Winding Road

Scripture:

Psalm 72: 1-7, 11-14

John 1:1-18 

Preached 01/12/2014

I don’t know about you, but I think we all deserve a vacation.  We just made it through all the busyness of Christmas, New Year’s, and that huge snow after all.  So this morning, let’s take a little time to get away from it all.  Now, you all know my salary since you approved it and all, so you know that I can’t actually afford to take us all very far.  So what I’d like us to do is to close our eyes, because we’re going to have to imagine this vacation.

We’re flying, in our imagination.  And if you’re afraid of flying, don’t worry, this flight makes it in safely.  Because we’re still on a budget in this vacation we’re imagining, we didn’t take the early flight.  We’re landing at night.  So imagine a nice, smooth airplane landing, and open your eyes.  We didn't actually get away from the snow though.  We’re in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Jackson Hole is aptly named.  It’s a hole, a valley in the middle of a big circle of mountains.  While it used to be somewhat of a sleepy town, it’s becoming more and more popular, with skiers, celebrities, hipsters, and now Presbyterians from St. Louis.  And, as it’s becoming more popular, it’s also becoming much, much more expensive.

So, keeping in mind that we’re on a budget, we’re going to save some money by staying a little ways outside of town.  Now, remember that Jackson Hole is surrounded by mountains.  This means that to get “a little” out of town, we have to take quite a journey on winding mountain roads.  And, in the dark of night, that’s the journey we’re going to take together.

For those of you who haven’t been on Jackson roads at night before, they look about like nothing, pitch black, once you get outside of the glow of the town.  How are we going to figure out where we’re going?  Maybe you’d like a little more light?  How about a lot more light?  Okay, there we go.  Our path is now before us, and we set out on the journey.  It’s a pretty winding road, huh?  We’re going to be going all over the place, and it’s not going to be a quick or easy journey.  If only we had some kind of guide, huh?

 

Image by Jetson Nguyen

Oh, wow, good thing we have those scripture readings from just a few minutes ago, right?  I know, I know—one of the hokier tie ins, but stay with me.  Because in our Psalm reading, we really do have a long, winding journey set before us.  The Psalmist is writing about what it takes to be a king.  Not having much direct experience with kings, this may be strange language to us.  Let me decode it a little bit, and bring us all up to speed, or really, back to the time of the psalmist so we can have some clue what they’re talking about.  In the time the psalmist was writing, kings were more than just rulers.  In the Hebrew community in which the psalmist lived, the king was understood to be God’s earthly regent.  In other words—the king’s job was to do God’s work on earth. 

What is God’s work on earth?  As the psalmist puts it: judging with righteousness, defending the cause of the poor, giving deliverance to the needy, crushing oppression. . . and that’s just three verses of it.  This list of God’s work is a long, winding, difficult path.  However, the destination is very clear.  God’s justice and righteousness established on earth.  And what does it actually look like when God’s justice and righteousness are established?  It looks like Shalom. 

Shalom is a Hebrew word a lot of people are at least somewhat familiar with, and it’s repeated over and over in this psalm.  Shalom is translated here as peace, though it means more than that.  It’s one of those words that doesn’t really have an English equivalent, but it’s something like total well-being and peace put together, a holistic kind of well-being that includes spiritual and emotional well-being too.  And as the psalmist describes it, Shalom isn’t just an individual thing.  It’s not enough if I’ve got it.  All people need to have it.  Because only when all people have shalom can all of God’s work on earth really be done.

The psalmist knew this, and appealed to the king to be the guide of the people to this Shalom for all.  But there’s a problem.  I bet you know it already.  There never was such a king.  Still, today, we’ve never had such a political leader, one who was able to establish holistic well-being for all people.  The king wasn’t a good enough guide down the winding path.

So God sends us a better one.  God sends us Jesus, God on earth, to light our way down that winding mountain road toward shalom.  We heard the very first section of John read to us today, probably the single best known part of the whole book.  And John describes Jesus as a light, as the Light, who has existed with God from all eternity, who will brings light to the whole of creation.  Jesus was part of creating the path to shalom, and Jesus is of God’s shalom.  We are people who have never seen where we want to go.  We definitely need a guide. And we couldn’t ask for a better guide than Jesus.  He gives us light to see, he created the path,  and he’s part of the destination.

He is the best guide possible.  But that isn’t to say he makes the path easy.  In his life, he modeled the path.  He boldly confronted those people who oppressed others.  He fed hungry people.  He healed sick people.  He included all who wanted to be included.  He cared about everyone, even those who society told him didn’t matter.  And this is the path he shows us.  

 

So now it’s our turn to let him guide us to actively following him.  We need to seek out the hungry, the sick, the oppressed, and the needy around us.  And we need to feed, to offer healing, liberation, care, and compassion.  We didn’t set out on an easy path.  We very well might get lost or led astray.  But Jesus’ light will keep guiding us back, if we keep seeking him and his guidance.  I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about this journey we’re taking together.  It may not be a vacation in the mountains, but it will be beautiful, and wonderful, humbling, difficult, faith-filled and awe inspiring.  And the destination—God’s shalom for all creation-- will definitely be worth every bit of it.  Let’s head down this winding road together.