The Great Adventure

Watch first: Steven Curtis Chapman - The Great Adventure - https://youtu.be/hVFPjIp6nkk

Would you consider your life to be a great adventure right now, or do you feel like your life has been put on hold? Or do you feel more like Bilbo Baggins, as a very old hobbit at the end of The Lord of the Rings, as he gets into the boat sailing from the Grey Havens to Valinor with Frodo and Gandalf and the bigwig elves, when he says: “I feel like I am ready for another adventure”, but he’s at the end of his life, with his best years behind him? Where are we going to go from here?

I heard this song by Steven Curtis Chapman when I was in my late twenties, no longer a kid but still with the great unknown before me. For me, the great adventure included exploring churches outside of my familiar tradition, learning new spiritual disciplines and meeting people with different ideas and practices as they too sought to be faithful to Jesus. Now that I am older, and have more or less settled into myself, I don’t want or expect any more great adventures beyond an exotic vacation. But spiritually, I believe we are always ready for another adventure, just maybe not as daring as when we were younger.

Is this reminding you of an adventurous time in your life? When Jesus was leading you to something new, and you bravely followed? Would anyone like to share your experience?

Another exciting adventure for me when I was younger involved getting involved in the Promise Keepers movement for men. They are still around, although I haven’t paid attention in about twenty years to what they are doing. This included buying books and CDs and going to events, including to one of their big arena events at the old home of the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball team. The offertory music today will be from one of the Promise Keepers CDs.

Participating in the Promise Keepers was a great adventure, as it introduced me to new directions to go in my faith life, and meet new people trying to be faithful. As you may remember, Promise Keepers call themselves “Men of Integrity.” Their focus is upon developing a closer relationship with Jesus, living a life of purity, and honoring the vows of marriage for those who are married, which I wasn’t at the time but wanted to be prepared for when I was. These pursuits are great adventures, too.

One of the more memorable events I went to was a regional get-together at the University of Arizona in Tucson. I don’t remember the actual presentation, but I do recall joining together with a bunch of men I didn’t know, most of whom were Latino, as we stood together and prayed for each other, several of the men having shared their problems with the marriages and other serious issues. Part of my adventure had been travelling there alone, but I learned the power of joining with others on this shared adventure with Jesus.

You are probably wondering just what kind of adventure we can have during this time of Covid-19, when we really don’t want to go anywhere, and most events have been cancelled. But even when we are able to go places on our adventures, like I did going to Promise Keepers events, we return home to do the tough work of processing what we have experienced and take the next steps. When we go on an adventure with Jesus, He expects us to be transformed and to keep growing as we get back to “normal” life. You may not think the past year has been much of an adventure, but it may have the same results: our view of the world and of our place in it probably is much different, and the road ahead is certainly different and will hopefully seem more clear once we get to the other end of our current “adventure.” Yes, we usually consider adventures to be “good” but sometimes they are not, such as the Carmichaels’ last vacation. But we want our lives to be better afterward, whichever the case.

One of the results of the past year is that we miss those we used to see more often, but have many more reasons to be praying regularly. We probably have more time to be reading the Bible, and may feel a greater need to do so. During tough times, we usually need God more and seek Him more, as we need each other more and seek one another’s prayers and support. Even though many may not be going to church anymore, we should all have a better appreciation of the benefits of being part of a church family. Let’s remember that, as we think about the future, and how we can be a church where people can connect and love and support each other better.

This has also been a good time to take our adventure inward, and do the tough work of examining our hearts and re-discovering what is truly important to us. It has been a good time to be more disciplined in our pursuit of Jesus, as we seek to be better followers. Perhaps it has also been a time of examining the world around us, and of most likely being very alarmed at what we see. In a time of great turmoil on many fronts, we need to be asking how we as Christians should respond, ask what we can do, ask who we are to be.

Our reading from 1st Corinthians may be pretty strange again this week, as Paul talks about meat sacrificed to idols. The actual circumstances may be very different, but the lesson is not. We ask ourselves what may defile us today, and how we can avoid it. When we compare our own time to Paul’s, we might find more similarities than we expect. Corinth at the time was very diverse, being a hub for transportation, where just about anything was available and just about anything goes. Not only were there abundant temptations for his church to avoid, they were living in a culture where such things were often held in high regard and those who tried to avoid them were ridiculed.

Paul says:

Even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth--as in fact there are many gods and many lords--yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. (1 Cor. 8:5-7)

What seems to be going on is that meat was sacrificed to idols at the plethora of temples to various false gods, and then the temple workers would sell the meat at the grocery store, just as some would sell the meat to be sacrificed first. It was a lucrative business to be in. The issue for Paul is that some eat the meat with a clear conscience, knowing that it was sacrificed to a false god anyway, while others who are not as mature are troubled by this, and find cause to stumble in their faith.

Try to think of something today that is similar. A decade or two ago we might have said racy movies or alcohol, today we my add pornography on the internet or the legalization of marijuana. To some people they are not viewed as bad, to others they are. Part of being spiritually mature is to discern what will cause us to feel defiled, and what will drive us away from God through guilt or a descent into evil doings. As followers of Jesus, seeking to follow His example, we want to focus on Godly things and try to rise above the muck of an ungodly culture.

Paul continues:

We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. (1 Cor. 8:8-11)

Up until now we have been probably thinking about ourselves, and how we can be better disciples, but Paul reminds us that what we do can have harmful effects on others, just like children look to adults for clues in how they should live. Likewise, people who are not in the church will watch us and judge us by what we do. We may know what we are doing is harmless, but others may not, and what we do will cause them to stumble or even drive them away from God and make them not take Him seriously. Certainly we want a higher level of purity for our own good, but we also want to set a good example for others. As Paul says:

But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. (1 Cor. 8:12-13)

Back in my Promise Keeper years, living with a greater sense of purity seemed to be more important than it is now. Hopefully that doesn’t mean I gave up on trying! I’d like to think that with greater spiritual maturity comes different priorities, and these days I am just as concerned about the souls of others as I am with my own, sometimes even more concerned. Most of us have been at this long enough that we should be very confident in where we are going after this life, and are now more focused on getting as many others there as we can, and helping all people have better lives through our love and acts of service.

But we too need to be reminded that in Christ we live under a higher standard of purity than the culture around us. Paul also says:

We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Cor. 8:8-9)

He may mean here that we have the liberty to do something that we know is not really harmful to ourselves, but we always have the liberty not to do something that may harm others. That is more important than pleasing ourselves. We need to concentrate more on what will lift others up and bring them to Jesus, especially during a tough time like this.

We are also entering into new adventure as a church, both here and around our country and our world. Whether it turns out to be a good adventure or a bad one remains to be seen. We don’t know what church will be like in a year, and there is no going back to how things were. We are slowly going digital, and that will need to continue, for we don’t know who will be coming back to church. Many of those who don’t feel safe now may not ever come back. After some time away, such folks may think they don’t need the church anymore. Others are hungry to get back. This is a time for us to consider why we come to church, what makes it an adventure for us, and ask what we can do to be more attractive to someone who is looking for a church. We need to give people a reason for coming to church, and a reason for continuing to worship with us.

That of course varies from person to person, and also for different generations. Older folks tend to value relationships more, and younger ones want something to do, especially projects outside of the church. We’ll need to consider what we can offer that will get people off of the internet and taking part in the life of the church. It may feel like we have stopped for now, but the adventure will continue!