“James Taylor’s Greatest Hits” has a song on it called “The Walking Man.”
“Walking Man, Walking Man Walks,
Well, any other man stops and talks
But the walking man walks”
In our bible reading this morning God makes a covenant with Abraham. It is a walking covenant. “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me...” (Genesis 17:1). Abraham's call? To be one in whose life there is not only hearing and recognizing the call of God but also acting upon it. “Any other man stops and talks... but the walking man walks.”
I would like to suggest to you three lessons this passage can teach us.
1) Walking with God involves a change of identity.
2) Walking with God involves a change of priorities.
3) Walking with God involves a change of heart.
Walking with God involves a change of identity.
In our bible story, Abram becomes Abraham and Sarai becomes Sarah. The covenant they have with God results in a changed name. Abram meaning ‘exalted Father’ becomes Abraham - ‘Father (or ‘chief’) of a Multitude'; Sarai, meaning ‘princess’, becomes Sarah meaning ‘Noblewoman or Queen’.
In both cases the change to their name indicates a change in their status. It is one thing to be regarded as head of a household, another to be head of State. It is one thing to be called princess, (a term sometimes used as a term of endearment), it is a different thing to be regarded as one endowed with royal power and authority.
Enlargement of office results in a corresponding enlargement of responsibility. The taking on of those responsibilities brings greater knowledge and awareness of the tasks that need to be accomplished. Let me put that in a different way!
When you reach a point in life where you say to Jesus Christ, 'Yes, I want to be a disciple, I hear Your call, I will follow', once you have made that commitment, you have a new name. You are Christian. You are in a different relationship to God than you were when you had not heard God’s call. And this new relationship with God effects the relationship you must have to everything else in your life... people, possessions, priorities… the whole of life.
Some historians suggest that the term ‘Christian’ was first used of followers of Jesus as a term of abuse. When people encountered the lives of the earliest believers, they called them, mockingly, “Little Christ’s.” The term was the equivalent of being today called a ‘Jesus Freak’ or ‘Religious Nut’. ‘Christian’ was not meant as a term of endearment but of abuse.
The early disciples turned it around. They took the fact that people recognized something of Jesus in them, as a compliment. They realized that truly, their calling was to be representatives of His, to be His hands and feet and eyes and offer His touch and His Word to those around them.
Given the background to the word 'Christian', I speculate as to whether we should really use the term to describe ourselves! Maybe it is a word that should be reserved for other people’s descriptions of us. If other people feel we have anything about us that reminds them of Jesus, we should say 'Thank you! I'm doing better than I thought!' I am challenged by the words I saw on one church noticeboard, 'If you were arrested today for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?'
Abram and Sarai’s faith in God resulted in a change of their status and identity, signified by God re-naming them Abraham and Sarah. Which conveniently leads us to a second thing.
Walking with God involves a change of priorities.
Abraham and Sarah are given a promise that seems so outlandish it is laughable. A promise that, in their advanced years, they are to have a child. Chapter 17, verse 17 “Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
When a baby comes along life takes a change of direction. Abraham and Sarah are so far down the road of their life that they feel a radical change of direction... the very thought that something new may be birthed into their situation... is a cause for laughter.
The bible does not say a whole lot about laughter. When it does, it usually speaks of laughter as something positive and enriching. With one notable exception. In Genesis Chapter 18, Sarah, and by implication Abraham, are rebuked by God for the laughter of unbelief. God promises them a child and they laugh about it.
This is not just a giggle of nervous apprehension or misunderstanding. Abraham falls over because he is laughing so much... Abraham, in his deepest place, in his heart, does not believe God can do what God has promised. Abraham is not being the 'Walking Man that Walks.’
This is an Abraham who, in modern day terms, is “The Walking Man who turns around goes back home, gets a beer out the refrigerator, plonks himself down on the couch, switches on the Television, then shouts to his wife in the kitchen, ‘Y’should have been in church this morning. That stupid preacher was saying God can do amazing things in us if we commit our lives to Jesus. YEH- RIGHT, … how long is dinner going to be… let’s get back to the real world.”
