Community Church Sermons

 

July 1, 2007

Pentecost 5

“Foxhole Religion”

 

Psalm 77:1-2; 11-20

Luke 9:51-62

 

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

 

 

 

           

 

Listen to this Sermon!

 

 

My father was the one who taught me about “foxhole religion.”

 

He was just 18 years old, fresh out of high school, when he went into the Army to serve the nation during World War II. Along with some of you, my dad served in the South Pacific. Although he did not talk much about his wartime experiences, he did once tell me how God became really important to him and some of his comrades.

 

They had just landed on one of the islands, and were ordered to dig in. But the beach was mostly coral and the digging was hard, so my dad and his buddies settled for some shallow trenches – that is, until a Japanese Zero swooped in off the water, machine guns blazing, strafing the beach. My dad said you never saw guys dig through coral so fast after that!

 

And cowering within their foxholes, my father said, you could hear men praying.

 

Foxhole religion.

 

A lot of people become serious about God when they’re faced with life’s dangers.

 

I know that to be true personally because in the course of my life I’ve found myself desperately turning to God in the face of life’s difficult and terrifying moments. We all find “foxhole religion” at various times, and thank goodness that the Lord invites us to turn toward him in times of trouble. And I can honestly say that God has been very faithful to me, and has kept his promises of walking with me through the hard times, and giving me strength beyond my own. And I know that many of you testify to the same thing. God is often found in the foxholes of life.

 

But then there is another kind of “foxhole religion.” Jesus talked about it, and what Jesus said on the subject is one of the most important things you can learn about what it means to follow Christ.

 

In fact, that’s where the story begins – with a man coming up to Jesus on the road as he walks toward Jerusalem. “I will follow you wherever you go!” the man declares.

 

Just like you and me in those times of life when something has moved us to step forward and make a commitment to Christ, this man has decided to follow Jesus.

 

I love to hear stories about people who come to the Lord. My mother used to tell us about the day she was baptized at the First Baptist Church in Greenfield, Massachusetts. She was just 12-years old, but she knew exactly what she was doing, and when she was raised up from the waters that day she knew without a doubt that she belonged to the Lord.

 

I like to remember how my best friend Dennis Astrella and I – at about the same age as my mother - went forward at the evangelistic rally where the evangelist made us realize there was a pretty good chance Dennis and I would be going to hell before the night was over. We didn’t walk to the altar. We ran our little legs off!

 

When was the first time you responded to God and opened your heart to him? Maybe it was when you were facing a crisis, or at a moment when you were overwhelmed by the beauty of creation, or when your children were born, or when you set out to tackle a difficult task. Maybe it will be today when you just know that God loves you and wants to pour his redeeming grace into you and through you to others!

 

I don’t know what prompted this man to come to Jesus, but there he is running up to the Lord as Jesus walks toward Jerusalem. “I will follow you wherever you go!”

 

Jesus stops and turns toward the man. He sees in him what God sees in all of us – a true and sincere desire to be right with God, and to find the inner peace that only God can give. You see, others might see us in terms of our sin, and even we ourselves may be cognizant of all that is wrong and sinful about us. But God doesn’t look at us that way. God sees us for the beautiful persons he created us to be! And even through all the clutter and dust of what is wrong with us, God has this amazing ability to see that true, deep, and inner desire we each have to be at peace with God, and with others, and with ourselves – even though we may not always act that way.

 

Jesus sees this inner thirst in the man who wants to follow him. But Jesus knows it is not enough. So Jesus tells him about this other kind of  “foxhole religion.” Here is what he says:

 

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,

but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 

What a strange saying!

 

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,

but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 

What do you suppose Jesus is saying to those who sincerely want to follow him?

 

Fred Craddock tells the story of a baby being born on one of the weeks when it was his turn to serve as Chaplain at a hospital in North Georgia. Not many babies were born in that little hospital, so this was a big event and a large crowd was gathered in front of the windows to the nursery. Fred went in and joined the folks ogling the little infant wrapped in the pink blanket. She was crying up quite a storm, all red-faced and out of sorts.

 

“Is the father here?” Fred asked. “I’m the father,” answered a very somber and worried-looking young man leaning up against a wall on the other side of the room. Fred thought the fellow might be upset that the baby was carrying on like that, maybe thinking something was wrong, or that the baby was sick. So Fred went over and assured him that it was normal for a baby to cry and scream like that, and that its actually good for the baby because it clears out the bronchial tubes and opens up the lungs.

