12th
Sermon
Detours – “Faith in Action I”
Pentecost, Mother’s Day 2008
My wife Maria and I have very different traveling styles. We both enjoy a roadtrip now and again, but I tend to watch my time and distance traveled, to keep up my rate of speed and get to our destination. Maria has a very different idea of what constitutes a good trip in the car; she is perpetually asking if there is a back-road we can take. Maria wants to stop for hot boiled peanuts and scenic rest areas. I like to arrive on time… we rarely ever do.
As we travel, the only thing I hate more than doubling back after missing a turn is finding myself at a mandatory detour.
Maria relishes detours, of course. The way she sees it, anything that gets us away from the sameness of the interstate and into the country is to be celebrated.
Life is filled with detours. I remember the theme of my high school graduation speeches was “Life is the journey, not the destination;” a trite saying for sure, but there’s a lot of truth in it. What they did not tell us that night of High School commencement was that Life’s journey would be made up of so many detours. “Make plans and listen to God laugh” might have been a more appropriate theme, if ours wasn’t a public school.
Life is filled with detours, and it should not surprise us to hear that many of those detours which interrupt our itineraries and plans are put there by God. Just as importantly we must get used to seeing life’s detours as moments filled with the possibility of being faithful. Whether we find ourselves on one of God’s detours, avoiding some other roadblocks, or just plain lost, how we live in those times that do not match up with our plans and expectations may be the most significant living we do.
How do you respond when you encounter a detour sign, do you throw your hands up in frustration, do you ignore it and risk driving off a cliff, or do you treat the detour with a sense of adventure and opportunity?
I.
Thomas Lane Butts shares this story, I think it speaks to questions of destinations and detours:
A man died and went to hell, which distressed his family and friends. They formed a committee to enlist people to go to the iron gates of hell and try to get him out. They first sent his pastor who stood at the gates of hell and shouted to Satan, “Let him out. He was a pretty good church member. He never missed an Easter or Christmas service. He always put a dollar in the offering plate when he was in church. He once attended Sunday School. He was a good man. Let him out”. The iron gates of hell did not move. They sent his golfing partner who explained what a good golfer he had been and cried: “Let him out”. The gates did not move. Several other people went to hell to plead his case and ask Satan to let him out, but to no avail. Finally they sent the man’s mother, who demanded: “Open the gates and let me in!” The iron gates of hell swung open.
Mothers know a thing or two about detours. Parenthood is filled with them… as Maria and I are quickly learning. What mother has not gone to hell and back with a child? If we are honest, we have all been on that trip and we probably took a mother with us.
[The best thing a mother can teach a child is how to survive when things just don’t go our way, when “plan A” falls through.]
Detours are natural products of the empathy and care that constitute great motherhood. Detours are the stuff of everyday for mothers, just observe who is bending down to tie loose shoelaces, or kiss an injury; who is at the bedside of a sick child, or the front row of a play or graduation, a court trial or a funeral. These are all places where we find mothers taking time away from their own lives and plans. Having a child, no matter how carefully planned, or prayerfully desired, is one big detour after another.
The way I see it, motherhood is not for the weak… or those unwilling to improvise. The best moms I know take all the detours in stride and instill in their families a sense of adventure in life.
II.
This morning we celebrate not only Mothers’ Day, but also Pentecost. It’s the day on the Christian calendar that we celebrate the birth of the church through God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. It is on this day that we claim for ourselves Jesus’ promise: ” 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.” (John 14)
The story of we have heard of the Spirit entering that room where the disciples were gathered is filled with vivid description of the sound of wind and flames of fire; these followers of Jesus are inspired to speak God’s good news in ways that everyone around can understand, despite what should have been the barrier of language.
This newborn church has been set on a new path. Jesus is no longer walking among them, but they are accomplishing great miracles, proclaiming Good News with great boldness and the church is growing by the thousands each day. The church has been sent on a detour that includes persecution and even martyrdom, it also includes taking the message of faith outside of the traditional faith and into the gentile world around them.
Perhaps some of Jesus’ followers expected to return to the lives they led before they met Jesus. Some may have been content keeping the church small and their lives safe… but God had other plans for them that first Pentecost, and we are here today because they followed that detour. Before they called themselves Christians, early believers identified themselves as “The Way,” of course, this was not their own way, but God’s way.
III.
This early church probably was not so surprised by the detour they were sent on, and we shouldn’t be either. As followers of Jesus, we expect our lives to be challenged and changed; we are a called to set aside our own plans and priorities for the plans and priorities of the Kingdom Jesus preached. This means taking a few detours.
In perhaps his most famous parable, Jesus spoke about detours. We know this as the story of the “Good Samaritan,” this morning we might call it the story of the “Samaritan Willing to Take a detour.” Listen to how The Message translates this familiar story:
25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?” 26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?” 27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence - and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” 28 ”Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.” 29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?” 30 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. 31 Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. 32 Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man. 33 ”A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. 34 He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. 35 In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill - I’ll pay you on my way back.’ 36 ”What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” 37 ”The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded. Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
The example of the Good Samaritan shows us how God’s opportunities for faithfulness might look like detours on the journey of life. Those who do not stop for the man left beaten by the robbers all have their excuses, all have an itinerary for their day that does not allow them to stop and offer the help that is needed. They certainly see their own excuses as legitimate, even faithful. But being a neighbor (and loving our neighbors), Jesus shows, means allowing our plans to be interrupted and our itineraries to be detoured. If the Good Samaritan had been traveling with GPS, we can imagine the voice continually saying “recalculating” while attempting to get him back on course.
The example of the “Samaritan Willing to Take a Detour” is that being faithful and helping others involves a series of steps that if we are honest with ourselves we usually avoid: The Good Samaritan’s detour took a risk, took personal involvement, took time, took personal involvement and took money. If we are going to love our neighbors, we can no longer use these as our excuses.
Putting aside the excuses and taking the detours God has put before us means opening our eyes to the opportunities God gives for us to put our faith in action. We are taking this seriously as a church, and I hope you will join us. On June 1st, we are clearing our normal Sunday plans of a 10:15 worship service and dedicating ourselves to a day of serving our community. On that day, we are going to form work-groups to give blood, prepare meals, visit the sick, repair a local park, paint an elderly person’s house, wash cars to raise money for global mission and other projects. I invite and encourage you to be part of this “Faith in Action” Sunday, when we don’t just “go” to church, rather we “be” the church; when we don’t wear our Sunday best, rather we do our Sunday best. Our faith isn’t something we dust off when convenient, or when we need the comfort it can provide; we need put our faith in action and our world needs it too.
Enjoy your detours and your mothers this day and this week. And go with the guidance, inspiration and power of God’s Holy Spirit. AMEN
