Fit and Useful

Text: Joshua 1:7-9
Theme: “Fit and Useful”
Baptism of the Lord
January 9, 2011
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

In the Name of Jesus

7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

The overall Time of Christmas has three little seasons packed into it. First, there is Advent, the four week period which leads up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Following that, you have the twelve days of Christmas itself. Finally, you have the season of Epiphany which began this past Thursday. An epiphany is a manifestation or a disclosure with some extra zest, zip, and tang. You might call it an “Aha!” or “Eureka” experience! The first big epiphany was the star in the east which led the Gentile magi to visit – and worship! – the child Jesus. For the next big Epiphany, the church year jumps ahead about thirty years, and once more we find ourselves out by the river Jordan – with John the Baptist -- for the Baptism of Our Lord. That story we just heard in today’s Gospel. The first big epiphany essentially said “Follow the star. You’ll find your King.” The second big epiphany essentially says that this King the Gentile magi worshipped is the beloved Son of God, and, more than that, this beloved Son identifies Himself with us as He is baptized. John the Baptist wanted nothing to do with baptizing Jesus. The roles would need to be reversed. He says to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replies with His first recorded words in Matthew’s Gospel: “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Without Jesus being baptized, righteousness –at least the kind that God has every right to expect of us – doesn’t have the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell. Jesus is baptized. He chooses to hang out, chill out, stick it out, and go all in for us. He throws His hat in our ring!

Thus, we can be done, and bid farewell, to all this nonsense about God being far out and far away and out to lunch and out of touch. The alluring temptation – still as worn out as it is popular -- is to sort of federalize God. We like to think of the Almighty as being “inside the beltway”, far removed from the citizenry, in some heavenly, celestial version of Washington, D.C. God is up there preparing a place for us in the “shining city on the hill”, and we’re left o our own devices. The Baptism of our Lord, out there at the River Jordan, calls a halt to all this gobbledygook. We’re stuck with Jesus; He is where we are at, and we can be glad of it. He is as close as the baptismal water that you were sprinkled, doused and/or covered with. The Lord is as near as the bread and the wine of the communion table. “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my Name,” says Jesus, “there I am.”

This new year – the Year of Our Lord, 2011 – is still in its infancy. It stands to reason that some of you here this morning have made some new year’s resolutions and already are endeavoring to make good on them. I have to admit that I can’t remember the last time I ever made a new year’s resolution. On the one hand, I feel bad about that because I haven’t experienced the possible good results that could come from keeping resolutions. On the other hand, however, I’m glad. You see, there have been times when I thought I had all the resolution and resolve and will power and determination in the world to achieve a goal and accomplish something good, but I ended up missing the mark by a long shot. So, why bother making resolutions? Who wants to set themselves up for failure? As I prepared for this sermon, this dawned on me. This has been my thinking. And it has prompted a painful question: am I living the life I’ve been given to the full, or do I spend more time being a critic of my own existence – or someone else’s? When I experience failure, I’m inordinately hard on myself. I’m captivated by fear and self-loathing. When I experience success, I tend to take excessive credit. In short, I’m a critic.

Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president of the United States and an eminently quotable American, didn’t care much for critics. He once said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

The good news of today’s Gospel – the story of the Baptism of our Lord – is that Jesus Christ, our God, identifies with all of us. We are not alone – either individually or corporately.

Now, dear members of First Presbyterian Church, with all of this in mind, are we going to enter into the year of our Lord, 2011, as cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat? Are we going to settle for the easier and softer way of being the critic of our own life, or the life of someone else, or the life of the church? Are we going to continue to do the same thing again and again and again while expecting different results? Some call that insanity. Will we keep coming into this physical place at 11:00 AM on Sunday mornings simply because – if not, only because -- it is a habit?

