“I Did It My Way”

The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
Rev. Cameron S. Smith
The Lord's Day, September 2, 2007
Exodus 40
Revelation 21:22-27

"...Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it." Exodus 25:8-9

An American Anthem...
And now, the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain.
My friend, I'll say it clear,
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows -
And did it my way!

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH?
    An American Anthem? I must tell you truthfully, that Frank Sinatra's paean of self-praise might as well be the national anthem! Thirty times in this hymn, the reference is to "me" "my" "I'm" "I'll" and my oh my, "I" "I" "I"!
    The title of the song, the bold, in your face, repeating refrain describes every one of us to one degree or another! We all want to do it our own way. Not your way; but my way!

    On one of my first dates with Shannon, we were walking by a lake on one of those starry-eyed, romantic moonlit strolls, hand-in-hand. We came across an old broken down concrete bench. The seat was laying over in the weeds.
    Shannon mentioned what a shame that no one had tried to put it back together. Knowing what was coming next, I said, "Don't get any ideas, honey, it's way too heavy for you."
    Before I could get the last word out, Shannon was fast at work doing exactly the opposite of my counsel - trying to put that old bench back together!

    We are all stubborn people! We don't like to have anyone telling us what to do. Period. There is just something inside us that bucks when we are given guidance or direction or heaven forbid some type of request that has an air of authority about it.
    I see it in my own children and it frustrates me until I realize that they are just doing the same things that I did when I was their age and beyond! Attitudes that I still cop even now in my days of adult maturity!

WRITTEN LARGE ON OUR CULTURE
    From another perspective, if I were to ask you what is the fastest growing religion in this country?...You would probably be inclined to say Islam. Good and understandable guess...but, you would be wrong!
    According to the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance,

"The fastest growing religion (in terms of percentage) is Wicca -- a Neopagan religion that is sometimes referred to as Witchcraft. Numbers of adherents went from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. Their numbers of adherents are doubling about every 30 months. Wiccans in Australia have a very similar growth pattern, from fewer than 2,000 in 1996 to 9,000 in 2001. In Canada, Wiccans and other Neopagans showed the greatest percentage growth of any faith group. They totaled 21,080 members in 1991, an increase of 281% from 1990." They go on to say that "by about the year 2042, non-Christians will outnumber the Christians in the U.S."

    Why is this significant? It is significant because Wiccan is mostly, it seems to me, a do-it-yourself religion. I was amused by a Wiccan author stating that this was a discipline that must not be entered into lightly; but just in case you still wanted to go through with it and were unable to locate a local coven, you are free to design your own personal ritual; working through your new found faith as you see fit! [From the web site ReligiousTolerance.org]
    Wiccan makes no demands on you other than that you cast no malicious spells on anyone. Of course, I am being intentionally brief and cursory in my description of this religion. However, I do not think it misrepresenting this "faith" by saying that there is no authority figure in this religion to poop on your party. No holy book showing the faithful the right way. No deity, good or bad, breathing down your neck with insidious demands. You are free to live life as you see fit. Create your own reality. With apologies to Burger King, you can have it your way!

DOING THINGS HIS WAY!
    Turning back with me to our text this morning from the last chapter of Exodus, you can see that there is something quite different at work in our relationship with God.
    Nearly half of this entire Old Testament book -- chapters 25-40 -- focuses painstakingly on the construction of the Tabernacle and all of its furnishings as Israel camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. The detail is minute and seemingly tediously repetitious.

    When Moses is first told that he is must build a mobile, dwelling place for God's glory and presence in Exodus 25:9, the point is clear: Moses must make it "exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it."

    When referring to the furnishings, the Ark of the Covenant, the table of presence and the golden lamp stands, God said "see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain." (Ex. 25:40).

    After meticulous description of Tabernacle itself in Exodus 26, God says again, "Then [after building is finally complete] you shall erect the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain." (Ex. 26:30)

    Crossing over into the New Testament; Stephen, during his impassioned speech in Jerusalem, touched upon the exacting nature of the task in bringing the Tabernacle into existence: "Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen." (Acts 7:44).

    If you'll permit yet one more New Testament reference, the writer to the Hebrews even makes mention of it: "When Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain." (Heb. 8:5).

