AtomFollowing and Serving - Even When You Don’t Know
John 1:29-42
There’s a story about a pastor who was brand new in a community and on one of his first days in the community, he walks out of the church intending to go to the Post Office, but he’s not sure exactly where the Post Office is. So, he stops a young fellow going by and says, “Young man, can you tell me how to get to the post office?” The boy says, “Sure, you go down this street right here to the light, and you take a right, and you take the second left, and the Post Office is right there on your left.” The pastor thanks the young man and says, “I really appreciate your help. You see this church here? I’m the new pastor here and if you come to church next Sunday, I’m going to tell you how to get to heaven.” And the boy huffs and says, “Right!?! And how are you going to tell me how to get to heaven when you don’t even know how to find the Post Office?!”
Well, I’ve learned a few things during my time here in Detroit Lakes. I do know how to get to the post office, and I do believe that I can point others to Jesus, the way to get to heaven. But I have to confess that there are a lot of things I don’t know, too…particularly when it comes to the ways that God works in and through our lives. There are some mysteries to all of that, and so I found myself particularly caught by a statement of John the Baptist in today’s reading from John’s gospel
John says of Jesus as he points him out to others, “I myself did not know him; but this is why I came baptizing with water, so that he might be revealed to Israel.” “I myself did not know him… And I wondered, if John didn’t know, “If John didn’t know what he was doing when he was doing it, do we? Do we always know what we are doing when we are doing the will of God?”
On the one hand I want to say, “Yes.” “Yes, we do know, because, yes, we have a plan.” If we are going to get anything done, we need state our objectives and work toward them. My friends in the corporate world sometimes call this “management by objective.” In a couple of weeks, our Vision Council is going to be on retreat, looking at the next year or two of ministry at First Lutheran and developing a plan. We meet, we decide, we plan, we act. And we usually try to anticipate whether what we plan is a workable plan. Can we have success with this plan?
Generally that is the way I work in my own life, too. My wife, Holly, would tell you that I am fairly conservative in my approach to things. I like to have a fairly good idea that things will work out before I take them on. I don’t like to take apart a faucet with the idea that if it doesn’t work out someone else will come and clean up my mess. I am hesitant to try things that I may not have the skills for, or to enter into relationships where I might be rejected. When I was in high school, I wanted to be pretty sure that a girl would say “yes” before I asked her out. You know how that works. You ask her friends if she likes you and if they think she might go out with you. You drop hints. You ask leading questions like, “If I were to ask you out…not that I am…but if I were, would you go?” Maybe a lot of us are like that. We want to know if things are going to work out before we try or before we commit. I remember a number of years ago interviewing for a call as a pastor to a congregation in Minneapolis. We were still in Nebraska at the time. And after we had gone through the whole interview process, the chair of the call committee called me and said, “We’d like to extend the call to you, but were wondering if we did, would you say, “Yes?” There it is, see? And I said, “Ask me…just ask me…and I’ll tell you.” They didn’t. They wanted a sure thing even before they asked.
But life doesn’t always work that way. And I see that even in the Word of God before us today. The word here tells us that sometimes we don’t know. Sometimes we just have to go about our business, living faithfully, parenting faithfully, doing the best we can, because only later will we know how things will work out. Notice again in this morning’s reading, John announces to everyone that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the Messiah. In fact, he says it so clearly that no one can possibly misunderstand: “I have seen and bear witness that this is the Son of God.” No questions there! That’s pretty clear. Jesus is the Christ. But John also says twice in this passage, “I myself did not know him.” “I did not know him, but this is why I came baptizing with water, that this one might be revealed to Israel.” Friends, always pay attention to those words that are repeated in a biblical conversation. They are repeated because they are important.
“I myself did not know him.” In other words, John did what he did because it was what he felt called to do, but only after it was all over did he know precisely how it was that God used him and what the results were. John trusted and went about his business not knowing what might happen. So, again the question, “Do we always know what we are doing when we are doing the will of God?” Maybe not. John thought he knew why he was led into the wilderness to preach and baptize, but only later did he discover the full story – that his work was going to reveal Jesus.
