Sermon Notes: We Are All on a Journey

Even if the journey of life never goes as planned, we can carry a road map to help us figure out where we are when we get lost or unexpected detours and roadblocks come along.

Each of our particular journeys along with their particular obstacles, roadblocks, joys, pains, successes, failures, hopes, and disappointments are unique. But the lay of the land and the overall pattern of the journey is universal. It helps to know the lay of the land and the universal pattern of the human journey.

Movies like Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, and Harry Potter become wildly popular because they all tell the truth about the lay of the land and universal pattern of the human journey. In this pattern an ordinary person living an ordinary life is thrust out into an adventure in an extraordinary or magical world. Along this journey, they encounter obstacles, there are battles to be fought and won, and through it all, the ordinary person is transformed into their true self. They find their inner hero and return to their ordinary world with new powers of wholeness and healing. It is a pattern of being restored in order to restore others.

Our life’s journey is meant to take us from an ordinary world where our worth must be earned, into a world of grace where we learn that our worth is not earned, but is a gift given to us, simply because of who we are. We are each beloved children of God. We are meant to live FROM grace and our belovedness and not by trying TO chase an elusive sense of enoughness. God says that we are already enough. Once we begin to understand that truth, everything about us is changed. And everything about the way we see and relate to others is also changed.

Jonah’s journey is our journey. The book of Jonah leaves the story unresolved for a reason. Why? It is telling us that we, the readers, are the ones who will finish it.

We’ll be invited by the story of Jonah into an extraordinary world of grace.

Luke 15 is an amazing set of stories told by Jesus about things lost and things found.

1 Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." 3 So he told them this parable: Luke 15:1-3 (NRSV)

The religious know it alls in the story of Luke 15 represent those who are covering up their insecurities with a sense of certainty. They knew who “the sinners” were, which meant that they were “the saints.” They knew that the sinners were “lost” and therefore they were “not lost.”

Life has a way of trying to destroy what we think we know. When life happens, some become humble learners, and others dig more deeply into their certainty and become more prideful. The danger of religion is that, for the person looking for it, it offers a sense of certainty and validation in being right, even when “being right” is not in alignment with the truth.

The worst way to be lost is to be lost and not know that you are lost.

7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:7 (NRSV)

Repentance means to have a change of heart which changes your direction. Repentance happens when life shows us we are lost to ourselves and to our God given dignity and purpose in life and we are able to make a course correction. Nothing brings God greater joy than when we are brought back into the knowledge of who we truly are and why we are on this journey. If we are lost in our religious certainty, we have no idea that we need to repent and change course because we are oblivious to the fact that we are lost.

Our God given dignity is that we are beloved by God regardless of anything we do or fail to do.

The destiny of the journey is to learn to love ourselves, God, and others the way God loves us.

Our certainties live in our heads. Love lives in our hearts.

From the head to the heart
You take me on a journey
Of letting go
And getting lost in You

I have to be willing to let go of being in control of my destiny. I have to let go of my certainties. I have to be willing to get lost in God’s love. It is only when I am lost in God’s love that I am truly found.