No Other Road

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
May 16, 2010: Confirmation Sunday

No Other Road
1 Kings 18:20-21

The crowds flowed into the arena,
buzzing with excitement.
It was a classic rivalry – the best,
and the people came to cheer their teams.

Ushers directed the fans to their sides of the arena:
Tar Heel fans this way,
Blue Devil fans that way,
seats almost perfectly split between rival fans.

The game began with a tremendous roar,
one side of the arena erupting in cheers for the Tar Heels,
the other side roaring back in support for the Blue Devils.

The competition on the floor was fierce,
the lead changing almost by the minute,
neither team able to get more than a few points ahead.
At the end of the first quarter,
the Tar Heels were ahead by a point.
At the end of the second quarter the Blue Devils led by three.
By the time the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter
the Tar Heels had again pulled ahead, this time by two.

Tension filled the stands from the floor
all the way up to the seats near the rafters,
supporters cheering their teams on,
shouting themselves hoarse.

Only a few fans noticed the small group of people
in the middle of the arena,
a group of eight: four men, four women.
They were well dressed,
and looked to be in their late 30s, perhaps early 40s.
They sat quietly through the first few minutes of the game,
not rooting for either team.
But then, when the Tar Heels pulled ahead for a few minutes
they began to root wildly for them.
Banners and towels and hats seemed to appear from nowhere,
all emblazoned, “Go Tar Heels!”

When the lead changed in favor of the Blue Devils,
the group went quiet.
But then when the Blue Devils held their lead,
suddenly, again as if out of nowhere,
hats, banners, signs all appeared,
all screaming, “Go Blue Devils!”
The 8 men and women
shouting their support now for that team.

Back and forth the group went,
supporting one team then the other,
depending on who was holding the lead.

A Blue Devil fan leaned over to one of the group
as the game drew to a close
and asked who the group really supported.
The reply came back, “Oh we really don’t care.
The only thing that matters to us
is being on the winning side.
We can’t stand losing,
so we cheer for whoever is winning.
We always go home feeling great!”

Sporting events tend to arouse such great passion
in men and women of all ages, of all backgrounds.
Men and women who go about their business
each day seriously, soberly, somberly,
but put them in the stands
when their favorite team starts to play,
and they explode with excitement, even frenzy.
Pick your team: Redskins, Caps,
Yankees, Steelers,
Army, Navy,
Tar Heels, Blue Devils.
How many cars around Northern Virginia sport bumper stickers
that say “Go Hokies!”
There isn’t a team out there
that doesn’t have fierce fans.

If any of us went to a sporting event
and saw a group like those 4 men and 4 women,
we’d wonder what was wrong with them.
Don’t they have any loyalty?
Don’t they have any passion?
Don’t they have any sense of conviction?
Why don’t they pick a team and stick with them?
Why won’t they support one team or the other, win or lose!

And that’s just the point Elijah was getting at
some 2800 years ago as he spoke to the Israelites.
Obviously he wasn’t dealing with sports;
he was dealing with something much greater.
Still, Elijah saw in the Israelites no commitment,
no conviction,
no passion for anything other than their own needs and wants.
Their loyalty began and ended with themselves.
The road they walked was the road that looked best to them
at any given moment on any given day.

Sure, they’d lift up prayers to the Lord God,
but if their prayers weren’t answered just the way they wanted,
they’d turn from the Lord God to the pagan god Baal.
And if Baal was uncooperative,
then back to the Lord God they went.

Is it any wonder that Elijah was disgusted?
Is it any wonder that he came down so hard on them:
“How long will you go limping along with two different opinions?
If the Lord is God, follow him,
but if Baal, then follow him.”

“Make a choice and then stick with it,”
is what Elijah was pleading with them to do.
“Live your choice;
live it with enthusiasm, commitment, conviction,
Live it even with a sense of excitement.
Don’t waffle,
don’t blow with the breezes.”

We’ve all made the choice
each student in our Confirmation Class made today:
choosing to follow Jesus Christ.
We have all done what they did
when we made a public profession of faith:
that’s the essence of joining a church.
It is standing before the gathered assembly and saying:
Yes to following Jesus Christ,
Yes to following Jesus Christ with this particular congregation
Yes to following Jesus Christ
as a part of this unique body of Christ.

If Elijah were to hear our profession,
I am sure he’d say:
“Great! Good for you!
You made a choice;
You made it publicly.
Now live it.
Live your profession,
Live your conviction.
Let everyone know through how you live your life
that for you there is no other road you’re going to walk,
no other road you want to walk.
Let the world know that while you may see
other roads you could take,
you have chosen this one to follow,
you’ve chosen this one to walk.
This one and no other.

“Live your faith with conviction,
Live it with enthusiasm,
boldness,
commitment,
whether the road is easy to walk
or difficult,
      And whatever you do,
don’t waffle, don’t limp along.
Don’t follow Christ on Sunday,
and then put him up on a shelf on Monday.
Live your faith with all your heart,
all your strength,
all your mind, all your soul.
Live it each day
Live it in all places, all times.”

Elijah expects a great deal from us:
It’s a hard task, to live our faith with conviction
in all times and all places.
Life pulls at us in so many ways.
It IS easy to put Jesus on the shelf
when we walk out of here on Sunday,
and retrieve him when we walk back in here the following Sunday.
Sometimes it is almost too easy to do that.

Living a faithful life can get in the way of
so many things we want to do:
how we earn a living,
go about our jobs,
interact with others in the community.
It can even get between us and our friends,
make us seem uncool.
A colleague from the business world
remarked to me right before I left New York to enter seminary,
“Wow, tell someone you’re in seminary training to be a minister;
that’s an express lane to social Siberia.”

And of course we don’t have to walk outside these walls
to learn how difficult it is to live our faith.
We can find plenty of frustration within the church,
this church, any church.
It isn’t easy to be part of a church,
part of organized religion.
This history of the Christian church
is filled with pages that we deserve to be ashamed of.
And all you have to do is pick up a newspaper to see
that we keep adding to those pages.

Still, we have been called,
called to walk one road,
called by Christ.
And we know that as we walk that road,
God will be with us,
Christ walking beside us,
the Holy Spirit gracing us with
energy, determination, courage
to stay on the road.

We know that there is no other road for us
and so we walk it gladly – most of the time.
We know that it is not necessarily a road that leads to wealth,
but we know it does lead to riches.
We know it is not a road that necessarily leads to comfort,
but we know it does lead to peace.
We know it is not a road that is sure to lead us
to popularity and power,
but we know it does lead us to grace and love.

For us, all of us,
we have made our choice;
There is no other road.

And the joyful news we share today
is that we have six new brothers and sisters
who have made their choice
to walk with us.
Amen