Sermon "Living in the Direction of God's
Dream"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, May 24, 1998
Luke 24:44-53
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Living in the Direction of God's Dream
Recently, I read of a college which unveiled a memorial plaque in honor of one of its alumni. The young man singled out had not produced any outstanding records during his college years. As an undergraduate, he had been a participant in many activities but he was never an officer of anything. For four years, he had gone out for football, but he never made the first string; he never played in any important game. In his class work he was a steady and dependable student, yet he never made a grade above a "B." When the Vietnam war came, he served in a very normal capacity with a medical unit, quietly doing his job. Then one day he met his death trying to help a wounded man under enemy fire. The mere presence of this young man had left an impression on some of his classmates, and they made it possible for a tribute in his honor to be given to his alma mater. It is the words on the plaque that give the rich remembrance...The inscription read: He played for four years on the third string...But he never quit! What a powerful line: He played on the third string team but he never quit!
I can think of no single greater challenge and goal for those of us who are committed to Jesus Christ and to the mission ministry of Christ's church than to do what we do and never quit. Throughout the whole history of the church, there have always been those who have faithfully served and never quit. God never quits and God is constantly helping us to grow and to change and to mature and be about his purpose on earth.
People in the day of Jesus were burdened and confused by the rules and ceremonies of religion and complications of hundreds and hundreds of commandments. And to all of this Jesus boiled it down to the essentials: "You shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your strength...This is the first and great commandment," Jesus said, "and the second commandment is like the first, you shall love your neighbor as yourself!" To live by these two objectives, is to live in the direction of God's dream.
For some reason most of us have a difficult time keeping our eyes focused upon what God has dreamed we will be like. For some reason we have a difficult time between trying to do what we think God wants us to do and what we actually want to do.
That raises a very interesting question, especially in the midst of Memorial Day weekend, a question about what we should be doing with life, before we die. Paul put this ever so delicately when he wrote to the Christians in Corinth: "Our outer nature is wasting away every day." There are things, in other words, that are beyond our control...things we cannot change...but Paul went on to say: "but our inner nature is being renewed every day." That is what God dreams will happen to each one of us, a daily renewal of the soul. But it does not always happen. There is this distinct difference between who we are and what, with God's help, we could become. The difference between what we do and what we could do with God's help.
Maybe we have reached the point where we are deciding what we will believe about God and what we won't believe about God. We have reached the point where we have decided what we will do and what we won't do for God...So we live with unrealized dreams. And we refuse to live in the direction of God's dreams for us!
What do you do when you don't know what to do? How do you get on with living when what has happened or what is about to happen is so catastrophic that the normal, ordinary responsibilities of life no longer seem important?
Memorial moments trigger introspection which is the first step. They cause us to look inward, examine our actions, our values, and our decisions about the future. When a child leaves home we may find ourselves thinking about what we should have done or should not have done. Standing before a disturbed or hurting marriage we wonder about the future and often find hope hard to come by and wonder about where God is and does God really have a dream for us. We can choose in such times to live in the direction of God's dreams and make the most of the opportunities God places before us.
