Overcoming Practicality

August 28, 2011

by John Partridge Scripture: Exodus 3:1-15 Matthew 16:21-28

How many of you have ever decided to do something that others told you was stupid, wasteful, silly or impractical? I have known coworkers who rarely, if ever, took a vacation, thinking that the time and money spent on vacation could be better spent elsewhere. For me, after I worked with them and watched them for several years, I began to refer to what I spent on vacation as the cost of mental health insurance because frankly, I didnt want to turn out like they did. There are many times that doing what is practical will prevent us from moving forward. What I mean is that there are many examples where being bold (and impractical) allowed the creation of something that changed the course of human history. In 1776 the founders of what would become the United States of America began a revolution against the most powerful empire on the face of the earth. Starting a fight with the largest military machine on the planet is certainly not a practical thing to do, and many argued that no good could come from it but most of us are grateful that they did it. The impractical decision to fight for independence changed the world. In 1962, an architect was finally selected to design a World Trade Center in New York City after more than twenty years of discussion and the first tenant moved in April of 1973. During all this time, the Port Authority who proposed, built and maintained the World Trade Center was widely criticized because there was no need for 13.4 million square feet of office space when, in fact, most businesses and realtors recognized that the city already had a dramatic oversupply of office space that was available for rent. It took more than twenty years for the World Trade Center to begin to fill with private tenants instead of providing discounted space to governmental agencies. Was the World Trade Center a practical thing to build? Certainly not but it was impressive, even amazing, it became an icon of the city of New York and it did eventually fill with paying tenants. The impractical decision to build the World Trade Center created a symbol that all New Yorkers could be proud of and one that people around the world recognized. Especially after the events of September 11, 2001 we all recognize that, in more ways than one, the construction of the World Trade Center changed the world. In 2006, business traveler Blake Mycoskie made friends with some children in Argentina and discovered that many of them had no shoes for their feet. Further, he discovered that in many developing countries there are diseases that are transmitted through the soil and infection rates can drop dramatically simply by wearing shoes. Likewise, many children in these countries cannot attend school unless they wear shoes but their poverty prevents them from doing so. As a result, Mycoskie founded a company called TOMS shoes. Most of us understand that businesses make money by making things and then selling them in order to make money but what Mycoskie proposed to do was different. Instead of making shoes and selling them to make money, this new company would sell shoes but also promised that for every pair of shoes sold, they would give away one pair of shoes to a child in need in countries around the world. Clearly from a business point of view, Mycoskies idea is enormously impractical but since 2006 TOMS shoes has given away more than one million

pairs of shoes. Although the business model of TOMS shoes might be impractical, it has become plain that they are changing the world, one child at a time. Understanding these things is important because, as Christians, sometimes God asks us to do the impractical. In Exodus 3:1-15, after forty years of herding sheep, Moses encounters something that he has never seen before
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Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, I will go over and see this strange sightwhy the bush does not burn up. When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, Moses! Moses! And Moses said, Here I am. Do not come any closer, God said. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 6 Then he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. The LORD said, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honeythe home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. Moses said to God, Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, What is his name? Then what shall I tell them? God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you. God also said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, The LORD, the God of your fathersthe God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacobhas sent me to you. This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. 2
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God speaks to Moses out of a burning bush and asks him to do the impossible. God tells Moses to go back to Egypt and to secure the freedom of an entire nation that has been enslaved by a world superpower. Feel free to choose your own word to describe this impossible, foolish, silly, foolhardy, suicidal and yes, impractical. Moses had fled Egypt forty years earlier because was a wanted man. Moses had murdered an Egyptian in cold blood while trying to protect a Hebrew slave and when he discovered that there were witnesses, he fled for his life across the desert. Now he asks God, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? Gods answer is simply, I will be with you. Ordinarily, in stories like this, the hero might ask God for a sign to remind him that this whole thing wasnt his imagination, but the only sign that God offers to Moses is that when it is all over, Moses and the nation of Israel will worship together on Gods holy mountain. If Moses had gotten stuck and held on too tightly to what was practical, nothing would have happened and the people of Israel would have remained slaves to the Egyptians but because Moses was willing to be obedient, even when it was impractical, Moses changed the world forever. In Matthew 16:21-28, Jesus compels his disciples to abandon practicality whenever it conflicts with the things of God
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From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord! he said. This shall never happen to you! Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns. Then Jesus said to his disciples, Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Fathers glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Peter tries to stop Jesus from doing the one thing that completely defies every definition of practicality; that he would surrender his own life. Jesus reprimands Peter by saying that by trying to stop him from doing this he is doing the work of Satan. What Jesus tells Peter and the disciples, and now us, is that too often, what we regard as justifiable and practical issues are merely human concerns and not at all what God intends. Jesus tells his friends that in order to be a disciple, we have to do all sorts of things that defy conventional wisdom and overturn what society would perceive as being practical. Jesus says that his followers must deny their own needs, to take up their crosses, to risk their own lives so that they can find the new life that Jesus is offering. What good is it, Jesus asks, if we do what is practical and make a ton of profit, if we gain the whole world, and forfeit the one thing that that Jesus 3
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gave up his life to give to us? Jesus tells us that sometimes, if it prevents us from doing Gods will, being practical is evil. Before we were called into ministry, Patti (my wife) and another woman felt called to go on a mission trip to visit a missionary couple that our church had supported for more than twenty years. As our missions committee presented our ideas for fundraising to the Administrative Board we were reminded that the church was falling behind in its budget and members of that committee expressed serious concerns that the fundraising efforts for this mission trip might have a negative impact on the churches finances. These were very reasonable concerns but despite these very practical concerns, the pastor and the majority of the Administrative Board felt that we should proceed. Several months later the missions committee reported back to the Administrative Board and announced that all of the needed funds had been raised. At that time they asked the finance committee to report on what impact this fundraising might have had on the churchs overall finances. When that report was read we were all stunned and thrilled to discover that not only had God helped us to raise a significant amount of money to send two people to Africa, but during that time, the regular giving to the church had not stayed the same. Neither had it decreased. During the time that the missions committee was raising this large sum of money so that we could send two of our members to Africa, regular giving to the church had actually increased. I am convinced that because we were committed to doing the will of God, by faith God helped us to overcome our practicality and show us that we were on the right track. In Matthew 10:16 Jesus commands his followers saying I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. And in that passage we understand that we need to be smart and to use wisely the things that God has given to us, but at the same time, we also must understand that sometimes practicality is our enemy. As followers of God and as disciples of Jesus Christ we have long understood that one of the most difficult things that we attempt to do in living the Christian life is to overcome our compulsion to commit sin but our message for today just might be the next hardest thing. As we live our lives and as we follow the example of Jesus, we must not only overcome sin, but, sometimes, in order to do the will of God, we must also learn to overcome practicality.

You have been reading a message presented at Barnesville First United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor of Barnesville First. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Barnesville First UMC at 123 W. Church St., Barnesville, OH 43713. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@barnesvillefirst.com. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.