May 20, 2007--Ascension Sunday

Lectionary Texts:
Psalm 97;
Acts 16:16-34;
John 17:20-26;
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon Text: Psalm 139

The Places We'll Go

Have you ever noticed how the world of possibilities grows for us? Verse 13 of Psalm 139 says, “You formed my inward parts and knit me together in my mother’s womb” (NRSV). For nine months, we are confined to the womb. Our options there are fairly limited. That gives way to the little bed in the hospital, a bassinet and then a crib. When our kids got to where they were scooting around, we put up a little primary colored fence in the living room. It has about six sections and went all around in front of the couch and the TV. If we needed to go and take a shower or something, we could fence them in and let them play. There was fencing on all sides of them and no way of escape. They had decisions to make but could only decide what was confined to the fence. That seemed to last about two days and they were climbing out of it and knocking it over. The fence went up in the attic and their domain became the living room. They could decide what furniture to climb on. Before long they learned to open the interior doors to the house and the domain became everything under the roof. Now they can both work the locks on the back door, and we’ve got windows all across the back of the house, so the backyard inside that fence is okay. We’ve found that if they have a mind to they can actually decide to turn on the hose and water the flowers or each other. They can make any decision they want as long as it is within that fence. The other day I saw them climbing the fence. That will work for about three more days.

I’m reminded of this around this time every year. A week ago they started, and they will be happening every weekend for about four more weeks. Large crowds gather in high school gymnasiums and municipal auditoriums. The front section is lined with people wearing flat boards with tassels on top, rented robes and the smiles of accomplishment and relief. Speeches are made about the past and about all the places these young people may be going. One of my favorite things to do at those ceremonies is to picture just where those graduates’ journeys will take them in the future.

A couple of our high school graduates head for SNU next fall. For the past two years, someone from this congregation has left high school and entered military service. Talk about the world expanding; Diane’s son J.B., is in Iraq. A.J. is on a ship. I’m not sure of the status right now, but I know for a while none of us knew where he was.

Last year, Lacy walked across a podium, got a diploma and boarded a plane that flew her to Spain for a year of teaching English over there. Phyllis graduated a year ago December and was teaching about a two miles from here by the end of January. Doug tells me that shortly after school is out, he is going to board a plane to tour Europe for the summer, and then he’s going to Boston in the fall. Abby did Europe last summer and will stay around here a little while and prepare herself for graduate school.

I’m guessing that for the parents of our recent graduates, Spain, Europe, Iraq and the high seas are a lot further than the back yard fence. They are not the only ones. If there was one thing I remember about this time from the five years I spent in youth ministry, it’s not just the parents who can have some apprehension about these times. The triumphant smiles and the confident eyes nearly always give way to a moment or two of apprehension about what tomorrow’s path will bring.

It is as though in a moment somewhere between the ages 18 to 24, a diploma or a new job, our lives look like those Hummer commercials where the shot is as small as the grill of an SUV and then quickly backs away to take in the whole earth. The parameters change dramatically. The question is where will they end up?

I’ve been reading a novel by Ted Dekker called Black. Sure, it is fiction but don’t write it off. I’m told Ted Dekker has a PhD in Philosophy, and from what he writes I believe him to be a deeply Christian man. In his story, Black, there are a series of dream sequences where every time the main character, Thomas, lies down, he dreams and finds himself in a different place. In once scene, Thomas is running for his life through back alleys because he’s borrowed some money from the mob and can’t pay it back. In another scene, Thomas is in an oppressive black forest running from demon-like black bats. Next, he is in a brightly colored forest filled with love and light and peace. In another scene, he is in his sister’s apartment in a major U.S. city, and next he is in Bangkok, Thailand, dodging bullets and saving the world. Sure, it is all fiction, but the beauty of fiction is that it takes the normalcy of life, and exaggerates it enough that we don’t miss the point and can see it for what it is. And the truth is the possibilities for where people will end up are limited only by our ability to dream and reality’s ability to change.1

Does that kind of thing make you nervous? When I was a young person and deciding where to go for free time and fun, some well meaning and very conservative adults would tell me, “You don’t want to go to a bowling alley or movie theater. If Jesus comes back He won’t go in there to get you in that place.” I don’t remember that argument having a great amount of power over me. But sadly, I think it may have had a great amount of power over them. I think their stress level was a little over the top.

Listen to what the psalmist says in verse 7, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to the heavens you are there. If I make my bed in sheol, the place of the dead. You are there” (NRSV). Are your loved ones flying away to the far parts of the earth? Listen to this, “If I take the wings of the morning and settle in the furthest parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me fast” (vv. 9-10, NRSV). When the possibilities seem endless it is very comforting to know that there is nowhere anyone of us can go that is outside the reach of the grace of God.

I’ve noticed something. When our world expands, something else expands as well. It reminds me of the first few times I drove through St. Louis to go from where we lived in Memphis to Earla’s house in a place called Sullivan, Missouri. Just as you enter the city, there is an interstate interchange where you have to make about three or four decisions in a row. It is a terrible moment for a daydreamer like me--all those choices of on-ramp after on-ramp.

In just a short time, those people with tassels and robes, will begin careers. Some will choose a mate. Those of us who’ve been down that road look back at the things you are deciding now and are bewildered at what we had to discern when we were between 18 and 30. It is as if through school we all traveled a one-lane road with a few choices as to what sports to play or what instrument to pick up, and what friends to hang out with. But that road has now brought them to one of the intersections you see in huge cities like Los Angeles, where in the course of the next mile there are as many decisions to make as they’ve made in their whole journey from birth to now. Each significant choice will place their feet on a path that will lead them someplace.

