FOLLOWING THE JESUS ROAD
PROVERBS 3: 1-7
ACTS 9: 1-15
FEBRUARY 2, 2025
Church, do you know what always works … what always brings peace … it’s walking in the Light of Jesus. It’s “trusting in the Lord with all of our heart and knowing the Lord God in all of our paths because God will keep our ways straight” if we obey God. This morning … where are you keeping God’s Word? Where is your loyalty?
Yes, it can be challenging! Friends want you to be like them, don’t they? Perhaps more than ever before we are running from discovering the value of diversity and are hiding ourselves in the cloak of similarity. It can require courage to live as people of faith because the world around you might be actively rejecting Christ for their own gain but if you love God … if you believe Jesus is your Savior then it’s clear that the world won’t bring you God’s rescue … only taking Jesus in, actively living and endorsing what Jesus taught and walking in His light will do it.
This week had me on the road traveling up to Buffalo and then a quick trip up to Canada for some great PARM and then driving around to catch up with friends before driving back in the pouring rain on Friday. I stopped in Williamsport where my dad grew up … well, there were a few bonus stops of necessity along the road. Batavia was one of them, my friend Joe Casey always is asking if I am going to stop there. I took in two art galleries … but do you want to know what I noticed … it was the diversity of folks who were basically doing what I was doing … just living life.
I am not sure which morning it was during the week when I was having my Keurig-produced cup of coffee when my random Bible search led me to one of those Scripture lessons that those of us who have faith need to be reminded of from time to time.
Ironically, the reading comes from the pen of Paul … Paul whose name has been affixed to this church since its founding in the 1850’s … Paul whose life transformation was already scheduled to be read this morning … Paul who knew what it was like to inflict hate against good people during this time as Saul … Paul whom God transformed into Scripture’s most prolific guide to the early church … Paul who wrote to the church in Galatia, “You IRRATIONAL Galatians!! Who put a spell on you? Jesus Christ was put on display as crucified before your eyes. Are you so irrational? After you started with the Spirit of God, are you now finishing up with your own human spirit?”
Makes you wonder … about the human condition. Lord have mercy on us … we live in a time when Scripture is rejected so that the ways of the world can be endorsed. When merely quoting Jesus or asking others to implement the teaching of our Savior can lead to death threats … when children are running and hiding again.
And, on this Ground Hog’s Day we need to remember and remember again and again the instruction that we heard from the Old Testament in today’s reading … that is if our faith is our priority. If our walk is with Jesus or at the very least if our goal is to walk towards Christ, or to be embraced by God and directed by the Holy Spirit.
“DO NOT FORGET MY INSTRUCTIONS …” says God. You know … the big One in the sky; the Creator of all the universe … at least I believe in God and hope you do. On this second day of February … what or who do you worship? God tells us again and again and again what you heard read from Proverbs this morning, “Let your heart guard MY COMMANDS because they will help you live a long time and provide you with well-being. BIND THEM ON YOUR NECK and WRITE THEM ON THE TABLET of YOUR HEART.”
I know a few weeks ago, I challenged or perhaps asked or just suggested that you should go home and read God’s Word. I gave you three Scripture lessons to read because in those three lessons God provides clarity about God’s expectations. From the Old Testament I asked you to turn to the prophet Micah because both Christians and Jews believe that Micah was one of those in history to whom God spoke with clarity.
This is my first Bible …presented to David Delaney in September 1962. If we are willing and interested in following the Jesus Road … if we are prepared to respect God’s existence and to love God then we need to never forget God’s instruction that God provided to us through Micah. Here’s what I can read in my first Bible about getting onto the Jesus Road, which I don’t think I need to remind you but I will … following Jesus means rejecting the world’s powerful influences, making God’s requirements our priority items … writing God’s teaching on our hearts not those ordered by individuals focused on their own interests.
From Micah … in my first Bible, “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to DO JUSTLY, and to LOVE MERCY, and to WALK HUMBLY with THY GOD. The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see Thy name. Are there yet treasures in the house of the wicked?”
And, we all know … that when mercy was suggested by the faithful during worship in the sanctuary of a church where I have prayed and worshiped that voices rained down condemning the concept of mercy as if being merciful would ruin the day even though the Lord God requires humanity … well, the Lord God requires those who are the faithful, believers, and have actually taken Jesus into our lives to LOVE MERCY … to DO JUSTICE.
And, we heard this morning … “TRUST IN THE LORD with ALL YOUR HEART … know Him in all your paths … FEAR THE LORD and TURN AWAY FROM EVIL.”
The other Scripture lessons I suggested for each of you came from Matthew’s Gospel and from Luke’s Gospel. They feature quotes from Jesus about who gets eternal life with God … what loving one’s neighbors means, which Jesus shared in telling the story of the Good Samaritan. I was greatly disappointed recently when reading from Matthew’s Gospel when I was told to instead talk about good and happy things like sunshine and flowers because Jesus’ teaching and words directly from our Savior apparently went against the tide that my critic is riding.
Friends, faith has never been easy … not even in the days when churches were full of folks on Sunday’s because being in a church does not change who we are. It takes a transformation … perhaps not as radical as the one Saul had when he became Paul but we truly are presented with a choice of doing our best to follow Jesus or to mock His teaching if it goes against what we really want in this life.
So, back to my discovery this past week at my dining room table. I flipped open to the 15th chapter of Romans. Paul’s words again to another early group of the faithful. ““We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”
Each of us should please our neighbors … the Jesus roadway is clearly marked with the instruction to LOVE ALL of our NEIGHBORS as Jesus has loved. Paul notes how the insults on others fell upon Jesus and I believe that insults towards human beings … attacks on individuals for who they are, for the color of their skin, for their nations of origin are still truly insults against Jesus Christ. Who knows how many angels in disguise we have harmed through the years through our words, our actions or perhaps even worse through our inactions.
Recently, I spotted a video online of a young man named Trey Young offering hugs. Perhaps you saw it too. I smiled at his smile but as I watched the video I realized that he was standing two blocks from my home in Buffalo on Main Street across from the Pancake House. It was then that I wanted to hug him on this trip to Buffalo remembering Megan’s hugs … but this week he wasn’t up on Main Street. I discovered that he is the Junior Pastor at a church and involved in their youth ministry. He said he started his hug ministry when he was in high school … and he now says, “it is fun for me. His mother told him, “You are so important and loved. EVERYONE needs to be told that because there is a lot of hate, a lot of negative in this world, there’s not enough love. So, I want to spread love.”
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And, this Bible was given to me when my faith was restored. I had rejected God but Bill Southrey from Atlantic City’s Rescue Mission used Paul’s words to bring me back home to God and Paul wrote, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command, “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
Take today as we share in the Lord’s Table to be a day to restore your priorities and to reaffirm God and Christ as the ones you follow even amidst the challenges out there. Love ALL of your neighbors … DO JUSTICE … LOVE ALL OTHERS with MERCY and join God on your walk loving God, obeying God, and trusting in the Lord with all your heart. AMEN