment they can find in Jesus Christ but they won’t hear us.  They won’t hear us because the sound of their physical hunger is too distracting.  The sound of their despair is too overwhelming.  The sound of their disbelief is deafening. These are rocks in the garden God has called us to plant.  So do we just give up because there are too many rocks?  If the only thing we do on our faith journey is attend Sunday worship then we are just reaping the harvest of gardens planted in the past. 

                We are called to give water to the thirsty, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked and to visit the sick and those in prison.  We are called to use our various gifts to share the love of God.  As your pastor I feel called to encourage you to find ways to use your unique gifts to fulfill God’s calling in your life. But I don’t know all your gifts.  In fact I probably am aware of a fraction of a shadow of all the gifts that God has blessed this congregation with.  I know a few of you have some basketball skills and in a little while you are going to embarrass me in a game of HORSE to raise money so that a lot of people can get emergency help when they need it.  We are removing rocks of distraction so that people can come to understand that God loves them.

                Could it be that the physical hunger we help quench might open someone’s awareness of God’s love for them and they can say “Thus far God has helped me.”

                In the Gospel lesson Jesus “face was set toward Jerusalem.” Meaning that his intent was to go to Jerusalem and fulfill his purpose there.  He had intent.  He was purposeful.  But the people on the way that were inspired by his words and by his presence was also distracted by the concerns of this world.  “I will follow you wherever you go.” “Let me bury my father.”  “Let me say goodbye to those at my home.” But Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” We can take the surface meaning and understand that we need always look forward.  To have a straight furrow we need to look where we are going and we need to watch out for obstacles.   But on another lever Jesus is talking to us about our intent. Where is our face pointed?  Is our face pointed toward Jesus or toward the things of this earth?

                The Samaritans didn’t receive Jesus because his face was pointed toward Jerusalem.  They looked down on the Jews and would oppose pilgrims that passed through their land. Jesus intention was clear and the Samaritans saw it.

How is it with you today?  How clear is your intention to serve God?  Can people tell that you belong to Christ?  Where is your face pointed?