Rev. Dr. M. Taylor Bach

Exodus 14:5-31 Luke 9:1-6

Let's start this morning with a show of hands. How many of you watched any of the Olympics in the past couple of weeks? How many of you didn't care at all and didn't? A handful. OK. That is interesting. One of the things that fascinated me as I watched the bobsleds, the skiers, the figure skaters, the cross country skiers, and the speed racers skate was how much energy and effort and dedication people put into training for these events. Practice. Practice. Practice day and night they put in. They said the winner of the male figure skating worked harder than anybody to win his gold medal.

Paul had some things to say about this. He said, “Some people work for a perishable crown, but we are to work for an imperishable crown.” As I watched the Olympics, I kept thinking, that little gold or silver or bronze medal is a perishable crown. Just imagine if we Christians put the same kind of effort into getting to heaven, loving God, loving our neighbors, as those people who worked for that little golden or silver or bronze disc. What a difference there would be in this world if there was the kind of energy put into bringing about the Gospel.

In my counseling career, I read something like 800 books on how to succeed so I could help people succeed in life. And always, every one of these books said, “Start with a goal. Start with the end in mind and work towards that end.” You can see how athletes do this. They start with the end of getting that little disc, that little gold circular medal. And that is OK. But shouldn't we Christians have that kind of umph behind our goal to get to heaven? And bring others with us?

This morning we heard a lengthy story about the Israelites escaping from Egypt and going to the Promised Land. You've probably heard that it took them forty years to make an eleven day journey. Why did it take them forty years to make an eleven day journey? Why did they wander in the desert for forty years? The answer becomes clear as you read the first three books of the Bible. Genesis. Exodus. Leviticus. Maybe the fourth one, too. Numbers. What we discover in these is that once they crossed the Red Sea and got into the desert and “wandered”, what they were doing was procreating. They were creating a vast amount of warriors by having male children. So if they wandered for forty years, their older warriors would have time to train the younger men who were born. As a result, they were able to amass an extremely large army  almost two generations of young men being born. When they went to the land of Canaan which was the Promised Land flowing with “milk and honey”, Moses sent spies out and discovered that the cities there were already occupied. They were well fortified and they needed these soldiers in order to go in and take this land that was promised to them by God. Moses sent twelve spies out to check out the land and when they came back, ten of the spies said, “Oh, they are way too powerful for us. We can't go in there.” Joshua and Caleb, two of the other spies said, “With God's help, we can do it.” Because of the majorities' lack of faith in God, they weren't able to go in. In fact, every one of the original people who left Egypt died before they got to go in to the Promised Land. The youngsters who were born in the desert did go in and only Joshua and Caleb went in of the original group. Even Moses himself didn't get to enter. But once they got there, they were able to conquer the cities, the enemies that were there, and possess the Promised Land. They had the goal. They had the means. While they wandered in the desert, they were supposed to keep their eye on the goal just as an Olympic athlete would keep his eye on the gold medal. As a result of keeping their eye on the goal, they were to prepare. They needed to create community because they were mostly a rabble when they left Egypt. They weren't a community so they developed laws. They developed rituals. They developed a whole cast of priesthood and their religion and nation was developed. By the time they got to the Promised Land, they were capable of being a nation. When they entered, they were capable of achieving their goal.

But they frequently lost focus. And they had problems. Sometimes they were unfaithful. Sometimes they adored golden calves. Sometimes they failed in their commitment. Sometimes they doubted in their faith. That was another reason why they were required to wander and not go immediately into the Promised Land. We are to gain a lesson from this. The lesson is to see that when we focus on the goal, we're to stay focused. What is the goal? The goal is looking at Jesus, becoming like Jesus. Taking His example and following it so that eventually we'll all get to heaven ourselves  our real Promised Land. That is where our focus needs to be.

There is a story about some birds that lost their focus. When I read it, I thought, “Yeah, I could see this.” We Christians can't be this way. The story is about birds that were flying over Niagara Falls when the waters in the river above Niagara Falls froze over. As it froze, there were great big chunks of ice that would still flow towards the falls and go over that great water fall. The birds would land on these blocks of ice and dig out fish that were frozen in them. Most of the birds paid attention. Their goal was to get the fish and then get out of there before the block of ice went over the falls. But some birds put their eye on the fish and not on the goal of survival. As a result, sometimes their talons, their claws, froze into the block of ice. They stayed too long and when it was time to fly away to avoid going over the falls and being killed, they didn't make it. So there can be distractions from a goal. There can be things to keep us from the goal. We see that with the Israelites as they moved from Egypt to the Promised Land. We see that in the life of many Christians who are distracted by all kinds of things  going after perishable crowns rather than going after the prize that Paul said we need to go after. Near Paul's death, he said, “I've run the race. I've merited the crown.” He kept his eyes on the prize. He was focused in getting to heaven and that is where we have to be, too.

We have the example in Jesus Christ to follow. Jesus as you know was a human. Divine, yes. But also human. When He began His public ministry, He put His eye on the goal, the salvation of all humankind. The three synoptic Gospels and the Gospel of John record His progress in those three years of ministry as He steadily moved toward the goal of the cross and the goal of the resurrection. He couldn't be dissuaded. At first, He kept His goal a secret. “Don't tell anybody I am the Messiah.” But they discovered it anyhow. Why? Because He was working miracles everywhere. He was preaching the Good News to the poor, being compassionate and helping people. He amassed a following. Many of those who were with Him also kept their eye on the goal. Were they distracted? Sure they were. We know that Peter denied Him three times. The other apostles ran away when they were close to the goal. But Jesus moved steadily forward to His death which would save us all. This is an amazing thing when you think about it because He could see the end. He knew what He was to suffer. In fact, it was so terrible when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane that the scripture records that He sweat blood as He thought about the final goal. Then when He was hanging on the cross, He was able to say, “It is finished!” The Bible records that He “gave up the ghost” which means He died. His spirit left His body. He had completed His work. He had kept His eye on the target. He was fixed on the goal. We too are to be that impassioned, that intense as we move forward in our effort to follow Christ.

There is a wonderful song that I am not going to sing. I'll spare you, but it ends with the words, “Keep your eyes on Jesus. Behold His wonderful face.” If we keep our eyes on Him, we will follow through to the goal. We will get there. We may be taking first steps. They may be baby steps and we might not even be able to see the end of the staircase clearly in our mind, but we know what the goal is and our job is to get there. Olympians have nothing on us. They win a disc. We win an imperishable crown. What should our effort look like?