Jennifer's Sermons

Stepping Out in Faith

jennifer@brookhavenchristian.org — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:00:00 GMT

Part 1—What to do?

“It is one thing to say that something should be done, but quite a different matter to do it.” Isn’t that the truth!?!

I just heard someone say that it is the great fallacy of our intellectual age that: because you’ve talked about it, you think you’ve done it. Not quite the same.

The text we saw & heard today is a pretty well known text from the gospel according to Matthew. The disciples are caught in a storm at sea when Jesus comes walking across the water toward them. When they saw Jesus walking toward them on the sea, they were more afraid of him than the storm. But Jesus said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Jesus said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward Jesus. What Peter did in stepping out of the boat was literally stepping out on faith.

When we celebrate All Saints Day, we celebrate those who have gone before us and stepped out in faith. We expand it here to celebrate and memorialize anyone close to us who has died—but in the larger church the celebration of All Saint’s Day is reserved for the saints. Those who stepped out in faith in such a significant way that the church recognizes them as saints. So there is no more appropriate time to stop and think about how we, ourselves, are stepping out in faith.

We are all called to step out, to risk something for our faith. But I think sometimes it is hard to know what that means for each of us. What does it mean for me, for you, to step out in faith? I’m not called to be a prophet to the people of Israel like Samuel was. I don’t feel called to go to India and work with lepers like Mother Teresa. So what am I supposed to do? What does it mean for me to step out in faith?

Frederick Buechner says “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”[1] Where does your passion and the world’s great need meet?

If this is our true calling, it is important that we can name our passions—what brings us joy. And that is hard for some of us. So I invite you to think about it for a minute. [piece of paper] write down 3 passions—things that when you do them time ceases, all of your senses become engaged. What are the things that bring you the greatest joy?

This is the starting place for discovering your calling—for discovering how you are supposed to step out in faith.

Once you have made that list, I invite you to take a look at it and think about the 2^nd part of what Buechner said. Where could your passion serve a true need in the world?

Buechner unpacks his statement by saying this: “The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren’t helping your patients much either.”[2]

So, I invite you to think seriously about these passions, these things that bring you joy and where they can be used in service to God and others. How might you offer these gifts to Christ? Whatever or passions and joys may be, when we bring them to Christ, they become ignited—given life and purpose. In a minute, we are going to celebrate communion. When we do, I invite you to bring your paper with you and leave it in the basket that will be here in front. Let it be a symbol of offering your gifts to Christ. And then see how Christ takes these gifts of yours and asks you to step out in faith.

Part 2—The courage to do it!

We talked earlier about discovering our passions and thinking about how they can be used in service to Christ. But knowing what you need to do is only part of the equation. Once you know, how do you take that first step?

Do you know what is the most common command in all of Scripture? It is not for us to be more loving (though that may be the core to God’s desire for human life, it is not God’s most frequent instruction.) It is not a command about avoiding pride or gaining humility. The single command in Scripture that occurs more often than any other is this: “Fear not.” “Don’t be afraid.”

Fear is the thing that most often keeps us from doing what God is calling us to do. Fear of losing our comforts, our financial security. Fear of failure. Fear that if we step out, there will be nothing there to hold us up.

In this story from Matthew, fear comes up twice. First when the disciples see Jesus walking on the water and then later, when Peter is walking on the water himself, he remembers the strong wind, becomes frightened—and begins to sink. Each time, Jesus says, “Have faith. Do not be afraid.”

In his book, “If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat”, John Ortberg says that he believes our courage or lack of courage is directly related to the size of our God. If we live with a small God then we live in a constant state of fear and anxiety because everything depends on us. We cannot be generous because our financial security depends on us. We cannot take risks because our safety depends on us.

So how do we enlarge our sense of God? And how do we find the wisdom & the courage to step out in faith? We do it by spending time in worship and in faith community—places where we are reminded about the grand story of God through time—the story of which we are a part. Places where we are reminded about God’s steadfast love for God’s people. Places where we hear stories of how God is working in the lives of others we know. We must be reminded of the ways God has acted in the past if we are to have courage & wisdom to step out in the future.

I think it is also important to note that stepping out in faith requires more than courage. It also requires discernment. Stepping out in faith isn’t just about taking risk, it is taking a risk in obedience to God. When Peter & the other disciples see Jesus walking on the water, Peter doesn’t just jump out of the boat and start walking. Instead, he calls out to Jesus: “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” This isn’t just a story about risk-taking, it is primarily a story about obedience. You have to discern between an authentic call from God and what might be simply a foolish impulse. Courage alone isn’t enough; it must be accompanied by wisdom and discernment.

We are all called to step out in faith in some way. For some of us it might be something big—a radical change of our life’s direction. For some of us it might be something smaller—like volunteering, using our gifts in service to others. For some of us it might even mean doing less. It might mean working less, so you can be a more faithful parent to your children or partner to your spouse.

It doesn’t matter how big our calling is, it takes courage to make that first step.

