In college I had a girlfriend break up with me at a point where I wasn’t ready for the relationship to be over. She said that God had given her peace about breaking up with me. I felt that God wanted me to pursue the relationship even more, and thus I started a dangerous descent towards becoming a stalker.
You can turn on the TV to Trinity Broadcasting Network and see men and women with too many jewels on their fingers and too much makeup on their faces claiming that God has called them to share the good news that God wants to give you your every want, if you just give them the money you don’t have. I remember watching TBN once in Chicago, during one of their fund drives, where they had a guest preacher come on who only comes on when they’re asking for money. And he said that God had told him that whoever pledged $1000 to the TV station would find themselves completely out of debt within the next month. He told them to pledge $1000 and send in $100 of it right away. And he said that God would erase their debts completely. And then he had the gall to say, “if it doesn’t work, do it again!”
In May of this year, a bishop in the Episcopal church decided to bless a friend’s gay union. When asked about it, he said that it was what he felt God calling him to do. If that wasn’t bad enough, this same bishop, who theologically disagrees with much of the church, has received death threats from Christians who believe that God is calling them to kill him.
The point of this is that a lot of people “hear” God telling them to do things that I’m pretty sure God is actually not telling them to do. Realizing this sometimes can lead you to a difficult place. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night that would lead us and guide us so we would know where God was leading? Unfortunately, even this didn’t work for the Israelites when they were in the desert, as they headed off in their own direction even when God was so very clear to them.
I. Easier Said than Done
We believe that God leads us, that he guides us, that he points the way forward for us. This is a part of what we are about as Christians. It is a part of our belief. If we didn’t believe that God guided us, there wouldn’t be much point in following him. During my internship, there were three of us who regularly preached. Pastor Wilson regularly preached messages around the theme that we should obey God. Pastor Nelson regularly preached messages that reminded us to follow God. And I regularly preached messages reminding us to trust God. All of us were talking about letting God guide you and lead you and following his will for your life. And most Christians I know truly want to do this. And yet it is often something that is easier said than done.
Oh, there are certain rules and laws that we can follow to try to make sure that we are obeying God, but even these can be difficult to deal with at times. Jesus himself was attacked by the religious leaders in his day because he didn’t follow the commandments the way that they wanted him to and they thought he was ignoring God’s commands. Matthew 12 gives us a good example of this as we see Jesus breaking the Sabbath laws that the religious leaders followed. He heals on the Sabbath, he eats grain that he himself has picked on the Sabbath. He seems to be ignoring the laws and the commandments. And throughout the history of the church this has been an ongoing thing. Some Christians have done one thing and others have done something else and they both claimed that God was leading and guiding them and they both cannot be right. During the Reformation there were actually groups of Christians killing each other because of the way they baptized.
There are a couple dangers that arise when we realize this. First, some just ignore history altogether. They go ahead and figure that they’ve got it right and the Christians that disagree with them have it wrong and that’s it. This leads to a dogmatism that ignores God’s leading and ignores the Truth of scripture and instead relies on yourself to find truth. This really doesn’t seem like much of a danger until we look at the religious leaders in Jesus’ day and we realize that this is exactly what they were doing. They were putting their own understanding of who God was and what he wanted in place of truly seeking him. And Jesus came along and told them that seeking after God’s kingdom is more than just following a bunch of man-made rules. And trying to follow God’s rules doesn’t always work right either when you let your own understanding get in the way.
Unfortunately, the mantra: “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!” isn’t quite good enough. If it were we’d be following a whole different set of rules than we are today. But the other extreme is no better.
You see, the other danger is to see the confusion that the Bible sometimes brings and find yourself depressed and hopeless. If Christians throughout history cannot get it right, why should I expect that I am going to get it right? This leads to a pluralism that allows everyone to have equal claim to truth and can lead to not really believing in anything. This is something that can be seen in the New Age movement. It leads to a wishy-washy approach to theology that never stands for anything and allows anyone to believe whatever they want. And it is just as dangerous as the first danger of being too rigid.
II. The Middle Way
So, what do we do? How do we respond to God’s guidance when we have to worry about whether it is actually God that we’re hearing? I remember a professor at college drawing a picture up on the board of a road with a ditch on either side of it. He explained that to be theologically sound, we need to walk the straight and narrow path. But the problem is that there is a deep ditch on either side of the path and it becomes easier and easier to fall into one ditch or the other. Worse, when you are being careful not to fall into one ditch, you find yourself walking closer and closer to the other one. Let’s go back to one of the examples I mentioned in our opening.
Most people here would agree that the Episcopal Bishop who decided to bless a marriage of a gay couple has fallen away from the truth. He has fallen into a ditch on the left side of the path. And many, in response to this have edged more to the right side of the path, trying to stay true to the life that they believe God is calling them, trying to stay true to an orthodox and historic reading of scripture. But some, as they have moved to the right side of the path have fallen into another ditch. Perhaps this ditch is one that accepts that killing homosexuals is okay. Or perhaps it is a theology that many Christians accept that says that homosexuality is a worse sin than other sins, and one that carries a special punishment with it. These beliefs are just as much off of the truth of human sinfulness and God’s love as the blessing of a gay marriage is.
But this straight and narrow path, this middle way, isn’t about compromising. It isn’t about trying to work something out so everybody is happy. It isn’t about denying the truth so that people feel better. No, it is about staying true to God and his kingdom. It is about pursuing Christ in all you do and pursuing Christ’s priorities in the world around you. It is about asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in your study of scripture. It is about coming to the Bible with questions and allowing the Bible to answer them for you instead of trying to fit your answer into the Bible. This is hard to do. It takes humility and it takes practice.
III. Pillars to Guide Us
Today’s scripture tells of the people of Israel fleeing Egypt and preparing to travel through the desert and come to the Promised Land. And God knew that he was going to lead them in a difficult path, and they would have a hard time following him. So God gave them obvious pillars in the day and at night to lead them and guide them. The cloud by day and the fire at night told them that they were following God. The cloud by day and the fire at night told them that it was God who was guiding them, not just humans and definitely not their own desires. The cloud by day and the fire at night reminded them whose will it was that they were to follow and who it was that they should obey and who it was that they could trust.
Sometimes, when I am reading scripture, when I am trying to understand how God would work in today’s world, how God wants me to work in today’s world, I wish that I had a cloud by day and fire at night to guide me. I wish it could be that clear to me what God wanted of me. And yet, when we look at the people of Israel, with God guiding them so clearly, they still seemed to stray. They still went off on their own way. They still messed it up again and again. And I realize that the problem isn’t that God is a bad communicator. He has made it very clear to us what he wants from us. The problem is that we are bad listeners. We let too much get in our way so that we can’t hear God’s word, so that we don’t go where he is sending us, so that we find ourselves heading off on dangerous tracks instead of staying on that middle path.
And so, my prayer today for each of us is that God will give us wisdom to see where he is leading us, that he will give us humility before his scriptures so that we won’t try to read our desires into his truth, and that he will give us strength of conviction to stand true and go where he is sending us. Perhaps he is sending you to an Indian reservation in South Dakota, or perhaps he is sending you next door to a neighbor in need. Wherever he is leading you, trust his guiding voice and go where he calls. Amen.
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