Are you brave enough…to live?

 

Texts: Numbers 14; Ps. 95; Joshua 1.1-9

     God is always calling his people forward.  God is always calling his people forward; and most of the time, God is calling us into the unknown.  The unknown is frightening.  That’s why it’s so hard to follow the call of God.  It takes tremendous courage to follow where God leads, to go where he sends us, to respond to his call to obey him and do his will in the world.  As I understand it, the Christian life is a two-step process.  First, God saves us.  God saved you; he saved me.  “For God so loved the world that he GAVE his only begotten son, so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3.16).  God gave himself to us in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus gave his life for us on the cross, and set us free from sin and death.  We have been freed!  That’s amazing!  Now what?

     This is the point where many Christians get stuck.  What are we to do with our freedom?  What were we set free for?  What’s next?  The second step in the Christian life, after having received God’s gift of salvation and freedom, is to live as free people.  We have been set free so we can do the will of God in this world, to actively serve God’s kingdom and thus set other people free.  The second step is to respond to what God has done for us.  What will we do with our freedom?  We were not freed simply so that we could feel good about ourselves, though meditating upon what God has done for us reminds us that we are loved unconditionally, and that should grant us a sense of well-being beyond anything that the world can offer.

     Neither were we set free so that we could remain passive recipients of what God can offer us, though God is more generous than we will ever understand.  For those of us who grew up reading comic books or watching Marvel movies, as Spiderman says, “With great freedom comes great responsibility”.  Now that we are free, we are responsible to put that freedom to work.  Retirement is often described as freedom from work.  Maybe.  It remains the case that for many retirees, a second career becomes freedom from…boredom, from purposelessness.  But perhaps freedom means working for the Lord as opposed to a corporation or a boss.  Perhaps freedom is being free to work for what we truly believe in.  We are God’s free people, and we are responsible to work for God and his kingdom purposes in the world.  We cannot be content to be “consumer Christians”.  Jesus told his apostles: “Freely you have received; freely give”.  If we have received something from God, we are now responsible to do something about it.  Every gift of God has a purpose.  What have you received?  What are you doing about it?

     The Israelites were set free from slavery in Egypt.  God performed miracle after miracle to deliver his people from their oppressors and bring them to the edge of the Promised Land.  And that was the moment when the people of God had a choice to make.  Would they go forward into the unknown, would they face the dangers of Canaan, trusting that the God who had brought them out of Egypt would bring them into the Promised Land?  Or would they give in to fear and try to go back to what was familiar?  Little did they know it, but those members of the people of God would were above 20 years old at the time of the Exodus were facing an extremely momentous decision as they camped at the borders of Canaan.  The choice to go forward in faith or backwards in fear was no mere matter of different travel plans.  It was a choice, quite literally, between life and death.

     The people began by sending 12 spies into Canaan to see what was what, to determine what the obstacles were to entering the Promised Land.  After 40 days, the spies came back with their report.  10 spies spoke about the fortified cities, the giants, the seemingly impossible odds stacked against them.  These 10 spies advised their fellow Israelites against venturing into this intimidating place.  However, there was a minority report as well.  2 of the spies spoke about the richness of the land, its abundance, its fertility and potential.  They encouraged their countrymen to seize the moment and go into the land, believing in the promises God had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  However, the people agreed with the 10 spies who were overcome with terror and hopelessness in the face of the challenge of claiming the Land.  “Let’s go back to Egypt!” they said.  Little did they know that there was no going back.  It was either the Promised Land, with its terrifying inhabitants and dangerous potential or…the emptiness and barrenness of the wilderness.  It was a choice between life in the Land or death in the desert.  And so, God said: Very well, you’ve made your choice.  Every member of the generation above 20 years old that came out of Egypt would die in the desert.  They would not see the Promised Land.  Only two members of that generation – the two spies who came back with a positive report, Caleb and Joshua – would enter the Land.  And so, 40 years of wandering the wilderness began…  What a terrible fate!  Wandering the desert, waiting to die.  Wandering, waiting and wondering…what if we had been brave enough to enter the Land when we had the chance?

