Isaiah 43:16-21, John
12:1-8 Abundantly,
Boldly Becoming
When I was a high school senior, I took a calculus class with a very good teacher, Mr. Richard Wohlfarth. Now there were all manner of things eccentric about this teacher. But what was very clear was that he was in love with his subject. Each morning in calculus class, he would stand at the chalkboard, writing out problems. As he wrote and came closer to the solutions, he would begin to write so hard with his white chalk, that it would start to crumble against the blackboard. And then he would literally jump up and down with excitement, chalk in hand, almost begging his students to feel the excitement he felt about mathematics.
Today, you may not realize this, but I am nearly jumping up and down with excitement over the scriptures we have just heard. Just be glad we don’t have a chalkboard here!
The reason I am excited is because there is a word here for us today about who God is for us and how we’re supposed to live as a result. Today’s readings demonstrate as much as anything we’ve heard this season of Lent that we can expect our lives to change when we turn towards God - and that is what the word repent means - to turn towards God. As we turn towards God we are going to experience God as an abundant God who invites us into bold discipleship.
The first reading comes from the Book of Isaiah. It speaks in soaring words of freedom and hope.
But what we need to understand as we hear these beautiful words is that the original listeners were neither free nor hopeful. The original listeners were the Israelites and they were captives - slaves again.
This time they weren’t in
God makes a way even
when there seems to be no way.
A couple of weeks ago, my two younger sons took me rock
climbing in north
The first time I climbed, I was struck by the fact that I
wasn’t really that scared of falling. It
was a thinking sport as much as a physical sport, I decided. But after I did this second climb, I realized
that the first climb I had done just probably wasn’t high enough. Because this
second time, I was scared of falling.
I wish I could stand here and tell you that I made my way up that 40-foot wall, boldly, confidently. But I can’t. I have to admit that at different points, I felt stuck on the wall, like a bug in a spider web.
I’m ashamed to admit that I even called out to my 19-year old, Andrew, who was down below, “This is too hard.” One of those equalizing moments between parent and child where you realize (gratefully) that your children really do know something and are going to grow up and be competent adults. Andrew and James definitely know more about rock climbing than I do. At one point I started to go backwards, thinking that if I backed down a little, I might find a better route. But I quickly thought better of that idea! I didn’t want to give up on even a couple of the feet I had gained going up.
But I did finally get up to the top, where the rope was anchored. I hung out there for a while and then went back down - that was the easy part.
But I’ve been thinking about the whole experience ever since. One of the things I learned, as I labored my way up this rock wall, was that just when I was sure there were no more footholds or hand holds,
it seemed as if crevices in the rock, or a narrow little shelf in the rock, would appear. Some little spot where I could put my foot. There was a way up that rock wall, even when I didn’t think so at first.
Although these footholds and handholds were there all along,
what had kept me from seeing them was
not my eyes, but my fear.
Fear keeps us living life thinking there’s no way
through. Fear keeps us living life,
clutching to what we think we can control, instead of surrendering to God’s
guiding spirit. Fear keeps us living life with our eyes shut, and our hearts closed,
anxiously holding on to what has been instead of what can be. But God is abundant and bold and invites
us to live in faith not fear!
I have been having lots of conversation with many of you
around here as part of getting to know all of you and this is what I’ve come
to: Here at PCCC we need to believe
in and act like the church we want to become, not the church we have been. That’s difficult. It means we have to see the future through
eyes of faith and not eyes of fear. As
we keep on moving forward, relying on God to lead us, God’s ways will open up
before us. This is a promise.
This passage from Isaiah specifically addresses how hard that is to do. And here’s what we are to do when fear gets bigger than faith. I’m going to read a couple of verses again this time from The Message.
This is what God
says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path
through pounding waves, . . . “Forget about what’s happened! Don’t keep going over old history. Be alert.
Be present. I’m about to do
something brand-new. It’s bursting out!
Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m
making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands.”
Saying yes to God always defies all sensibilities. It will get you accused of all manner of things.
That’s just not possible. That doesn’t make sense. We can’t do that -- there’s not enough money.
Doing that could shut us down! We need to save for a rainy day. We’ve all heard these things before, right?
The advice from the scriptures on how to handle our fears couldn’t be more clear. FORGET IT. Forget who we have been. Focus on what God is calling us to become. And what we are called to become must be seen through eyes of faith, not fear. Here in the church, we have to walk right into our fears, if we want to be faithful.
Today’s second scripture teaches us more about how to respond to this bold and abundant God who is leading us forward. This is the story of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. The timing for the event is just days before Jesus will be arrested by the authorities and executed. This dinner was no party, but actually a very dangerous situation. It was only a short time before, that Jesus had been to the house of his friend Lazarus and raised him from the dead. It had caused quite a ruckus. Now the authorities are out to get him and Lazarus. They figured “get rid of Jesus -- and Lazarus--” and maybe everybody would forget about this Jesus character. But the danger didn’t seem to matter to Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary. We’re told that Martha serves, and Lazarus is at the table. But the real story going on here is the story of Mary. Mary pouring out expensive perfumed oil on Jesus’ feet and then wiping his feet with her hair - of all things - is the story that prefigures Jesus washing the feet of his disciples in the very next chapter.
What Mary does here is not only bold, it’s embarrassingly bold. Who would think of going to a dinner party and lavishing that kind of attention on any one, even the guest of honor? It would be embarrassing!
But we who claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ have to look at Mary because Mary is demonstrating a deep devotion to Jesus that goes to the core of her discipleship. Mary is the disciple who sits at the feet of Jesus and loves her Lord. It’s a relationship and it’s an essential part of discipleship.
We don’t just “do” church here. We are in a relationship
with God through Jesus Christ. Disciples of Jesus Christ are persons whom
he loves and who love him and live out that love in acts of service and
witness.
Devotion to Jesus is kind of embarrassing to us. That’s because we’ve seen too much of it on TV that isn’t really a relationship at all, but is some kind of show or performance calculated to fill the offering plate or feed the ego of some TV evangelist. It can seem manipulative, and so we get cynical about any show of emotion related to our faith in Jesus Christ.
Some time ago, I overheard a conversation as I stood in line at the grocery store. A young woman was in line in front of me, talking with the other young woman running the cash register. They seemed to know each other, at least by name, and had gone to the same big high school together. They talked about colleges, the Hope scholarship, people they both knew. Then the young woman in front of me changed the subject and asked the cashier a question. “Are you a Christian?”
“No,” she replied.
“Why not?”
“Oh, I’ve looked around at all the religions,” she said.
I could tell this cashier was getting embarrassed. And she tried to change the subject.
But the young woman in line was not to be deterred.
She replied, with great sincerity - no judgment at all -
“The only reason I’m alive is because of Jesus,” she said. “You know, he died for our sins. We’re forgiven.” And then she invited the cashier to her church and to a Bible study to learn more about this God who loved her.
Devotion poured out of this young woman’s words. She loved her Lord. Her relationship with Jesus Christ had changed her life. She understood what it meant to experience God’s lavish and abundant grace. She had claimed those promises for her life. And she wanted other people to have that too.
She was willing to be bold about her relationship with God.
Now I’m not sure I have my English right in today’s sermon title -- Abundantly, Boldly Becoming -- but I do know this. I have my theology right. God is inviting us - right here at Peachtree Corners Christian Church --to become something new -- something bold and abundant. Something that will help people in this community - not just inside this church - Grow in their relationships with God and each other.
This is a promise that we can claim. Be alert. Be present. God is about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it
is! Look around - through eyes of faith, not fear - and
you’re going to see it!