At the Crossroads

One of my favorite passages in Jeremiah is found in the 6th chapter of the writing bearing his name.  The 16th verse of that chapter says, "Thus says the Lord:  Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."   Those ancient Hebrews would not listen.  They said, "We will not walk in it....We will not give heed."  (vs. 16-17)  We seem to be living in a day when the ancient way is regarded as an irrelevant way.    

Jeremiah perceived that the Hebrews were standing at a perilous moment when choices were possibilites.  To continue ignoring the ancient way would result in a world where no choices would remain, only the consequences.  The Hebrews chose the way of experiencing and enduring the consequences.  In so many places and in so many situations it seems that the choices being made today by so many come from immersion in the common consensus of culture instead of immersion in the ancient sacred Word.  It is as if the mantra of the day is "We will not walk in it."   

Choosing to walk in our own way has been a problem since the beginning.  Choosing to walk in our own way speaks of the root cause of our sin.  It was the way of the Garden of Eden couple long generations ago and it remains a choice so easily made.  To live in a relationship with the Creator who brought us into being requires consideration of the word "submission" and a life style based on "Thy will be done"  instead of one which speaks of the way paved by ego.  To realize the difference is to stand at a crossroad where important decisions will be made.  

Who Will Go?

God does not always ask us to do the easy thing.  Sometimes it is the hard thing, the unpopular thing, the one thing you never wanted to do.  I remember a moment long years ago when I heard in my spirit a call to preach.  I was not yet eighteen, packing up clothes to go to Young Harris College, and was absolutley certain that I wanted nothing to do with this call to preach which was echoing with such urgency in my heart.  It would take me another six months to come around to the place of saying "Yes" to what I knew God was calling me to do.   

God calls us to a lot things.  Some take up a life time and some can be accomplished tomorrrow.  Regardless of the time involved, there may well be some reluctance to launch out on something which seems impossible even though God is pushing for it.  The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was told that he was appointed a prophet before he was formed in the womb and born (Jeremiah 1:5), but there were times he longed for another way.  His prophetic work did not put him on magazine covers and make him man of the year, but instead, turned him into a prophet no one wanted to hear.  There were times so difficult he wanted to call it quits.  "If I say, 'I will not mention Him, or speak any more in His name,' then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." (Jeremiah 20:9).  Jeremiah wanted to quit this hard work of God, but he could not.   

Many of us have experienced such a reality.  There have been times when the Word of God puts us in such an uncomfortable place with those we want to like us, or a place where the task to which we are called is so overwhelming, or in some moment of spiritual quandry which shakes our faith.  Honesty requires us to admit that we have been put in places by God and like Jonah, we may have refused to go, or we may have balked to the point of angering God as did Moses.  Kingdom work always cuts against the grain of human practicality and common sense.  It is hard work.  It should not surprise us since the One who calls us is the One who walked to Golgotha burdened with a cross wondering all the while, "Who will come and go with Me?"

Wrath and Pardon

I will be the first to admit the writings of prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, and Amos can be difficult to read.  More than just a few times I have nodded off with the Word open in my lap.  And even more times have I read sections and wondered what was being said and how much I was missing. When someone says they like reading the Old Testament prophets, I always give them a second look and silently applaud them.    

Judgement is never easy for any of us to hear.  To hear judgement is to find ourselves standing in the midst of our sins.  Those Old Testament prophets did not mince words.  They did not soft pedal what they had come to understand as the wrath of God rising up against the people for their sins.  At times it seems that God is ready to wipe His people from the face of the earth.  The one thing always clear as we hear those prophetic words thundering forth is that God does not tolerate sin and disobedience.  His mercy and love may provide for a cushion of time to repent, but at some point it becomes clear that the day of judgement has come.    

But, as surely as there is judgement for sin, so is there pardon and restoration.  Regardless of the depth of the sin and no matter how terrible the punishment, God acts to restore His people.  At the end of the book of Amos there are comforting words spoken to a people who have endured holy wrath because of their sins, "I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel...I will plant them upon their land, and they shall never again be plucked up out of the land that I shall give them, says the Lord your God."  (Amos 9:14-15)  There was always a remnant.  There was always pardon and forgiveness,  And such is still true for me and you.

The Core Function

Churches come in all shapes and sizes.  There are more different signs out front than there are angels in heaven.  Some are so small they seem like family gatherings on Sunday morning and others are so large it takes several law enforcement officers present to get the thousand or so cars back on the road after the benediction.  Some survive on heavy doses of ritual and liturgy while others run from any semblance of liturgy as if a bag of snakes has been turned loose in the room.   

