If the Christian life is a journey—and I believe it is—wouldn’t you like to know where the journey goes? Wouldn’t you like to have a plan, a map, something that guides you? Remember the story of the Anglican bishop who was on a train somewhere in the British Isles? The conductor came around to collect the tickets and the bishop couldn’t find his ticket. He looked in all of his pockets several times over. Finally the conductor said, “That’s all right, bishop, if we can’t trust you, who can we trust?” The bishop replied, “No, you don’t understand. If I can’t find my ticket, I don’t know where I’m going.” If the Christian life is a journey, don’t you want to know where you’re going? 

The journey can become confused or vague or uncertain at times. Notice the white insert in your worship guide every week. There are dozens of options for everyone on that white insert. Which ones are right for you? How do you decide? This may be especially true if you are a guest or a visitor, or perhaps a newer member. It’s a fairly daunting document. We were told so by our consultant in May. There’s good stuff here. But where do you plug in? 

Today I want to offer a clarified pathway. I want to use a text from Habakkuk: “Write the vision, make it plain on tablets, so that even one who runs may see it.”  (2:2) Habakkuk implies that even if you are fast-paced or frenetic, you need to see the vision. We need to communicate it clearly. We need to make it work for you and for all of us. 

If you are ready for or you desire a more mature faith, what are your best choices? I want to suggest four steps, four words to guide you into a deeper, richer dimension of the Christian life, into the life that Jesus came to bring. 

The four words are CONNECT, GROW, GIVE, and SERVE. Connect with God, grow toward a mature Christian walk, give as generously as God makes possible through you, serve with compassion and energy. 

CONNECT WITH GOD 

First, we need to connect with God. There is a genuine longing out there in the world and in here among us for contact with God. You don’t really want to know about God; you want to know God. 

Sometimes the longing manifests itself in unusual ways. Elaine and I spent the last week of the summer in Sedona, Arizona. There’s a place in Sedona called the “Vortex.” A guide can take you to this vortex. It’s supposed to be a very spiritual place. People pay the guide to do this. Here are two interesting testimonies from people who have been to the Vortex.

·         I took the Vortex hike and—to my surprise—had the spiritual experience of my life. My life will never be the same.

·         My experience of what happened out there is beyond language. It all combined to center me again. Life is far beyond what we can see with our eyes. Spirit flows through all. 

Elaine and I did not seek or find the Vortex in Sedona. But the very fact that it’s being searched for is one sign of a desire for connection with God. 

Newsweek had a lead story a few weeks ago called “In Search of the Spiritual.” The editors implied that the impulse to seek communion with God is thriving. There’s a longing for a personal experience with God. People are turning wherever necessary to find it. This is true among Christians, among Jews, and among Muslims. Each seeks a more God-centered faith. 

For some it may be the Walk to Emmaus. For others it may be the Cursillo movement—a part of the Roman Catholic tradition. In Judaism it may be a seeking for Kabbalah. It could also be looking for a “wow” experience of a very special kind in worship services. 

Newsweek goes on to point out that youth want this experience as well. Youth are saying, “Don’t tell me that once upon a time people had an experience with God. Let it happen for me and to me today.” Youth don’t want to hear that Joan of Arc had a vision. They want to have a vision now. 

The secular has crowded out the sacred for far too long. Now the secular is beginning to lose ground quickly. There is a longing to connect with the divine, with the holy, with the transcendent. 

I remember when I first felt a real connection with God. It was during Chapel services at 9:30 at night at Evening Prayer while I was at Drew Theological Seminary. It was led by a professor whom we loved and respected. It was a very simple ritual with some routine prayers. But he led us and he led me to God. I’m not sure it would have the same impact today, but it worked for me then. 

Some of what’s on this white insert is for connecting you. Maybe it’s Taizé. Why are so many secular young adults in Europe going to join the Taizé community in France for a week at a time? It may be in walking the Labyrinth. We still have a fall schedule for the Labyrinth in the making. I remember the first time I walked the Labyrinth. It was a distinct experience of God. It may be the fact that we have communion available four times a week in this church. “Draw near with faith, and receive this sacrament to your comfort.” 

Last fall we began a new Sunday school program here called “Kids Connect.” This fall I sense that we were led to that title and to the contents of it. We want to connect children with the church, we want to connect children with caring adults, and we want to connect children with God. Someone said if we put a sign out on a billboard on the highway that “Christ United Methodist Church – let us help you raise your children”, people would flock to the church in response. I think a better sign might read, “Let us help you connect your children with God.” We really try to do that here. The first step of a clarified pathway is to connect. 

