The First Step

June 16, 2002

Genesis 12:1-3/ Matthew 9:18-34

When Ann and I were first considering having children we tried to imagine how our lives would change. My cousin informed us, when we were visiting Minnesota that first year we were married, that we had no idea what was to come. We thought we had some idea about this because we had heard it from people, lots of people, but of course my cousin was right, we really didn’t have any idea. Ann was a bit wiser than I was in these discussions. She allowed that there was no good time to have children. This is especially true with two full time careers. But please understand that this was not an argument for not having children. And this is one of the wonderful things about my wife, it turned out she was actually arguing to have children as soon as possible. Her logic was that if we waited for the right time it would never happen. And as it turns out she was absolutely right.

Again she did not mean that she didn’t want children, but she did realize that they were not convenient. And that is absolutely true. You can say a lot of things about children but you could never make a case that they are convenient. Sleeping on the floor waiting for them to throw up on a night when they are sick is not convenient. Driving them from pillar to post for this birthday and that play date and that soccer game is not convenient. Putting on their shoes every time you go some where, getting them buckled into the car, running back in to get that stuffed animal that they will not leave behind, making sure they have gone to the bathroom, none of it is convenient. Had I known this before, I might have hesitated. I might have opted for a little more convenience.

But had I done that I would have missed so much. I would have missed discovering that a baby’s head smells good. I would have missed that moment when they were born. I would not have seen their first smile or heard their first laughs. I would not have heard the incredible things they say. I would have missed the tender little moments when they express their love. (Abbie loves to give me dandelions. Conner is a generous kisser.) I would have never seen the world again through little eyes. I would have lost that chance to wonder with them. I would have missed seeing them sleep. I would have missed a bucket full of smiles and a heart full of laughs that melt me every time.

Now I have to admit my approach to all of this was not very objective or reasoned. My approach was the same approach I always use when it comes to big decisions. I don’t weigh out the pros and cons. Once before we had children someone told me that they would never have children until they had mapped out the amount of time that kids would need in the day and upon considering that they would or wouldn’t go ahead. Well I tell you what, if you ever looked at that graph in a sober light you would have an iron clad document for not having children.

So I don’t believe in that approach. I never suggest to young people any kind of process that quantifies and objectifies the issues. I believe there is only one way to approach the really big decisions in life. I believe that it is of utmost importance for everyone to always follow their hearts. I always quiz people about what it is in their hearts that is compelling them to move in this direction. That is the most pertinent information.

My homiletics professor said it to my class on the first day in seminary. If your heart is not on fire to preach don’t do it because it will be a terrible burden if you do.

I think it is true with all the important decisions of our lives. If your heart is not in it you might as well forget it. But if your heart is in it you can make even the most impossible goals come true. That is the miracle of this living. All things are possible in God.

The Bible passages read for today have something wonderful in common. It isn’t obvious at first because they seem to be about totally different subjects. The first is the call of Abraham. This is the first moment in what becomes a long history of God’s intimacy with the Hebrew people.

That seems much different than the second reading. The passage in Matthew describes a series of healings. The connection I see between these healings and the call of Abraham is that the healings and the entire history of Israel depend on the same action. That is the first faithful step. In all of those healings there is not one where Jesus goes and finds some sick person and then convinces them to get healed. The people come to him and do some faithful thing and upon that they are healed. It takes the first step by the people for the healings to begin. Jesus even notes it by saying, “Your faith has made you well.” I believe this is quite an amazing confession for Jesus in that he was the healer. He was the person whom we all hold up as having the power. But not according to Jesus. He is not some magician who has powers that we cannot understand or replicate. Rather he says that there are two parties involved in his healings. The one is God and the other is the person. If one of those does not participate the healing cannot happen no matter what Jesus does. Scripture even reports that when Jesus returned to his home town he could not do many healings because there was no faith among those people. And so time and again Jesus points out to those who were healed that it was their faith, their participation in the event that made it happen. It is that first faithful step forward that makes all the difference.

It was the same for Abraham. He was called from his Father’s house to go to a land that God would show him. The truth is that this call would have not changed history, it would not have made any difference at all if Abraham had simply ignored it. Unless Abraham followed God’s instructions none of it would have happened. God so needs our participation in faith that God’s will cannot be done unless we do it.

And you can’t count the cost. That does not matter. Human beings are funny that way. We are at our best, we are our strongest, we are our most miraculous, not when all the details line up and it seems like a good idea. That really is when we are completely mediocre. Human beings were made in a way that enables them/us to be at our very best when we are challenged beyond our abilities and skills. We are at our best when we are trying to accomplish the impossible.

So I am not of a mind to ever tell someone they can’t do something. I know that they can if God is calling them to do it. I know because God called together a motley crew of outback fishermen and tax-collectors and gave them the job of starting a new religion out of nothing. You couldn’t do what they did. The most organized well financed organization of today couldn’t create the largest and most influential religion if it was not God’s will. And they couldn’t either if they had not been able to take that faithful first step. If they didn’t participate in the event it would have never happened.

On the day of Pentecost Peter quoted the prophet Joel saying, “your young men will see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.” That is what the world looks like to the faithful, there are always dreams to dream and challenges that call us to life. It is always true.

I went to a graduation for the Master’s Degree program of New York Theological Seminary at Sing Sing Prison last week. Talk about dreams fulfilled. Here were twenty guys dedicating their lives to God from very humble beginnings. You can see it in their eyes they have a future and they are looking forward to it. And they have that future because they took that first faithful step forward. They believed in it before anyone else did. They are there also there because another man named Bill Webber set up the program at age sixty two. He felt called he said, God gave him a dream. And he followed. Twenty years later there were twenty men who shouldn’t have a hope in the world looking forward to serving God in ministry. It was a marvelous event happening inside the walls of Sing Sing. That is the very essence of God’s message for all of us.