There is the now famous anecdote that when Steve Jobs, chairman of Apple Computer, recruited John Sculley, the then CEO of Pepsi, he asked this question that finally convinced Sculley to join Apple:
Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world? And yet, in a recent article on Steve Jobs, Kirk McElhearn made the following observation:
Jobs certainly changed the world: with Macs, the iMac, the iPod, and even the iPhone, he has brought us brilliant, innovative products. But now, touting YouTube and prompting people to put ads on their web pages is nothing more than selling sugar water. As Apple's share price has skyrocketed, Jobs is clearly under pressure to maintain both the company's growth and its market value. But has he finally sold out, giving up "changing the world" to simply sell sugar water?This is an easy trap to fall into. You set out on one course and settle for another. You begin with a specific vision, and then lose sight of the vision. You say you’re going to change the world and settle for something that tastes great, but is less filling.
This is what is happening to the people of Israel when the prophets arrive on the scene. A people chosen to be a blessing to the world have instead used their special status as an excuse for laziness and greed and injustice. What may sometimes seem like angry ranting is, in fact, the prophet’s attempt to remind the people of their true purpose and true calling.
The prophets play out a conversation that has been happening since God created humanity, one that took place in the garden and with Abraham and with Israel. A conversation that continues between God and humanity through Jesus Christ who says “Come, follow me.” It is a conversation in which God says, “I am with you” and asks, “Will you be with me?”
In Isaiah 43:2, God promises that “when you pass through the waters and walk through the fire, I will be with you.” It is the same as when Moses is commanded to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and asks, “Who am I to do this great thing?” and God answers, “I will be with you.”
Do as I command and I will be with you. Go where I’m going and I will be with you.
But what if we don’t?
Do you suppose God says, “even if you are unwilling to pass through the water and walk through the fire, I will be with you?” Is God saying to Moses, “even if you decide to keep leading sheep instead of people, I will be with you?” What God is saying is “I am going to lead the people out of Egypt. If you will be with me, I will be with you.”
This is the conversation that our church, Immanuel, has explored over the past 6 weeks: God’s judgment, mercy, and faithfulness is the promise that “I will be with you.” His command to “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” asks the question “will you be with me?”
It is a call and response. It is the reason the church exists.
Because God’s people are always called to be a blessing to the world. The church is irrelevant unless it offers people a way out of hell.
And not just an eternal hell, but the hell of poverty and oppression and loneliness and desperation and conformity and injustice and slavery. If the church isn’t a community that does justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly with God, it has ceased to serve its purpose and should cease to exist.
Why do the prophets preach these things to Israel? Because they claim to be God’s people.
Why do I preach this to our church? Because we claim to be Immanuel.
But the warning of the prophets is that if they will not be God’s people, He will not be their God.
We see it in Isaiah 43:2. We see it with Moses in Exodus 3:11-12a. We see it in Matthew 28:19-20.
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you.”
Do we think that Jesus is saying, “And if you decide to just go back to fishing and not to make disciples and not to teach, I will still be with you?”
Christ promises to be with us as we answer the call of the great commission.
Just calling ourselves Immanuel doesn’t make it so. We must be with God if we’re going to call ourselves Immanuel. We must be going where He is leading.
And the story of Immanuel is one where God is consistently calling us into deeper water, consistently leading us in over our heads.
The temptation is always to listen to the voices that ask “Aren’t you tired? Aren’t you scared? Isn’t this too difficult? Wouldn’t life be easier if you’d just go where it’s shallow?”
But we will not go into shallow water. We will not turn back. We’ve been there.
Christ calls us to go deeper. Not just to think deeper, but go deeper; deeper in our commitment and in our love for God and for each other and for the people living in the city of Austin.
My friend Erica and I recently had a conversation about the book “The Same Kind of Different As Me.” It is the true story of a couple who were called to engage with the poor in a more meaningful and sacrificial way and how answering God’s call changed their lives forever. During that conversation with Erica, it was pointed out that you hear all the time of people who just showed up to church and did church and got bored and fed up and left. But you never heard of someone who gave themselves over to walking in the Way and regretted it. You never hear of someone who really followed Christ and, at the end of their life, wished they hadn’t, even if their life ended as a result of following Christ.
I would rather go deeper than stay shallow. I’d rather risk safety than live with regret. Two things I know about the shallow end, you may not drown there, but you will never learn to swim. As we go out into deeper water, we need not fear. We worship a Lord who walks on water and He will not let us drown.
He will be with us, if we will be with Him.
During our Immanuel family meeting this past Sunday night, we ended by talking about how we need to come to church gatherings the way addicts go to AA meetings. We need to cling to God the way an alcoholic does to a higher power. And one of the things they say in AA is:
“If you want what we have, and are ready to go to any length to get it, then you are ready to take certain steps.”
Some of us get overly concerned with talent and ability, when it comes to taking these steps. We say, “so and so can do that, but it isn’t really my thing, my talent, my gift.”
But the story of God’s people, the promise of “God with us” is that you don’t have to be willing and able. You just have to be willing and God will be able.
I recently came across this quote from Shun Fong Lee:
I believe that we were each created to live an adventure, to live beyond those things that are merely handed to us on a day-to-day basis…A man much wiser than me once said, "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." If my life is to be a work of art, and if yours is too, we can't allow ourselves to remain untested. We can't stay in a place that requires no risk, no danger, no passion, no faith, no vision. To do so would be to live something less than the life that God gave us.I’m not interested in finding out a way to market sugar water. I’m not interested in doing something hip and calling it meaningful.
What I am interested in is changing the world.
What I am interested in, what I am called to and what I am recommitting myself to:
Is to go into all the world, making and teaching disciples
It is to go out into Austin and to set people free
It is to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God
Recently, my friend Dallas and I were standing outside the Green Muse coffee shop at 3a.m. and imagining together what the Kingdom of God could look like in Austin. We were sharing what it could mean if we knew our neighbors better and loved them more, if we were more patient and generous and kind, if we brought the promise of resurrection and reconciliation into the lives of those living in Austin. As we were doing this, a woman leaving the Green Muse stopped and asked what we were talking about. I apologized for being too loud and she said there was no need to apologize, but that she really wanted to know. We began to explain what it was we thought God was calling us to do and to be in Austin. Her response was this: “It sounds amazing. You should do it. And when you do, you should let people know.”
As Immanuel begins a new year together I am committed that we, as a church, are going to pass through the waters. That we, as Immanuel, are going to walk through the fire.
Because only when we go where God is leading, do we experience the truth of “God with us.”