The 'Yeh-Right' attitude cripples Christian life. God is offering God’s promises to us all, but if inside ourselves, we are not believing, we are not trusting God, we are doubtful to the point of laughing at the prospect of God being able to bring about change in and through our lives, then we are indulging in the laughter of unbelief.
Discipleship of Jesus Christ really can open us up to new possibilities and new experiences and bring about radical change. For all of us. None of us are exempt from that possibility. Of course, there is a cost involved.
Discipleship and Christian growth are lifetime investments. It is a deep commitment we are being asked to pursue. When Jesus said to the first disciples, “Take up your cross and follow me,” He did not envisage total commitment as an option, but a requirement.
Jesus Christ, the Living Lord, invites us to lay our life before God with no strings attached. To put our relationship to God before every other relationship to everything else that is in our life. To our family. To our friends. To our time. To our money.
To be in a position where we say to God, “I will go wherever You want me to go, do whatever You want me to do, give whatever You want me to give, be whatever You want me to be, because You (not me) are the Lord.”
A colleague in West Virginia, Rev Harry Fuller, used to encourage his congregation to try this exercise. Repeat after me. “There is a God!” “There is a God!” “And it isn’t me” “And it isn’t me.” Yeh. That’s right! (You don’t have to repeat that bit.)
Beware the 'Yeh-Right” attitude that inwardly scoffs at God's requirements. The walking man does not stop and talk, the walking man walks. Which brings us to a third thought.
Walking with God involves a change of heart.
In the story of Abraham and Sarah, God has the last laugh. They do have a child. And the child is named ‘Isaac.’ Isaac is the Hebrew word for laughter. Abraham moves from his laughter of unbelief to full surrender to God. He has a total change of heart.
It is one of many changes of heart that Abraham experiences in his life. At the time of this calling Abraham sees God as ‘El-Shaddai’, the God of the mountains and the plains, the One who made the ground on which he walked and who was a Rock upon whom he could build his life. As he walked with God, God was revealed in new ways and by different names. That would be another sermon altogether. For now, just notice this. As he walked, he discovered there was more to see and understand than he ever imagined.
I know right now, with everything going on, there is a lot of uncertainty. How long it will take to get life back to normal? When can I get a vaccine? Can this COVID thing be eradicated? When can we be back in church and sing hymns again at the tops of our voices?
And just maybe faith and hope and looking to the future has become sidelined in our lives. We cannot clearly see the road ahead of us and make plans as we would like to do. That is where a lot of us are right now. It is easy to become cynical and disheartened.
James Taylor’s song, “The Walking Man” was written about his father, Ike Taylor, a military man who spent much time away from his family. The song references James’s feelings about fathers physical and emotional absence. Eventually Ike and James’s mom, Trudy were divorced.
We can relate to that. We all experience those moments when we become so focused on one thing, that we become disengaged with other more important things. The fact that there were times when his dad could have stopped and talked, but instead his dad walked, is not an entirely positive image.
Yet one of the beautiful things about the song is, that you come away from it hopeful. It is a song that encourages us to think about the way we are walking through our lives, and the impact our walk has upon those around us, particularly those who are closest to us.
I encourage you this morning to consider what it means to be in a walking covenant with God. That if in our Christian life we have reached a barrier or feel we are not going anywhere, we remind ourselves that God is not an earthly father, with all the limitations that humanity places upon us, but a Heavenly Father God, whose solid rock promise is that He will never leave us or forsake us.
We are encouraged to reach beyond the 'Yeah-Right' attitude that so often cripples faith and immobilizes us from acting.
We are encouraged to say to God... “I want to be a person with a heart for the things of Your kingdom, I want to make right, relationships that have become messed up, I want to re-organize my time, so I have more time for doing the things You are calling me to do, Lord, I want to be the walking woman (or man) who walks! Help me be strong in Your Holy Spirit and be in a walking covenant with You!”
When we place our lives at God’s disposal and seek to be people who walk in the way of covenant grace, God promises to send His Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us, transform us, and heal us, encourage us, and renew us.
To God be all honor, praise and glory.
Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
No comments:
Post a Comment