In other words, we don’t always know how God is using us, but if we live faithfully as God’s people, God will use us. Remember the story of the Last Judgment in Matthew’s gospel. IN chapter 25, Jesus is sorting the sheep from that goats, the faithful from the unfaithful, and he says, “Blessed are you, for when I was hungry, you fed me, when I was thirsty, you gave me a drink, when I was a prisoner or sick, you visited me…” And the faithful said, “When Lord, did we see you this way?” and Jesus says, “When you did it to these others, my children, you did it to me.” They didn’t know…they were just going about, faithfully loving and caring for others as they believed they should and Jesus used them more than they knew.
I remember a young mother in another congregation who wanted to do something meaningful with her daughter, who was a piano player, so this Mom decided to lead the children’s choir, so her daughter could accompany. It was good for her and it was good for her daughter, but it was also good for many, many – perhaps hundreds of other young people and their families along the way. Sometimes we don’t know how God is using us and who we touch. And this isn’t just about “churchy things” either. It happens in our school classrooms, or in the way we deal with clients or customers, or in the way we coach the peewee hockey team, or in the way we do whatever job we do.
I guess what I am trying to get at here is a certain freedom to go about our lives, serving God, following Jesus, taking risks sometimes, not know if things are going to turn out the way we want them to, and leaving the results up to God. You’ve heard it before: “God doesn’t call us to successful, just faithful.” We don’t know the end of the story, but we are a part of the telling. And there’s a certain excitement in that! I mean, as conservative as I am in my approach to things, there is a certain excitement in not knowing exactly how things are going to go. It’s a lot more fun going to a movie, when you don’t know the ending. It is a lot more fun going to a basketball game when we don’t know what the score might be. To be sure, I like it when my favorite team wins, but it is always more fun when there is some doubt. That is why we play and that is why we watch.
And even in matters of relationships…in matters of love…what makes it exciting is that it is unpredictable. That is why our heart beats faster. We don’t know how it might turn out. So also in our service of our God. But the best part about that is that even though we don’t know how it is going to turn out in the short run, we do know who we are following and who is going with us and who will be there to meet us at our destination.
One last story…I was inspired not too long ago in my reading by the story of one Helen Roseveare who served at one time as a missionary doctor in Zaire. While she was serving, Civil War ripped the country apart and she was captured. For five months she was held captive, beaten, raped, and abused. But after her release and a two-year furlough, she returned to Zaire for another seven years, continuing the medical work she had started. Of late she has become a speaker at various conferences and seminars. Of her following of Jesus, Helen Roseveare says, “I want to hear the word “passion” come back. We are not allowed to use it today because it has taken on other meanings, but I want people to be passionately in love with Jesus so that nothing else counts. Maybe God calls me to Africa, to an area being swept by a killer disease for which no one knows the cure. What if I get AIDS? And yet, if God has sent me to Africa with my family, God is going to look after me. That doesn’t mean I am not going to get the disease; I might. But what it means is that God is in charge of my life, and if I get AIDS its because God can use me to witness to others who have it, too. How’s that for success? I’m a fanatic, if you like, but only because I believe so strongly that nothing counts except knowing that you belong to Christ. We’ve only got this short life to get others to know the same truth!”
Helen Roseveare doesn’t know exactly where life is taking her, but she knows who she is following and who is going with her, and she knows that God is in charge of the ending. And in my mind, she sounds like one of the most free people I have ever known.
John said, “I myself did not know him. But this is why I came baptizing with water, so that he might be revealed to Israel.” Friends, we do not always know how our lives are being used by God. But believe that they are. Believe that God is using you to accomplish more than you will ever know this side of heaven. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know who holds me and who holds you. Thanks be to God! Let’s pray…
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