CHRIST AT THE CENTER: THY WILL BE DONE

Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13; Ephesians 1:3-14

INTRODUCTION

Since last August, we have been following our theme for this church year: “Christ at the Center: In the Heart of the City, in the Hands of God.” Our sermons in the fall focused on how we can center our lives on Jesus Christ, In whom all things hold together (Colossians 1:17) and through whom we can find our identity and unity as a community of faith, strategically located here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree.

During the Annual Giving Campaign, we talked with one another about raising the resources required to strengthen and expand the ministry and mission which our Lord has called all of us to embrace with “Open Hearts and Open Hands.” And as we celebrated the birth of Jesus throughout the Advent-Christmas season, we sought to discover God’s presence in our midst through the five senses that have been instilled in each and every one of us: taste, smell, sight, hearing and touch.

Today, we cross over into the year 2003 with the hope and expectation that God will guide us and provide us with all that we need during the weeks and months that are yet to be. So what better place than here, what better time than now for us to kneel down alongside Jesus and pray to the Father: “Thy will be done,” on earth as it is in heaven.

Howard Thurman, who served a generation ago as Dean of the Chapel at Boston University, told of a sign he once saw nearby a town in Texas called Big Sandy. “My train coach stopped across a highway,” said Thurman, “and I looked out the window and spotted this huge sign next to a restaurant. It must have been 20 feet high and about 20 feet wide. It read: ‘Five highways meet here. Four chances to go wrong. Come in and ask us.’”

As we seek God’s will for our lives, it often seems like that - that there are so many options but not a clear sense of direction to know the way we should go or what God wants us to do.

Here is a senior in high school who has applied to a number of colleges and universities. As the responses arrive in the mail, he’s trying to decide which school will be the right one for him. Here is a young woman with a law degree, just starting out on her career. The interviews have gone well, and as the job offers come in, she’s trying to discern whether a large corporation or a small family firm will be the best place for her to begin. Those are hopeful, promising situations, and choices need to be made.

But here is a man whose CT Scan turned out negative. The shadow spots on the x-rays indicate that surgery is necessary, and he’s trying to decide if he should stick with the doctors close at home or have the operation at a medical center in another city. And here is an older woman who enjoyed a good marriage, raised a family and stood alongside her husband until he died. So now she’s wondering if it’s time to move into a retirement facility, and leave behind the home she loves with all of its treasured memories.

“Five highways meet here. Four chances to go wrong. Come in and ask us.” So how can we know the right way to go? And even when it is not so complicated, when as the poet Robert Frost once wrote there are only:

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both,

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could,

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then I took the other…”

Even when there is just one decision or the other to make, how can we discern the way which the Lord wants us to take and discover His will for our lives?

II.

This morning, at the dawn of another new year, I want to offer you three words which I hope will be helpful to make the way more clear, and the first word is prayer.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He told them, Pray like this: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). You see, Jesus believed that God’s will was good and that God had a purpose in mind for His life and for every life. So Jesus trusted God to reveal that purpose to us through prayer.

But sometimes, instead of getting down on our knees to seek God’s will, we impose our own wants and desires and ask Him to rubber stamp what we have already decided to do.

A pastor in a small and struggling church was invited to be the preacher of a large congregation at three times the salary he was making. A close friend who knew what was happening, stopped by the manse for a visit and met the pastor’s son at the door. Coming inside, he asked the boy, “What do you think your father is going to do?” The boy replied, “Well, my father is upstairs in the study praying, but my mother is downstairs in the basement packing.”

Now I don’t blame that pastor’s wife for wanting a better situation, and yet, the truth is that what we think we want might not be what God knows we really need. And He has promised to reveal that to us when we come to Him in prayer.

It takes time and requires effort on our part. But when we open our minds and hearts in prayer, sooner or later the direction will be made clear. Jesus said, Pray like this: Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer.

III.

In seeking to know God’s will, the first word is prayer…and the second word is patience.

I can’t begin to count how many homes I have visited where I found a plaque in the kitchen, often over the stove, which says: “Lord, give me patience, but hurry!” We don’t like to wait for things to happen, especially when we need to make a decision about something that is urgent and important.

I have told you before about a young man who decided to become a monk and join a monastery, and yet wasn’t sure that was the right place for him to be. But he took the vows of poverty, chastity and silence and after the first year was over, he met with the abbot for his annual review where he was aloud to say only two words. “How’s it going?” asked the abbot, and the monk replied, “Food cold.”

Another year passed, and the monk came to the abbot’s study to answer the same question: “How’s it going?” and he answered, “Bed hard.”

One year later, the monk and the abbot met and when the question “How’s it going?” was asked, in exasperation the monk said, “I’m leaving,” to which the abbot replied, “Well, I’m not surprised. Ever since you arrived, all you have done is complain.”

Now I know that story is apocryphal, but the point is we don’t like to wait for things to happen. We get anxious and agitated when our hopes and dreams don’t materialize, and we wonder why God doesn’t step in and move things along at a faster pace.

That’s what Thomas Merton wanted to know, and this is a true story. He joined a Trappist monastery outside of Louisville, Kentucky in 1941 and devoted his life to seeking the will of God. He began to write books and became well known, popular and a sought after speaker on spiritual themes. But still he was not at peace in his own heart, so he asked the abbot if he could move into a small cottage by himself, away from the daily activities of the monastery, where he could meditate and focus on his faith.

And after many years of daily devotions and quiet reflection, toward the end of his life, this is the prayer that Thomas Merton wrote:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

I carry that prayer in my pocket calendar and reflect on it every day, to remind me that seeking and finding the will of God does not always come quickly or easily, and requires a lifetime of patience for anyone who truly desires a closer walk with the Lord. But the journey leads us into the heart of God, and that is worth waiting for. Patience.

CONCLUSION

And that leads us to the final word, which is perseverance. With so many options before us, so many roads that we can take, the one thing we need to know is that God walks alongside us every step of the way and gives us the strength and courage we need to go on instead of giving up.

My friends, just as that is true for each of us as Christians, it is surely so for all of us in this congregation and in our Presbyterian Denomination. We are living through a time of turbulent transition, when cynics are prone to say that the conflicts and divisions in the church will be our undoing. But I believe, and I hope you believe it too, that just the opposite is true. For God has promised, and the Bible bears witness, that as we center our lives on Jesus Christ, He will bind us together in love and unity and help us become the community of faith which He has called us to be.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Ephesians, envisioned it with these words: For God has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time – to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth (Ephesians 1:9-10). That is God’s will for us as Christians, that is God’s will for His church, and that is what Jesus taught us to pray for and to work toward with perseverance. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

That is His promise and it’s a promise we can count on come what may. Do you believe that today? Annie Johnson Flint believes it. I don’t know much about her, but she wrote a poem which was given to me many years ago. It’s a poem I treasure and have hung on the wall in the study where I work at home. In closing, as I share this poem with you, I hope that it becomes your poem and your prayer for God’s will in this new year:

“God has not promised skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through,

God has not promised sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow, peace without pain;

But God has promised strength for the day,

Rest for the labor, light for the way,

Grace for the trials, help from above,

Unfailing sympathy, undying love.”

Such is the promise and will of God for all of us.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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