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A Bold Vision: Biblical Reflections on Vision

by Parrish W. Jones, Ph.D.

©2005. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

Psalm 99

Exodus 33:12-23

Matthew 22:15-22

 

Have you ever taken a trip without a road map? I've only done that when I knew where I was going. However, I have taken a hike without a map, but only when one was not available. Sometimes the journey has been somewhat interesting and often surprising. I have also had some very frustrating moments and feelings of pending doom when darkness was falling, time was running out and we still had no idea what we needed to do to get where we wanted to go.

Once again today, we have found the people of Israel at the foot of the mountain at a moment of great danger for them. Their behavior has placed their relationship with God in jeopardy. Without the Lord they have only a few choices: return to Egypt or wander aimlessly. God is the one with the bold vision and the road map to the promised land. The people of Israel have torn up the map.

The real difference between churches that are progressing and those that are not is two fold. On the one hand, they have not tapped into the vision of God for them. On the other hand, they have not developed any plans for getting from where they are to where God wants to lead them. The result is that if you created a graphic of  the church program it will look something like pickup sticks right after you drop them on the floor. The sticks would represent the programs of the church which are headed in different directions.

The problem is to get all the programs of the church aimed in the same direction. Assuming that each of the sticks has an arrow on one end that is magnetic, we need a magnet that will attract those magnetic arrows to point in the same direction which is to say away from where we are to where we want to go. Where we want to go is the vision of the world that is God's vision. So to have a map for the mission of the church, we have to know two things: where we are which we refer to as our context and where we want to go which is our vision. The map for getting from here to there is our mission plan.

Let's think about this in regard to the narrative of Exodus. The people of Israel and God knew where they are and what the situation was: they were in Egypt, oppressed by an Empire represented by Pharaoh, they were suffering persecution and terrible abuse, and their sons were being threatened with death at child birth. The people had a clear idea what they did not want. They did not want what was. They wanted all this to end. Many, I am sure, wanted to take power and do to the Egyptians what they were doing to them.

God had a different vision. That vision is portrayed in events and in words. God wanted them to be freed from their bondage. But freedom was not enough. Freedom alone can lead to anarchy and that is what we see acted out in the Wilderness of Sin and, most explicitly, at Mt. Sinai in the worship of the Golden Calf. But God had a bolder vision for the people. God envisioned a free people living in community with God and each other in a way that they would be physically, emotionally and spiritually whole and fully alive in God. Thus we have the laws of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

In our lesson today we find Moses overwhelmed with the possible disaster that he and the people face. Because they have abandoned and broken the covenant with God, God is all but ready to abandon them. If that happens, Moses knows that all is lost. Before our reading God has tested the people by commanding them to strip themselves of the enticements of wealth. They obey, but it is still not clear where their heart is.

Moses goes to God as if he were an unfaithful spouse pleading to be forgiven and taken back. This image is not unlike what we find declared often regarding the people of Israel who are portrayed in the prophets as unfaithful spouses who by their failure of compassion, justice and hospitality have abandoned the mission of God for forming a true new world order of justice and peace.

So Moses enters a plaintive plea before God for God's presence because God has said God will not go with the people but will only send his angel before them. Moses is fearful of this loss of presence and pleads with God not to abandon them. God does not respond soothingly or in enabling strains. God keeps God's distance. Moses may not see God. He must be satisfied to simply experience God's presence with back turned.

What is the point of all this? The point is that every part of God's people face trying and dangerous times. It is possible that we face our greatest danger when we think we are doing very well. Gordon Cosby, pastor of the Church of the Savior, reminds his church that success is its greatest enemy.

You may find that difficult to believe but consider that success often causes us to let down, become lazy, satiated, happy and complacent. The result is that we let up on the things we were doing, the disciplines, that brought success. Then for reasons we may not be able to figure out we end up in crisis, and we find ourselves at a Mt. Sinai moment.

There are a couple of things for us to consider from our lesson today. The first is that we have collected a survey, we have received the results of the survey and analysis of the information from it and comparisons of that info with the demographic information about our community. Next week we will begin having church wide conversations about the analysis. What is this all about? Is it about us deciding where we want to go? The answer is clearly, "No!" because what we are doing here is not about me or you alone. What we are doing is about us as God's people. By simple analysis we can see who we are and where we are. The first part of the project can be undertaken in the same way that a corporation goes through developing its goals and objectives. That's easy and a project fully available to humans.

However, the second aspect, creating a vision, a kingdom of Heaven alternative to what we are and where we are, is not a human enterprise. It is a divine/human enterprise. The third aspect, developing our road map, is also a divine/human enterprise. The vision of God for this church is much greater than any of us or all of us can imagine. We cannot dream as big as God can dream on our behalf.

That is why today, I am going to ask you to enter a season of prayer for God's guidance for Summit Presbyterian Church. Some of you may not be able for one reason or another to attend our Summit Gatherings, but you can pray every day. We need to pray to God with the same earnestness and the same urgency as Moses prayed on Mt. Sinai for God's bold vision for Summit Presbyterian Church.

I ask you to commit five minutes a day to this. And I ask you to spend 2 minutes of that time lifting to God your concerns and thanksgivings for this church. The other 3 just listen. At first you will find that hard, but with practice, you can begin to clear your head. You may find that in doing so, nothing is there, but God cannot fill space that is already full. God needs our undivided attention because God has a bold vision, a kingdom alternative for this church that is too large for you and me to imagine.

Our task is to listen to God and see as God sees. Because whatever God envisions will be more beautiful in the end even if, like Jesus on the cross, we see it as an ugly and repulsive thing to behold. You see we are here not to be attractive, we are here to incarnate God as did our Savior.