AUGUST 22, 2010 “THE CHRISTIAN LANDSCAPE: RIVERS”

Exodus 2:1-3; Joshua 3:14-16; Isaiah 48:17-19; Mark 1:9-11

 I know that I’ve told you this story before, but I want to bring it back up again as a way of launching the theme of today’s meditation on the Christian Landscape we call “Rivers.” For “rivers” have a very important part to play in the life of a Christian when it comes to God working to transform us into the likeness of His Son.

 The story is told of a television network that put on a documentary years ago about the Kentucky mountain folks. They brought to New York City a man who had spent his entire life in the mountains. He had never seen skyscrapers, taxis, mass transit, or hotdogs sold on the street corners. 

 RCA Building

  When he entered the RCA Building, he watched an elderly lady step into an elevator. The doors closed, a little red light blinked, and she was gone. A minute or so later, the red light blinked again, the doors opened, and out stepped this drop-dead gorgeous, young blonde. After getting his false teeth back in his mouth, the old timer remarked, “If I’d a known about that contraption, I’d have bring along the old lady.”

 Transformation. Change. Taking out the wrinkles. Smoothing the edges. 

 In the life of believers, these things are necessary but they don’t happen in some state-of-the-art elevator in the RCA Building in New York City. 

 Transformation, change, and becoming more like Christ happen when the landscape of our lives takes us from the mountains, to the valleys, into the canyons, and along the banks of “RIVERS.” It is life’s “rivers” that transform us into the likeness of Christ, for these in those moments, the rough places in our personality are rounded off and the sharp edges in our souls are smoothed down so that the world will better see Christ in us.

 river and kayaker

 When you look at water, as yielding as it seems to be as it rushes over rocks and flows along river-beds or canyon bottoms, we all know that the river-water is actually carving the canyon walls, the river-bed, and every rock the water touches. Doesn’t it?

 Antelope Canyon

 So it is with our character and our personality when we give our lives to Christ who is living water to our souls. I want to show you today from four passages from the Bible how the Lord uses “rivers” to round off our rough spots and smooth out our sharp edges so that over time we are transformed into the likeness of Christ and into better representatives to the world of His amazing grace, love, forgiveness, and mercy.

Exodus 2:1-3

There are some “rivers” that you face in life that you are dropped into without your consent, but God has a plan to bless you and others when you submit to riding them out.

 Baby Moses is our first example of how God uses “rivers” to transform us, smoothing out or sharp edges and rounding off our rough spots so that we are transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ that this world so desperately needs to see in us.

 Moses in Bulrushes

  Moses as an infant was placed into a woven basket by his parents and was launched into the Nile River in order to escape the death sentence that Pharaoh had pronounced upon all baby Hebrew males. He was placed in this river without his consent, his control, or his permission. His salvation rested in riding out the river until he was discovered, rescued, and taken into the house of Pharaoh’s beloved daughter.

 There are certain “rivers” that we come upon that we have not asked for. They are rivers that we have been launched into without our consent, control, or permission. Our salvation rests in riding them out, and in riding them out, our Christian character is made more smooth, our rough edges rounded off, and we are transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ.

 The rivers that come with grief, job loss, health crises, and economic meltdown would fall into this category. Such rivers are often turbulent because we meet them in the canyons we talked about last Sunday.

 But as we ride these rivers out, holding on to prayer and praise and the hand of the Master who is with us, we are transformed for the better, aren’t we? 

 What “river” is in your life that you just need to “ride out?”

Joshua 3:14-16

There are other “rivers” that you face as a Christian that must be crossed in order to receive the blessings that God has for you on the “other side.” To receive the blessings, however, you must be willing to step into the river with faith knowing that God will open the way for you to cross over.

 Lucy and Charlie Brown

 I love the cartoon strip Peanuts. In one particular episode, Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “Life is a mystery, Charlie Brown…Do you know the answer?” Charlie Brown replies with this great list in answer to her question: “Be kind. Don’t smoke. Be prompt. Smile a lot. Eat sensibly. Avoid cavities and mark your ballot carefully. Avoid too much sun. Send overseas packages early. Love all creatures above and below. Insure your belongings and try to keep the ball low…” 

 Before Charlie Brown can get out another platitude, Lucy interrupts: “Hold real still,” she says, “because I’m going to punch you in the nose!”

