Bibliography: Two Roads Diverge in the Woods, The Blue Bird
Travel back to your days in high school English class. Do you recall a poem by Robert Frost titled, The Road Not Taken?
Listen to this poem:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost talks about living life in two different ways. As the narator of the poem, he chose to live a different way than most people: one perhaps more challenging, one perhaps requiring more of a personal investment and commitment than the the other.
In our Bible Lesson, Paul explores two ways of knowing and discovery, two ways of having a relationship with God.
One way is a legalistic way. It’s the way of rote obedience, of following all the rules, of faithfulness to religious expectations to a fault.
The other way of having a relationship with God involves faith. It involves believing in the love of God in such a way that can’t be known by the mind, but can only be known by the heart.
Now I’m the kind of person that can handle just about anything, as long as I know what’s coming, what to expect. Car repairs, medical proceedures, home improvements - it doesn’t matter. I can deal with almost anything if I know what’s going on and what’s about to happen. I’m a person that likes to be informed.
But being informed, doesn’t address all of my needs. That the doctors knows what medical proceedure I need to have done, and can explain it all to me, doesn’t make the physician care for me on a personal, intimatel level. The expertiece of the mechanic doesn’t address my concerns and anxiety.
I can read up on my medical condition, I can take a class in automotive repairs, but it doesn’t change the fact that I still have a problem and doesn’t mean the doctor or mechanic will be my savior in my time of need.
Paul talks about two ways of knowing, and only one of those-knowing God by heart rather than by mind, knowing God by faith- is one able to truly know God.
One current expression that illustrates what I’m trying to say goes like this:
‘Being in McDonalds doesn’t make you a hamburger and being in church doesn’t make you a Christian.’
Paul knew a lot of people who may have been at McDonalds, but they weren’t hamburgers. They may have been very faithful, religious people. They were good people, who tried to be obedient to all the laws, rules, and guide lines required by their religion. They know their faith. They know all the ends and outs of whats expected of them - when to pray and how to pray, what the Scriptures say and the special code of ethics for relating to other people. But there was one very crucial element missing in their life. Their relationship with God was one established through knowledge of expected religious practices, but they didn’t necessarily know God in their heart.
Such a person today may be one who attends church fairly regularly. Maybe they actively participate in a small group of some kind in some way. Perhaps they give regularly of their finances and make donations of their time now and then. But all of these things don’t make that person a Christian at the heart. They may know who Jesus is, may know all about him, but they don’t necessarily take it seriously enough to have relationship with him.
I’m thinking it sounds like I am discrediting active church participation, but I’m not. Here at Grace we have high expectations of membership and believe these expectations are important. Faithful attendance, small group participation, studying the Bible, giving of our time, talent, and financial resources are all very important aspects our our Christian faith.
What I am saying is, these things aren’t the summation of a relationship with Jesus. They are a means to an end, not the end itself.
They are tools that lead us and teach us in our relationship with Christ. They help us to discover and continually rediscover who Jesus is. They help us to get to know Jesus, and they help us to grow in our relationship with Jesus.
Just as a relationship with Jesus was fulfillment of religious law and rules in Paul’s day, a relationship with Jesus today is fulfillment of all of the elements of Christian discipleship. Bible study and worship attendance helps us to be better Christians.
But its not like some of the workshops I’ve attended in the public schools. As a licensed Speech Pathologist, there is a requirement of a certain number of continuing education credits each years. Most presenters have gotten wise and won’t pass out the certificate of attendance until the end of the worshop. Being a Christian isn’t like that. Church attendance credit doesn’t get you into heaven.
“For it is believing in your heart that we are made right with God.”
Know it by heart. This is what Paul tells us. He’s not talking about rote memorization. He is talking about a different way of knowing.
Lets look at this from a different way. Someone in your life loves you very much. It may be a spouse. It may be a parent. It may be an aunt or a grandparent. It may be one of your children or a nephew. It may be a very close friend, but someone in your live loves you very much, and you know this person loves you.
If I asked you how you know this person loves you, you could tell me countless ways in which this person demostrate their love for you. It might be the little tokens of affection you have recieved. It might be a card that was sent to you. Maybe its in the way this person brings you something cold to drink when your working on a hot day, or maybe this person has cared for you when you’ve been sick.
Maybe its the way he or she tries to cheer you up when your down, or given you a hug when you need it.
Or maybe its in the things they say. Perhaps you would tell me this person never lets you leave the house or end your conversation without telling you he or she loves you. Maybe you have a special nickname they use that demonstrates their affection.
Maybe its just the concern they express whenever you have a problem, but there are ways in which this person demonstrates their love for you.
Now let me ask you this: This person who loves you so very much, to what extent do they loved you? Would they risk their life for you? Enter a burning building, jump in front of a car for you? Would they lay down their life for you?