 

“I know she ain’t sick,” the dad answered. “ She’s just mad as hell.”

 

“Mad? Why would she be mad?”

 

“Well, wouldn’t YOU be mad?” the young man asked. “One minute, you’re with God in heaven, the next minute you’re in Georgia.”[1]

 

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,

but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 

One of the great truths about life and therefore about faith is that one minute you may be at peace with God in the comforting safety of the foxhole, but the next minute you’re facing the troubling reality of life in Georgia – or Tennessee – or Michigan – or some place or some circumstance or some situation where there is no place to lay down your head in peace. Foxes have holes to which  they can go home at night and sleep in peace. Birds have the safety of their nests.

 

But Jesus – and those who follow him - can’t stay in the foxhole or the bird’s nest forever.

 

Because, you see, life is a moving target, and faith is an action sport. This side of heaven, you’ll not find a place to rest. Unless, of course, you just decide to stay in the foxhole; where it seems to be safe and stop following Jesus.

 

One of the popular trends in some churches today is to sponsor Bible studies based upon re-runs of some old TV shows. There’s the Mayberry RFD Bible Study, and the Dick Van Dyke Bible Study, and the Leave It To Beaver Bible Study, and many more. Most of them offer the promise of reconnecting Christians with true biblical values. But when you take a look at the shows, you soon realize that the values being expressed are not biblical values at all, but rather the values of white America in the 1950’s. And being a person who grew up in those times, I think those values are great.

 

But some of them don’t work so well in 2007. More children today live in single-parent homes than two-parent homes. Very few women today opt out of careers in favor of staying home and cleaning the housing wearing a dress, high heels and pearls - a la June Cleaver. Today, our neighborhoods are seldom all white and we live elbow to elbow with people who speak Spanish, or worship at a Mosque. And right here in our communities we find there are actually workmen who don’t come to work on our houses because it’s a good day for fishing. We northerners can’t stand that, can we? But who’s to say they don’t have it right?

 

Oh, it would be great if we could pick out our favorite moment in time and stay there forever. It would be wonderful if we could live in the past. But we can’t.

 

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,

but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 

Jesus lived toward the future, not the past. He walked toward the edge, not the center. He stepped across the border, and never built walls along it. Jesus was always on the move.

 

And it is crucial for us to leave our foxholes and birds’ nests and other comfortable places to follow him. I’m sure there are more, but let me offer you two reasons why:

 

First, human life is made for change. We come into this world as babies, but we can’t stay that way forever. We have to become children – learn to walk, and speak, and use our minds – because that’s what God created us to do. And children have to become adults, and adults have to grow older, and our bodies have to change, and our golf game must get worse, and knees must be replaced, and frailty has to come, and spouses have to die, and car keys must be taken away to protect others when we cannot make the decision ourselves.

 

Human life is always changing, always shifting, always moving. And only when we realize that change is inevitable in us, in our families and in our world can we come to the place of understanding that the only constant in human life is the God who loves you and promises to walk you safely through all the changing seasons of life.

 

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,

but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 

You cannot give yourself life. You cannot overcome life by yourself. You cannot give yourself true and lasting joy – and neither can your spouse, your children, your parents, your job, your status, or your bank account. Only God can fill you with life eternal. And it is in life’s journey that God is found to be trustworthy! It is only on the journey that we discover how amazing God really is!

 

And one more thing:

 

The journey is where you discover how amazing YOU are!

 

Ryan – our five-year old grandson – called on the phone the other day. He and his parents are settled in for some vacation time at our camp on Highland Lake in New Hampshire. Ryan was very excited when he called:

 

“Mimi Up-Down (which is Ryan’s name for Sandy) – Papa Marty – I can ride a bike…WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!”

 

Ryan bubbled on for a few minutes about this new skill he’s learned. And then he blurted, “I am so AWESOME!!!!”

 

And he is! We human beings that God made are just loaded with potential and possibility! We are amazing creatures with more beautiful and amazing things to discover about ourselves than we can possibly imagine.

 

So Sarah tells Abram – at about 100 years of age – “Honey, I’m pregnant! We’re going to have a baby!”

 

Amazing! Even hundred-year old people have things going on in their bedrooms that defy expectations!

 

And Jesus, on the Cross, says, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”

 

Amazing!

 

Even death cannot hold the children of God!

 

“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests,

but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

 

And then Jesus turns to you and me and says the two most important words of our faith.

 

“Follow me.”