Follow the Flame
I think it would be good for us to review a few facts before we get into the sermon today. This particular story takes place about four thousand (4,000) years ago, in 2100 BCE. Abram was the original name of the patriarch we now know as Abraham. His name was not changed until later by God. At this point in the God Chronicle, Abram is about ninety (90) years old. He previously lived in a land that is currently known as Iraq, but God had called him… about fifteen years earlier… to leave that land and to go to the land of Canaan… to a place that is now called Israel. At that time, God promised Abram that he would give him a new land and that he would make of him a great nation. In fact, God told him that, in him, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Well, it is now fifteen years later, and this land that he was promised still belongs to someone else. On top of that, there have been no children and, what was already a stretch of the imagination when he was seventy-five (75) and his wife, Sarai, was sixty-five (65), is now downright laughable given that he is ninety (90) and Sarai is eighty (80).
After fifteen years of being a nomad… a man without a home… without a country… after fifteen years of traveling… and fifteen years of fighting… God comes to Abram in a vision and repeats his promise of fifteen years earlier. This time, Abram’s response is different. Do you remember the movie, “Jerry McGuire,” where Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding, is a talented football player and Jerry McGuire, played by Tom Cruise, is a sports agent who needs a big client? Probably the most memorable line in the movie comes when Jerry McGuire tries to get Rod Tidwell to commit to him and Rod’s response is “Jerry, show me the money!” “Show me the money” has become a phrase that many people now use to say “convince me that this is real.” “Make me believe it”…”Show me that you are not just blowing smoke”… “I want proof… show me the money!” That’s the equivalent of what Abram says to God when he hears this promise for the second time. So, God takes him outside and shows him the stars… and Abram believes. Without seeing any proof, Abram believes what God tells him. Without any evidence… and fifteen years of no results up to this point… Abram has faith that God will do what God has promised to do. Nothing has really changed… except Abram’s commitment to this unknown God. How do we find a faith like that?
In 1076, the Turks captured Jerusalem and the tolerance of Christians in Islamic lands ended. The situation went from bad to worse, as the Turks advanced on other Christian cities. In November of 1095, Pope Urban II made a stirring speech to the Council of Clairmont, telling those assembled that the Turks were advancing on Constantinople and that all of Christendom was in danger of falling to these barbarians. The knights of Europe, he said, should stop fighting each other and go together to the Holy Land to recapture the holy city of Jerusalem itself from the Turks. “It is will of God,” he declared and the faithful responded. They followed a vision… a vision of the Holy Grail… the chance of finding the chalice that Jesus used during the Last Supper… of saving that chalice from the hands of unbelievers and restoring the hope of Christianity. Over the next two hundred years, there were six different crusades.
There is an old hymn… so old that I cannot find a hymnal that has it. But its first stanza goes like this: To the knights in the days of old
Keeping watching on the mountain height
Came a vision of Holy Grail
And a voice through the waiting night:
Follow, follow, follow the gleam
Banners unfurled, o’er all the world
Follow, follow, follow the gleam
Of the chalice that is the Grail.
I know that, today, we see the Crusades as a less-than-perfect example of Christian endeavor. But we are forgetting the bulk of those who made those crusades. They were not well-financed, well-trained mercenary soldiers. Most of them were peasants… ordinary people… but people who believed, in their hearts, that they could do something worthy for God… or that they would die trying. These ordinary people left their homes and their families behind to go to a strange land… not knowing what lay ahead… not knowing whether they would ever return. But they went… in faith… believing that God would guide them. They stepped up to the plate. They answered the call… not knowing what might be demanded of them. How do we find a faith like that?
In the God Chronicle, in Genesis, there are many stories of God and God’s action to establish a covenant with his people. In the Ancient Near East during the time of Abram and later, any agreement between a king and his people involved a covenant ritual. The king demanded certain behavior from his subjects and, in return, provided protection… land… animals… or other things. The ritual that sealed the agreement involved the slaughter of animals…and fire. God creates a covenant with Abram. In Hebrew the phrase is literally translated “cuts a covenant”… the phrase from which we get “cuts a deal” today. The big difference between the agreements between ancient kings and God’s agreement with Abram is that God does not demand certain behavior from Abram. It is a one-sided covenant… Abram benefits… and God binds himself to it. And the agreement is sealed with the slaughter of animals… and fire… only, in this case, the fire… is God himself. Why would God do this? And the answer is simple… because Abram believed. Without proof… without evidence… with any sign that the promise would be fulfilled… with only God’s word… after fifteen years of waiting… Abram still believed. And God reckoned it to him as righteousness. On Abram’s faith alone, there was a right relationship between him and his Creator. On Abram’s faith alone, God cut a covenant that bound him to Abram forever. How do we find a faith like that?
