Walking With God

                                                                          Ephesians 4: 1-3

 

 

          Today is the last in a series of messages dealing with the Essential Tenets of ECO, the Presbyterian movement with which we have become affiliated.  Today is also Palm Sunday, the day Christ entered the city of Jerusalem at the beginning of his last week here on earth. We call it Palm Sunday because many of those who met Jesus at the gates of the city were laying down palm leaves in the same way they might have done to a conquering emperor coming home from war. They were showing homage and obedience to their leader. How fitting that the last of our essential tenets should fall on this day, for the last of those tenets has to do with living in obedience to the Word of God.

          In previous messages, we have looked at the other essential tenets. They include:

·       God’s Word, both living and written

·       The Trinity

·       The Incarnation

·       God’s grace in Christ

·       Election for salvation and service

·       Covenant life in the Church

·       Faithful stewardship in life

 

To that list, we now add Living in Obedience to God’s Word. If you want to get an idea of how to live in obedience to God’s Word, you might want to dig in to the first seven of our essential tenets. They offer plenty of illumination as to why that obedience is not only called for, but essential to the Christian life.

          What does it mean to live in obedience? Why, it means to obey. That’s simple enough. But if you’re anything like the millennials of today in America, you want to know why. It’s not enough to say that your parents told you or that your teacher said its right. You want to know why in a way with which you can identify. If that’s the way you look at life, or if that’s the way your children or grandchildren look at it, then perhaps it would help to look to that written word of God we call the Bible and see if it offers up some examples. There are many. Here are a few.

          There are several people in the Old Testament who are described as having walked with God. Can you imagine? I’ve never walked with God. Have you walked with God? I can point to many times when I was aware of God’s presence in my life, but walk with God? I can’t say that has happened to me. But in the Book of Genesis, there are three different instances of people who walked with God.

          Ever hear of Enoch? Enoch is famous for not dying. According to the book of Genesis, Enoch lived for three hundred sixty five years. He was the father of Methuselah, the oldest recorded life in the Bible. Enoch is famous not so much for being the father of Methuselah, but for the fact that he walked with God, and he was not; for God took him [5: 21-24]. So Enoch didn’t die. He just was not. God took him. We are not told why, but one might surmise that God liked Enoch. It was no punishment for Enoch to be taken up by God. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not. We tend to overlook the walking with God part because of our fascination with the departure of Enoch without death. We should not do that. Enoch walked with God.

          Turn now to the story of Noah [Gen. 6: 5-13 in pertinent part]. In this famous story, God notes the wickedness of man. He was grieved and thought to destroy his creation. Then the Bible says this: But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was a just man and perfect in his generations. And Noah walked with God. How much time has passed between Enoch and Noah, I do not claim to know, but here again is God taking a walk with a man. He is about to destroy the world by flood, leaving only a remnant. Noah’s family is to become that remnant. Noah walked with God. The book of Hebrews says that Noah became heir of the righteousness which is by faith [11: 7].

          Yet another man walked with God. His name was Abram, later to be renamed Abraham. He was the ripe young age of 99 when God appeared to him and said to him: I am the almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect [Gen 17: 1-2]. Again in Hebrews, the writer says that by faith, Abraham obeyed, went out, not knowing where he was to go but going at God’s behest [11:8].

          That’s a lot of faith. Enoch was lifted up without death. Noah built an ark bigger than this church on dry land and populated it with animals. Abraham started a family at 100 and, by the way, left home to go over there, all because God said to. Abraham walked with God.

          Now, I’m looking for common threads in these Genesis stories, and I think I see at least two. First, all these men were obedient. When God asked them to do something, they did what they were asked. They didn’t question; they just acted. They had faith and they acted on that faith. The stories of Noah and Abraham are considerably more detailed than that of Enoch, and all the details show their obedient faith. Secondly, their reward was beyond their wildest imagination. Enoch’s reward was literally out of this world!

          The ECO movement suggests that we that we progress in holiness. We have talked about this before when we covered God’s grace in Christ. Paul called this sanctification, growing closer to God. God draws us, sustains us and fulfills us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It is not so much us as it is the presence of God in us that brings us to God. The Bible also calls it walking with God.

        But isn’t Walking with God like prophecy and the miracles of Jesus and his disciples? Isn’t walking with God something reserved for that time of special revelation when God really did come down to earth and walk with people? Wasn’t that just a Genesis thing? He doesn’t do that anymore, does he?

          The truly correct answer to that is that I don’t know. Flash forward several thousand years to first century Israel just before the birth of Christ. Take a look at the family of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Luke tells us that they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord [1:5]. Did this couple walk any less faithfully before the Lord in that spiritual connection than did those patriarchs from Genesis? Was it physical presence in Genesis and spiritual presence in Luke’s gospel?  And if there is that difference, does that matter? Which is less real?

          Walking with God, whether literally or spiritually is a way or manner of life. It’s how we conduct ourselves. It is the spiritual discipline or practice of seeing ourselves as part of God’s kingdom, as participants rather than observers. It’s not checking in or reading your mail. It’s walking with God, making what we do and how we do it interlaced with our creator.

          Although it would be wonderful to be like Noah or Abraham, it is equally wonderful to be like Elizabeth and Zecharias. We too can walk with God. We pray, we meditate; we act out our confession. ECO reminds us that the Ten Commandments are still instructive. So too is the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done, thy kingdom come…forgive us our debts…lead us not into temptation…for thine is the kingdom.” Walking with God is that which we strive for as Christians. Sometimes the walk is peaceful and serene. Sometimes it is uphill and strains our very fiber. But always…always, we are not alone. How does the prophet Micah put it: “What does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly before our Lord” [6: 8].

        So let us end this look at the Essential Tenets of ECO with this thought: From God’s Word to the mysteries of Trinity and Incarnation to God’s Grace to Election to Covenant Church Life to Stewardship, we seek to live in obedience to him who will keep us from falling and love us now and forever.  This is our act of worship. This is our love gift to our Heavenly Father. The words of Paul echo our aspirations and direct our path:  “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” [Eph. 4: 1].