And while there are many different types of gatherings on any Sunday morning, there are a few things which cause me to leave thinking I would like to return.  One is good preaching.  Maybe it is the preacher in me, but I like a good sermon.  It does not have to be scholarly or long, but it does need to be one which lets a text speak.  And, I like good music that is stirring and makes me want to sing louder than I should. Of course, it is always good to have friendly people sitting with me in the sanctuary.  But, perhaps, most of all I want to leave feeling that I have worshiped God.    

There are surely other things which could be added to listings that others might make.  And, on some Sundays my list might be a bit longer.  I never have been too partial to glitz and bells and whistles as I have plain and simple when it comes to those Sunday gatherings.  What I know is that large or small, each can be a means of enabling people to come in contact and in relationship with the living Christ which is the core function of any church.

Asking Prayers

When we pray, we tend to do a lot of asking.  We ask for the healing of a friend.  Or, we ask for help with a problem.  Sometimes we ask for guidance in making some tough decision.  And, of course, we ask for God to bless us, our family, and our church.  There is certainly nothing wrong with this kind of prayer.  It is Biblical.  We read the Word and we are told to ask and we do.  Like the ancient Word to be fruitful and multiply to which we adhere, so do we diligently practice the words about asking.   

At times I wonder about the scatter gun type of praying.  It does not really seem that the asking is for "anything" as "anything" can get to be unreasonable as well as something which seems to fly in the face of the prayer teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount that tells us to pray according to "Thy will be done."  Reconciling random asking and the Word from the Sermon is not easy.   

One way to approach our asking prayers might be to ask God how it is that He wants us to ask.  Instead of asking Him to heal someone, maybe asking Him how He wants us to pray for someone in trouble is a better direction.  Or, instead of asking Him to bless our church, asking Him how it is that He would have us pray for His church would be a more appropriate way to pray.  What is being suggested is obvious.  Maybe before we start asking Him for anything, we need to ask Him how we should be praying in the different situations of our life.  As we seek to pray inside His will, we could start asking Him to enable us to see His will so that we might ask according to His heart instead of what we think someone needs from Him.

The Final Word

Life never tells us what is ahead.  There are no signs telling us a winding snake like curve is ahead and neither are there any signs to warn that falling rocks may come rolling down.  And to be truthful is to admit that were there signs, they would likely be ignored by most of us.  It is still true that the unwanted moments which suddenly dump stuff on us come like some guest to the party whose presence is not expected or wanted.   

What we would keep away shows up in our lives anyway.  Ask anyone who looks a bit shaken and is wearing not tatoos but body and soul scars.  There is no way to read the gospels without seeing in many of  the verses the wisdom of Jesus as he talked about rain falling on the just and the unjust.  (Matthew 5:45)   Before I was eight years old I got wet in my first rainfall on that day my father died and only a few days ago I felt that same rain falling in what seemed like such a sunshining day.  There is no umbrella which keeps us from feeling the storms which threaten the status quo of our life.  

What is always out there is the One who put the spark of life in us when we still not formed in the darkness of the womb.  It may seem trite to some, but it is true that this God who brought us into being is not going to leave us alone, nor is He going to let some difficulty have the last word.  The hard word which seems to destroy our existence always seems to be spoken when we leave the graveyard, but what is always true is the way the resurrection morning story proclaims that no matter what it is that is out there ahead of us or surrounding us, we will get through to the glorious and sometimes invisible plan of God.  

Musicians

I have always believed that music had a powerful place in worship.  It can do what words cannot do.  It touches a place so deep that words often fail to penetrate.  And so, at one of my churches long years ago, I dared to do a brazen thing I should not have done.  But, I was young and lived with the idea I could do anything.  The church needed someone to help with the church choir.  I figured since I had one conducting course at Asbury College and had experience as a church secretary, janitor, youth worker, and Sunday School teacher, I could just add one more thing to my resume.     

The Talbotton Church was patient with my attempt to help, but at  best I was not even a good "get by."  Every place else I served I was blessed with very good musicians.  When I think back over the years I remember the many who led choirs, planned for music events, and played the piano and other instruments. My own ministry was enhanced by the way they lifted up Christ and invited people to be experience His holy presence as He made Himself known in our midst.  

I wish I could thank each one again for the way they partnered with me in ministry in so many ways.  There was a time when it was said that the music set the table for the preacher to preach and while I would never argue that music does indeed create an environment which enables the soul to be more responsive to the Word of God being preached, the music offered has a place all its own.  When I bombed out in the pulpit it was always reassuring to know that the music offered brought people in touch with the Christ which was why we were gathered in the first place.  I thank God for allowing us to serve Christ and I thank them, too.  Thanks to each one of you.