George A. Mason Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost Wilshire Baptist Church 22 November 2020 Third in a series, Start to Finish Dallas, Texas “Start to FINISH” Joshua 3:14-17; 2 Corinthians 8:9-15

It’s an iconic moment in Then, Walk the word of God. And adventure movie history in finally, the father says, Only Indiana Jones and the Last believe, boy, only believe. And Crusade . Indy’s father lies ill as with that, Indy steps off the his son faces three tests to get to ledge into the void and his foot the last brother who fought to lands on an invisible bridge that protect the Holy Grail. In the first comes suddenly into view. He is test, he must internalize able to walk across safely. humility, as only the penitent shall pass. He kneels just in the The spiritual journey is one test nick of time as the boobytrapped of faith after another. It’s a way sword and wheel strike above of life in which we have to take his head. In the second, he must the risk of trusting God to be follow the path of the word of faithful. And sometimes the path God. He steps on the stones that itself does not become clear until spell out the name of God— we commit to it. JEHOVAH, but crucially with an I for the J in Latin. Finally, he We have come to the third and comes to a great chasm that he final sermon in our three-week cannot cross. It will take a leap of stewardship series I have called faith if he is to pass. Start to Finish . The life of faith begins by making a start— In the beautiful direction of the committing ourselves to a course movie, we see in each case his that God is calling us to. It father—played impeccably by continues by fighting through the late Sean Connery (a the challenges of the in-between moment of silence, please)— times along the way. And it whisper the words that Indy concludes with perseverance to seems to hear in his head and the end, wherein we will be repeat as he makes his way. It’s a saved. hint toward trinitarian theology: the father speaks, the spirit It would be nice to find that communicates the words to the things would get easier the son, and the son obeys the word. further you get in the spiritual First, Only the penitent shall pass. journey, that starting is the hardest part. But alas, it turns have stepped out before them as out the challenges get greater as God commanded. we get stronger. Of course, the good news is that we will have Where do you find yourself in banked experiences of God’s your spiritual journey with God? faithfulness to help us finish. Maybe you’re just starting out, because you are young and just We have used the story of the becoming aware of the call of children of Israel to guide us. God and the claim of Christ upon The first week we saw them your life. Or you got a late start, make a start as they trusted God and you are still learning what it to lead them out of slavery in means to be a Jesus follower. Egypt and God parted the waters You are just doing the next right of the Reed Sea—what we thing as Princess Anna says in normally call the Red Sea. Last Frozen 2 . Or maybe you find week we saw how God provided yourself in the middle of your quail and manna in the life with Christ. You’ve made a wilderness when the people ran start, maybe you’ve joined our out of food. They learned they church and are trying to find could trust God to see them your way around. It could be through when things got tough. that the challenges of family or finances, work or health have Now, this week we see them at you struggling to trust God in another body of water, the this in-between stage when Jordan River. On the other side is disillusionment sets in and it all the Promised Land. It’s flood feels so hard. Could be that our tide. The waters are high, and COVID restrictions have you they cannot cross. The priests feeling cut off. Or, maybe you are told to carry the ark of the have come a long way in your covenant into the waters, and Christian life, and you are when they do, the waters recede looking at the finish line and the and stand up from their source, temptation to pull back and play forming a wall of water on one it safe is ever present. You have side as the waters did when they tried to do the right thing along left Egypt 40 years earlier. The the way, and you wonder if it’s people have to believe that the time to look out for yourself, to waters will hold. They step into limit your engagement with the waters on dry land and cross others, to save instead of give. safely, only after their leaders

2 That last point is tough for many whether we are in a time of woe of us. While financial or weal, as they say, of poverty stewardship is only one aspect of or prosperity: we have to give our spiritual journey, it is generously because the health of inseparable from it. What you soul requires it. Our relationship and I do with our money is a to God depends upon whether clear indicator of the condition we prove that we are depending of our hearts before God. upon God. When we give, we make room for God to prove In 2 Corinthians 8, a passage we God’s faithfulness to us. have looked to each week now for how to think about our The other aspect is giving, we see that the Christians congregational. We live in in Corinth had made a start in covenant together to fulfill God’s collecting an offering for famine mission through our church. The relief of fellow Christians in church doesn’t receive money Jerusalem. We don’t know what from some Baptist headquarters got them stalled out, but as the or some Baptist hedge fund. We apostle put it: It is appropriate only have the church we decide for you who began last year not to have by the level of our giving. only to do something but even to Every year it’s an act of faith. desire to do something— now You and I do what we feel finish doing it, so that your spiritually compelled to do. And eagerness may be matched by when we add it up at the end of completing it according to your the year and take away our means. costs, we hope to break even. It’s a race to the finish every year. I know some of you look forward And during COVID, the stakes to these sermons every year could not be higher. about as much as a root canal, but apparently even the early Finishing a race brings back a church needed reminding to painful personal memory for me. give. So, you’re in good company, I have run one marathon in my don’t you know?! life—the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D. C. This body There are two aspects to this: wasn’t meant for long-distance the personal and the running. Sorry to state the congregational. It doesn’t matter obvious. I was 50-years old and what is going on the world, probably trying to prove

3 something to myself, especially the way. You may feel spent, since the year before I had my embarrassed and defeated by second heart procedure in five not having done what you set years. I trained the best I could. out to do. Some of you made a And I did fine for about the first plan last year to give a certain 10 miles. By mile 19 I was on my amount to the Unified Budget knees throwing up my guts. I and to help us finish the thought I had nothing left. But Pathways Endowment Fund goal my training partner was running that will keep our residency with me, along with her son who program going in the years was a Marine. They slowed down ahead. Let me channel the to coax me along, sacrificing Apostle Paul for a moment with their own better times to see me you: finish what you started. finish. Kim, Rhett, Cameron and Don’t focus on where you’ve her husband Garrett were there been or where you are. Keep too, following along and your eyes on the finish line. shouting encouragement. Know that we are cheering you on. You can do it. There was no way I was going to quit, no way I was going to I heard a speaker this week at disappoint them or myself. the fall convocation of Perkins When I crossed the finish line School of Theology at SMU, and ended up on a cot in a tent which was put on by our own with cramps in my calves and a Priscilla Pope-Levison. The poet bruised ego to boot, I mostly felt David Whyte was transitioning let down by the experience. I had from one secure job to being a hoped it would be a boost for the fulltime poet and he confessed to second half of my life. But a Benedictine monk how tired he looking back, it wasn’t the time was doing both jobs at once. on the clock that mattered so Brother David Steindl-Rast said much as the fact that I overcame these important words to him: defeat and finished. And it was “The opposite of exhaustion is unlikely that I would have not rest; it is wholeheartedness.” finished if it weren’t for the fact that I had a community of I would remind you of the same support alongside. in your Christian life and in your Christian stewardship. Don’t Friends, some of you have seek relief through rest, set your started to give and stalled along whole heart on finishing what

4 you have started.

You can’t finish if you never start. So, start to finish. You can’t finish if you quit sometime after you start. So, start to finish. You can’t finish if you don’t finish. So, today I urge you to start to FINISH. Amen.

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