Almighty God, your Son Jesus has opened for us a new and living way into your presence. In this hour of worship may we receive the power of your Living Spirit so that we can choose to walk in your way. This we humbly, yet boldly, ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

 

 

For several weeks now, we’ve been talking about what it is like to be at a crossroads. For those of you that are new, all of us experience crossroads moments. You experience them in your life. I experience them in mine. We are experiencing one in our life here. Our nation, right here in this day and time, is experiencing some crossroads times.  

 

It is a crossroad when we have to make some decision. Are we going to go this way, or are we going to go that way? We can’t do both. We’re going to have to make some choices. Are we going to do it the world’s way, or are we going to do it God’s way? We have some choices to make. 

 

In the weeks past, we have said, inevitably, God’s way is always more difficult. Notice that. God’s way is always harder. It may be harder, but the people of faith have learned it is better. The fact that it is difficult means we have to focus. We have to reflect. We have to spend time in prayer. We have to spend time in discipline and receiving courage. It involves a lot of work. OK? Anytime we choose to do things God’s way, it is not easy. We just need to know that. 

 

The Bible put it this way. It is our theme verse. It is one of the texts for today: Jeremiah 6:16. You’ve heard it a number of times. I want you to repeat it after me: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” 

 

We have this Bible verse, and we have some memory work going on here. That’s fantastic. 

 

If you do that, you will find what God has for you and what God has for your future, our future, our country’s future, the globe’s future, if you will.

 

Now a quick review: There are always roadblocks that stand in the way of what God wants for you, what God wants for me, what God wants for us, for our future.

 

In week one, we talked about the roadblock of our past. That includes all that garbage we’ve collected, all that baggage, all the scars that way too many of us are still hauling around, all that stuff that we think just won’t play very well at church. A lot of us are stuck in the past. It’s a big hurdle. It’s not easy. It is very real. 

 

We said in order to go God’s way into the future, we have to move past our past. The reason: God has already moved past our past. If we are still stuck back here, we need to know God is out ahead of us. God is in front of us, beckoning us, calling us into the future.

 

In week two, we talked about another roadblock. That is the roadblock of conflict. Conflict can keep us from choosing God’s way and what God wants for your future, for my future, and for our future together. 

 

We said conflict is inevitable. However, misery is optional. In conflicts, as far as possible, as far as it is up to you, we Christians are called to choose peace.

 

This week we are going to deal with the third roadblock into the future. It is one all of us face. It is the risk factor – the fear of risk. There are all kinds of fears. You know that. It is universal. It is built in. It is the way God made us. It’s part of God’s protective armor, protective factors that are very important for all kinds of reasons. 

 

Some of us are afraid of the dark. Some of us have a fear of falling. Some of us fear sharks. Some of us fear lobsters. Some of us fear falling in the dark on lobsters that think they are sharks. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. It is fear, and it is real.

 

Today, I want to talk about a very specific fear. I want to talk about the specific fear that keeps us from taking the God-sized opportunities that God continues to lay in our path.   I want to talk to you about the opportunities God wants to do in your life, and through your life, and in our life together. 

 

These are the opportunities that God lays before us and says, “I want to use you. I want to work in you. I want to work through you. Come on. Come on. The door is open. Let’s go.”

 

And, yes, even when the windows of opportunity come, many don’t take them because we are afraid. We are afraid to take a risk. 

 

Every time you have grabbed on to an opportunity God has laid before you, God uses those times and those experiences to change, to transform, to mold you more and more, step by step, into the likeness of Christ.

 

Let me give you an example. When I was about Jacob’s age (oh my gosh), I attended a worship service in a little, tiny church in a mountain town called Crested Butte. It was just a little mountain town back then. There were seven or eight of us gathered around that little, pot-bellied stove on this cold winter day, who just happened to drop in for that service. 

 

After the service, the young preacher invited me to lunch. Come to find out, he was a seminarian, too. He was involved in a program with several denominations that had come together and were working on leadership. What they did was yoke seminary students with small churches all over the country for a summer. Hopefully that would be a good experience for all the parties concerned. 

 

“Wow,” I thought. “That sounds like a great summer. I would love to come to Crested Butte. How do I apply?” I said. He gave me the address, and I sent a letter. 