 Ever had someone in your life that you just wanted to punch in the nose? I have.

 And do you know what? They were my “river,” a “river” that I needed to “cross.”

 Joshua Crossing the Jordan River

 There are situations in your life and people in your life that are “rivers” in the sense that like Joshua and the Israelites, you have to cross over in order to find blessing. Sometimes we call it just “getting over” it, don’t we? Other times, we call such crossing over’s in words like reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, and, of course, love.

 In other cases, there are “rivers” that separate us from the blessed life that God wants to give us, things like destructive habits, foul language, negative thoughts, and bitterness towards the people who have offended us. If we are going to get to the Promised Land, as Joshua wanted, we have to cross over these rivers and get them in our rearview mirrors.

 You see, you’ve got “rivers”….issues, people, and stuff….that’s between you and the land God wants to give you and the blessings that await you there. In order to cross over, you need to take that first step into the river, which may mean taking the first step to forgive, the first step to NA or AA, or the first step to say, “I’m sorry.”

 As you cross over, I guarantee you, you will be transformed into the likeness of Christ. Rough edges in your character will be rounded off and sharp corners made smooth.

 What “river” do you need to “cross over” in order to be blessed by God?

Isaiah 48:17-19

There are “rivers” of prosperity that flow from God into our lives, but these “rivers” are released and in turn bless us as we obey the commandments of the Lord our God.

   Beavers

 There are way too many Christians who are working like little beavers to have a good and prosperous life, and that life just doesn’t seem to be coming to them.

 Well, as the good Lord reminds us in Isaiah 48:17-19, your dilemma might simply be that in busyness, even here in the church, you’ve ended up damming up the very river of blessing and prosperity that God is sending your way from heaven.

 Beaver Dam

 “How?” you ask.

 By being disobedient.

 Disobedience, says God through Isaiah, is one guaranteed way people dam up the river of prosperity that flows from the heart of God. I am not preaching “prosperity theology” here as if God is some candy machine that dispenses whatever we want as long as we pull the right handle or push the right buttons.

 What I am saying though, is that God wants to bless us. He wants His goodness and grace to flow into our lives like a river. But we dam it up through our disobedience, and then we whine and complain that things aren’t going well for us.

 “O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been line a river and your success like the waves of the sea,” says the Lord.

 When you are obedient, God’s blessings will flow into your life in wonderful and often subtle ways…just like water. And this “river” of prosperity with flow over you, around you, and through you, rounding off your rough edges, making you a more thankful person, smoothing off your sharp edges, and making you more like Christ. 

 You can begin today to start dismantling the dam that is holding back the blessings of God from heaven by simply doing one thing – repent, change, and obey.

Mark 1:9-11

There are “rivers” that God brings us to and uses to baptize us in so that we can be cleansed, made right with Him, and used for His will and purpose in this world.

 Jesus Baptism

 Before Jesus began His earthly mission to save us from sin and death, He was immersed and baptized into the waters of the Jordan River. At that moment, in the only moment recorded in scripture that this happened, all three persons of the Trinity were present on earth at the same time – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove. 

 There will come moments when the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will lead you into “river,” into some situation, so that you can be baptized. In other words, it will be a Spirit-led moment designed to get your attention, get you cleansed, and get you on the right track so that you, like Jesus, can fulfill your purpose and mission in this life. You’ve got something that you need to do for the King. You have a calling on your life. You have gifts to spread, a testimony to share, and a victory to be won for the kingdom. 

 For me, this “river” was going to the seminary and being immersed in theological study and struggle. It came again when I went to Africa, when I took my first church, when I came to St. John’s, as we built the new addition, and in many moments since then. 

 As you allow God to immerse you in the waters of Christian Education, manning the booth at the Fairgrounds, helping with Wednesday night youth and JC Club, singing in the choirs, helping with funeral dinners, and a whole host of other “rivers” here at St. John’s, you will find yourself being transformed.

 Brothers and sisters, at any given moment, you can find yourself on the banks of some river. It is the place where God is ready to transform you, smooth you out a little and round off your rough edges. It may be a river you need to ride out, one you need to cross, one you need to undam, or one that you need to be baptized and cleansed in. As you listen to the river of God’s Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit, you’ll know which one you’re at and what you need to do.

 Next Sunday, we finally make it to the landscape the Bible calls, the “sea.”

 Ocean Sunset