GROW 

The second step is to grow. Paul says we are to “grow up in every way unto Him who is the head…” 

We have many growth offerings this fall—some on Sunday morning, some on Monday night, some on Wednesday night. We don’t offer these to keep you busy or to keep you in church. We offer these in order to help you grow. 

As I look back over 40 years of ministry, where have I grown the most? Where have I experienced growth? I sat with Bishop Tom Bickerton a few weeks ago during which time he said, “In this job (meaning in the episcopacy) one has to be very intentional about his or her spiritual growth.” The same is true for me. How has God given me growth? Where have I experienced the most growth in my faith? 

Sometimes it’s in meeting with colleagues in the Large Membership Church. I meet with those who are also serving in a large church setting two or three times a year. Sometimes it’s in the act of teaching a class. Teaching the book by Henri Nouwen and reflecting on the Rembrandt painting on the Return of the Prodigal Son was a distinct example for me. It was a true growth experience. I still have the painting. I’m reluctant to give it back to the person from whom I borrowed it. 

Most consistently, growth for me has taken place when I meet with a group of Western Pennsylvania clergy in a book club once a month. For decades we have met in the lounge of the First United Methodist Church in Shadyside to discuss a book. We read, we talk, we dissect the book, we relate it to ministry. We freely admit that it’s not always a great book. It’s not always helpful. But more often than not, it’s a growing edge for me. I grow in that setting. 

I need to grow. You need to grow. This white insert each Sunday clarifies a path for growth. 

GIVE 

Then thirdly, we need to give. I believe that I grow spiritually when I give. The purpose of giving is not to support the budget of the church, but to change lives. I am blessed and I am nurtured when I invest in Kingdom issues. That’s the unique character of Christian giving. 

I probably learned this before I knowingly connected with God. I probably even learned it before I began to grow in my faith. I learned to give very early. 

Part of the great spirit around here this fall is rooted in giving. Your response to Katrina has been outstanding. Over $43,000 has been distributed to date for UMCOR. Hundreds of kits and flood buckets have come in. Some members and friends of this church who are a part of Project Linus made 329 blankets last month to send to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. You heard and saw the fruits of the Jamaica work camp several weeks ago. Your giving to that effort substantively changed lives. 

I appreciate this statement from Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Gift from the Sea:

Purposeful giving is not apt to deplete one’s resources. It belongs to that natural order of giving that seems to renew itself even in the act of depletion. The more one gives, the more one has to give. 

Giving comes from a God-infused rustling in the heart. It is the stirring of God’s Spirit within us, giving us a pathway to mature discipleship. Jesus knew that. That’s why he talked about money and possessions more than anything else in his teaching except the Kingdom of God. 

SERVE 

Fourthly, we need to serve. Connect, grow, give, and serve. There’s a story about a young married couple one of whose grandmother lived in their home. The couple would go to a very highly animated worship service every week. Today we might call it a “holy roller church.” They’d come back all excited and say, “Grandma, why don’t you come to church with us?” She steadfastly refused. One day they came home from a service and they were truly excited. “Grandma, people shouted and sang. They danced. They jumped in the air. Why don’t you come with us?” Grandma was very quiet and then she said, “Listen, it’s not how high they jump. It’s what they do when they come back down that counts.” 

Some form of service is part of the path. Isaiah says, “God formed me to be a servant.” (see 49:5) Service belongs to the wholeness of the journey of faith. Remember what one of our youth said two weeks ago in response to Jamaica. She said, “Mrs. Osborne told us we were to take God to the Jamaicans. In the end, the Jamaicans were the ones who brought God to me.” 

We have our CBS groups here—care, Bible and service. We try to care about each other, we try to reflect on Scripture, and we try to exercise some aspect of service. CBS groups are rather incomplete without some kind of service. 

IHN starts today. Two families who are homeless will arrive and live in this church for a week. We provide service to those who are temporarily without homes or employment. 

Service helps us to connect, to grow, and to give. It’s part of the pathway. One of our hymns says it well: “My power is faint and low until I have learned to serve.” (see #421) 

Pull out that white insert now. Notice the words at the top of the page. They are new. They’re not radical, but they’re new. They provide a clarified pathway. Notice the part that reads, “Each week we invite you to find opportunities to connect to God and others, to grow in your faith, to give as God calls you to give, and to serve those in our community and beyond.” 

In the next new member class two weeks from today, one of the questions that I will ask the new members is this: “Will you commit yourselves to connect, to grow, to give, and to serve as part of your Christian journey in this community of believers?” 

For the foreseeable future, that is the pathway in this place. That is the pathway among us. I call you to a clarified pathway—to a defined path. 

Thanks be to God.