“Prayer is when you speak to God; meditation is when God speaks to you.”
Moses had a pretty tough job. Moses is revered throughout the Jewish and Christian faith because of his wonderful accomplishments for our faiths. Moses brought the words of life – The Ten Commandments for us to understand how God wants us to live. Moses is revered because he brought the children of Israel out of slavery and into the Promised Land.
The first five books of the Bible are known as the Pentateuch, penta meaning five as in pentagon; and teuch the Hebrew word for law. These five books are also known as the books of Moses. When I was young, there were some people who tried to tell me that these were the books of Moses because he wrote them. Even at a young age, that seemed a little far-fetched to me, since these books describe how Moses died and how he was buried in the very passage that we read this morning – pretty tough for a dead man!
Even though Moses didn’t write these books, that doesn’t take away from the fact that there has never been a leader like Moses in all of history. As great as he was, though, he only got to see the Promised Land. He never got to enter it alive! Today, I am going to quote from The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. King delivered this speech on August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Washington, D.C., Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”
Nearly five years later, on April 3, 1968, on the eve of a protest march for striking garbage workers in Memphis, Tennessee, King gave another speech.
“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. was reaching back into the corporate memory of his people to remind them that there had been people before – Biblical people – who had been on a long journey lost in the wilderness. King’s people had been lost in the wilderness too. Moses’ people had been slaves and were in need of a Promised Land. King’s people had been slaves and were in need of a Promised Land.
In an eerie parallel, Moses died after seeing the Promised Land, and after King gave his speech about having seen the Promised Land and his own possible inability to get there himself, the very next day he was assassinated.
Despite the many things that Moses and Martin Luther King, Jr. did for their people, they did not get to enter the Promised Land. They were people of their day, of two nations very different from ours. What do they have to do with us this morning?
These two did not get to enter the promised land, at least partially because what was important to them was that they be identified with their people.
Neither Moses, nor Martin Luther King, Jr. were given any special privileges due to their leadership. Of all the people of Israel who fled through the Red Sea, only two people were allowed to enter the Promised Land. These two people were Moses’ successor, Joshua, and Caleb, the two scouts who had gone on a reconnaissance mission to the Promised Land 40 years before with ten other scouts. Only these two of the 12 had believed that with God’s help they could take the land as God promised they could.
Joshua and Caleb ought to enshrine forever the value of the minority report. Only two out of twelve believed that God would bring them what they all dreamed of. Therefore, only those two out of all of the people of Israel survived the wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
Congregations can echo history. Some years ago, Westworth decided that its mission was “to be the hands and feet of Christ within Westworth and beyond.” Now those are good words, but they might be words that we take for granted, or that we gloss over as simply trying our best to be good and decent people. At some point however we may need to figure out if we are actually being the hands and feet of Christ, or if we are just hoping that Christ will be our hand-holder and take care of us! I don’t know if any of you are familiar with that old gospel song written nearly a hundred years ago: “Precious Lord take my hand, lead me on let me stand. I am tired, I am weak I am lone…” What have we done recently to extend our witness to the rest of the people of Winnipeg?
That, my brothers and sisters is our Promised Land. This church was never intended to be just for us – it has always been intended to be the offering of a new faith alternative to the people of Winnipeg!
What we want is for Westworth’s mission statement be something that each and every person in this congregation actually feels that it is their own statement of purpose. In a hymn I favour much more than Precious Lord, there is a song written by Richard Avery and Donald Marsh in 1972 called We Are the Church. Among its great lyrics are the words, “The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple; the church is not a resting place; the church is a people!”
We don’t want Westworth’s mission statement to just be words on a page. To borrow imagery from the movie Field of Dreams – until you are ready to build it, no one will come!
If I were to name one single person who made the longest and most lasting impression on me in terms of my calling as a minister, it would have been the minister who inspired me to become a minister. That was a woman by the name of Norma Hall.
Norma was a very dedicated person who gave of her whole self when she did ministry. There was nothing held back in reserve. Norma was a thoughtful preacher – if I have a style of preaching that I aspire to, it is the style that she presented – of someone who gave the scriptures serious consideration and preached sermons built upon what she believes they were saying to us in the here and now. I felt like I lost something very wonderful when I heard that she had died in 1993.
This sermon caused me to look over our correspondence through the 23 years between the time she left Canada to go back to her native Australia and her death.
Her letter to me of 27 January 1978 mentioned, “On Feb. 5th we said farewell to 2 more fellows going to Bible College to train for ministry. That’s four from this church, three from my last church, and yourself from the one before. It is humbling to have had even a small part in the lives of these 8 people.” Eight people inspired to choose ministry as their calling! It shows the difference one committed person can make!
If we are going to make any difference whatsoever, it is only going to happen when we allow God to help us believe that we can reach the Promised Land!
As I mentioned at the beginning of today’s sermon, Prayer is when you speak to God; meditation is when God speaks to you.”
Perhaps for years there have been those of us who have been praying “Dear God please let us be a significant witness to the people of Winnipeg.”
Now it is time for us to start in on meditation! We’ve been telling God what we want. Now it is time for us to spend some significant time in mediation – the silence where we allow God to speak to us!
When I was in seminary – the place where folks go to train for ministry – Dr. Lester McAllister, one of my professors, said something to my class that I have never forgotten. “In ministry, it’s important to lead, to go out in front of the people and head them in the direction that you believe God wants them to go. But it is just as important to never get so far out in front of your people that they start to confuse you with the enemy.”
We have the opportunity to decide what our Promised Land is, and how we’ll get there! I’m counting on your being a Joshua or a Caleb, and not one of the other ten scouts who were to afraid to go forward. Let’s believe that with God something is going to happen!
Amen.