In the early days of the last century, there was a powerful nondenominational evangelical organization called the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. This organization was founded on February 2, 1881 by Francis E. Clark, pastor of the Williston Congregational Church in Portland, Maine. Pastor Clark had a great concern for those youth who had made a clear decision to accept Christ, but were not involved in the church's activities. He sent out an invitation to the young people of the congregation to come to the parsonage on Sunday afternoon February 2nd. The topic of discussion was to be "Where do we go from here?"
That afternoon, those young people, along with Pastor Clark, composed a constitution for their newly formed group which read in part:
“This society shall be called "The Williston Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor." Its object shall be to promote an earnest Christian life among its members, to increase their mutual acquaintance, and to make them more useful in the service of God. Each member is expected to attend all the meetings of the society unless there is a reason acceptable to Christ.”
At the close of the meeting, fifty-seven (57) young people signed the first draft of that constitution. Over the next few years, the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor grew and found acceptance in many Congregational…Presbyterian… and Disciples of Christ congregations. It also spawned similar groups in other denominations, such as the Baptist Young People’s Union, the Lutheran Walther League, and the Methodist Epworth League. The organization, later known as Christian Endeavor International, grew into a world-wide ministry for young people, training them for leadership in the church. By 1906, sixty-seven thousand (67,000) youth-led Christian Endeavor societies had been organized worldwide, with four million members, including societies in the United States, Canada, England, Australia, South Africa, India, Japan, China, Australia, Turkey, Spain, France, Mexico, Chile, South Africa, Switzerland, Germany, Laos, Scotland, Guatemala, Italy, Bulgaria, Burma, the Philippines, Jamaica, Portugal, and Persia. Remnants of this society still exist, although the international organization faded after the death of its founder in 1924.
Pastor Clark, a 1873 graduate of Dartmouth College, virtually created the concept of "youth ministry" by asking young people in his church to sign a two-page commitment created by the youth themselves. Previously, youth of the church had been classified with children and were not considered capable of active Christian involvement. The incredible success of this organization proved the church leaders wrong and created a generation of passionate Christians who demonstrated strong leadership in prayer… and in Christian service worldwide. One of the young people who was very active in the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor… who also attended Dartmouth College and graduated in 1902, a few decades after Pastor Clark… went on to found Alcoholics Anonymous with Bill Wilson. His name was Robert Holbrook Smith or Dr. Bob. The morning meditation period, and other aspects of early AA meetings, came directly from patterns of behavior established in Christian youth by the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. The stories of Pastor Clark and Dr. Bob are stories of faith in action. How do we find a faith like that?
The hymn I sang for you earlier has a second stanza… a stanza that moves the story from the Middle Ages to today: And we who would serve the King,
And loyally Him obey,
In the consecrate silence know
That the challenge still holds today,
Follow, follow, follow the gleam
Standards of worth o’er all the earth;
Follow, follow, follow the gleam
Of the Light that shall bring the dawn.
As we walk the road to the cross during this Lenten season, the question that we need to be asking of ourselves is this: Where is our faith? Are we putting our faith in our possessions… in the money that we have in the bank… or is it in the promises of God? Do we believe that the future of God’s work in Stephenville rests in the size of our church’s endowment… or in our willingness to step out… in faith… to serve our God… not knowing where that road might lead? Are we following the gleam… that flame of fire that Abram saw… the vision of the Holy Grail that the crusaders saw… the passionate commitment of our youth that Pastor Clark saw… the light in the darkness for alcoholics that Dr. Bob saw? Do we have a right relationship with God? If not, what are we doing to change that… so that we might also walk in the Light…and follow the flame? They say that a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over… and expecting different results. If we want the results that we have through the work of this church to be different, then we need to change… and that change begins with our personal relationship with God. Make that change… and make it today. Trust in God. Follow the flame. Amen.
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Luke 13:31-35