 

Six months later, I get this letter. It was inviting me to spend next summer in Wood, South Dakota – population: 286. It’s right smack dab in the middle of the Rosebud Sioux Indian reservation. It wasn’t exactly Crested Butte, but, hey. 

 

Long story, short, I lived in a teacherage. I don’t know if you have ever seen a teacherage. I didn’t know this, but a teacherage was the old school building they had abandoned in order to move into the new school building, which was built in 1937. I had a job. My job was to preach in the churches in three different towns every Sunday. Two were Methodist and one was United Church of Christ. I did that all summer long. The whole summer went great.

 

The chairman of the church board in Wood also happened to be the chairman of the local school board. You sort of double up in small towns. Three days before school started in September, the chairman of the school board and also the chairman of the church board came to me and asked if I would stay and teach school for a year. I never had taught anything but Sunday School. So we talked. I asked what he had in mind. 

 

“I want you to teach six courses. I want you to be one-fourth of an accredited high school faculty. I want you to coach girls’ volleyball. I want you to coach boys’ track. I want you to plan the senior trip, and chaperone all school events. And I want you to serve the three churches on the weekends, just for a year.” 

 

A year! I prayed, and then I got on the phone. I called the seminary. I said, "May I still come back if I take a year off?" 

 

“Yeah,” they said. 

 

Then I called the draft board, because this was the 1960s. I said, "May I still have my status if I take this year? I’m still a student.” 

 

They said, “Yes.” 

 

Then I called the state of South Dakota and asked if I could get a temporary teaching certificate. 

 

They said, “Sure!”

 

One year: $4,400. In three days God laid this opportunity right in my lap, and I had to make a choice. Either take a risk and seize an opportunity, or just go on with life as it already was. Nothing was wrong with either one of those, but one of them was an incredible opportunity. 

 

What I have to tell you, today, some 40 years later, it was the most exciting, rewarding year of my entire life. I look back now, and I see that God challenged me, and taught me, and changed me, and transformed me, and molded me in ways I would not realize for years. 

 

This is what I want us to talk about today. This is the reason I’m so cranked about this fear of risk thing. I have had untold conversations over 20 years with people who tell me about opportunities which came their way, and they let them go because they were afraid to take a risk. The result, from your lips, has been regret, even severe limitations of spiritual growth and maturity, missed opportunities for spiritual depth. They were opportunities you missed for greater intimacy with the Creator, all because of fear of risk.

 

Folks, I believe after 23 years of standing in this pulpit, any likeness that this congregation has of Jesus Christ is because there have been occasions, over the last 49 years, when the people of this church have seized the opportunity God has placed in your lap. They have taken, you have taken a risk, and you have seized the opportunity that God has laid before you. That is what molds us. That’s what grows us. 

 

I have to tell you, I’m a little disappointed in our transition process. I’m disappointed in the level of thinking, of visioning, about the future. I’m thinking, “How can we think so small? How can we be concerned with so little? How we can we just keep wanting to do what we’ve been doing when God is laying an opportunity in our lap?” 

 

I want to talk about some of those fears. One of the things I think we are afraid of is to join a small group. I know this is a boost to our spiritual life. I know it brings people closer to meet other people in new ways. I know this is a growing church, and it’s hard to be by yourself in a growing church, because you don’t know a lot of people. People are alone, and that is tough. 

 

I think some of our people are afraid. They’re afraid they don’t have the time. They are afraid of change in their routine. They have it down, and its working pretty good for them. I think they are also afraid God might ask something of them if they get involved in a small group. “I don’t really know if I want God messing in my life. I like it pretty much, thank you, the way it is.” That’s a legitimate concern. 

 

It happens to me every year. Every time we bring in a new person, or a new couple into our small group every single year. “They are going to see I’m not as good, not as smart, not as righteous, not as holy, as they thought I was.” You have to get past this fear. 

 

Another common fear people have in this community of faith is getting involved in the ministry: like teaching, like doing music, like offering hospitality, going on a mission trip, being a Stephen minister, or a youth worker, or a Loafer, or involved in the peace and justice issues that face the world today. The reason is it takes time. But more importantly, when you get involved in those things, folks, those things change your life. 

 

Somebody just went on a mission trip. You are different when you come back. Besides, you are the kind of person who likes to do faith by yourself. Working with other people, particularly people who are different from you, can get sort of messy. 