GOD'S INITIATIVE & COMPLETION OF OUR SALVATION
    In order to make sense of this exacting detail, you must understand the role of the Tabernacle in the life of God's people. God said "make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst." (Ex. 25:8). As God's dwelling place, the Tabernacle was a place of worship. It was the place where prayers were offered. It was a place where forgiveness could be found. It was a place where all kinds of offerings could be made: Financial and material offerings, sacrificial offerings; spiritual and thanksgiving offerings. This holy place was the focal point of all life's activities, bar none.
    But, above all, this Tabernacle was a place of salvation. It is purely intentional that a large chunk of Exodus is devoted to the Tabernacle, its furnishings, down to how the priests themselves will be dressed when the minister before God for the people. As you go into the next book of the Old Testament, you find that Leviticus goes into even greater, meticulous detail concerning the various sacrificial offerings that will be made.

    Why is this? Why so much precision in describing how this building and these sacred activities will play out? I will suggest to you that this is because our relationship with God; our reconciliation; our salvation; our well-being is dependent upon God's initiative, not our own.
    Because God loves us so much, He determined to save. Doing things our own way got us into trouble in the first place; now we must surrender our stubborn wills to Him as we follow Him in the way of life.
    God has not left any of the details for us to work out on our own. He has provided richly for our salvation. Our part of the equation is to trust and obey and follow. The priorities of God are alien to this world.
    Expounding on the mystery of salvation, God himself tells the prophet Isaiah that "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9).

SALVATION IN CHRIST: STILL HIS WAY!
    The bottom line is that when it comes to your relationship with God; when it comes to your salvation, God has not left it open to human creativity. It is God's work from beginning to end. Coming to the New Testament, we find out that the Tabernacle, in all of its glorious detail and marvel was itself merely a picture; a type; a foreshadowing of a greater salvation that God would bring bear on the world. There is no longer a Tabernacle made of colorful fabric. The Temple in Jerusalem with all of its ritual sacrifices is no more. They served their purpose, and that purpose was to point to an indescribable, marvelous salvation to come.

    The book of Revelation tries to describe it:

"And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life." (Rev. 21:22-27).

    The greater salvation is none other than Jesus Christ. God becoming one of us in every way save sin. But, just as both the worship of both the Tabernacle and the Jerusalem Temple eschewed personal, human creativity; so the Son of God creates, sustains and brings to completion our salvation. It's not up to us to make it up as we go along. It's not up to us to do whatever we feel is right. It's not our prerogative to cut and paste when it comes to God's expectations for us.
    Just as there was exclusivity in the way that the Tabernacle and Temple ministries were presented; just so, there is an exclusivity about Jesus, His mission and ministry to the world. (Of course, John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 are explicit examples of this parallel to the OT ministrations.) Jesus and His Call is every bit as demanding, exacting and precise as the structures and rituals that pointed so gloriously to His coming!
    And this is something that bothers us profoundly. You see, deep down, we want to belt out the lyrics to our national anthem: "I planned each charted course; each careful step along the byway, but more, much more than this, I did it my way. Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew when I bit off more than I could chew. But through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall; and did it my way."
    Every fiber in our mortal bodies longs to sing this song. We yearn to throw off everything that would make a demand upon our lives.

    A few months ago at a retreat with some fellow Presbyterian ministers, I was going through the dinner line, and I hadn't washed my hands. One of my colleagues knew that and looked at me in a reprimanding way. I smiled weakly and said, off the top of my head, "Dirty hands; pure heart."
    He furrowed his brow and looked even more serious, not buying it. Quickly I realized that, in truth it was, "Dirty hands and dirty heart!"
    This deep down rebelliousness in each one of our hearts is perhaps why Presbyterians in general are more reluctant than most Evangelicals to sing existential, clappy-happy, "I love Jesus" praise songs endlessly, or perhaps more accurately, to the point, singing them uncritically.
    We know instinctively about the great antithesis of the Christian life: Our still dark hearts remain, even if they are in the throes of death as sanctification progresses. There is still in every Believer, a strong propensity to want to still do things our own way, all the time!
    At the same time, and we all know it well, God expects us to do things His way! He calls us in Jesus Christ; but He provides in the power of the Holy Spirit; and we're blessed always and finally to respond.

BRIEF CONCLUDING SEGUE TO COMMUNION
    That is why you will, in a few minutes, come to the Table that your Lord, at the cost of His own life has prepared for you. I invite you to come with no preconditions; no demands; no agendas. So don't be double-minded, this is not your dinner to host. You are a guest!
    May, indeed, our lives reflect this graciousness of God, as in all things, we do things His way.

Amen.