March 11, 2020
Sermon Series 2020: Discipleship
Hope Lutheran Church
Pastor Mary Erickson
Hebrews 12:1-3; John 14:1-6
Discipleship: Look to God for Direction
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our theme during Lent this year is Discipleship. Part of being a disciple is admitting that we don’t know everything! The word disciple derives from the root meaning “student.” A disciple is a student. Students look to their teacher for direction and wisdom. So tonight, we consider that we look to God for strength and direction.
As disciples of Christ we look to him as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Christ’s words and actions inform us as we course the way before us. Day by day, his word promises to lighten our path.
When Peter, James and John were on the Mountain of Transfiguration, they heard the voice from heaven say, “This is my son, the beloved. Listen to him!” As disciples, we listen to our Lord.
Elizabeth Elliot and her husband Jim were missionaries in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador in the 1950’s. Later in life, Elizabeth Elliot became a noted writer of devotional books. In her book "God’s Guidance: A Slow and Certain Light," she tells about an encounter she had with two backpacking adventurers high in the Andes. They showed up at her house in the rain forest. The two were loaded down with all sorts of equipment for their journey. They asked Elizabeth to teach them a few phrases so they would be able to converse with the indigenous people. Armed with these stock phrases, they were off on their adventure.
Elliot reflected on the experience: “Sometimes we come to God as the two adventurers came to me -- confident and, we think, well-informed and well equipped. But has it occurred to us that with all our accumulation of stuff, something is missing?”
We’re caught up in the promises of all our resources and equipment. Who needs God when we have Google and Alexa?
Elliot suggests that we foolishly overlook the great depth of wisdom and direction that God bestows. What we want is the quick and easy answer.
Thomas knew better. Thomas knew the direction of our path depends on the guidance and higher wisdom of our Lord. Thomas often gets dismissed and laughed off by us. We’ve labeled and shelved him as poor “Doubting Thomas.” But Thomas asks one of the most profound questions of Jesus in the gospels.
It’s on the final night when Jesus gathers with his disciples. In just a few hours, they’ll travel to the Garden of Gethsemane, and Jesus will be arrested.
Jesus is preparing his disciples for what’s about to unfold. He encourages them not to be troubled. He is leaving to prepare a place for them. But Thomas possesses an essential quality for being a disciple. He knows what he doesn’t know. “Lord, we don’t know where you are going,” he asks, “How can we know the way?” Jesus confirms the deep truth Thomas has suggested. “Thomas, I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
As disciples, we look to Christ for direction through life. His words, his actions, point us in the way God would choose for us. In our life of discipleship, we continually reflect on the words of our Lord and the wisdom from on high.
But, sadly, it’s not always a direction we would choose for ourselves! At the turn of the last century, there was an itinerant salesman who plied his wares in Kentucky. He pulled his small cart down the lonely country roads, going from farm to farm.
When this gentleman came to an intersection of two roads, he was in the habit of removing a certain stick from his cart. He tossed the stick in the air. The direction the stick pointed when it fell to the ground directed which road he would take.
One day, a fellow traveler came upon the man at a fork in the road. The salesman was tossing his stick into the air over and over again. The other man said, “Sir, what are you doing? Why do you keep tossing that stick in the air over and over?”
The salesman explained, “Well, this is my divining stick. And it keeps pointing me to go right. But that road looks so dreary! The road to the left looks so much more inviting. So I’m waiting until the stick points left.”
God’s direction isn’t always the most glittering and glamorous way. It points us to walk humbly with our God. It encourages us to bear our neighbor’s burden as the Good Samaritan did. It may direct us to lighten the burden of our possessions. It might instruct us to deny our self and take up our cross.
God’s direction may seem dreary in comparison to other inviting, brightly lit pathways before us. When other options seem more delightful, we may find ourselves like that Kentucky salesman, tossing our stick in the air until a more enjoyable alternative presents itself.
But as disciples, we know that God’s word is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path. That divine word is meant to challenge our thoughts. It instructs us to see with the eyes of Christ and to hear his call. It enables us to see the stranger with new eyes. And it allows us to respond out of hope instead of fear.
Thomas accurately realized that on his own, he did not know the way. He looked to his Lord to show him the way.
During World War II, children living in London were evacuated from the vulnerable bombing areas to live in safer regions of England. Many of these children had never been away from home, never out of London. But here they found themselves being shipped off to relatives in remote places, separated from their parents.
One particular brother and sister were seated in a train, awaiting their departure. Their parents were outside the train car, trying to suppress their tears and look brave for their children. Inside the car, the little girl began to cry. She told her brother she was afraid. Where were they going? Did he know?
Her brother wiped away his own tears and put his arms around his sister. He said, “I don’t know where we’re going either, sis. But the king knows.” He trusted his king and so he knew that wherever they were headed, all would be well.
Like Thomas, like the little boy and girl, there are many times when we don’t know where we are headed in this world. We don’t know the way. But our heavenly king and savior knows the way, for he is the way. We look to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