 

Sometime, somebody might ask you a question about God, or Jesus, or the Bible, or ethics, and you don’t know the answer. It might be embarrassing to you. It might make me think about how intelligent I am and how authentic is my faith. 

 

Fear, fear of risk, fear to be pushed, to be pulled, to be lured out of our comfort zone, which happens to be quite pleasant, cozy, and relaxing, thank you. Whatever it is, fear is a roadblock to your future, to my future, to anybody’s future, as to God wants for your future.

 

Folks, I’m not criticizing you today.   I hope you understand that. I’m confessing. I’m standing before you, and I’m confessing, because we are on the same team here. We are on the same page. I have the same fear. 

 

So, what I want to do today is to point you to an example that is found in our Bible of this guy who sees an opportunity, takes a risk, grabs it, seizes it, and goes for it.

 

This story in the Bible is found in Acts 3 and 4. It’s a story of Peter and John. We want to focus on Peter today, even though it’s about Peter and John. 

 

“Peter and John went to the temple one afternoon to take part in the three- o’clock prayer service. As they approached the temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day, he was put beside the temple gates so he could beg from the people going into the temple.” 

 

Can’t you just see that? Lame guy, no way to make a living. There were no social services then. Impoverished, how did he survive? He begged. He learned this. It happens in many places.

 

On this side of the ocean, where is the best place to beg? Well, you know that. It’s on the way into the door of the church. You’ve probably been hit up on a time or two, maybe in the parking lot right here. 

 

Verse 3: “When the beggar saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Peter and John looked at him intently. Then Peter said, ‘Look at us!’ The lame man looked at them eagerly expecting a gift, but Peter said, ‘I don’t have any money for you, but I will give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk.’ Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up, and as he did, the man’s feet and ankle bones were healed and strengthened.”

 

Do you get the picture today? The beggar is begging. He has been lame all of his life. He had heard every excuse known to humans. “I don’t have any money, but I’ll get back to you later.” “I don’t have any money, but when my buddies come in the parking lot – they are right behind me – hit them up. That would be good.” “I don’t have any money, but when I switch to Geico, I’ll be able to help you.” Or something like that. He has heard them all a million times, but this was different. That’s what I want you to hear today. This changed this guy’s life.

The point: In this setting, Peter saw an opportunity. It was a God-sized opportunity, and it was risky. He could have just passed right on by. He could have reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bucks and given it to him. But he didn’t do that. That would have been the easy way. What he did was something harder. He took a risk, and someone’s life got changed. 

 

Now, not only that, the Bible says when this guy was all healed up, and cruising around, dancing, and having a great time during the prayer service, it says, “Suddenly there was a crowd.” Well, I guess so. That is what happens when life gets changed.

 

I was at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco last Sunday, and I saw it. That wonderful service was packed with people sitting in the aisles, on the floor, in the windows. I saw a three-minute testimony by a one-time executive secretary of a major insurance corporation in San Francisco. Her life had been ruined by domestic violence and the part she played in it. In three minutes, she shared her story of getting connected with the community of faith, encountering Jesus Christ, who she called her Rock, and how life has been changed in a hurry. Wow! Talk about a crowd. 

 

That’s where Broadway has some growing to do. We have people whose lives are being transformed, and we are not telling anybody. Is this a fear? It just doesn’t fit into our mainline image of ourselves. It doesn’t work in our 60-minute weekly program here.

 

Acts 3:12: “Peter saw his opportunity and addressed he crowd. ‘People of Israel, what is so astounding about this? And why look at us as though we had made this man by our own power and godliness walk?’” 

 

Did you hear it? It’s right there in black and white. Peter saw his opportunity. It was right there. That is what I want you to take home today. The whole idea that when you and I choose God’s way, opportunities are everywhere. But Peter just didn’t see his opportunity. He took a risk when he saw the opportunity. He seized the opportunity. 

 

As much as I want you to walk out with that idea today – I want you to walk out empowered and enabled to see the opportunity – I have to tell you something in order to be fair. I have to let you know what most of you already know. Every time you take a risk, there may be a cost. There may be some problems. There may be some people who will be unhappy with you. There may be some pushback. There may be some relationships that are going to strain.   If this wasn’t so, there wouldn’t be any risk, you see. 

