"Are You Ready To Walk" -Reverend A. LaMar Torrence, Pastor of Cross of Life Lutheran Church
Someone once said that ‘nothing gives you quite the thrill of treading in the darkness on a step that is not there.’ Often in this life, we must walk upon steps with the uncertainty of their support. We often put our best foot forward without knowing where we are going. We walk down dark paths unsure of what’s waiting for us around the next corner. Our footsteps are not always sure. Our stride is often broken. Our Achilles’ heal is often exposed. Our weak knees are constantly bent. We try not to slip and struggle not to fall. We trust that our legs will support us and our feet will direct us. As we walk through this life, we are unsure of our footing and exactly where we stand.
And yet, there are some of us who are unable to walk. Like –ex-superman Christopher Reid, they cannot testify to having activity in their limbs. Like Curtis Mayfield and Teddy Pendergrass, they cannot boast of having a brand new walk. There are some of us suffering from the condition of paralysis where the limbs are motionless and lifeless. The nerves in their legs and feet are not responding to the commands given by their minds. They want to move but their physical actions will not subject themselves to their mental desires. We called them the lamed, the crippled, the handicapped, invalid, and/or the physically challenged. Everyday they must confront their inability and struggle ten times harder to do what we do effortless.
However, we serve a God who hears their cries and pity their every groan. We serve a God who is a physical therapist for the paralyzed. He is a God who causes the blind to see, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear.
In fact, many of us who spend three fourths of our day upright and in motion are constantly patients of his. We visit his doctor’s office regularly for a remedy to our soul’s diseases. You see we too suffer from a state of paralysis. Oh we are physically healthy but many of us are spiritually lame. We have activity in our limbs but no activity in our spirits. We can run a 5k but we can not walk in the footsteps of Christ. We can come high stepping in to God’s church but our souls remain on the sick and shut in list.
We are victims of paralysis - going nowhere in our lives. We are social paralytics – confined in a society of glass ceilings and affirmative action, crippled with the stereotypes of sexism and racism, and stricken with urban flight, redlining, gang violence, drug addiction, and teenage pregnancy.
We are mental paraplegics - confined to mats of misery and pallets of pain. We are a people borne lame from our mother’s womb bearing the sins of our fathers. We are living out self-fulfilling prophecies and generational curses. Papa was a rolling stone so we become absentee fathers. Mama was a welfare queen, so we become teenage mothers waiting on Mother’s day to come around the first of every month. Our parents were dope pushers, users, and abusers. So, we become the mistreated, the afflicted, and the addicted. We are psychologically paralyzed – going nowhere due to a lack a vision; can’t see the possibilities due to lack of hope: stuck in dead-end jobs due to a lack of education: trapped in dead-end marriages due to a lack of communication: burdened with dead end ministries due to a lack of motivation. We are a people stricken with paralysis.
Even the church, which is to be constantly on the move, seems to be sick with spiritual palsy. We, who are to be boarding the gospel train to Zion, are either parked in the handicap zone or riding an invalid coach to hell.
We have parts of the church body not willing responding to will of the head. Limbs, that should be feeding the hungry and clothing the naked are crippled and lifeless. Feet that should be prepared with the gospel of peace are immobile and none respondent. We have body parts doing their own thing or not doing anything at all: Joint boards fighting for control over the pulpit. Finance committees struggling for power of the purse. Members too busy trying to be seen rather than trying to serve. The church body is infected with a cancer of pride and selfishness causing paralysis.
The head wants the body to move but the members will not respond. Synapses are sent to the body telling us to praise the lord, but our mouths are sealed and our tongues won’t say amen.
The head tells the body to clap its hands and shout for joy but the body will only sit with its arms folded and legs crossed. We are paralyzed -bound by narrow-mindedness and stubbornness: Transfixed with tradition and old time religion: afraid of criticism and social condemnation - I tell you that the church body sometimes suffer from spiritual paralysis.
