"Setting Sail For New Horizons Of…..Self-Awareness"
Deuteronomy 26: 1-11; Luke 4: 1-13
Lent February 25, 2007

Milk and honey, come and go. Here today and gone tomorrow. But when we’re in the land of milk and honey, we are tempted to forget it is God who sustains us.

Now living in such a land, the Hebrew people stop to remember their story…from where they came, how God provided when life did not, and that the story isn’t over. Together they find strength in the story and together they rejoice in the moment.

Confessing their faith, they give freely their first fruits to God in support of helping others, and then live abundantly enjoying the remaining fruits of their labor. You see…there really is enough!

Can you tell the story? …our story? Not just our faith story about Jesus, but our story here, the Tippe story…at least the part since you’ve been here? It’s your story, too…do you know what’s been happening in you since you’ve first came here…have you noticed what’s happening in others as well? This place changes lives. If you have any doubt about that…ask the person sitting next to you today. And everything that has happened here…blessings and woes, easy times and challenging ones, all the feelings and situations of our time together over the years, before and since my presence here…makes this so…and here leaders (the elders and deacons, the ministry team members, you and I) are not afraid to get in the boat and head out toward God’s horizon for us…we’re not worried about sinking…we’re more worried about dying on the shoreline never having gone anywhere! We know what floats our boat…and we know together we can go to God’s new horizon for Tippe…we don’t set sail together so we have more space or more things to do or even more programs or people…but because we know deeply this ministry changes lives!!!! And we have enough, more than enough to continue to do little great things God calls us to do. We have to go…toward God!

So…have you connected yourself to the Tippe story yet in ways so powerful that it brings the depth of your faith to the tip of your tongue…the bend in your knee, the look in your eyes, the angst in your soul and the fold in your wallet?…like the Israelites so long ago?

This isn’t about money, this isn’t about Tippe, this is about you…your well-being!

You see, everyday is a wilderness, dessert experience for us. Hard situations come up. Hard choices have to be made. If you do not know who you are in the story of believers and stand firmly in the stream of our faith, if you do not come on board with the faith…the "devil" will tempt you to question your identity …and try on false ones.

Temptations surround you. And temptation is more likely to come in the seemingly innocuous. Temptation rarely expresses itself in a form obviously evil. If someone came to you saying, "Wouldn’t you like to make a wreck of your life and bring shame to all who know you by stealing, committing adultery, or destroying your health with drugs or food? You would say, "No thanks, I’m not interested." But temptation usually cloaks itself in something seemingly harmless, even virtuous…self-pride, a sense of entitlement, hard work, frugality…leaving destructive consequences.

You see Jesus was, and we are, often tempted in the places where we have relative strength. A poor person wouldn’t be tempted to flaunt their wealth. A very ordinary person won’t be vain about their appearance. It is in our places of relative strength where the misuse of our gifts and the abuse or manipulation can occur, often with a pious, righteous face…a devilish face.

Evil tempts you to forget your place in the greater story of life and the faithful. Evil tempts you to question God and question your own identity. Evil tempts you to blame someone else. Evil tempts you to think getting in the boat is riskier than staying ashore!

So…do you know who you really are, where you are? Have you set sail yet toward a horizon of self-awareness? Have you attached the meaning and purpose of your life to the "more"…as the Celtic tradition refers to God?

Do you go to the "thin" places where God is closest to you during desert, wilderness time, the tippe-canoe times, the times you feel beached or drifting or are scared to set sail for better horizons even when the life around you is a disaster? Do you go to the "thin" places when you’re feeling intimidated and alone, when you can’t remember who you are…in such times do you go to the thin places and draw near to God? Such times are of great danger…and the greatest hope for renewal.

Jesus knows who he is. He knows his identity is in God….his identity is not as a teacher or carpenter, a director or retiree, an engineer or a nurse, a mother or father.

Jesus’ identity is within God. He draws on God for his identity and he calls upon God, literally, for help in these tough desert times. He calls God and he puts himself into the story of the faithful citing scripture and remembering, remembering, remembering he is more than he is…he is in God!

God never lets us go out into the desert days alone. Never to row a lone boat. The Spirit is with us just as it was with Jesus. In fact, at times it will indeed seem as if the spirit is leading you into some pretty unsafe places. Yes. When following the Spirit, you will go to unsafe places cause that’s where life is lived and help is needed…your help…your first fruits…for others…as well as for yourself. The faithful see the unsafety of the world and go right into the world, knowing who they are, living within God’s grace moment to moment. Raging storms, rough waters don’t capsize your boat when you go with God.

Jesus holds on to his identity placing himself in the context of the story of his faith.

We are to know ourselves, call on God, and use the words of faith to protect us and give us courage. Courage: grace under pressure. "Help me Lord!" is a prayer! But you have to say it to stay in the boat…to have other sailors come on board or tie up with you when you are drifting. You have to say "Help me Lord!" whether it’s said from desperation, anger, lightheartedness, confidence, or fear.

In this first week of Lent, Jesus comes to grips with his all too real human nature. The line between goodness and evil blurs. He becomes fully aware of himself and aware of his faith…it is then he can move out into the rest of his life. It is in knowing himself that he changes the world. Until we know who we are, we are not truly able to live our lives, change our lives or this world of ours. We are just like him!

I think this morning’s gospel story is an invitation to use these 40 days, wherever the spirit meets us or leads us, to look at our faith, to test our assumptions and our convictions, to find ourselves…in the story of God’s people and draw strength from our past to live bravely in the moment, creating a new future.

How do you remember who you are when all around you is in chaos…stormy?
When you face life’s many temptations, do you do what is easy instead of what needs to be done?

Get in the boat…you got to get in to go anywhere…you got to go to go…you got to row…not woe your boat, row your boat!

And look up, open your perspective, your point of view, point of reference, lift up…and see the waters are full of boats filled with rowers just like you. We can stay in each other’s wakes to save energy, mend each other’s sails, help guide and protect each other so we can stay the course…so we not only head toward a new horizon but begin to get there together. Going is the point…not arriving…for with each row of the oars the horizon you long for changes yet again. It’s not about having a vision (of what will be when you get there or trying to reclaim a favored vision of the past). The faith journey is about knowing you go toward new horizons…for your own good and for the good of all. News flash/Weather report: everything isn’t about you!

What do you have to do to set sail? Begin to begin…begin in your heart…calling upon the name of God. And know deeply that we don’t have to travel in the same boat of ideas or circumstance, prayers and dreams, to travel together.

All you have to do is…get in the boat and set sail for that new horizon! And the first horizon will probably be…self-awareness! Just look at the wake you make with your life for some clues about who you are!

And as you approach this first of many horizons, you will see horizons you never imagined possible for you and for you with God’s people. So please, please…Row, row, row your boat!