Rock On
The
Yorktown United
Pastor Roy Grubbs
June 1, 2008
Exodus 17:1-7
3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Psalm 46
Although this past week was full of exciting
and glorious events, I was worried. I
had many “firsts” this past week: Offering
the Prayer of Invocation at the Mercy College Graduation in
This is a story as told by Wade Martin
Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
This is a story about a weak sickly man.
The man was so sick and he could not afford going to town to the doctor.
The man lived in the deep back woods in an old log cabin, his condition seemed
to grow worse.
Out in front of his cabin was a huge boulder.
The rock was massive in front of his place.
One night in a very real vision, God told him to go out there and push the huge
rock all day long, day after day.
The man got up early in the morning, and with great excitement he pushed the
rock until lunch,
then he rested a while and pushed the rock until supper time.
The man loved pushing against the rock, it gave him meaning.
The dream was so real that it was with great excitement he pushed against the
rock.
Day after day he pushed. Day rolled into week, and week into months, he
faithfully pushed against the rock.
After 8 months of pushing the rock, the weak sickly man was getting tired of
pushing the rock so much, in his tiredness he started to doubt his dream.
So one day he measured from his porch to the rock, and after daily pushing the
rock, he would measure to see how much he had moved the rock.
After two weeks of pushing and measuring, he realized he had not moved the
boulder even 1/32 of an inch!
As a matter of fact, the boulder was in the
same place as when he started.
The man was so disappointed; he thought the dream was so special. Now
after 9 months he saw his work had accomplished nothing, he was tired and his
dream seemed dashed upon the rock.
The man sat on his porch and cried and cried, he had invested many hundred hours
into nothing. Nothing, it was all nothing!
As the sun was sitting in the west, Jesus came and sat down next to the man as
he cried.
Jesus said, "Son, why are you crying?"
The man replied, "Lord, You know how sick and weak I am, and then this dumb
dream gave me a false hope and I have pushed with all that was within me for
over 9 months, and that dumb old rock is right where it was when I
started."
Jesus was kind and said to him, "I never told you to move the rock, I told
you to push against the rock."
The man replied, "Yes, Sir, that was the dream."
Jesus told the man to step in front of the mirror and look at himself.
As an act of obedience the man stepped in front of a mirror and looked.
He was amazed! He had been so sickly
and weak, and what he saw in the mirror was a strong muscular man. The man
realized that he had not been coughing at all at night.
So he started thinking of how well he felt for several months and the strength
that he had built by pushing on the rock.
Then the man realized that the plan of God was not for the rock, but for the
man.
God provides; we just need to be patient and trust.
Coming out of this week, I feel wonderful. God
saw mw through all my “firsts” and now I can celebrate.
Even though it seemed like just too much, God whispered to me, guiding me
through each task, one at a time. And
this is how it is for each one of us.
By the side of the Road of Life, God sets
road signs. Some advertise God in
silent witness…as the whispering wind in the beauty of Creation.
Others point the way, cueing us to the Spirit we need, to the love of the
Living Lord, Jesus Christ.
Time turns taking us where we should not
choose to go. Suddenly we pass a
point where we will never pass again. Turning
points interrupt us – there must be some mistake!
Looking back we see them for what they really are:
bittersweet raw reality, breakthrough to beatitude bedrock that gives us
courage to give ourselves away. The
less we struggle with turning points, the greater the strength remaining to
return and turn again.
We are always starting over.
We are always beginning again. Something
within us or about us changes: it is time to be moving on.
Change is seldom easy. On our
journey, what if the phone rings? We
get a call; Jesus is calling us to change direction?
We head down a different road. A
familiar life-style slips and familiar scenery disappears and nothing is the
same. We hit roadblocks; we
encounter detours. Sometimes we
enter into a patch of fog where it becomes difficult to see where we are going.
Where shall we turn?
There is a wonderful hymn in The Faith We Sing that provides our answer.
The lyrics are beautiful, written by Herman Steumpfle, Jr.
It is #2137 – Would I Have Answered When You Called.
Would I have answered when you called,
“Come follow, follow me?” Would
I at once have left behind both work and family?
Or would the old, familiar round have held me by its claim and kept the
spark within my heart from bursting into flame?
Would I have followed where you led through
ancient
Would I have matched my step with yours when
crowds cried, “Crucify!” when on a rocky hill I saw a cross against the sky?
Or would I too have slipped away and left you there alone, a dying king
with crown of thorns upon a terrible throne?
O Christ, I cannot search my heart through
all its tangled ways, nor can I with a certain mind my steadfastness appraise.
I only pray that when you call, “Come follow me, follow me!” you’ll
give me strength beyond my own to follow faithfully.
Christ is our Rock and our Redeemer.
Let us trust the voice that calls us, even when we don’t understand.
Let us push on our Rock, feel the strength Christ provides and drink from
the Living Water that brings us the fullness of life.
Amen.