[Children’s sermon—jumping off steps from different places, taking different steps.] It took no less courage for the smallest child to jump from the bottom step than it did for the biggest to jump from the highest step.

The same is true for us. It doesn’t matter how big our small our calling may seem, it is very difficult to step off the solid ground we know into the great chasm of the unknown.

Clip from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Indiana Jones has to pass three supreme tests to reach the Holy Grail. In this final and most difficult test, this great large chasm is all that stands between him and the holy grail—and yet there is no visible bridge there. The instructions say, “Only in the leap from the lion’s head, will he prove his worth.” But the chasm is clearly too great to jump. And then you hear his father saying, “You must believe, boy! You must believe!” What does it take to take that first step off solid ground? How do you step out into the great chasm of the unknown, trusting you’ll find something solid that will hold you? You must believe! You must believe!

[1] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993), 118.

[2] Buechner, pp. 117-118.

The Unwilling Servant - Jonah 1:1-17, 3:1-3

jennifer@brookhavenchristian.org — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 17:00:00 GMT

For the last several weeks, in fact—all month, we’ve been talking about service. What does it mean for us to follow Jesus and serve in God’s name? We’ve talked about the mission of Christ and of all who follow him “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’^[1] Over the last several weeks, Brad has led us in looking at the life of Christ as a model for how we are to be humble servants, working toward reconciliation and bearing witness to the work of God in our lives. So, it might seem a little strange to you that today we are talking about Jonah.

On my best days, I strive to be like Jesus, to follow the example he st and to live a life of service to others. But I have to confess that many (most) days I am more like Jonah.

God called Jonah into service, saying “Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness as come up before me.” Now we all know that Jesus would have gone to Nineveh. But what does Jonah do? He heads in the complete opposite direction! It’s as if God said, “Go to Miami” and you headed for Seattle! Jonah hops on a boat headed for Tarshish. While they’re at sea, a great storm comes up and all the sailors cry out to their gods for help and start heaving things overboard. Eventually they discover that Jonah is the problem. He is running from God—and though they’re reluctant to do it, the sailors finally heave Jonah overboard too! Then the text says that God sends a large fish (maybe a whale, maybe not) to swallow Jonah. And Jonah is in the belly of the fish for 3 days & nights.

At our house, we have a children’s devotional Bible that was given to Sarah and it tells Bible stories and tries to relate them to things children can understand. This is how it lead into the Jonah story:

“When we do something that’s bad, we sometimes have to take a time-out. Maybe we have to sit in a chair, or go to our room. Time-outs give us a chance to think about what we did wrong and remember what’s right. We wait and wait…and finally the time’s up! Then we try to do what’s right. In this Bible story, God gave a time-out to a man named Jonah...”^[2]

I love the idea that God puts Jonah in time-out!!

Well, while Jonah is in “time-out” in the belly of that fish, Jonah prays to God. Its a prayer that sounds a lot like it came right out of the book of Psalms. He ends his prayer this way: “Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”

No sooner does Jonah say “Amen!” then the fish spits Jonah out on dry land. Then the word of the Lord comes to Jonah a 2nd time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.” Now it sounds like Jonah might have learned his lesson in time-out, because this time Jonah goes to Nineveh.

You remember the rest of the story…Jonah gets to Nineveh and cries out to the city: “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And what happened next is every preachers dream! The people of Nineveh believed God!! They proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth and repented of their sins!! When God saw what they had done, how they had changed from their evil ways, the text says God’s mind was changed and God spared the city.

What a successful mission! Surely Jonah must be rejoicing—maybe even patting himself on the back! But, no! Jonah is off in the corner pouting. “See, God, I knew it! I knew this is what would happen. That’s why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are full of grace & mercy, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing! I knew it! That’s why I didn’t want to come here!” Well, maybe Jonah didn’t learn his lesson in time-out! In fact, the story ends with God and Jonah still in conversation—and it’s never clear whether or not Jonah ever really gets it. And yet, his story lifts up hope for us—because in watching Jonah struggle to do what God has called him to do, we are able to be honest about our own struggles.

Now there are a lot of different feelings about this story. You have to admit it is a little absurd. The idea that a man was actually swallowed by a fish and spit out 3 days later is a little hard to believe. It sounds like the stuff of legend, folk lore or fairy tale. And some scholars, and even some of us, would discount this story completely because of it. But I prefer to look at it the way the Native Americans would have. Often before beginning a tale about their origins the storyteller would preface his remarks by saying, “I don’t know if it happened this way or not, but I know this story is true.” So when it comes to the book of Jonah, whether you believe in it literally or not, I think this story it true.

I think it is true, because in so many ways I am Jonah—and if you’re honest w/ yourself—lots of you are probably Jonah too.

Jonah was a person of faith. He believed in God and prayed to God and counted on God’s mercy and grace and steadfast love. But God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and he just flat didn’t want to go. I have found myself on the road to Tarshish more times than I can count! I can’t remember ever jumping in a boat to literally flee from God, but I have certainly felt called to do something that I just didn’t want to do. Haven’t you? And I have never been swallowed by a large fish, but I have at times been forced to stop, to take a time-out, to take a good, hard look at my life and then change direction completely. Haven’t you?

