NO TURNING BACK
A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Randle R. (Rick) Mixon
First Baptist Church, Palo Alto, CA
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Texts: 1 Kings 19:19-21; 2 Kings 2:1-14; Luke 9:57-62
Fourteen years ago on the last Sunday in June I was ordained in a moving ceremony at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland. If memory serves me correctly, some of you were there. It was an unseasonably hot afternoon, much like today promises to be. The streets of San Francisco were filled with those celebrating gay pride as they are today. The struggle that led to that ordination service stretched over 23 years and beyond. It was the culmination of a promise I made much earlier in my life to follow Jesus, wherever that might lead me, and, believe me, the road has not always been easy.
Last week I had a conversation with Daniel Ramirez about baptism. Daniel is quite clear about his desire to be baptized here in this church, which has helped shape him as a child of God over the first eleven years of his life. The point of our conversation was to discern if he is ready for baptism. We explored what baptism means to him and why he wants to take this step. I talked with him about the significance of baptism in the scripture, in Baptist tradition and for our congregation. He’s going to take some time to reflect on that conversation and then we will talk further.
I want to share with you two things I shared with him. The first is that I told him my own story of being baptized when I was seven years old. It seems almost impossible that I was only seven when I made that choice, especially when I consider the seven year olds I encounter today. Was I ever that young? Funny how a life-time can distort your perspective. I do have a pretty clear memory of walking the aisle of the First Baptist Church of Chula Vista when the invitation was issued. It’s true that this occurred during a week of evangelistic meetings. The one issuing the invitation was a charming, old-fashioned traveling evangelist by the name of Harry O. Anderson. Other details are vague but I know there was a buzz of excitement in the church that week as he urged us – young and old alike – to invite our friends and neighbors to the meetings. The goal was to fill the church. I also know there was a table full of gifts, trinkets really, that you could win, according to the number of folk you brought. I was bursting with pride that Mrs. McClintock, my second grade teacher, attended one night, at my invitation. My reward was a framed reproduction of Warner Sallman’s head of Christ, maybe two inches square. I’m sure I was quite caught up in the excitement of the occasion, the opportunity to show myself worthy and, of course, the promise of a prize.
Still, it was a meaningful experience to me at the level of my seven-year old capacity to understand. The rewards were not immediate, but the promise was true. Though I walked the aisle at the invitation of Rev. Anderson, it was my own father who nurtured me through membership classes and who dipped me gently, lovingly beneath the baptismal waters.
What I shared with Daniel is that, to this day I believe that the promise I made then was a life-long promise from which there has been no turning back. I trace my discipleship to that time. Over the years, when I saw others walk the aisle (sometimes frequently) to rededicate their lives to Jesus, I thought it a peculiar practice. I don’t doubt the sincerity of those actions or question anyone’s particular need to publicly re-affirm their discipleship; I have just always thought that when I walked the aisle the first time, it was a life commitment for me.
Now I reassured Daniel, and probably myself, that that doesn’t mean I haven’t made mistakes in my life. There have been times when I’ve clearly gotten off track. There are days when Jesus would surely have been disappointed in me as disciple. But the promise I made to follow still holds. Following doesn’t mean I’ve arrived. It doesn’t imply perfection (which actually may be one of the directions I’ve strayed.) It doesn’t mean I don’t have questions. It doesn’t mean I don’t wonder about things. It does mean, however, that in all my life’s journey, wherever it might take me, I have pledged myself to keep a traveling companion – one who can show me the way, one who will tell me the truth, one who is all about life and its fulfillment. When I wander off, he calls me back or he comes looking for me or I come to my senses and remember what it’s like when we journey together.
The other point I stressed with Daniel, which I thought important for him – and again, perhaps for myself – to hear, is that discipleship is serious business. It is no light or easy thing to make a promise of this magnitude. When God calls it is a fearful and a wonderful thing. There is both challenge and joy in saying “yes.” In fact, it may be better to say “no” than to pick up the mantle half-heartedly.
