More or less every day when I pick up the post from the door-mat, there’s one thing I can be quite sure of – there will be at least one and probably more than one expensively produced brochure inviting me to sign up for a cruise or other kind of holiday to some exotic locations, beautifully illustrated with pictures of a dream world of luxury. There is obviously a huge market for travel abroad, while the traditional holiday locations which served Britons for generations – Blackpool, and Margate for instance – now languish unloved and unvisited. Many of us have developed an insatiable appetite for stretching our horizons.
This is not a new phenomenon, although
Abraham would not have been acquainted with a cruise liner. Very roughly 4000
years ago when Abraham was 75 years old, he and his family were living in what
the Old Testament calls Ur of the Chaldees (you need to have Genesis chapters
11 and especially 12 to hand to understand what is happening here). Ur is in
what was then called Mesopotamia, now Iraq, and part of the ‘Fertile Crescent’
where the great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, flow down towards their
confluence.
Abraham was called by God to leave his home
and settled agricultural way of life, and become a traveller - a nomad - seeking a new home to which God was
calling him. And in order to get there he had to become a more or less
permanent ‘camper’ – living in tents. They made their way up river north-west
for a distance of some 500 miles – as the crow flies, considerably more if he
you are following a river on foot.
Later they travelled south down the Jordan
valley for another 500/600 miles as the crow flies, until they reached Canaan,
which was to become God’s promised land for Abraham’s descendants. God had promised Abraham a son and heir even
though he and his wife Sarah were, in human terms, beyond child-bearing age.
Abraham obeyed God’s call and went on this extra-ordinary journey because he
had complete trust that God would fulfil his promise, and that Abraham would
found a great nation.
So this was not only a huge exotic adventure
in terms of travel, but it was a spiritual journey of trust and promise as
well. It was undertaken in faith and in hope that God had a purpose for their
lives, a spiritual destination, as well as a geographical one.
Indeed, the writer of this letter to the Hebrews wants to emphasise that
journey’s end for Abraham – because of his faith – was not an earthly place.
His true home was going to be in heaven. It’s important to remember for every
Christian that when we talk about ‘home’ it’s not just some place in the
UK. We are travelling towards our true home which is in heaven, where God has
prepared a place for us.
When I read this passage, my mind travels
straight to John Bunyan’s classic ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’. Our spiritual
adventurous travel journey is not over until we have crossed that final river,
and been welcomed home on the other side. It’s a vital help to put these
enticing travel brochures that come through the letter box into a better
perspective. It also draws us to our Gospel reading this morning, where Jesus
tells us to build our treasure, not in earthly coin, but to concentrate on
building treasure in heaven, our true home. And where our treasure is, there
will our heart be also.
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So we need a very different kind of travel
brochure. No matter how young or old we may be, we are on a spiritual journey.
And God’s Holy Spirit gives us strength every day for that journey. We can’t
say ‘We’re too old to change’ because Paul rightly tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:
16 that “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being
renewed day by day,” as the Holy Spirit gives us strength to grow in faith, in
Christian knowledge, in character, and in lives that shine with the light of
Christ.
This Christian travel brochure tells us not
to be too settled where we are; not to become stale and too content with the
familiar routine. We have so much yet to learn; so much to grow; so ambitious
to travel spiritually closer to God in our relationship through prayer, through
study of God’s Word, through worship and sacrament; through experience and
character building. We still have far to go..
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All this sense of moving forward and
adventure in faith and hope can be applied to our church just as much as to our
individual spiritual lives. Some of the brochures and reports recently about
the renewal project refer back to what was called my ‘challenge to the church
in 2006’. I’ll tell you what I had in mind. It seemed to me that the interior
of our lovely church was becoming just a bit shabby and showing its age. If you
were going to a hotel, for example, you might look at it and say ‘It needs a
make-over – it needs freshening up.’ And I had a picture in my mind of this
building re-decorated, with new comfortable seats, with a lovely new floor, and
with new lighting which would not only help us see better, but which would
highlight the most beautiful features – the roundels, the roof and so on
instead of just pointing downwards.
And I thought that we would be so proud of
the beautiful church we have, that it would rejuvenate us all spiritually, and
draw us all together, and bring in new members. The building can go on a
spiritual journey as well as the individual, and the one can inspire the other.
I still like to think that this is possible.
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So August is the month for holiday travel. But we need a
spiritual travel catalogue as well with dreams to be fulfilled. If Abraham can
start at 75, we can hardly say we are too old and set in our ways! That’s why,
for the writer to the Hebrews, he is a role model, a hero to be followed, not
literally, but in his spiritual openness, and total trust in God, believing
that what he had begun, God would bring to fulfilment beyond his dreams. And
our Gospel for today ends with a vital call to be alert, and never fall back
into just going through the old routine. Not only is that the road to spiritual
deadness and decay – (there is a true saying that you can’t stand still as a
Christian, you either move forward, or you fall back) – but we must remain
alert because we know neither the day nor the hour of the Lord’s return, and
who would want to be found spiritually sleeping? Don’t go to sleep spiritually
in August – make preparations for a new spiritual travel adventure. Last
Tuesday was the Feast of the Transfiguration – one of the very greatest
spiritual experiences Jesus ever had. With God, spiritual adventures lead to
wonderful new blessings and experiences. Get the new spiritual travel brochure
– and sign up immediately! Don’t miss
out!
Discussion
1. Do
you sometimes feel that your spiritual journey has come to a standstill and
that you are still at the same place as you were, say, a year ago? If so,
discuss how you might get moving again.
2. What
might your spiritual travel brochure contain to entice you to travel?
3. Do
you think the church building needs to make a spiritual journey too? In what
ways? How might this help you and others on your journey?
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