December 10, 2000

Pastor David G. Mullen

Luke 3:1-6

"Make a straight path for him. Fill up every valley and level every mountain…" I lived out in North Dakota for 15 years. Out there, where the windswept prairie stretches flat as a griddle for mile after mile, with few hills, valleys, towns, or even trees, directions are usually given to a farm family’s place like this: Well, you head south out of town for three miles, and then you turn east for a half a mile, then turn north for another mile, then head west for a quarter of a mile and you are there. Simple. Nothing to it! Usually I made it to the farmer’s place on time. Following the directions is fine, if, that is, you know which way is North, South, East, and West. But if you can’t follow those directions, or really have a hard time with a map, or if it is cloudy or nighttime, it can get pretty scary. You may get lost. And when it’s thirty below and the wind is blowing snow around, you don’t want to be lost on the prairie. You could die!

Today, on this Second Sunday in Advent, we are looking at a second ministry priority of our congregation, nurture. The Nurture Priority states, "Children, youth, adults, and families learning and growing in Christ through small groups, educational programs, and social activities." Call it "finding our spiritual directions". Do we need this? Well, how is your life going? Do you have a clear sense of God’s direction for your life? And as a congregation just how reachable and teachable are we in terms of what God wants us to be doing here and now?

We have two cats in our house, Sam and Buffy, and to make an understatement, neither is very friendly. But in particular Sam acts like one of Garrison Keillor’s infamous Lake Wobegone "Norwegian Bachelor Farmers." Try to pick him up and cuddle him, and what does he do? This–front paws straight out, stiff armed, head turned away, like I am torturing him.

And I’m thinking, well, that’s pretty much the way it is with us and God much of the time. Just as all I want to do is love up my cat, all God wants to do is love us and bless our lives with his healing power and direction. But do we accept it? Not very easily. Here God gives us this great congregation with all sorts of wonderful opportunities for worship and learning and nurturing in the faith by others and we are like my cat Sam–stiff arming the Holy Spirit. That’s why we have this second ministry priority–nurture. We need to be bugged over and over that when it comes to God and the church, trying to be a Norwegian Bachelor Farmer type Christian is a formula for disaster! The world is such a huge and confusing place, with all kinds of stories, agendas, and yes, "directions", that left to ourselves, we will get lost and end in a scary mess.

Max Lucado tells the story of a man who had been messy most of his life. He just couldn't comprehend the logic of neatness. Why make up a bed if you're going to sleep in it again tonight? Why put the lid on the toothpaste tube if you're going to take it off again in the morning? The man admitted to being compulsive about being messy. Then he got married. His wife was patient. She said she didn't mind his habits ... if he didn't mind sleeping on the couch. Since he did mind, he began to change. He said it was like he enrolled in a 12-step program for slobs. And it was like a physical therapist helped him rediscover the muscles used for hanging up shirts and placing toilet paper on the holder. His nose was reintroduced to the smell of Pine Sol. By the time his in-laws arrived for a visit, he was a new man. But then came the moment of truth. His wife went out of town for a week. At first he reverted to the old man. Our hero figured he could be a slob for six days and clean on the seventh, reversing the order of the Lord God Almighty, who you might remember, created order out of chaos for six days and on the seventh rested. But something strange happened. He could no longer relax with dirty dishes in the sink or towels flung around the bathroom or clothes on the floor or sheets rumbled up like a mountain on the bed. What happened? Simple. He had been exposed to a higher standard of living. That's what Jesus does. -- Max Lucado, In the Grip of Grace (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1996), 116-117.

Nurture as a congregational priority therefore has everything to do with finding and attempting to follow the directions God gives us: the higher standard of Jesus Christ. How can we do this? Well, like a family planning a vacation trip around a map on a kitchen table, we need to get together with one another to learn about and talk over God’s directions. In classes, Bible study groups, Discipleship Workshops, worship, and yes, even with our famous Potluck dinners we are joining the process of figuring out God’s map for us and for the world.

The map we are trying to read and understand with the whole Church is the Biblical story, the "Greatest Story Ever Told." It begins with God’s creation of the universe, continues into the mess we humans have made of things down here, cries out in the voices of the prophets for justice on earth, longs for and then presents the Messiah in the birth of Jesus, and through the dramatic surgery of Good Friday and the incredible healing of Easter, ends up embracing the whole world with the promise God will mend the Universe. (See Erlander, Manna and Mercy)

Even if we think we know the outlines of that, we are still in danger of getting lost. Let’s return to the North Dakota scene and my need to find my way out to a farm on the prairie. What if it’s winter and the weather gets a little dicey the day I’m supposed to visit–not a storm bad enough to keep me home, but just enough wind and blowing snow to give reason for worry. And what if the farmer calls and says, "Hey, I’ll come over in my four wheel drive pickup and bring out to our place." Now that’s a real relief to a worried, directionally challenged person! And so he shows up in my driveway, and I hop into the warm cab. And maybe the farmer decides go a different way than the directions he gave me at first. Maybe he wanted to check on his cattle in the north forty. Whatever direction he goes, I don’t worry. Why? Because he knows the way, and I’m going with him. I’m OK. The farmer himself has become my map.

Now think about Christ, our Lord and Savior. In his wonderful book, Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby writes: Jesus said, ‘I am the way.’ He did not say, ‘I will show you the way.’ He did not say, ‘I will give you a road map.’ He did not say, ‘I will tell you which direction to head.’ He said, ‘I am the way.’ Jesus knows the way. He is your way…If you don’t trust Jesus to guide you this way, what happens if you don’t know the way you are to go? You worry every time you must make a turn. You often freeze up and cannot make a decision. This is not the way God intends for you to live your life. (Blackaby, Experiencing God Workbook, page 11)

It’s Nurture, then, on this Second Sunday of Advent, 2000. Don’t be like my cat Sam, keeping the One who would love us at a distance We need each other and we need God. But it’s better than just a teaching! Our Lord shows up and says, I am with you. Follow me, I’ll take you to where you need to go. And if you go, your heart has become good soil, where the mountains have been leveled and the valleys filled up, and the rough places made smooth, a pathway for God. And you no longer need to worry about who you are or where you are going. Why? Because you are traveling with the Lord Jesus and he himself has become your way, your truth, your life, your map. Follow him and you find the places and the people he needs to love through you–you, another sign of the saving power of God and the healing of the world. Amen.