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Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Road:
Part 1 - What Road are you on?
By Rev. Jerry Herships
Isaiah 42:16
16I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.
This is the first in a series that I am doing over the next 4 weeks, and what started as a struggle for coming up with a topic for tonight, turned into an idea that was way beyond one sermon.
I find myself at the end of one journey and at the beginning of another. This is not the first time this has happened in my life. Laura and I packed up everything we had and moved to L.A. I did it in 1987 and she followed a year later. We knew no one. Laura actually had an aunt and uncle in L.A., but we kind of started fresh.
In 1994 Los Angeles had an earthquake that registered a 6.7. It was January 17th at 4:31 in the morning. That was sixteen years ago today. I can honestly say, it is the only time in my life I thought I was going to die. The place where I worked part time was completely destroyed. That event connects Laura and me to the people of Haiti in a way I wish it didn’t. I pray that this week the people of Haiti, have been, and will continue to be in our hearts.
If there is a take away from a tragedy like this I think there are two. First, we have to remember that GOD DID NOT DO THIS. Contrary to the popular belief, in some conservative churches, that God made this happen. You may have heard people on T.V. and radio says that this week.
The Bible tells us that accidents happen. In John (9:1-3) we hear someone ask Jesus, “who sinned, these people or their parents.” Jesus tells them that neither they nor their parents sinned.
When a tower fell in Luke 13:4, killing 18 people, Jesus tell us that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Bad, Bad awful stuff happens in this world and God doesn’t make it happen. God wasn’t a part of that. I will tell you of what God is a part. God is a part of the amazing amount of love and compassion that comes pouring out of people when a disaster happens. That is where God is.
When I’ve talked about our earthquake experience, I have often said that, while the building in L.A. that we were in, didn’t collapse, everything that could break…did. It was shortly after this that we decided to pack up everything we had, or rather everything we had left, and get on the road to Orlando, Florida. Again, we didn’t know anyone. We went in totally blind. Laura got a job with Disney on day three and worked there for ten years. I worked in a nightclub and did gigs on the road. After ten years, we decided to go on the road again. This time to Denver so I could go to seminary. Again, we knew no one. And God was with us.
Laura and I have realized that we have spent a lot of time on the road. After I got to thinking about this I realize that we all are on the road, some kind of road, all of the time.
So the question is….What kind of Road are you on? Is it the kind of road you want to be on? Are you running on empty? What are you taking with you? Do you need it or want it? Is it time to leave some stuff behind? What are the things you want to take with you on the road? What are things you need for the trip? Who is going with you? These are the things we will be covering over the next few weeks. How do we get through this journey?
So tonight, I want to focus on the road we are on and who is with us. What kind of road are you on? Do you like it? Did you get on one road and not even realize it was merging onto another road that was going in a different direction?
Our scripture today comes from Isaiah. Isaiah is one of the most quoted books that Jesus draws from. It is a long book. Sixty-six chapters! It is not a quick read.
The first 39 chapters basically tell us, don’t face off against God. Get on God’s team. Get on God’s side. This verse comes to us from the second half of Isaiah that tells us that God is going to restore Israel and that God is with those who love God and that God will not leave us no matter where we are on the road.
So again I ask you, what road are you on? When Laura and I came out to Denver we both almost went out of our mind with the roads that we thought were in Kansas. Turns out they were on the Eastern Plains of Colorado. Wow! Those were long straight roads. Lots of people like those roads. No sharp turns, no curves that can throw you. The road is simple, straight ahead. Is that the road you are on? Do you like it? God is there with you.
There is a road that is like it. It is safe, people don’t go too fast, but it can drive you crazy. It is stuck in traffic. When we lived in L.A. we were part of some of the worst traffic in the country. In fact the 405 has earned the title of the most congested and busiest freeway in the United States. The joke is that it got its name because people will say that is about the speed you will go on it: “Oh about four or five miles an hour.” Average speeds are routinely recorded at 4 to 5 miles an hour during the morning and afternoon commute. The 405 and 101 interchanges are consistently among the top five worst interchanges in the country.
It is awful to be stuck in that traffic. You feel like you are wasting time. You aren’t going anywhere and when you do move, you are moving too slow. You know you could move so much faster, but everyone seems to be in your way. You get stopped every time you start to go forward. It can be maddening. You wish God was your co-pilot because then maybe God could just part the cars in front of you, like the Red Sea, and you could fly on through. Don’t we want God to do this sometimes? Just make this “thing” go away?
This can be an awful place to be. You can’t move. It is just you sitting there….with God. Maybe we need to look at the places where we are stuck and know that God is sitting there with us. Maybe, just maybe, we can stop focusing for a second on where we need to go, and how late we are, and instead focus on who is there with us. For many of us, slowing down isn’t such a bad thing because God is with us.
There are other roads that have no one on them and you would think you could just put the pedal down and sail. The problem is that just when you are ready to pick up speed, there is a curve. We have lots of these roads in Colorado. I was on Independence Pass last year for the first time. It might be the last. We had to bend the car to make some of those turns. It is the second highest paved mountain pass in the state. Truckers aren’t allowed to use it and it is always closed in the winter. This is a road that a lot of us have been on. It can be okay but it seems like just when we get going, there is another curve in the road. These curves can really throw us especially if they are back-to-back-to back.
Some of us like the curves. They are called change. Some of us are comfortable with change. We seek it out. Others want to just stick with the straight and narrow. Sometimes it depends if you know whether or not the curve is coming. It is one thing to be ready to make a turn in your life. It is a far different thing to not see it coming.
It is the surprise that is often the challenge. We often don’t mind trying a different route if WE get to decide when. It is when these detours happen, without us knowing, that can often throw us. I think Stacy talked a bit about this when she preached here last time. This is one of the best times to know that God is with us.
As Isaiah tells us, God will not forsake us. I think one of the challenges of the road is the surprises. But it is when we are in uncharted territory that God can perform at God’s best. God tells us here, “I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known, I will guide them.” God travels with you. God is always on the move with us. In the Hebrew Bible, that we call the Old Testament, after the temple was destroyed, the Israelites had to have God travel with them. They couldn’t go to the temple to worship God. There was no temple. But this did not mean there was no God. Actually, this reminded them…and us that God travels with us. Don’t keep God stuck in church. Take God with you out into the world. And when God travels with us the darkness goes away. The rough spots are made smooth.
It is one thing to go off roading because we like it. It is a different story when we get thrown off the road. That is what happens when someone dies, when we get divorced, when our house crumbles to the ground, or when we lose a job. I am here to tell you…God is with you and God is there to bring light into your dark places and to make the bumpy, lousy road straight. If God is truly your co-pilot, change seats. Let God lead you. God will take you out of the dark, rough places and to where the light is and the road is a bit smoother. Next week we will look at what we should take with us to make the trip a bit more pleasant.