"The Path of Least Resistance"
Is. 55:1-9
Luke 13:1-9
Let me share with you the challenge that faces the preacher, the one who would dare to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the form of a sermon. The challenge begins – at least for those of us in the Reformed tradition – with the choice of scripture… which text shall be the foundation, the basis, the starting point for the sermon. For those congregations that follow the common lectionary, part of that challenge is removed. There are four selections of scripture already selected for the preacher to consider. Those four selections may share a theme in common, or be quite unrelated. Most passages of scripture are sufficient foundation for several sermons, so four passages are more than enough. Therefore, one must choose one or two that are to be emphasized.
The texts for today present a particularly sharp form of this general challenge… not because they are obscure or difficult, but because they emphasize such different aspects and perspectives of the life lived in relationship to God. The passage from Isaiah is one of the most upbeat and joyous expressions in all of scripture. "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food." The promise of God’s special care and covenant is renewed to the people who have been held captive in exile: "Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David." The descendants of David are reminded that "nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you."
When we turn to the Gospel reading for today there is a very different tone. It is a passage about the need for repentance for the time is short. Judgement is inevitable and we must not delay. Even though the gardener gets a reprieve of one more year for the fig tree that has no figs, yet there is a clear sense that the horizon is near and an accounting is imminent. "I tell you… unless you repent, you will all perish…."
We are caught between the promise of God to bless and redeem, to rescue and sustain… and the demand that we conform to God’s will. The passage from Isaiah brings both themes together: "Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
This tension – between redemption and repentance – captures the continuing reality of the Christian life. We believe in and experience a caring, loving God who does not abandon us. We also understand that this loving Lord desires our lives to conform to God loving and just purpose. The debates in the Church could be characterized as emphasizing one aspect at the expense of the other. Some feel secure with a faith and religion that lays out clear boundaries, establishes rules and laws that define that faith and expects fidelity to those definitions and descriptions. Departure from said definitions is "sin" and must be appropriately dealt with. Others would acknowledge the need for ethical and moral decisions but point to the loving, redemptive nature and action of God in Jesus Christ. It is the loving God who is the source of life and faith, not the moral perfection of humans. As a matter of fact, all of us stand in the need of prayer, the need of forgiveness. None of us can claim a moral superiority and to do so is itself a sin that separates us from God.
The greatest danger is that we will abandon this tension and opt for a full embrace of one side to the exclusion of the other. We may choose to retreat into a thicket of rules and commandments, a constant kind of score keeping both for ourselves and others, that consumes our energy in making sure the walls are straight, the boundaries clear, and the behavior always impeccable! Or, we may decide on a way of life that doesn’t worry about norms and standards, that emphasizes the need of the suffering, the anguished, the poor, the lonely, and reaches out to them with whatever is available and at hand. If that means bending the rules, offending the keepers of conventional standards at times … so be it!
Either extreme, however intentioned, can become a rigid and controlled caricature of God’s grace, on the one hand, or, evolve into a licentious and profligate travesty of God’s care and justice on the other. We have to find a way to keep our focus, our gaze on the finish line, while staying inside the lines of the lane of the race track!
Some years ago a musician by name of Robert Fritz made an amazing discovery in his life… a discovery which I think can help us to make the most of this kind of tension and conflict between two ways of responding to the Gospel. His thesis is set forth in book which has the same title as this sermon: The Path of Least Resistance. At first the title seems to suggest an approach that indicates a lack of discipline, a flabbiness of spirit, and an irresponsible attitude. Quite to the contrary. Fritz is not speaking of our intention, but of the structure of our lives.
He begins his book by noting how the streets were laid out in the city of Boston. As most of us know, the streets follow the original paths of the cows. But note what that means: "The cow moving through the topography tended to move where it was immediately easiest to move. When a cow saw a hill ahead, she did not say to herself, ‘Aha! A hill! I must navigate around it.’ Rather she put one foot in front of another, taking whichever step was easiest at the moment, perhaps avoiding a rock or taking the smallest incline. In other words what determined her behavior was the structure of the land."
Fritz goes on to share three insights: 1. You go through your life taking the path of least resistance, i.e., energy flows where it is easiest and that is as true of your life as it is of a river. The path of least resistance refers to the structure of your life, not your intentions. 2. The underlying structure of your life determines the path of least resistance. And 3. You can learn to recognize the structures that at play in your life and change them so that you can create what you really want to create. He suggests a simple, although demanding, discipline to accomplish this.
First, have a clear a picture in your mind of your goal, the ideal toward which you want to move. In terms of our readings today, let your imagination and spirit sketch a vision of the life of following Christ that results in the kind of joy that the prophet describes. Let that vision be informed by your meditations and study, by your worship and fellowship where the riches of God’s mercy and lovingkindness are prominent and primary. In the same exercise, consider the state of your own life and spirit, which – for purposes of this illustration – have become stuck in a negative kind of spirit. You are bogged down in an awareness of your own failure, of the failure of others, a spirit of condemnation and reproach, that may be morally corrupt, but bereft of anything resembling the grace and the love of God. Be aware of the contrast, the tension between what your vision is, and the way you are. Do not try to excuse or explain away those features which trouble you, which are contrary to what you think you want, and which you believe are not what God wants. Confront it directly and honestly.
Hold that awareness and then again focus on the vision of where you want to go, what you want to be, the greater life to which God calls you. Feel the tension between the two, sense the contrast. Then, and this is very important: choose the vision as the foundation for your life. Fritz challenges us to do this on a regular basis and asserts the claim that we will begin to move toward our goal, toward the vision. The exercise of directly and honestly recognizing both our present condition and the vision of where God would have us be, will begin to change the structures of our life and help the energy to flow in the path of least resistance. That path will lead to the vision we claim … in this case a joyous celebration of God’s love and justice in the world.
There is a story — whether true or a myth, it is characteristic of the man — that when Thomas Edison was working on perfecting his first attempt to make a light bulb, the inventor, to the astonishment of his assistants, handed the finished bulb to a young helper to carry upstairs to the vacuum machine. The boy nervously carried the precious bulb across the lab and up the steps. But at the last moment, the boy dropped the bulb, shattering it. Edison and his team had to work another 24 hours to make another bulb.
When the new bulb was finished and had to be brought upstairs to the vacuum machine, Edison called over the boy who dropped the first one and had him carry it upstairs — this time with no problem. We can only imagine how that boy’s life was transformed by Edison’s trust. Edison understood clearly that more than a light bulb was at stake.
We can help one another in recognizing the structures of fear, patterns of failure and excuses, and projections of blame that tend to override our will to be faithful and change our lives. We can hold out the reality of a forgiving and merciful God who draws us toward a vision of life as God intended it to be. Thanks be to God!
March 15, 1998
Ross Ludeman