A Relationship And A Destiny - Part 1

 

A relationship and a destiny

This was the fourth Sunday after 9/11. I didn’t want our people living in fear, or in worldly reaction to the events around us, I wanted us living as the daughters and sons of the Living God, I wanted us fulfilling our destiny in Jesus Christ.

 

October 7, 2001, A Relationship and a Destiny; Romans 8:12 – 30.

Robert Withers, Becket, MA

 

              Let me tell you about a book I haven’t read yet.  A friend recommended it last week and I’m going to purchase it this week and read it as soon as it arrives.  It’s by a fine author, Phillip Yancey. I’ve never read anything by Yancey that I didn’t like and I’m looking forward to this new release of his.  My friend, Mike Daily, a pastor in Virginia, told Vickie and me that this is an outstanding book.  Now remember, that Michael is a pastor, and this is important, because what do you think Yancey is talking about surviving?  He’s talking about surviving the church and coming into a relationship with Jesus Christ.  The title of the book is “Soul Survivor – How My Faith Survived the Church,” that’s s-o-u-l, not s-o-l-e.

               Yancey shares his experience as a young believer in a church that said all the right things on Sunday, used the right language, sang the right songs, probably dressed a certain way, probably shook hands a certain way, but when they went out the doors of the building on Sunday their semblance of Christianity, if it can be called that, came to an end.  One of the thrusts of Yancey’s book is that in spite of the church – using the word “church” as many people commonly understand it – that in spite of the church, Phillip Yancey came to know Jesus Christ…Yancey is a soul s-o-u-l survivor.  He moved from a religion to a relationship with a destiny.

               I can relate to Yancey’s experience.  I recall as a teenager who wanted to learn about Jesus, going to meet a pastor of the denomination in which I was baptized and leaving my meeting with him thoroughly disillusioned.  He didn’t talk to me about Jesus at all.  He talked to me about the ceremonies of the church and gave me a church handbook explaining all the symbols and liturgy of the denomination…but it didn’t tell me about Jesus, it didn’t tell me about a relationship and a destiny.

I recall two and one – half years ago, visiting my Dad after a major stroke, my heart breaking for my Dad, heavy for my Dad, weighed down by concern that my Dad was going to leave this life without knowing Jesus Christ, weighed down by concern that my Dad was going into eternity without God in Christ.  I stopped at a church to find someone who would care for my Dad spiritually, and as the pastor of this church and I went into a private room…with tears running down my face…the pastor looked at me and began talking about church polity, church government, comparing his denomination’s way of governing with the congregational system.  And I thought to myself, "I can’t believe I’m hearing this.  I can’t believe he’s talking to me about church government issues with my heart breaking and with my Dad critically ill.”  What did church government have to do with Jesus?  What did it have to do with my Dad knowing Jesus?  What did it have to do with my Dad having a relationship and a destiny?

               I recall being on a youth retreat as a 16-year-old and people asking me what I thought about issues of dress and hair styles.  What did issues of dress and hairstyles have to do with Jesus?

               I remember returning to the church where I first heard a clear Gospel presentation.  I had been gone from the town for a few months and during that time I grew my first beard.  There was an older couple in that church that had been kind to me when I first began attending there, I had great affection for them, it was good to be cared for by an older couple.  As I left the church building that Sunday the woman, Mattie, asked me to call them on Monday.  I thought, “Great, maybe they want to get together.  I’d love to see them since I’ve been gone for a few months.”  When I called on Monday I heard Mattie say the words, “Robert, why don’t you shave and get rid of that beard?”  What did having a beard have to do with Jesus?  What did having a beard have to do with a relationship and a destiny?

               Much of my early life had had a fair degree of uncertainty in it, that doesn’t make me any different from many of us here this morning, many of us have known uncertainty in our lives, including our lives as children.  Some of us have moved times without number, some of us have never known whether a parent was coming home a particular night, and if so, in what condition that parent would be in when he or she arrived.  Many of us experienced peer rejection as a child, adolescent or young adult.  Many of us couldn’t seem to measure up to someone’s expectations, whether a parent’s, a peer group’s, a teacher’s, a coach’s, or even our own expectations.

               I’m no different than many of us here this morning.  In my case because I wanted to be loved and included in a family group I wanted to learn about the church and to learn what the church wanted from me.  I wanted to fit in.

to be continued...