Colour Supplement

Articles by Christians around the world

Sunday 15 June 2008

 

Unlikely journeys

A sermon preached on Sunday 15^th June 2008 -  4^th after Trinity (Year A)

by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's.

 

 

Genesis 18.1 – 15 & 21.1-7

Romans 5.1-8

Matthew 9.35 – 10.8 

 

Some time ago I was on a family holiday in Ireland with my parents and my younger brother – we went for three weeks and it rained every day.  However we did a lot of exploring of the countryside with the aid of a map and my mother’s navigational skills.

 

On one occasion we reached a fork in the road.  According to the map we needed to take the left fork but the signpost clearly indicated that we should go right.  It was raining, there was no-one around and we spent some time checking the map and looking with confusion at the sign post.  After a while a gentleman came out from one of the houses nearby and, without speaking to us or even acknowledging us in any way, walked up to the sign post and twisted it round so that it now told us that the left hand fork was correct!

 

On another journey we got hopelessly lost and stopped to ask for directions.  The man we spoke to, after much head scratching and chin rubbing, announced “if you want to go there, I wouldn’t start from here”.

 

I think I can identify with that feeling.   Sometimes it feels like if we want to be somewhere or achieve something we really need a different starting point.  Starting from where we are now seems too difficult, too confusing, too complicated or dangerous or just plain impossible.

 

This morning we’ve heard stories and thoughts of people who’ve taken the most unlikely journeys and reached amazing destinations from very unpromising beginnings.

 

Take Sarah:  if you were God and wanted to choose someone to be the mother of many descendents who would be God’s chosen people, what sort of woman would you look for? Probably you wouldn’t start with Sarah: a woman well past the menopause who would have to be caring for teenagers from the age of about 103!

 

Sarah herself thinks it’s very unlikely.  She laughs at the very idea.  She cannot believe that she will have a child at her age.

 

I wonder what sort of laugh it was.  Was it sheer amusement?  Was it a bitter, disappointed laugh?  Perhaps it was an angry laugh which said “don’t taunt me” Or a resigned laugh:  “oh no, not this again – not another false hope”

 

Yet God does fulfil his promise.  Sarah does bear a son, Isaac.  One of Isaac’s sons is Jacob, who God re-names Israel.   And the children of Israel are God’s chosen people and it’s from them that Jesus is born.  And Jesus opens the way for us to be descendants of Abraham and Sarah as well.

 

An amazing destination and an unlikely journey

 

Then there’s Paul who writes:

 

“God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us”

 

I’d edit that slightly to say “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ was born, lived and died for us”

 

Paul also writes elsewhere what I think are some of the most glorious verses in his letters:

 

“I am convinced that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present,

nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,

 nor depth nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

But look where that journey began:  This was Saul who was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” going to Damascus to hunt disciples down and bring them bound to Jerusalem. An angry, driven man desperately fighting against God.

 

What happened?  God met him in his anger and transformed him

 

If anyone had said to Saul, while he was still fuming, that one day he too would follow Jesus he would have laughed with scorn and sworn that could never happen.

 

But it did.  An extraordinary destination after an unlikely journey.

 

And what about the first 12 disciples named by Matthew?

 

All getting on with their everyday lives, minding their own business,         well into routine at work and at home. Perhaps comfortable with that, not wanting anything different; perhaps a bit restless and discontented.

 

What none of them expected was to be pounced on by a charismatic, intelligent and persuasive rabbi and taken off on a journey into an unknown future whose only certainty was that this rabbi would be their leader travelling with them.

 

Unlikely journeys for all of them.

 

And what about our journeys?

 

In a sense a new one starts every day but sometimes there are unlikely, challenging, exciting, frightening or tragic journeys to be faced, often with unknown destinations.

 

We might be thrilled, joyful that at last the way ahead seems clear.

 

We might laugh at the idea of that journey – or weep bitterly. We might scoff at the very idea but feel that persistent calling of God anyway.  We may feel angry, furious that our comfortable, predictable happy lives are threatened by change and disruption.

 

But there is some good news:

 

To go back to Ireland for a moment:  my husband, Adrian, was in Northern Ireland on business recently.  He had to visit someone in their home.  He had the address and directions but couldn’t find the turning off the main road in the village.  He’d been back and forth and few times and was in danger of being late for his appointment.  Seeing a lady carrying two or three large bags of shopping he stopped and asked her if she could help him find the address.  “Oh I don’t think so,” she said, “I don’t live here, I’m staying with a friend”.  Adrian told her the address which she recognised, “that’s the road where my friend lives, tell you what, if you give me a lift with all my shopping, I’ll show you the way there”!  A satisfactory arrangement for both!

 

God comes out to find those who are lost, angry, afraid, devastated or lonely. He comes out to find us where we are, as we are.  And when he finds us he says:  “Let me into your life, let me sit beside you, I will show you the way and I will be with you always, for the whole journey”

 

And then he sends us out, like those first disciples, to be his search & rescue team to seek out those who are  lonely, lost or in danger on their journey and to travel alongside them, offering to them the love we have been shown so generously and so completely.

 

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