Pentecost 12

Hebrews 11: 29 - 12:3

Luke 12: 49-56


We have been discussing faith. We've been discussing the future. What does it hold? What will it be like? How do we get there? Do we want to get there?
Can we influence it? Let us not forget that the future is an important place for that is where each of us will spend the rest of our life. The future can be a dark place, a frightening place, a place of shadowy unknowns. Last week we talked of an important principle about moving forward into the future: go as far as you can see.

Let's listen to a song. It's about a boy who has to make his way in the dark. He's frightened, so his father gives him a weak lamp. He tells his son to step out but first asks him: how far can you see? Well go only as far as you can see. With the lamp, weak though it was, even though the future to him looks dark, he still has all the light that he needs (Play song)

Did you note the second part - it's not about how much light there is but whose voice you trust. It's the voice of the father that is important. It is the voice of his father he trusts that says go as far as you can. Go as far as you can go. Go as far as you can see.
It's the voice of the father that is still heard as encouragement and comfort even when the father is no longer with him.

Last week we sang God gives us a future, daring us to go into dreams and dangers on a path unknown. The future is God's and we are in God's hands, led by the light he has given us: your word 0 Lord is a lamp to or feet and a light to our path. We may not or need not see the big picture but, using the light of God's word, the word incarnate, made flesh in Jesus, go as far as you can see.

Some think of the future in the terms of the Doris Day song made popular many years ago: Que sera sera, what-ever will be will be, the future's not ours you see, que sera sera. In other words, our future is in the hands of fate - what will be will be..

Others are like the wart hog in "The Lion King" who goes through life by a wonderful maxim: hakuna matata. Hakuna matata, what a wonderful phrase.
Hakuna matata, ain't no passing craze. It means no worries for the rest of your days. It's our problem free philosophy. Hakuna matata.

Simba has left his community in self-imposed exile mistakenly believing he is responsible for his father's death. However this life of no worries eventually catches up to him and he is forced to face the reality of who he is and what he is destined to be: the Lion King. A wise monkey, symbolic of the chief justice and high priest, arrives and with his stick bangs Simba on the head. Simba complains, but to no avail. He can't complain about his pain if he lives under this misguided philosophy of hakuna matata. The pain is in the past. Of course it still hurts so there are only two things Simba can do - run from it or learn from it. When the stick comes down upon him again, Simba avoids the pain and ducks under the swipe. He decides he can influence his future: he grabs the stick and breaks it. The past has no power to hurt him again if he so chooses.

As problem free philosophies, hakuna matata and que sera sera are both a lie, yet both philosophies are rife in our community, both are completely irresponsible and lead us on a path away from being the people God created us to be.

To live life thinking what will be will be, is fatalistically to abrogate any personal power we have, any thinking capacity with which we have been endowed, any ability to make choices which can help us deal with the past and change our responses in the present and influence for good the outcome, the quality, or even the quantity of our future.

Yes, on one hand the future is not ours - it is God's. But having said that, it is our future. We are special, unique, distinctive, individual; image bearers of our Creator made by God with the express purpose that we might give glory to God through His Son. God holds our future in the palm of his hand. Our future is what we make of it. To choose to live according to the will of God and live within the umbrella of his blessing. "I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not. to harm you, plans to give you hope and future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord.

Our future lies within the word and deed of God.

Our God, beyond time, creator of time, God of all time is God of the past.
He was present in our past hurts, our past broken relationships, our past pains, sorrows and griefs for he is the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But our past is filtered through the love that is at the centre of the cross where pain, hurt, sorrow, the sting of death and of broken relationships receives healing and wholeness.

He is God of the past, present and future. When captured by the memories of the past, challenged by the what we experience in the present, when we can't see where we are going in the future, may we hear the voice of our Heavenly Father - how far can you see? Then may we take the step in the light of what you can see. One step at a time. Hold the light of the word I give you. Go as far as you can see. I will be with you. I am the God who will be.

John in his revelation understood God as the one 'who was, who is, who is to be." The future is not ours by right. Offered to us as a gift by a gracious God we can make it ours. It is a future we can mould and shape. A future whose quality and quantity Is dependent upon the extent to which we allow ourselves to be obedient to God's call of us. A future which stretches as far as we can see, through a life modelled on Jesus, we will, by the Spirit's power, fulfil our pre-destined calling to minister as kings and priests in the kingdom of God. Amen.

I broke a glass in the kitchen
Dad sent me out for a broom
it was forty-five yards to the tool shed on a pitch black night with no moon.
I tried not to let on I was frightened
but finally my dad understood
and he gave me an old-fashioned kerosene lantern that hardly did any good.
I can't see where I am going - how far can you see?
Just the trunk of the chestnut - then go to the tree.
I can't see where I am going - how far can you see?
Oh, it's just the old tractor - you're where you should be.
I can't see where I am going - it's just up[ ahead Hey, it looks like the tool shed - then go to the tool shed.
you've got all the light you need, boy, so go, as far as you can see.

Dad had been gone for the summer before I could let go of the tears; See I'd gotten lost in the darkness again and I desperately needed him here.
Now I talk to my Father in Heaven
'cause my daddy taught me this much:
"It's not about how much light you carry if you know whose voice you can trust."
I can't see where I am going - how far can you see?
Just a job in the mail room - it's the road to your dreams.
I can't see where I'm going - how far can you see?
I just can't live without her - tell her everything I can't see where I'm going - oh, it's just up ahead Hey, it looks like my moment - then go seize the moment You've got all the light you need, boy, so - go as far as you can Go as far as you can go.
As far as you can see.