     40 years went by, and the people of God once again found themselves on the border of Canaan.  It was now composed of a new generation, born in the desert, who would be called upon to face the giants and high walls of the Canaanite cities.  Would they have the courage required to accomplish the purpose for which their parents had been set free?  As we saw two weeks ago, Moses climbed to the summit of Mt. Nebo, saw the Promised Land from afar, died on the mountaintop and was buried by God.  What a funeral that must have been!  Now, it was up to Joshua – one of the two brave spies – to lead the people into their inheritance.  What big shoes to fill!  Can you imagine the pressure of trying to live up to Moses’ reputation?  Moses – the man, the myth, the legend!  The man of the 10 plagues, the man of the Red Sea, the man of countless miracles in the desert, the man who had received the 10 Commandments, the man who spoke with God face-to-face, the man who had asked God the unaskable question – Let me see your glory – and had been granted a vision of God’s “back”.  Despite his initial fears, lack of confidence and hesitancy at the burning bush, Moses had, in the end, surrendered to the call of God and had spent his last 40 years doing one thing – obeying the explicit instructions of God.  That is, except for that one time, which is why he couldn’t enter the Promised Land, but only saw it from a distance.

     Now, Joshua had to take up Moses’ mantle and get the people of God to their home.  What an intimidating mission!  And so, as Joshua and the Israelites are camped on the Eastern bank of the Jordan River, God speaks to him and tells him – repeatedly – Don’t be afraid!  Be strong and courageous!  I will be with you wherever you go.  Did you know that the command “Fear not!” is the most oft-repeated commandment in the Bible?  It appears 365 times.  Why?  Because fear makes faith impossible.  “By faith” Moses did what he did.  If Moses had given in to his fear when God had called to him from the burning bush, his story would have turned out very differently.  Free will is a scary thing.  Our decisions matter.  God calls to us…and we are free to respond Yes! or no.  Faith goes forward.  Fear stays stuck.  Do you know that the acronym F-E-A-R has two meanings?  It can mean “Forget Everything And Run”.  It can also mean “Face Everything And Rise”.  The choice is ours.

     What does all of this have to do with us?  My friends, let’s have a serious chat.  As they say, Parlons des vraies affaires.  Our community is at a crossroads.  We have reached a point where things can no longer continue going as they have been going for a long time.  For many years now, a very few people have shouldered the burden of caring for this community.  We are incredibly grateful for their years of faithful and tireless service.  They have brought us “to the edge of the Promised Land” as it were.  Now we have a choice to make.  Are we going to take responsibility for the future of our community?  Will we go forward in faith?  Will we pick up the mantle and carry on the work which they began?  Will we invest the three things that are required for a community to function well and grow – will we invest our talent, our time and our treasure?  Please hear what I’m saying.  We have decisions to make as a community.  We cannot remain as we are.  We have to realize where we are, what we need to do, and make the choice to do it.  Or not do it.  If that is to be our decision, we must take the story of the Israelites in the desert as a warning.  If this community is to live and thrive, we must go forward by faith.  If not, well, “the writing is on the wall”.  Each one of us has to ask themselves: Does this community have a future, and do I want to be part of it?  Am I willing to invest my gifts, my time and my money in this community or am I simply here to take what I can while the doors remain open?

     All of this may strike you as a bit drastic, a bit exaggerated.  You may not have known that there were opportunities to participate in the leadership of this community.  You may have assumed that someone from the outside would arrive and do whatever needed to be done.  You may be thinking, “That’s all well and good Sam, but all this is your job.  You take care of it!”  Well, I may indeed have a role to play in the future of our community, but I’m only one person.  We are the body of Christ.  A body is made up of many members, many limbs and organs.  Each one of us has their role to play.  A congregation should never be a one-woman or a one-man show.  So, we must look down the road and decide what we desire for our community.  As you know, I’ve been doing pulpit supply in the Presbytery for the past 18 months or so.  Do you know what the clerk of session of one congregation told me on a Sunday morning last summer?  “Based on our financial projections, our congregation has 8 years left”.  That’s a disturbing statement.  But do you know what disturbed me the most about it?  It was the person’s tone of voice as they said that sentence.  There was no sense of urgency, no particular sadness.  They just stated it calmly like it was just another fact, a fact like “They’re announcing rain tomorrow”.  That person has simply accepted that the death of their community is fast approaching and their tone told me that they believed that there was nothing they could do about it.  How tragic!  May God save us from such a fate!

     My friends, here we are.  What are we going to do?  What is God calling us to?  As I have driven around Beauharnois on Friday afternoons for the past 3 months, I have sensed that there are a lot of hurting people on this very street and throughout this town.  Who is going to tell them that they are loved and that there is hope for their lives?  Who is going to befriend them?  Who is going to help them?  This community exists as a refuge for these people, for the folks that live right across the street.  This is what we are called to.  “I have seen and heard the suffering of my people.  So, you go and set them free”.  That’s what God said to Moses at the burning bush and that is what God is saying to us.  Will we obey?  We are on the edge of the Promised Land.  Will we be brave enough to go forward and live?  May God grant us the courage we need.  Amen.