There are so many things that Jesus models for us or tells us to do and I have to be honest and say I don’t want to!

Jesus says “Sell all your possessions and give your $$ to the poor.” But I don’t want to! In fact, I shop at Costco! Not only am I not selling my possessions, I’m adding to them and buying in bulk!
Jesus says< “Love your neighbors—and your enemies.” Really? All of them?
Jesus says, “Pray for those who persecute you?” and I say, “Do I have to?”

Looks a lot like to road to Tarshish to me!

And sometimes I flee from what God is calling me to do by simply refusing to listen.

Two weeks ago I was at a retreat for young ministers. One afternoon a young minister was leading worship. Her text was the one where an angel of the Lord visits Mary and tells her she is going to be the mother of Jesus. And this minister talked about how great and yet inconvenient God can be sometimes. Mary was young and engaged but not married. It was a very inconvenient time for her to have a baby, and yet that is what God called her to do. Now the woman leading worship that day is a pastor in a small Midwestern town called Bakersville. And in her sermon she admitted that she really doesn’t want to be in Bakersville. It isn’t convenient for her to be there. She’s far away from her family and close friends and the town really doesn’t suit her at all. She admitted that she doesn’t want to be there, and yet she feels strongly that Bakersville is where God is calling her to be right now—convenient or not.

Later that afternoon the keynote speaker was leading a workshop and she was talking about prayer as an act of listening. She said that we fill our prayers up with our requests for God, which is an important part of prayer, but she encouraged us to spend as much time listening to God as we do talking to God. We shouldn’t just give God our requests, but should also spend time listening to what God wants from us. And she is right...but as she was talking, I felt tension rising in my shoulders, and I felt my breath getting shallower. I could feel this physical resistance in my body to what she was saying…and I thought “what is this about”?

Then she named it. She said. “This is hard because if you really listen to God you might be transformed and nobody really thinks they want transformed lives—because God is inconvenient and will send you to Bakersville”—or Nineveh. I knew she was right, I should be spending time listening to God—but what if I don’t want to do what God is clearly asking me to do.

I mean just think of all the stories where God asks someone to do something that isn’t at all convenient.

Moses had killed an Egyptian and fled from Egypt. He was in Midian living happily-ever-after with his wife—and what does God do? God calls him to go back to Egypt and free his people.
Elijah was fleeing for his life and found safety in a cave. He listens for the voice of God and what does God tell him to do? Go back!
Mary, young, unmarried, and pregnant with the child of God—talk about inconvenient!
And let’s not even get started on Jesus!

Now it is true that God can use us everyday, right where we are—but rarely does God call us to do what is comfortable and convenient. God calls us to take risks, to be uncomfortable, to risk something for our faith. And if we really take seriously our calling to be people of prayer and people of service, we have to also acknowledge that it might change us in ways that we don’t think we want. It might change the way we spend our money, make our money, live our lives…and most of us aren’t sure we want to be changed.

Fred Craddock tells of preaching at a church. He was there for several nights in a row. The 1st night there was a woman in the congregation who had 3 children with her. They sat with her through the whole service and were a bit of a distraction to everyone but especially to their mother. The next night, the woman was back but without her children. After the service, she came up to Fred Craddock and said, “I was here last night. I’m the one w/ the 3 children.” He said, “I remember.” She said, “Whenever I’m going to something that I think might affect me, I bring my kids so I’m not really listening.”

Fred says, “Almost all of us who come to church symbolically bring those 3 kids—that is our way of not listening.”

But notice that the woman came back. We don’t think we want to be changed—and yet something in the deepest part of ourselves is desperately longing for it…longing to really connect with God, to do work that isn’t convenient, but is important.

After 3 days in the belly of a fish, Jonah knows what he needs to do. So when God calls again, Jonah goes to Nineveh. Sometimes we all need a time-out—time to sit and think and listen. Time to reflection what is going right in our lives. Time to recognize what we’ve done wrong & how we can make better choices. Jonah needed 3 days in that fish—and sometimes we do too. Because what God calls us to do is often hard and inconvenient. But fortunately for Jonah and for us—God is full or grace & mercy and steadfast love.

The story of Jonah may or may not be historical fact, but it is certainly a true story about us. It is a story about the truth of our human condition and the truth about God. And I don’t think we can talk honestly about service w/o acknowledging the truth about our resistance to do some of the things that God is calling us to do. Many days, I am more like Jonah than Jesus. But acknowledging that doesn’t let me—or you—off the hook. We are not followers of Jonah, we followers of Christ. And though we may feel like booking a ticket on the next cruise to Tarshish, we are called “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."^[3] And, convenient or not, that is what we must seek to do. With God’s help, may it be so for you and for me. Amen.

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[1] Luke 4:18-19.

[2] Catherine DeVries, The Beginner’s Bible: Book of Devotions—My Time with God. (Grand Rapids: Zonderkids, 2007), pp. 91-92.

[3] Luke 4:18-19.