The Journey Metaphor of Life

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

How do you think we follow Jesus today? What is it like? To what do you compare it?

Is following Jesus to be compared with a pass to heaven?

Is it like a Teflon coating to let pain and disappointment slip off us?

Is a set of beliefs that you subscribe to:

I believe in God the father almighty, I believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit etc.

Is following Jesus the social thing to do in the bible belt?

All of these explanations of following Jesus are possible. I know they are possible because I have seen and heard all of them. Like Mark Twain that irreverent man who was asked, “Do you believe in infant baptism?” He responded, “Believe in it, hell, I’ve seen it.” I’ve seen these various interpretations of following Jesus.

But I want you to consider with me another way of describing our life in Christ, another metaphor, namely, Journey. Following Jesus is a journey into life, into fulfillment into God.

The Journey metaphor is one of movement, pauses, vistas, companionship. The journey is alternately called a pilgrimage, a sojourn or an odyssey.

Journey in contrast with a trip does not go and come back, like a trip from Commerce to Charlotte. A journey often has no clear destination and it is filled with surprising turns.

A Biblical Metaphor

Metaphor is not just an idea that I made up, it is biblical through and through. Think about all the journeys in the Bible.

• Abraham sojourned in the land of promise before going down into Egypt for 400 years.

• Moses sojourned in the desert for forty years

• Paul went on missionary journeys for three and four years at the time.

• Jesus life on earth can be thought of as a journey.

• The disciples of Jesus were with him on a journey.

The story about the call of the disciples was Jesus invitation to them to journey with him. “Come follow me. Come go with me on my journey.”

What do you suppose that Peter expected that day when he saw the catch of fish where he had already fished all night and caught nothing?

Could he imagine that day all the things that lay before him as he followed Jesus? Recall some of those happenings:

Viewing the feeding of 5,000 people by Jesus.

Confessing him as Messiah.

Hearing the Voice on the mount say, “This is my Son, listen to him.”

Denying that he even knew Jesus.

Running to the empty tomb, encountering the risen Christ.

Preaching to the multitude and seeing 3000 persons believe one day.

Heading the church.

These amazing things would never have happened to Peter if he had stayed in Capernaum dropping his nets and catching fish in the sea. They happened because he got on his journey. Getting on our journeys is important and it is never too late.

I want to illustrate this to you but I want to do it in a right spirit. Last September Nan and I went down to Elba, Alabama. I was reared in Elba, went to school in Elba, and was converted in Elba. Elba was my seaside venue where Jesus came by and invited me to follow him. I did.

As I met my classmates who graduated with me 55 years ago, I had lots of thoughts. Some of them had left Elba on their journeys and had had very productive lives in education, business, nursing and government work. Others had remained in Elba probably not traveling more than a few hundred miles from home.

I don’t criticize them nor do I feel in any way superior to them, but I thought “What if I had never left Elba, Alabama to follow Jesus?” How much I would have missed. How narrow that would have made my journey! My sister remained in Elba, taught school, retired and she and her husband are as happy as a bug in a rug living at the beach most of the time.

My life has been so different. Christ led me to Kentucky to school, to Indiana as a pastor, back to Phenix City for 5 years. Then he led me to Atlanta where the wind caught my sails and carried me to every state in the union and 50 countries around the world. Life has been so different for me because Christ called me to follow him.

Not only has my journey been one of outward exploration but more importantly one of inward exploration. I have traveled deep within my psyche listening for the Voice of God, wrestling with my demons and seeking to become the human being that God intended me to be.

My Invitation to You

Today I want to invite you on your journey, the journey of saying yes to Jesus and going where he leads you. But perhaps more importantly, I want to invite you to get on your inward journey to discover what Christ has already done with you and intimations of his will for you in the future.

I think that I seriously began my inner journey after college, after seminary and after I had been preaching ten years. It came following the day that I think God spoke, “Why don’t you believe that I love you.” Only the love and unconditional acceptance of God could give me the courage to make the inward journey.

Four things have been of enormous help to me on this journey and I commend them to you as ways to continue on your journey inward. (Which is so rich in implications for your outer life.)

1. Name the turning points in your life. A turning point is that place where a major change comes into your life and things are different. Going to college, getting married, the first baby, an illness etc. A helpful way to name these turning points is to get quiet, begin with your earliest memory and list all the turning points in your life.

2. Discover the power of wondering. Wonder is a noun and a verb. One comes to you – the noun, but the other you can engage by choice, the very. You can choose to wonder about things. Take your turning points, for example, wonder what an event happened, a person came into your life or you lost a job or got married. Then, wonder where God was in those events.

3. Pay attention to your yearning. Attend the deep yearning inside you. It is there today. Listen to it. Respond to it. Follow it where it leads you. I think that our yearnings are the echo of the Voice of God’s call.

4. Notice the things that happen in your life. These things that occur in our lives are the verbs of God, the actions of God in our lives. When we pay attention to them, we often get direction for our choices. I want to share an experience briefly that illustrates what I mean about noticing things that happen to you.

A couple of yeas ago I got an inspiration to host a Mentor Retreat at the monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers. This past year I finally got around to inviting twenty persons from across the country who have been important to me to this retreat. I thought that I was doing this for their good – be with them, introduce them to each other, pray and share etc. But it turned out that God spoke very powerfully to me during the week.

I had been retired for two years and those years had not been easy. I had some physical complications and in the transition I had felt lots of depression. At specific times during that week I heard him speak in my heart, “Do you really desire me?” I said, “Yes, mostly.” The he said, “I love you, I really love you and embraced me.”

Before coming home I bought a book at the Monastery by Thomas Merton, Contemplative Prayer. Why did I buy it?

I came home from the retreat free, open and joyous. I felt that I had a future.

A few days after returning I was at our church when a fellow member was picking up tapes from the pastor.

He said to me, “Would you like to listen to them?”

My honest answer was no, but to not offend Jeff, I said, “Yes I would.”

On the way to Druid Hills I was listening to the first tape. At the corner of Clairmont and Scott Boulevard I heard these words:

"The word, God, is the metaphor for the infinity of the mystery the present moment manifests and, inversely, at one and the same time, the concrete immediacy of the present moment is realized to be the manifestation of the unmanifest mystery of God."

This has been for me one of the most powerful statements that I have ever read or heard.

These words have been the invitation to a new call to me. I am feeling myself called to be a contemplative Christian.

Here is my question. Was setting up the mentor retreat an accident. Did God somehow know that it was for me more than others? Why did I buy that Merton book? And was it providence that I was at the church at a particular moment? And that awful sentence that grabbed me and would not let me go, was that just happenstance.

Noticing my life is about these kinds of things.

Can you hear my invitation to you today -- Get on your journey seriously!