On that day, so long ago, out there on the River Jordan, Jesus Christ publicly stepped up to the plate on behalf of all of us. What are we going to do this year to step up to the plate on behalf of Him? Pay no mind to the critics in your own head or someone else’s. That’s just so much noise. Don’t think in terms of victories or defeats. Jesus Christ Himself turned that whole line of thinking on its head anyway. He changed what appeared to be the greatest defeat in history (His crucifixion on a Roman cross) into the greatest victory the world has ever known. He rose from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity! Rather, think of how you and I, together, can dare greatly for the Lord in this new year.

I can almost see the red flags popping up. Someone says: “Pastor Paul, 2010 was a rough year for all of us here at FPC, and we just don’t have the money and human resources. That church down the street and that congregation up the road, well, they’ve got all the people and the programs.” Here’s my response, and I hope it doesn’t sound mean because I don’t mean it to be mean. My response is this: So? I say that Jesus Christ didn’t have a lot of money in his earthly ministry and the one who had control of it betrayed Him. He had only twelve disciples. If we spend time comparing ourselves to others, we waste time that could otherwise have been spent daring to do great things for our Lord! Instead of burning minutes thinking or talking about what we can’t do, lets, instead, focus on what we can do and then see to it that it is done with as much excellence as we can possibly muster.

Here’s a good question to ask: “Where do I start to dare greatly for the Lord?” Here’s a suggestion. Identify what your God-given skills and abilities and interests are. Then apply them to the needs of the world that are closest to you. Do not – and I repeat: do not! – compare yourselves to others and say, “Well, they’re so much more able to do this than I am.” Don’t even go there.

In order to dare great things for the Lord, there are two prerequisites. There are two things that we can’t do without. First, we need spiritual fitness. Second, we need to be useful to the world. This applies equally to us as individuals and as a church.

Now, it is entirely possible to be spiritually unfit and of no use to the world. It is sad, but true. Some lead lives of existential despair.

Similarly, it is entirely possible to be spiritually fit and of no use to the world. These are folks – we might call them separatists – who think that God has pretty much given up on the world and the best thing to do is stick together and study our Bibles and our sacred texts. This is the isolationist impulse. There have been sad examples in American history. Recall Waco and the Branch Davidians.

Again, it is entirely possible to be spiritually unfit and of great use to the world. These are the people who constantly go about taking action, doing deeds, initiating projects, offering leadership, giving money to worthy causes, and so on. Often, if not exclusively, it is done for recognition. King Herod, of the Christmas story, helped build the great temple in Jerusalem and provided running water through the aqueducts. Adolf Hitler vastly improved the German infrastructure through the autobahn. But were Herod and Hitler spiritually fit? The record of history says otherwise.

If we are to dare greatly for the Lord, spiritual fitness and usefulness to the world – both and not one at the expense of the other – are needed. They go hand in hand.

Earlier this week, my devotional reading told the story of Joshua. That Biblical narrative began at a pivotal point in the history of God’s people. Moses, that towering figure of the Old Testament, had died. God’s children, set free from Israel, were about to enter the promised land. But now their leader was dead.

With grief and uncertainty, they faced an unknown future. Who would step up? Who would dare greatly? Who would be spiritually fit and useful for their cause?

Joshua, the son of Nun and the “right hand man” of Moses, steps into what Teddy Roosevelt called “the arena.” Our Lord’s words to him dismiss the grief and uncertainty and point to a glorious future.

This is what God said to him:

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Meditating on God’s Word day and night: this is how spiritual fitness and usefulness to the world happens. In a world of detours both alluring and tragic, this keeps us on a straight path.

No longer can you and I settle for one hour a week in church only to spend six days and twenty three hours in a spiritual wilderness. Our task, day and night, is to meditate on God’s Word so that we might do what it says.

In the process, we will find ourselves daring great things for our Lord! When Jesus was baptized, that’s what He stepped into the arena with all of us. Together with Him, our little flock begins this new year strong and courageous, spiritually fit, and ready to be of good use to the world. Dare greatly!

Amen.