 

Acts 4:1: “While Peter and John were speaking, the priest came over to them. They were very disturbed that Peter and John were claiming, on the authority of Jesus, that there was a resurrection of the dead. They arrested them and jailed them until morning.”

 

Folks, seizing God-sized opportunities for God to work in and through you involves costs. It might cost you some time. It might cost you some money. It might cost you some popularity or pain. It might cost you some relationships. Risk equals costs. 

 

There will be a cross. There will be a cost.   That just sort of came to me. Did you hear it? You have to know this.

 

“Now Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said, “Leaders of the nation…” He goes on to teach a message about God’s salvation. 

 

Key words: “Filled with the Holy Spirit.” Folks, the witness of the faithful for 2,000 years says that if you are a Christ follower, you have an amazing, awesome resource. You have access to the Spirit and the presence and the power of the Living Christ. It’s called, in the Bible, the “Holy Spirit.” We lovingly call it the “Broadway Spirit” around here. It’s only the Broadway Spirit when it gives you, and me, and us together, the courage to risk. That’s what it means.

 

I love a quote from Nelson Mandela. In his inaugural address, when he became president of South Africa, he made a quote of a lady named Mary Ann Williamson. She rarely gets the credit, but she wrote this. You’ve probably heard it a hundred times. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” 

 

It’s our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. You – every single one of you – are a child of God. Playing it small doesn’t serve the world. That’s what I want to point out today. We don’t need, in this congregation, to play it small. We can do most of the stuff that has been suggested by 400 or 500 of us tomorrow if we wanted. That is small. We are born to make the glory of God manifest. There is a life that is in you, not just in you but it is in everyone. As you and I get liberated from our fears, our presence automatically liberates others. 

 

So, how? How does that happen? 

 

1. Identify your personal fear. If you can name it, you can shrink it. It’s like turning on a light in a dark place. You minimize its power when we name it. It doesn’t mean you get over it. It just means it’s out there. It just means it’s more manageable. Fear is just real. It is important.

 

2. Confess your fear of risk to someone. Share it with somebody: your friend, your small group. It’s not easy. It’s hard to do.   Get it out there in the open so those folks you share it with can encourage you. They’ll give you strength. They’ll give you confidence. It will give you boldness. It can be yours. 

 

3. Take one risk that will challenge your fear. Then another soon after that, whatever it is, just take one little step. 

 

You know… When I went to rock-climbing school years ago, they didn’t take us to the top of the mountain, and put a harness on us, and have us repel 300 feet off the cliff. They just didn’t do that. They took us up, and they put us in a harness. We had to repel, first time out, six feet, and then 25 feet, and then 50, and then 100, and then 300. One step at a time. Just a little practice. A little confidence.

 

4. Feel the pleasure of God in your risk. When God lays an opportunity out for you, an opportunity for God to use you, feel God’s pleasure. The more you do this, the more natural it feels, because that Spirit is no longer there just to cheer you along. That Spirit actually walks with you. You do something risky together.

 

Acts 4:13: “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, when they could see that they were ordinary people who had been with Jesus.” 

 

That’s us, folks, ordinary people. We’re the kind of people God uses. No special training is needed. No extraordinary gifts. Just very real, regular people who have been with Jesus. 

 

I want you to just imagine the rest of your day.   I want you to imagine what is going to happen next week. I believe you are going to see an opportunity that God will lay in front of you. God is going to lay an opportunity to use you, and will want to work through you. You are going to take a risk and seize that opportunity. You are, I believe, going to do it. You are going to think to yourself, “Hey, you know, I can do this. I not only can, I just did that. Wow!”

 

Then the Spirit of the Living God is going to do something to you. That Living Spirit is going to remind you of something. That Living Spirit is going to say, “Yes, we did that. Didn’t we? We did that together.”

 

That’s my dream for your future. That’s my dream for my future. That’s my dream for this community of faith’s future. That’s my dream for the nation’s future, and for the globe.

 

And all the people said… “Amen.”

 

 

Magnificent God, thank you for the elephant; thank you for the mountain. As I come to the God-sized possibilities, let me overcome the past, rise above the conflict, and fearlessly shout, “Super size me!” Amen.