Get on the Road and Stay on the Road!

One evening in Charleston, South Carolina, a young man was feeling very homesick. He had left his home in Kentucky and moved to Charleston to become a professional storyteller. He felt lost and lonely. On his way home, he saw lit up in the dimming light, St. John’s Reformed Episcopal Church.  The shutters were thrown open, and they were having Thursday night experience meeting. He heard the voices singing, “Victory in Jesus” and “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks” and he stood outside the church listening when a little old black lady tapped on his shoulder. Looking at him, she realized he needed what was going on inside, ushered him in and he worshiped with them.

After the singing was done, the preaching began. The preacher got up and read from the text, “Jesus was on the road and all kinds of people were saying they would follow him. One man said, “I’ll follow you but first let me first go and bury my father”, and Jesus told the man, “Let the dead bury the dead but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus finally said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit to work my field.”

The preacher finished reading the gospel and said, “Our story tonight is about Jesus being on the road. Turn to the person on your right and say, ‘Get on the road!’” and they turned to the person on their right and said, “Get on the road!” Then he said, “Now turn to the person on your left and say, ‘Get on the road!’” and they turned to the person on their left and said, “Get on the road!”

He started slow, the way black preachers do, “You’re on the road, ladies and gentleman. You’re on a journey with Jesus and you’ve got to stay on the road with him. You can’t get distracted. You can’t get sidetracked. Stay on the road.” His cadence picked up, “You women come to me saying, “Oh pray for me. God’s closed up my womb and I can’t have any children.” And we pray for you and God does a miracle and you have five children, ain’t none of them are in Sunday school. I ask you why aren’t they in Sunday school and you say, “Oh I have one in diapers, one allergic to everything, another has baseball. Oh I don’t…” You take God’s blessing and turn it into a curse, get on the road! You boys come to me and say, “I can get a job because I don’t have a car.” So we pray for you and get you a car and I say, “Why aren’t you in church?” and you say, “Oh I’m washing my car.” Get the car on the road to church and Sunday school! Get on the road!”

“You may be on the road following the Lord and you may feel down, you may feel alone, you may feel weary. But I’m here to tell you, you are never alone! The Holy Spirit is with you wherever you go. The Greek word for the Holy Spirit is parakletos. Let me put it to you plainly,” he said as he found his rhythm, “The holy spirit is your parachute. He will help you if you fall. He is your parasol, he will shield you from the storm. He is your paralegal, he will help you in a time of trial. He is your paratrooper, he will still the enemy and the avenger. He is paramedic, he will save your sin sick soul!” (Adapted from Tim Lowry’s spoken story, “Stay on the Road”).

The Israelites are on the road with God. They are wandering through the desert, afraid of the unknown, afraid of where their leader is taking them. Their leader who used to be the prince of Egypt. They are tired and they are thirsty. They demand for their leader to provide for them. “Give us water to drink!” Moses is taken back and becomes defensive, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” In other words, “Don’t be mad at me. I’m just doing what the Lord says.” But the people, who were thirsty and afraid, heartbreakingly ask, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

So Moses does what any good pastor does and cries to the Lord, “What shall I do with these people? They are ready to call a session and have me fired!” The Lord answers Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of your deacons with you; take that staff in your hand, the one you struck the Nile with, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so the people may drink. Then get on the road!”

Moses did so, in the sight of the deacons. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because they quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?”

Get on the road!

We are on the road with Jesus. As a church we have been on the road with Jesus for 223 years. We have seen God do amazing things through the work of his Spirit, just as the Israelites experienced the Lord providing food through manna and quail. Yet, as we journey and get thirsty, we forget what the Lord has done and wonder what the Lord will do and we quarrel with one another, “Is the Lord among us or not?” 

We look around and see that we’re low on money. We look around and see buildings falling apart. We look around and see too many people getting older and not enough younger faces to compensate. We look around, see the well is about dried up, not a rain cloud in sight and we are getting thirsty. Give us water, Lord!

And Lord says, “Stay on the road!”

We forget what God has done, ignore what God is doing, and think, “God has abandoned us. God has forsaken us.” Such a time in the churches of today causes us to do some serious questioning which often leads to a consensus that someone in the church has sinned. After a few more parking lot discussions it becomes clear that it is the pastor who has sinned. If the pastor was truly righteous and doing his/her job, the church would be overflowing with blessings. So the church gathers their pitchforks and torches and storm the parsonage gates. The pastor in frustration turns to God, “What am I do with these people?” And God says, “Give them something to drink. And stay on the road!”

Stay on the road!

We’ve got to stay on the road. God is taking us somewhere. God is taking us to the promise land, and I’m not talking about golden streets and green meadows. We’ve got to stay on the road. God is calling us to continue the work of our ancestors. God is calling us to service here in King and Queen County. God’s Spirit is moving within and around us. The Spirit of God is at work. We’ve got to stay on the road!

Jesus is on the road and he stops for a drink at well in Samaria. He asks a woman, “Give me something to drink.” She says to him, “How come a Jew like you is asking for a drink from a Samaritan woman like me?” (She did this as you know because Jews and Samaritans don’t have much to do with one another.)

Jesus says, “If you knew God’s goodness, and who it is asking you for a drink, you would ask him for a drink and he’d give you living water.”

And you know how the rest of the story goes. She is confused about how Jesus can give her living water because that water is deep and he doesn’t have a bucket. He tells her that the water he is talking about is a water that will never let you thirst again. She begs for that kind of water and Jesus tells her to go get her husband and she says she doesn’t have one. Jesus tells her she’s right when in fact she’s had five and the one she’s with now is not her husband. She realizes he’s a preacher and asks a serious question about worship and the two continue to talk until she says, “I realize that Christ is coming. When he does, he’ll straighten us out on everything.” And Jesus says to her, “I myself, the person talking with you, am he!”

And what does she do when she leaves? She doesn’t go back to her home. She doesn’t go back to her room. She doesn’t go to the local bar or to the general store. She gets on the road. She gets on the road and starts preaching! She starts preaching in the town square about a man down by the well who had told her everything she ever did. She then got the town on the road so that they too may drink from the spring of living water.

We have in us the spring of living water. In us, in our essence is a Spirit of living water that will never run dry. It is a Spirit of living water that renews us when our mouths get parched. It is the Spirit of living water that comes right from the rock of Christ. Indeed, on Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

Those of us with the living water need to get up and get on the road.

And stay on the road!

You ever watch the nature channel? I learned this the other day. If you watch the nature channel’s special on the desert, most likely the narrator will begin by saying, “The desert. Void of life.” And then there’s a time lapse and you see the year in the life of the desert flash before your very eyes and you see rain. Then the video slows back down to normal speed and flowers begin to bloom. And the narrator says, “Gotcha. Under the sand of the desert, scattered throughout are little seeds just waiting for water.”

Outside our four walls sits people wandering through the desert. They are tired. They are lonely. They are poor. They are sick. They are lost. They are in need. They are blind. They are crippled. They are outcast. They are addicts. They are young. They are old. They are in need of some water. We need to get on the road and get them some water.

Stay on the road!

Yes, you may feel like we’re dying of thirst here in the desert as our money dries up and our building starts falling apart. Yes, you may feel like we’re getting too old for this stuff. But I remind you, we have the Spirit within us that gives us power, reminds us that we belong to God and that God is not through with us yet. The Spirit who is our parachute, our parasol, our paratrooper, our paralegal, our paramedic.   It is the Spirit that says, “Here’s water, drink, and get back on the road!”

Stay on the road!

And all God’s people said, “Stay on the road!”