We are “capable of hearing” but incapable of action. We can observe but we will not move. We are like the people of Capernaum who heard that Jesus was in town. They were a people drawn to Christ because of the miracles he did. The crowds came out to just see a good show. They were so amazed at his healings. They all marveled at his teachings. They were filled with wonder when he calmed the stormy seas. They were even fearful when he pulled out demons. Crowds that wanted a good show surrounded Jesus. They confused his miracles with the works of a magician. They mistook his message of peace for the threats of a riotous militant. They were a people who wanted to see signs and wonders not hear about repentance and salvation. They wanted sermons that pleased them rather than a gospel that could delivered them. They were expecting to be entertained rather than to be educated. They were drawn to the preacher rather than to the proclamation. Spectators and hearers looking for a good show surrounded Jesus.
And, when outsiders tried to get in these people just stood in the way.
And we still have churches filled with people hindering others from responding to words of Christ. Like the crowd in our text, we stand in the way and refuse to move. We won’t let new ministries come in. We won’t let new music come in. We won’t let new members come in. We won’t let new visions come in. We stand in the way of those seeking to get closer to Jesus. We have the sick and homeless struggling to get in, but we won’t move. And, thus we stand and tell the truth when we testify, “I’ve been in the way for 30 years.” We are just hearers standing in the way of those seeking to get closer to Christ.
And, brothers and sisters, the church needs less hearers and more seekers. We are called to be like the four faithful brothers who sought to get closer to Jesus.
The gospel calls us to be seekers after Christ. You see, seekers of Christ are willing to go anywhere to get a blessing from Jesus. If Jesus appears in the synagogue, seekers will be there. If he appears in a mosque, seekers will be there. If Jesus appears in a tiny storefront church in the middle of the city, seekers will be there.
They are not hindered by denomination. They are not threatened by doctrine. They don’t care whether the preacher has a whoop or the choir has sway. Seekers just want to be in the presence of Christ. Seekers want to see the manifestation of Jesus in their lives. They are looking for answers and not entertainment. They want to know how to deal with the monkey on their backs. They want to know how to mend their broken marriages and raise that wayward child.
Seekers just want to lay down their heavy burdens and find a sweet relief. They want blessed assurance that Jesus loves them and that God still cares.
And you know saints, I’m finding out that it’s difficult to be a seeker in today’s society. Friends begin to leave you because you no longer go where you use to go. Family begins to forsake you because you no longer do what you use to do. Church folks begin to talk about you because you always got a testimony and talking about the goodness of God. It is not easy being a seeker after Christ because we know that it is not enough just to hear the gospel but we need to live gospel every day. It is not enough just hear others pray for us but we need to know how to pray for ourselves. Yes, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God but we also realize that faith without works is dead.
Seekers just want a closer relationship with God. They want a faith that can be seen because a visible faith gets Jesus’ attention. Jesus saw the faith of the paralytic’s four friends. He saw their desire to take chances. He saw their determination to save one lost soul. Jesus saw their willingness to upset the status quo. He saw their faith in action. And that is what God wants to see in us. He wants to see our faith in action. Oh, he can see our singing and shouting but let him also see our tithing and giving. He can see us clapping our hands and praying at the altar but let him also find us loving our neighbor and witnessing to strangers. Jesus wants to see our faith in action.
And, I don’t know about you but I want Jesus to see my faith. I want the visible image of my faith to reflect the presence of Christ. If someone were to take a photograph of my faith, I want it to show my desire to seek after Christ no matter what obstacles may be in my way. I want my ‘Kodak moment’ to be more than just a Sunday morning blur but I want my true colors to come shining through. I want my portrait of faith to be a motion picture of my daily devotion to God. I want my life to resemble that of Christ – a ministry of faith.
