Sermon Archive

"It’s not the Journey; It’s the Destination", John 6:24-35

Date: August 2, 2009, The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel

GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR FATHER AND THE LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, AMEN.
            A year ago, my daughter Annie and I went on a Grand Canyon backpack trip. I shared our adventures with you including my struggle making it up the Grand View Trail after having an agave cactus spine go all the way through my hand. I remember giving that sermon the title, “It’s not the destination; it’s the journey.” I stand by what I said then. It is important to value each day, each opportunity that comes to us, each moment in this precious life. But this morning, my title is just the opposite because the destination is important too, and as Christians, because we know our destination the journey is that much more wonderful.
            I was in Yosemite National Park last week on a backpack trip and I had a destination in mind. As I told the hiking group, one of my life goals has been to hike to the top of Half Dome, the granite monolith that towers almost three thousand feet over the Yosemite Valley. Some of you have hiked Half-Dome—Pastor John encouraged me with stories of his hike—many of you know that the hike is very strenuous at a forty-five degree angle and involves not only using leg muscles but upper body muscles to hold on to steel cables lining the route. I had the same guide as the Grand Canyon, Eden, and he coached me up Half Dome as he had coached me up the Grand Canyon. Of our group of twelve, three did not go up and since I was eight years older than the next guy, I was pretty proud of making it. After Half Dome, the rest of the trip was relaxing and fun. I had made it to my destination and then I could just relax and enjoy the rest of the trek.                       Pastor Barth was talking to me about how he had stayed here at Central Lutheran Church until he retired. He put it, “I made it across the finish line.” Pastor Barth served faithfully and made it to retirement; not every one does. The book of Hebrews uses the image of a race as a metaphor for life and adds that we run with perseverance looking to Jesus “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith”, cheered on by other believers so that we too might attain the victor’s crown. St Paul uses images from athletic contests speaking of those who train hard to win. To the Philippians, he writes, “Not that I have already…reached the goal but I press on to make it my own…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus…let us hold fast to what we have attained.” I would be disingenuous if I told you I was thinking of Bible verses as I climbed the rock face of Half Dome. I wasn’t thinking of anything but holding on to the cables and going step by step up that rock. I had a charley horse in my hamstring and got a bit panicky but that voice came from behind me, “Jim, you can do it. Just make it to the next two-by-four.” Every four or five feet there was another two-by-four as a goal. And making those little goals one by one was enough to get me to the top, my big goal.
            As Christians we can say that our life’s goal is eternal life, the full and abundant life. But we also need to make it through the day and the week, each two-by-four. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask for our daily bread—enough for each day. It is like the manna which came enough to get the Israelites through one day but could not be stored up (except for the Sabbath) or it would rot. It is enough to be faithful day by day and let the long range take care of itself. It is enough to be like the lilies of the field which neither toil nor spin but are arrayed more gloriously than Solomon. It is enough to worry about the troubles of each day and let the past go, and the future take care of itself. If the destination is sure, then each day of the journey is more than enough.
            In our Gospel for this morning there is a strange interchange of Jesus with the crowd which had followed him across the lake. Jesus accused them of seeking him out because he had just fed them with loaves and fishes, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures to eternal life.” In our Bible class this week, there was a question put to us, “Christ came the first time to take away the sin of the world and he will come again. How does longing for the second coming affect your day-to-day living?” See, if you joined the class the type of questions, you would be asked. Well, that one took some thought. I don’t know if I am longing for the second coming of Christ, but it does make a difference knowing that life has a goal and a purpose, that there is a destination. The destination is clearly put in 1 John, also part of this week’s study, “We are God’s children now, what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that that when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” We will be like God and see God. We will have the bread of life and never be hungry; we will never be thirsty. And we will look back and wonder why we worried so much, why we trusted so little, why we were so concerned with material things when what mattered was other people, our friends, our family, the people God put in our lives. We will look back and wonder why didn’t enjoy the journey more, that the only goal really worthy having was life with God.
            “Labor for the bread which will not perish.”  St John Chrysostom, the Byzantine court preacher, one remarked, “People are nailed to the things of life.” We are nailed to our crosses of things. It is hard to talk about the freedom of life’s journey when my next paycheck is already spent, when mortgage payments and insurance payments and college loans for children and medical bills are the focus instead of enjoying the rocks and trees and skies and seas that make up the beautiful world around us or the people old and young, poor and rich, talented and struggling who are gifts to us if we would only recognize it. They are part of each day’s manna, daily bread. Luther said that more than food and clothing, home and property were daily bread but also a devoted family, true friends and neighbors. The people in our lives are part of God’s manna for our journey, bread which gives us life for each day.
            One morning I started early on the day’s hike. It wasn’t going to be a hard day and the trail just went from Little Yosemite Valley, where we had camped, down to Nevada Falls. It is well traveled and well marked. But I got lost, and a bit panicky. After packing a mile or two I came to the sign that should have read, “Nevada Falls.” Instead I saw a sign that read “Little Yosemite Valley.” I had gotten mixed up and turned around and gone back to where I had started. Now the group I was with was dinking around that morning and they hadn’t passed me; I was thinking deep thoughts or rather not thinking and didn’t pay attention to where the Merced River lay. I didn’t have a map. That morning could also be a metaphor for our life’s journey and our destination. I thought I was going in the right destination but I was wrong about that; I thought I was on the right trail but I got that wrong too. In life, we may have our destination right and we may have plotted our journey right but we still get it all wrong. We may tell ourselves to live each day as it comes, but we still get hijacked by worries and cares and regrets and remorse. We may think we are valuing other people but we are so preoccupied with ourselves that we don’t find the time for them. We may talk about loving people and liking things but we really do it the other way around, we love our things sometimes more than the people in our lives. And we may be so busy that we forget about God. We may even come together and sing a hymn and say a prayer and kneel at the altar and yet live as if God did not really matter. We may be working so hard for food that perishes, that we forget about the food that endures for eternal life.
            Is it the journey? Well yes, I would say that. Treat each day as a gift, value the people in your life, see the blessings all around you. Look around you right now—each person has been blessed to be a blessing to you. You have been blessed to be a blessing to each person here. But the destination counts too. You are God’s child now and you will be like God and see God face-to-face. You have been given the goal, the destiny, of everlasting life. You have been redeemed, so savor and enjoy your journey too. Amen.

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