And if your answer is yes, how do you know this? You believe this person who loves you so much will do this, but if he or she has never been called upon to risk their life for you, has never had to die for you, how do you know they will?
Because you have faith and trust in that person’s love for you. Because you know it by heart. Without having to do it, you believe your loved one loves you that much.
And if we, imperfect beings as we are, are loved to such an extent by another imperfect person,
how much more does Jesus love us - Jesus who did lay down his life for us,
and did it not when we were good, not when we have our act together,
but died for us when we are at our worst...when we are hurting others and engaged in things that certainly don’t help us to be better people..
or how about when we are just going through the motions?
How much more does Jesus love us, when he died on the cross for our sins, even when we check out of the relationship, decide to go our own way and our own thing. Even when we are awful, it doesn’t change the fact of how much Jesus loves us.
.
And sometimes we may do our best to activily pursue a relationship with Jesus, but sometimes we are content to coast on our own for awhile. And sometimes...well its as if we forget that Jesus is even there.
That doesn’t change one iota of the extent of Christ’s love for us.
He beckons to us, just the same, died on the cross for us just the same, promises us eternal life through him just the same, if only we will get to know him by heart.
Our invitation is two-fold this evening: First, we are invited to know God by heart - to believe in our heart that we are made right by God.
We are invited to take our relationship with God seriously, perhaps in a way we never have before.
It might mean opening up our heart and letting God in for the very first time - to begin to know God the way we know that special person in our lives who loves us.
Robert Frost picked a road less traveled for his life. It required more effort on his part to journey on that road. It does for us as well to open our hearts to God and trust in him. It takes more energy to actively engage in and participate in a relationship. But for Frost, his choice in life made all the difference to him. Traveling the road that holds us in a relationship with God will make all the difference in us as well.
We are invited to know God by heart.
But maybe some of us believe we have embarked upon such a journey already. And we have pursued faithful worship attendance, Bible study, and other aspects of discipleship in order to come closer to God and get to know God better.
We also have an invitation to take our commitment to a higher level.
Earlier I asked to what extent do we know our loved one loves us?
The question now is, to what extent do we believe in God’s love for us? When it comes to laying down our life for Christ, the question is, are we willing to go all the way as well?
“Believe in your heart that your are made right with God,” Paul wrote. “And confess it with your mouth.”
One of the big thoughts driving Paul’s words has to do with his Christian witness.
Isn’t it ironic that as we travel this Roman road of salvation that our salvation becomes defined by our Christian witness. Its not only about what we believe, its about how willing we are to act upon what we claim.
Paul is concerned for people like himself. They come from the same heritage he does. They have the same religious practices he grew up with. And Paul sees them making a grave mistake - the same one he did - that doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons.
They failed to see what was missing - knowing God by their heart.
We know people like that too. They are like a hamster on a wheel in cage. They spend a lot of time and energy trying to get life right, trying to be good, honorable, upstanding people, trying to make life count.
The only thing is, their missing the purpose and reason for living. They are running on the wheel, but getting nowhere. Their missing what we have come to know by heart - the love of God revealed to us in Jesus.
The people we know may have one big difference from those Paul worries about. Not everyone we know necessarily grew up with religious practices. Some of the people we know, we’ll be introducing Jesus to them for the very first time. In any case, the message is the same: Salvation that comes from trusting in Christ - this is the message we preach, says Paul. Only Paul is not talking to preachers. He talking to faithful Christians like you and I.
A couple of years ago, we conducted a confidental survey here at Grace, inquiring into our seriousness concerning the afore mentioned aspects of our Christian faith. In most areas, we did fairly well. But I am sad to say that according to the survey, we don’t do very well in witnessing to others about our Christian faith. These are self-claimed results, mind you. From our own responses we indicated we share our faith with others very infrequently.
I realize there are a variety of reasons for this. Maybe we think we’re not educated enough. We don’t know enough about Jesus to feel able to share our faith with others.
Or maybe there is concern with boldly approaching others to ask if they know Jesus as their Lord and Savior the way we know Jesus. Maybe we think witnessing will have the oposite effect of what we want.There are lots of reasons...
But while carrying his cross to calvary, Jesus didn’t stop to ponder his dedication to us. He didn’t stop to wonder if we were really worth it. He didn’t hesitate for a second to die for sins, to make us right with God, and provide us new life, eternal life through him.
Our invitation tonight is twofold. We are invited to get to know Christ - to get to know Jesus by our heart, and to bring our faith in Jesus to the point we will confess him with our mouth. In other words, to proclaim him as Lord and Savior through our actions and behavior, through our lifestyle, and through our words.
We are invited to come to know Jesus to the point we are willing to lay down our life for him, because of what Christ has done for us.
We are invited to know him by heart.