Of all the thousands who graduate this year where will they go? Some who walk graduation lines will find themselves riding a path through enemy fire on foreign soil. Someone’s path may lead them through surgery after surgery where they’ll save people’s lives or into a surgery where their own life will be saved or lost. Some may walk down an aisle in a white dress, and then travel through life in marital bliss. For a myriad of different reasons, others may find themselves walking down an aisle that approaches not an altar, but the bench in divorce court. Some may find their way to the governor’s mansion, or the pulpit of a church and some may find their way to prison. It really depends on the paths they take.

In one scene in his novel, Ted Dekker’s main character, Thomas, is standing on the bridge between the realm of Elyon (God) and Teela the tempter. On one side a bright colorful forest filled with love and good will, and in the other the dark forest filled with evil and death. Will he choose to enter the dark forest, thinking he will find the answers that he needs there, or will he turn and run to the realm of Elyon, who represents God in the story? The problem is, he doesn’t understand his environment very well. Because of the temptations he has, he is seriously considering taking the wicked way into the dark forest. The question is which way will he turn?2

Every one of us finds ourselves in similar places. When the options broaden from the womb, the crib, the living room and the back yard, to the endless possibility of a great big world, and the virtual possibilities of the World Wide Web, the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount are almost haunting. He says:

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.

“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13 NASB).

If you are raising a child or just trying to find the right path yourself, I have to admit that’s not the most encouraging verse in the whole Bible. It’s no secret the world is full of options that will lead to destruction. It is much easier to find a path in that direction, than it is to find a narrow way leading to life.

So, what do we do about it? Perhaps what we do is eliminate the options. As much as we can help it we never associate with anyone who might corrupt us, and we censor all our kid’s friends, making sure that they never come among anyone who would influence them away from God. Well it’s true bad company corrupts good character, but will that really solve it? To be sure we want to know a lot about who and what influences our kids, but do we really go so far as to eliminate all bad influence?

The psalmist seems to think we go pretty far. In verses 19 and 20 he says, “that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me— those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil! Do I not hate those who hate you, OLORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?” (NRSV). In his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg, a staff pastor of one of America’s mega churches, confesses for all of us that there are times when he has anger fantasies.3 I know he’s got daughters; my guess is that he’s thought about men who wanted to lure them onto some wicked way.

Is the psalmist suggesting that praying for the death of people who choose the wrong path in life is the right way for us to stay on the path? I’m not sure that’s the right interpretation of Jesus’ words that tell us to pray for our enemies. God isn’t willing that any should perish. Should we be? Could it be that verse 19 begins a confessional moment? I think if you read it that way, this is a moment where the psalmist makes an intentional choice and takes another path. He visits another place, a very important one.

In the novel, while standing on the bridge, Thomas makes the right choice. He heard a warning from a flying messenger and turned and ran the right way into the forest of delight. He followed the messenger to a beautiful lake where the messenger bent down to drink. Thomas approached the lake once and then moved back. In fear and doubt he started to walk away. The moment he crested the bank, his fear was replaced with nothing but insatiable desire. He turned again, and took a running start, and jumped over the messenger and dove headfirst into the lake.

Even with the world of options that are laid out before us, the greatest danger isn’t the wicked or hurtful ways of this world that we might choose: the seedy places we might go or the dangerous site we might visit on the internet. With good up-bringing and good training and some wise choices, we might avoid those things all together. Our only pathways might be to a good job, or school, a stable home and right here to the church. To this point we may not have chosen any wicked ways. But we may sit and harbor hatred and anger for people who’ve chosen ways we don’t agree with. The greatest danger isn’t the wicked way we might choose. The greatest danger is the wicked way in us. You see it is the wicked way in us that has us choosing the wicked ways in the world, or maybe just sitting in the church and hating others who choose other ways.

At the beginning of Psalm 139 the psalmist says, “You have searched me and you know when I sit up and when I lie down. You are acquainted with my ways” (NRSV). You know where I’ve been. But at the end of the Psalm he says it again, “Search me O God and know my heart test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me” (vv. 23-24, NRSV).

After journeying into his own soul, Thomas wanted to die, and then he began to hear a loud scream. He looked around to where it came from and he saw nothing but water that had become red blood and realized it was Elyon, God, the one that had made him that was screaming and a voice whispered, The Maker is screaming in Pain!

Then he was through. Immediately his pain was gone. He floated in the water and the lake was filled with a song of Elyon, “I love you,” “I choose you,” “I rescue you,” “I cherish you.4

Whether you graduated last week, last month, last year, or like me last century . . . you’ve already made a lot of decisions and taken several paths in life. Even if some of them have put you on some wicked ways, not one of them has taken you outside the reach of God’s grace. He has been pursuing you all your life. He’s gone to every place you’ve been. But there is one ultimate journey He wants to take with you. It is the most important trek you will ever take and it will transform every path you take for the rest of your life. Like most journeys there is some pain involved in it, but on the cross He bore the brunt of the pain. It’s the journey into your own soul. It’s the path you can explore with Him where He can change what you find in there. That path begins where this psalm ends, with a simple prayer. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23-24, NRSV).

1. Ted Dekker Black (Nashville: Westbow Thomas Nelson 2004).

2. ibid.

3. John Ortberg The Life You’ve Always Wanted Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. Multiple references.

4. Ted Dekker Black (Nashville: Westbow Thomas Nelson 2004).