Jesus embodied faith. He was a man of praxis – a man of reflection and action, faith and works. In order words, Jesus practiced what he preached. He not only talked about manna from heaven but he became living bread and fed five thousand hungry souls. He not only talked about a balm in Gilead but he healed the sick and raised the dead. He not only preached the forgiveness of sins but he became sin so that we could be forgiven. Jesus practiced what he preached. His life was one of both faith and action.
You see, faith is more than just believing in God and reflecting upon the word. Faith is also the using that belief and knowledge to determine one’s destiny. It is living out our vocation and acting on our value and purpose in this world as Christian human beings. In other words for faith to work for us, we have to work at our faith. If we come across a crowd of folk who won’t make way for us, we must be willing to raise the roof. If mountains will not move, be willing to climb the mountains. If waters will not part, be willing to forge the stormy sea. For the people of God to overcome their paralysis, we need to put our faith to work. We need to trust that Jesus will make a way out of no way.
And in my mind’s eye what healed the paralytic is that he put his faith to action. Just look at the text. Jesus never touched him. Jesus never commanded him to be made whole. Even when Jesus told him that his sins were forgiven, the man was still flat on his back. This man’s paralysis was not cured by Jesus’ words of absolution but by obeying Jesus’ command to ‘rise up and go’. The paralytic had to trust that Jesus would not tell him to do something that he could not do. He had to believe that he was empowered to put muscle to bone and actually walk. He moved on faith and fervor. He responded immediately without hesitation and question. Likewise, when the word tells to us to rise up we must rise. When the word says to go, we must move. We don’t need signs and wonders to direct our every step. We don’t need to call a church wide fast to do our ministry. We just need to trust in God’s word and move. We don’t have to mix tealeaves, read our horoscope, or call up psychics, just trust God’s word and move. We don’t have to invest in prayer clothes, buy holy oil or burn incenses, trust in God’s word and move.
And if you are ready to walk, if you’re tired of being motionless, being lifeless, and going nowhere, then trust in God’s word and move. If you are tired of just being able to make ends meet, tired of depending on others, tired of being a burden to your friends - Then trust in God’s word and move.
You see we serve a God who is constantly on the move. And he blesses those who are willing to move with him. He blesses those who are willing to obey his command of “rise up and go.” God blessed Abraham with a great name and nation because he was willing to rise up and go. He blessed the Joshua and the Hebrew children with a land of milk and honey because they were willing to rise up and go.
He blessed the ten leopards with healing because they were willing to rise up and go. He blessed Harriet Tubman and three slaves with freedom because they were willing to rise up and go.
He blessed the civil right workers with the desegregation and an equal rights amendment because they were willing to rise up and go.
He blessed one million black men with new identity and spiritual atonement because they were willing to rise up and go.
And I made up my mind, I have to trust in God’s word, rise up and go. I refuse to be paralyzed by tradition. I refuse to be confined to old paradigms I have to rise up and walk. I’m going walk by faith and not by sight.
Like Enoch, I going to walk with God until I am no more. Like the Hebrew boys, I going to walk into the fiery furnace knowing that our God is able to deliver. Like David I walk through valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil. When the spirit tells me to move, I am going to move. When God asks “who shall I send”, I’ll say “here am I, Lord send me.” For I serve a God that gives power to the faint, and to them, that have no might, he increases their strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall. But if I wait upon the LORD, he shall renew my strength; t I shall mount up with wings as eagles; I will run, and not be weary; and I will walk, and not faint. And I don’t know about you but I’m ready to walk. I may stumble sometimes but I’m ready to walk. I may even fall but I’m ready to walk. But I as long as I have a Jesus, I got me somebody who will pick me up and turn me around so that I can still walk on. – I’m ready to walk. And if you know like I know, you had better not get in my way, because you just might get step on. Ain’t nobody going to keep me from my Jesus. I’m going to walk on knowing that one day when my street strike Zion, I’m going to walk around heaven all day long
My prayer is the words of the old hymn,
Just a closer walk with thee;
Grant it Jesus if you please
Daily walking close with thee
Let it be dear Lord let it be.
