On Your Faith Journey, Check the Signs

Here is the sermon I preached on May 15. I had shared with the congregation that I would post the sermon and then offer suggestions on how to connect more readily with God on a daily basis as we sought to discover his signs in the world around us. Please read through the sermon and then come back in a couple of days for the suggestions! God bless!

Scripture – John 20:1-10

Today’s Bible story is one of the Easter resurrection stories of Jesus. It’s the story of how two of the disciples responded to the women’s information that they found the tomb open and the body of Jesus gone. As we study this story I want to stress two lessons – First, the importance of looking for God-given signs around us, and second, the necessity of being smart enough to recognize them when they show up.

To illustrate that let me return to some lessons I learned while hiking the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago. Just a reminder, Peggy and I, Paula and Joe Sedita hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon – to the Colorado River – to Phantom Ranch - and then back out. The first trail – down - was 7 ½ miles long and took us 7 ½ hours to complete. The second trail – out – was about 9 miles long and took us 11 hours to complete.

Here are two lessons we learned as we prepared for and participated in the trip:

1. Look for the signs along the way that help you navigate the trail safely.

2. Be smart enough to know what the signs mean.

Here’s what I mean. Peggy and Paula did a lot of investigation about the trails before we ever began. They did their homework. A part of that was to be sure we knew what signs to expect along the way. For example there were the warning signs. Over 430 rescues happen there each year mostly because people ignore the warning signs.

Then there are the preparedness signs that describe just how difficult a trail will be and what you should do and take to be well prepared. I’m an old Boy Scout – an Eagle Scout. Our Motto is “Be prepared”.

Then there are the less obvious signs that you learn mean a great deal. For example, a human built rock edging tells you to stay back.  Or a switchback in the trail is there to advise you NOT to seek another way up and out of the canyon.

Then there are some signs that you come upon that put the fear of God in you – like this one. Why is this area called Skeleton Point? I’ve researched it and could not find out. But it does make you stop and think that you better be more careful then you have been up to this point!

Anyway trail signs are meant to help you navigate the path more efficiently and safely. The signs along the journey of life are meant to do the same thing. Those signs are many and abound in our lives.

We have obvious signs like stop signs that help us best navigate the roads. Then there are the signs that come from every day interactions with others. A pat on the back is the sign of encouragement.

A mother holding tightly to a child’s hand as they cross the street is a sign to the child that safety is important here. A piece of parchment in the hands of a high school senior is the sign that they have successfully completed their youth school years and are now moving forward into adulthood and a career or college.

There are signs all along the path of life. Some of the most important are those we discover along the journey of faith. I hope you take time regularly to look for the signs of God in your everyday travels through faith. They are all around us.

For example walking the Grand Canyon: One of the reasons it took us so long to walk down and back was because we kept stopping to see God in the cracks, and crevasse, and rocks of that beautiful place. I don’t know how people can look out upon something as massive as that and NOT think that there is a creator God who started the whole thing in motion.

The evidence of God is everywhere. You just have to decide to go looking for it. Our Bible story is a wonderful example of that. Peter and John receive word from the women who went to the tomb early that the stone door had been rolled away and the body of Jesus was missing. These two men go to see for themselves. The scripture tells us that they went, investigated, and walked away believing.

They went looking for signs of Jesus and they found them in some most unexpected ways. Here are two that have changed the face of the world. First, they went looking for a body but only found the funeral shroud. That was a sign that the body of Jesus had not been stolen. You see no one would have removed the body from the shroud if they were stealing it. In those days, you would never to touch a dead body directly or you would have been considered “Unclean”. EXPLAIN.

So, a sign of the resurrection was that Jesus didn’t need the death cloths anymore! And then there is the wonderful part of the story about the napkin – the cloth that had covered Jesus head. Notice that it wasn’t just casually discarded like the rest of the shroud. It was neatly folded and placed off to the side, away for the rest of the stuff.

Tradition tells us the story that any good servant coming out of a “master” led home would understand the significance of the folded linen napkin or cloth:

(In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.

When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished. Now if the master was done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.

The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, 'I'm done'. But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because.......... The folded napkin meant, 'I'm coming back!’)

Did the folded napkin in the tomb mean the same thing? The resurrected Lord was coming back!

I love that story! Now, if this story is accurate or not it’s hard to tell. There is no concrete evidence that this was indeed a Jewish custom. BUT for some reason or another it was a sign to Peter. Why it was folded and set off to the side, only Jesus and the disciples know. But there were enough signs in the tomb that day to make it evident that Jesus had risen from the dead.

There would have been no need to even write about the napkin if it weren’t significant to the Gospel writer John. And that’s good enough for me.

Look what John writes a few paragraphs later: In verse 30 – “The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.”

NOW, Going back to the beginning of my sermon I said that there are two lessons here. The first is LOOK for the signs. The second is KNOW what they mean. The disciples went looking for signs of Jesus and they found them. Not only that, they understood the signs because they had learned from Jesus how to interpret them.

Now these 2,000 years later the lessons are the same. We must continue to look for the signs of God at work in our lives, and we must be smart enough to understand them well. How do we do this?

Two ways - Look and study! First, look for the signs of God all around you. I’ve said it in the past – Most of us have forgotten how to look for the signs of God and Christ in our everyday lives. We spend way too much time looking at our calendars and our clocks instead.

We spend too little time looking for God as he journeys right beside us along the way.

The Bible says:  Psalm 19:1 The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
      The skies display his craftsmanship.
 2 Day after day they continue to speak;
      night after night they make him known.

Psalm 121:1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
   where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
   the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 8:1 O Lord, our Lord,
      your greatness is seen in all the world!
   Your praise reaches up to the heavens;
 3 When I look at the sky, which you have made,
      at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places,
 4 what are human beings, that you think of them;
      mere mortals, that you care for them?

 5 Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;
      you crowned them with glory and honor.
 9 O Lord, our Lord,
      your greatness is seen in all the world!

 Do you ever see God there? Do you ever take much time to look for him?

Look, that’s lesson #1-  but then also study (lesson #2). God and I have an awesome connectedness at the waters edge. There is a wonderful sense of companionship for us when he and I get off together overlooking the Gulf of Mexico for example. I experienced that same connectedness hiking through the Grand Canyon.

Why? Because I have spent much time studying him in the midst of his creation. I find him there because I expect to see him in the glory of his created world. If you don’t open the Bible, or a good Christian book that teaches you about the glory of God you won’t know what to look for. You will miss out on God.

And so many of you miss out on God. You know, I can only stand up here in the pulpit and give you advice. That’s my job. I can only hope that you take some of it – and this is some of the simplest I could give:

1.) Go looking for the signs of God in the everyday activities of your life.

2.) Study the things of God so that the signs will be easier to recognize.

This next week I’m going to post this sermon on our website WITH some suggestions on how to do 1 and 2. I hope you will check it out and practice seeking God more fully in this thing we call “the journey of life”!

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