September 11, 2010

• I once was lost, but now am found, God’s amazing grace

  I assume that all of us have had the experience of being lost.  I have mentioned before that I find Dayton to be a very easy town to get lost in.  Streets change their names without warning, they change direction more often than they change names, and my internal compass just gets all turned around in this city.  We all experience being lost but we don’t all respond to being lost the same way.  Some of us will never ask for directions, we prefer to use our logic and instincts to get us where we are going, some people will ask for directions, but not trust the directions they are given and still try to find their own way, and a small number of people will ask for directions, take careful notes and follow the directions exactly.  Daniel Boone is reported to have said that he never got lost but he was mighty confused once for several weeks.

   

  People work out their relationship with God in similar ways.  Some people think they have no need of God to get by in their life.  They want to believe their intelligence and their intuition will guide them through life.  It doesn’t matter how many days, weeks, months, or years they have been confused, they are sure they aren’t lost and they don’t need any help.  Others know they are lost and they seek God’s help and guidance but they can’t really trust that God understands their situation and they decide they will still have to work out on their own.  And a small number of people know they are lost and they seek God’s guidance and they write down what they hear God saying to them and they try very hard to follow the directions.  They aren’t even afraid to go back to God regularly to check on the directions and make sure they are headed in the right direction.  We can only hope to find our way if we recognize we are lost.  We cannot know we are lost unless we know where we want to go.  If we have no idea where we are going, it is unlikely we will get anywhere.

   

  Some people have a very shortsighted destination.  They expect only to get happy or to make good money and they have no sense of where they want their life to go in the long term.  They don’t know they are lost because they think they have a plan.  It is only when they realize their plan isn’t going to lead them to a long term fulfillment that they realize they are lost.  Some people have a long term life plan, to make something of themselves or to be important, or to make a difference in the world but they don’t know they are lost because they haven’t figured out what they need to do to arrive at those places.  God can provide us with the destination that is right for us and will provide us with guides to get us there but only when we realize we are lost and ask God to help us.

   

  Some of us know we are lost and we seek help but we don’t trust the help we receive.  We may know we aren’t reaching our goal and we ask God for guidance but then we don’t listen to the directions God sends us.  We can be like someone who is on a trail and trying to reach the mountain top but all we do is to keep going around the base of the mountain.  We may be directed to someone who has guided others to the top of the mountain.  This guide may tell us first we have to get rid of some of the things we are caring because they will hold us back from the climb.  The guide may direct us to a path that goes up the side of the mountain, and the guide may tell us we need to take others along with us to be able to help each other over the rough spots.  Some of us may decide we don’t want to let go of any of the things we are carrying because they are precious to us and we have been carrying them for so long.  We may also decide we don’t want to take the path that goes up the mountain because it looks difficult and we are not familiar with it.  We may also decide we prefer to go it alone because we aren’t sure we trust others to help us.  It isn’t likely we will get where we want to go if we insist on taking the easy path and refusing to hear the directions God sends us to get us where God wants us to go.

   

  Some people are very good at listening to God and following God’s directions but then they begin to think that God’s directions for them are meant for everyone.  Have you ever witnessed when someone asks for directions to get some place and two people give them different directions?  Quite often the two people will become quite combative about which directions are the right directions.  The truth is there may be many different directions that will get you where you want to go and the choice of which direction to take may depend on your circumstances.  I usually walk to the farmer’s market on Second Street from my home.  On Saturday, I was pressed for time, so I drove to the market.  I discovered the directions that take me to the market easily on foot are not good in a car unless you don’t mind going the wrong way on one way streets.  The followers of different faith traditions can act like the people arguing over the right directions to get from one place to another.  They know what has worked for them and they insist it is the way everyone must go.  This weekend we had a controversy over a Christian church’s plan to burn copies of the Qur’an to protest militant Islam and the plan to build a Moslem community center near the site of the twin towers destruction.  To me, this is similar to the ancient myths about the battle of the gods.  Each side trying to prove their god is stronger than the other person’s god.  It was not the God of Islam that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and it is not the Islamic faith that we should be afraid of, we should be afraid of any fanatics who wish to force others by violence to accept the supremacy of their way to God.  Christian fanatics are every bit as frightening as Islamic fanatics.  Fanatical Christians fanned the hatred for Jews in Germany prior to World War II and called them Christ killers.  It is my belief there is only one God, and there are a variety ways that humans have sought to understand and approach God.  I believe God rejoices when anyone seeks to establish a relationship with God.  I am content to allow God is God’s infinite wisdom and mercy to guide that seeker home.  I trust fully in God amazing grace that saved me from being lost.  God’s amazing grace that both taught me to fear and relieved my fear.  I once was lost, but know am found.  Thanks be for God’s amazing grace.  Amen.

   

  Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

  1 Timothy 1:12-17

  Luke 15:1-10

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