Beyond the Patio

The Sacred Journey
Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16, Luke 12:32-40

Probably everyone here has watched at least one episode of Star trek. Star trek was on the TV in one form or another for years. They have come out with a number of  movies. I’ve seen most of them. I don’t remember all the stories but I remember the beginning. The huge spaceship Enterprise would be launched into space, and a voice would come on and say,”to boldly go where no one has ever gone before”. “Where no one has ever gone before”. You know what scares me about so many people today? They will go where everyone else has gone, to do what everyone else has done, to be what everyone else has been.

I think of that when I read about Abraham (in Hebrews today). Abraham was called as an old man to go where no one had gone before. What does it say? By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he set out not knowing where he was going. Can you imagine? He was an old man. He was described as “as good as dead” .

Can you imagine Abraham telling Sarah, ” I’ve just had a dream. I’ve had a vision. God is going to carry out a great mission through us? He is going to create a new nation through us. We are going to be a new epoch of human history.” Can you hear Sarah saying, ” Go back to bed Abraham. It must be something you ate.” “No Sarah, God through us is going to create a new humanity.” Sarah asks, “Now how is this new humanity going to get started with us, Abraham,?” “I’m glad you asked Sarah” and the old Abe tells her. Then both these old people fell down laughing. When they had a baby what did they call him? “ISSAC ” which basically means LAUGHTER.

Can you imagine this old man setting out with all his belonging to go down the road. He’s hobbling along with his ninety year old pregant wife. (You don’t think God has a sense of humour) “Hey Abe, where are you going?” “I don’t know” “What are you going to be doing?” “I don’t know “. “Then why are you going?” “BECAUSE GOD HAS GIVEN ME A VISION”. (1)

Abraham had faith in the one who gave the promise. This faith in God’s promise and the knowledge that God’s was with him is what made Abraham’s journey a sacred journey.

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Isn’t that exciting? But it is not ordinary. It is not the way that most of us act.

We like to plan everything don’t we? We like to have everything set. We like to know exactly what is going to happen. I know I do! I like to set goals and objectives. Even our religion becomes a set of rules, regulations, set practices, and beliefs that determines whether we are faithful enough. Some of us do not want to leave anything to chance.

The truth is that we have to always leave things loose, a little rough around the edges, for the Spirit of God to work. Deep within all of us is the Spirit of God who is likely to speak to us, “Why don’t you risk it all, why don’t you bet your life on me, and do something dangerous in my name, and why don’t you trust that I will do a great thing through you. The Spirit is likely calling you to launch out challenged to go where no one has gone before.” But in order to do this we have to step out in faith in God and in know that God is with you every step of the journey.

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In the Gospel today, Jesus says to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where no thieves come near, and no moth destroys, because where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

This is said in the midst of passages and parables about the return of Christ the second coming. The master goes away and when he returns what will he find? The question that we are left with is: “What will he find in the lives of the ones he’s left behind?”

This also begs the question: ” When Christ returns what will he find?” Will he find a horde of people striving, struggling, and destroying one another like low life degenerates on the bottom of the food chain? Or will he find faith on the earth? It is that faith, my friends, that is the treasure that is eternal! It is with this kind of faith that we are able trust in the promises of God. It is with this kind of faith that we are able to perceive what the spirit is calling us to do and be. It is with this kind of faith that we are able to recognize that God is with us in the midst of our life

It is this kind of faith that makes our journey in life a sacred journey.

This is why Frederick Buechner was able to say that when he was a boy after his father committed suicide and he went with his mother and brother to live in Bermuda, that God was with him. He didn’t really know it then. He didn’t know it until he reflected on it some years later. He then perceived that God was there all along, helping him mature in the face of that terrible tragedy. God was there in his search for himself, in his search for love, and in his search for his life work. It is because he was able to see God’s Grace in the muck and marvel of his life that he was able to write an autobiography and call it The Sacred Journey (2)

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To be on the Sacred Journey is to be able to listen to your life and perceive where God is breaking in.

It is to live with hands outstretched both to give and to receive with gladness

It is to work and weep for the broken and suffering of the world, but also to be strangely light of heart in the knowledge that there is something greater than the world, that mends and renews us even in the midst of great difficulty.

It is to know joy, not happiness that comes and goes with the moments that occasion it, but the joy that is always there like an underground spring no matter how dark and terrible the night.

It is to know that our journey in life is truly a sacred journey. God is with us and speaks to us out of the very flesh of our lives.

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(1) based on a story told by Tony Campola Let Me Tell You A Story Word Publishing , Nashville, copyright Tony campola 2000, in a section entitled The Spirit Gives Us Dreams and Visions p.68-69

(2) Frederick Buechner The Sacred Journey, Harper and Row, NY, 1982.

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