Sunday, August 5, 2007

Sermon: "Walk the Walk"

Scripture: Hebrews 11: 1-16

Reverend Larry Gerber

Buttonless elevators have taken some of the guesswork out of navigating a city high - rise. What can they teach us about faith?

If you've ever been at a convention in a skyscraping hotel or worked in an office on the 20th floor, you know that one of the most stressful parts of the day is getting into an elevator. You cram into the cattle chute at the elevator bank during rush hour, wait 10 minutes or more to finally squeeze into a space on one of the cars, only to find that nearly every button for every floor is lit up.

You and your new friends have to unpack yourselves at every stop to let off the lucky ones on the lower floors. By the time you reach your destination floor, you've become intimate enough with the other occupants to know what they had for breakfast and the state of their personal hygiene. You begin to wonder whether taking 20 flights of stairs would be a less strenuous emotional exercise. Perhaps walking the walk might be more beneficial and timely than taking the stop and go ride on the elevator.

 In the history of elevators, people generally complained when human operators were replaced by automation in the 1950s. What may be more telling in this case, however, is that the objections seem to be less about the technology and more about freedom of choice.

Truth is, many people would rather retain control and keep their options open whether they're getting into an elevator or making life decisions. Giving up control of how you get to your destination in either case can be a hard sell. Some will still try to manipulate the system to insure their choice gets priority.

There is a new technique called "Destination Elevator", it takes you to your destination without pushing the buttons. It is new and innovative, but it is a change! During a recent rush hour at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, for example, some guests tried to override the new system by punching in their floor numbers multiple times in the hopes of getting faster service. Instead, the system slowed down. When it comes to offering new and innovative products like the Destination Elevator, there's just no substitute for a little bit of learning and a lot of trust if you want to get to where you're supposed to be.

The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that faith in God works the same way. Destination faith, like a destination elevator, involves making a choice and getting on board to where God is leading.

The who's who list of faithful persons listed in Hebrews 11 were all people who went willingly into a button-less spiritual elevator and stepped out into new lands and new situations where they could only rely completely on God for provision and protection. It wasn't speed, efficiency or self-interest that drove them, but rather the "assurance" and "conviction" of faith (v. 1). Faith, in other words, is the confidence that one's invisible and unrealized hopes will become a visible reality. Whether boldly or tentatively at first, the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament made choices to trust God despite present circumstances and unknown futures.

Perhaps there's no better example of this kind of faith in the Scriptures than that of Abraham, whom the writer of Hebrews discusses at length.

God meets Abraham in Mesopotamia and tells him to "set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance" even though he went "not knowing where he was going" (v. 8). Abraham's only choice had been to say "yes" to following God, the choice of faith, and it was for that choice that the patriarch received "approval" from God (v. 2). From the moment he punched in his willingness to travel, God took over control of Abraham's destination, sending him to "the land he had been promised" where he wandered from place to place "living in tents" (v. 9). It was the journey, rather than the destination, itself that proved Abraham's faithfulness. His faith was based solely on his budding relationship with God and the potential of the promises of God ? promises of land and descendants that were still only a dream when Abraham set out with no map and a wife who was barren. Abraham stepped aboard at God's invitation. Even though he would not see the fulfillment of all of these promises in his lifetime, Abraham and his descendants did not seek an opportunity to return to the ground floor to revisit their options. Instead, they saw themselves as "strangers and foreigners on the earth" who looked ahead to a "better country, that is, a heavenly one" (v. 13-16). God was at the controls; therefore the destination, wherever it may be, was going to be a good one. For them, faith was complete trust in God without a specific and comprehensive floor plan for the future.

It's easy to talk about faith in this way and a lot harder to embrace it. We want to give ourselves over to God, but we'd like to be able to know the destination details in advance. We'd love it if God would simply give us the floor plan and schedule for where our lives will end up ? hence the oft-cited Christian obsession with "finding God's will for my life" as though there were some magic bullet or formula to tell us precisely how our lives will play out. We'd also like to have the option of getting off a floor or two early just in case things get to be too uncomfortable or if circumstances warrant. Buttons like finances, family and old hurts stand lit up before us, easy for us to punch as an excuse to keep us from focusing on the destiny to which God is calling us.

The truth is that God's will for us isn't bound up in the final destination, be it heaven, a career choice or even a particular ministry. God's will is for us to be in relationship with God, to trust God with everything in our lives and to live each day in God's presence. When it comes to God, the journey really IS the destination. Like Abraham and the others mentioned in Hebrews 11, we may never really see the fulfillment of our own potential ? that may only be realized through our spiritual descendants. Faithfulness isn't about "what's in it for me" in the future, but rather what's possible for God and me to accomplish together in the present, realizing that everything we do for God is part of God's larger purpose for the world.

Jesus led his Disciples to the Last Supper. They had no clue what was in it for them, they thought they were just going to an other Sader. But, they had been with The Master for 3 years, why would they not trust Him now to take them on The Destination Elevator? They moved in and out of different situations at the command of Jesus. They gathered around the table to eat the last meal with Him. Like Abraham, the Disciples were destined to go where they were sent, to walk the walk. Jesus offered the bread and the cup in a new way. It used to be bread and wine, now it is His body and His blood. Take. Eat. Remember me. Foreign words to His disciples, but they were ready to walk the walk. They took. They ate. And they remembered.

We have the same opportunity today. As the elements of the Supper are brought to you, you have the opportunity to walk with Jesus and to step into a relationship with God, to trust in Him, and to live every day in His presence. Let us pray??

Source:
Angwin, Julia, "To uneasy riders, buttonless elevators have ups and downs." The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2006, A1.