Discipleship seems particularly challenging to us, living in our contemporary environment. We are not part of a theocracy in the way Elijah, Elisha, and even Jesus were. In spite of whatever strained claims may be made that the USA is a Christian nation, we are nowhere nearly as immersed in the language and culture of our faith tradition as these ancients were. We struggle to maintain our faith in social and cultural settings that may occasionally tip their hats to the Golden Rule, but have little understanding of and less use for the radicality of a gospel centered in love for God, for neighbor, for creation, for enemies. It is just plain hard for us to take on the cost of discipleship in environments in which there seems to be so little interest or support. Maybe that’s why I think it’s important that Daniel know what he’s getting into, what he’s taking on, when he promises to follow Jesus. For the dedicated disciple, there’s no turning back.
In today’s Words of Preparation Dietrich Bonhoeffer challenges us with these words, “Who stands fast? Only the person whose final standard is not his or her reason, principles, conscience, freedom or virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – the responsible person, who tries to make his or her whole life an answer to the question and call of God” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison.) This sounds very much like Elijah and Elisha and Jesus and, of course, Bonhoeffer himself. It also sounds very hard. This is a prophetic call that draws us far beyond the familiar and the comfortable. That’s the message in today’s Ancient Words – faithful, responsible obedience to God with no turning back. Once you have committed yourself to live in faithful relationship to God, once you have chosen to follow Jesus, there is no turning back and there is likely to be bumpy road ahead.
Part of the power of these tales is the way in which they are relational. That is, not only have Elijah and Elisha and the disciples themselves made a promise to follow God’s lead, they have also been touched by God. Discipleship is a significant product of the covenant God has made with creation. “I will be your God; you will be my people.” Elijah and Elisha, as is Jesus, are touched by God in unique and powerful ways. Each has a message to speak to power. Each has a witness to people in need. Each gives himself – sometimes willingly, sometimes reluctantly – in obedience to God and God’s will for his life. In each, we see great hearts who turn their lives over to God. In the words of the old English prayer, they seem to say, “God be in my head, and in my understanding; God be in mine eyes, and in my looking; God be in my mouth, and in my speaking; God be in my heart, and in my thinking; God be at mine end, and at my departing” (Sarum Primer.) What would our lives be like if this was our daily, hourly, moment-by-moment prayer?
Elijah and Elisha are grasped by God and, in turn, they grasp their prophetic roles. For Elijah and Elisha there is no turning back. The relationship between prophet and God seems to be sealed for life. Even when Elijah is depressed, feeling he is all alone, he turns to God as God turns to him. Here is Elisha and here are companies of prophets all over Israel to pick up the mantle, to carry on the work. Jesus, son of God, seems to die alone, abandoned, but he rises to infuse his followers with a spirit that might yet transform the world. For above all God is determined to redeem creation. Perhaps, it is in God’s very resolve to be in communion with creation that we see the living prototype of “no turning back.” God has set things in motion and will see them through. The challenge to Elijah and Elisha and the people of Israel, as well as to the disciples of Jesus, now and then, is to join in, to pick up the blessed mantle, to put hands to the plow and look ahead, to follow into God’s future.
What is it today that God is calling us to? What is there in the life and ministry of First Baptist Church that is so important we dare not turn our backs? There are plenty of earthquakes, mighty winds, scorching fires to capture our attention. There are all kinds of activities and entertainments to draw us away. There is work and success and play and the accumulation of the latest stuff to keep us busy for a life time. So where do we encounter the sheer silence of God? When could we find ourselves listening for the still small voice? How can we let go of the obligations and expectations of our busy lives in order join Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem? How might we take our discipleship more seriously? What promises are we willing to make from which we would not turn back? What will be our witness to Daniel and others who want to be baptized and join the body of Christ?
I know these are difficult questions with no easy answers, but I also believe that there is a community of faith here that is willing to wrestle with them, a congregation that is capable of picking up the mantle, a church that has a vision of the realm of God, a people who understand both the cost and the joy of discipleship. This our prophetic witness to a world in need of the good news that God is with us and loves us and desires to live with us in harmony. God helping us, there will be no turning back.