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Disaster movies have a number of common themes. One of those is that a hero will always seek to provide safety to a character who is in fearful need. In a towering inferno the hero’s command might be, “Stay with me. I won’t let anything happen to you.” These words are a source of great comfort in times of trouble. “Stay with me” are words that Jesus also uses quite famously in the fifteenth chapter of John. “Remain in me” he tells his closest followers. He tells them this remaining is to be their new way of life. This weekend, we will have the opportunity to celebrate the way of Jesus, a way full of hope, love and blessing.

You’ve likely heard the well-worn story of the mom whose little boy has been playing with some friends in the family room. He comes into her home office and asks, “Mom, where did I come from?” She realizes that this is it, the moment she’s been dreading. Her next thought is, “Where is his father? I shouldn’t have to do this!” Then, with a quick prayer, she takes a breath and begins a tentative, careful explanation of birds and bees and daddies and mommies and big tummies and the neighbor’s cat when it had kittens and anything else that might possibly help her dear son in this important moment. Her son listens intently. When she pauses he says, “I know that, mom. But, Johnny just told me he comes from Philadelphia so I want to know where I come from.”

We are concluding a sermon series today titled “Where We Go from Here.” In order to shed light on that, we need to take note of where we came from in order to get to the place we are. We have come through almost two years of discovery and decisions. These discoveries and decisions were related to what was out of focus or broken in our ministry. The prevailing question was, “Are we accomplishing our mission?” With each discovery came the decision to do whatever it would take to help us regain focus, to re-build better behaviors so we could more full accomplish our mission to be disciples who make disciples and release them into our broken world. As we waded into those turbulent waters of discovery and decision, concern and uncertainty began to take hold that resulted in greater and greater distrust and dismay among many of us. The most dramatic moments unfolded as our senior pastor chose to resign and later asked the congregation to reject that resignation. A vast majority of our congregation did reject Glenn’s resignation and our presbytery concurred with that vote. Glenn has been back with us since that time.

That next weekend we began this series. We began with “The Place Called Reality”. I challenged us to consider that we were like dry bones before God and in relation to each other and that we needed to do whatever it would take for God to bring us back together and breathe new life into us. Over the next three weeks, the rest of our preaching team gave us the opportunity to walk forward in humility, repentance and forgiveness with God and each other. I’ve experienced some of the fruit of those messages. I’ve had people come to me and ask forgiveness for harboring bad feelings, thoughts and attitudes and for words expressed in anger. I’ve been prompted to go to people and ask forgiveness for any sin, any perception of sin and any pain I’ve unduly caused. I know of others who have done the same. In these last two weeks, we have been reminded to live in hope and to fulfill the call to love one another. I’m grateful for every way we have been living into God’s best.

So, that’s a summary of how we got here, to this room on this day during this hour. The question now remains, “Where do we go from here?”

I grew up with a keen sense of adventure as my buddies and I explored woods, climbed trees, scrambled along river banks and played neighborhood-wide make believe games where heroes always won the day. I’m sure TV shows and movies helped spur us on. Adventure carried over into my day dreams. When we drove through the Smokey Mountains on trips to see family in Tennessee, I imagined myself a Daniel Boone or a Davey Crockett, moving into new frontiers. When I entered cub scouts and then boy scouts, all those day dreams became more real with uniforms, tracking, orienteering, camping and hiking. Just holding my copy of the Fieldbook for Men and Boys thrilled me because I knew hidden within that book was all the information I would need to be fully prepared for every adventure to come.

It was somewhere in those boyhood years that I first heard about the Appalachian Trail signified with this symbol, the “AT”. The trail is our nation’s longest marked footpath that stretches over 2,100 miles from Georgia to Maine. Its highest elevation is Clingman’s Dome in Tennessee and the lowest elevation is in the town of Bear Mountain, New York. I heard about those who set out as thru-hikers, walking each of the five million steps needed to go the distance in one four to seven month trek. This possibility grabbed me. I considered the Appalachians my mountains. I knew them. I camped on their slopes. I rode through them on winding roads with my family. To spend time on the AT was a dream that I longed to fulfill.

When I took my first position as pastor in the role of associate of youth ministry, I discovered that that church had a tradition of a fall hike each year. Guess where. Yes, on the Appalachian Trail! Adults and high school students would drive up into north Georgia. After staying at a cabin overnight all the hikers would be dropped off at the starting point for the section to be hiked that year and then hike twelve to sixteen miles before walking into camp for the night. These were just day hikes, but for me it was glorious. With every step I would marvel that I was actually getting the privilege and joy of hiking part of the trail of which I had only dreamed.

Isn’t that what church life should be? Isn’t that what our life together as a congregation should be? God provides relationship with himself and with a community of fellow travelers. This adventure of living by faith is a journey of ups and downs, challenges and accomplishments, failure and success. And through it all, the bible tells us there will be increasing evidence of God having his way with us as we submit ourselves to him. The evidence comes in increasing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. For years as zpc, we have affirmed ways of living with God and each other by six marks: a heart for Christ alone, a mind transformed by the word, arms of love, knees for prayer, a voice to speak the good news and a spirit of servanthood and stewardship. Jesus summed all this up in just three words: “Come, follow me.”

When one steps onto the Appalachian Trail, one has gone from knowing about the trail to actually living it. So, too, every one of us has come within the reach of God who loves us and values us. We had a longing for God. We heard about God. We had the opportunity to know that God is real and that we can come into his presence into a relationship with him. Many of us have received his invitation to step into this adventure and yielded ourselves through Jesus. This path, this adventure is not one I would want you to miss. So, if you know you have not joined God in this life of faith, I invite you to do so right now by saying something like this to God: “I need forgiveness. I want life. I yield myself to you through Jesus.”

So, we now stand on this path. Here’s what the AT looks like through most of the sections I have walked through North Georgia starting at Springer Mt. and stretching on beyond the North Carolina border. At this time of year things are beginning to green up to look just like this. Now, as zpc, we stand on a path. We have been so troubled in our relationship with God and with each other. Where do we go from here?

It’s a question that was dramatically on the minds of Jesus’ closest followers on one particular, confusing night. I invite you to open your bibles or the bibles provided for you to John chapter 14. If you are using one of our bibles, you’ll find this text on page 1067. While you are looking up this text, let me tell you what’s already happened during that evening so far. Jesus and the twelve disciples have gathered in Jerusalem in a house prepared for their observance of the Passover feast. Jesus has done a really bizarre thing by washing their feet, taking the role of the lowliest of servants. Peter, one of the twelve, pushes back about that. During the meal, Jesus tells them once again that he’s going to die. They hate it when he says things like this. He’s told them that one of them will betray him. “No way!” they think. One of them takes off into the night. Peter assures Jesus he will never leave him and Jesus tells him he will actually deny he even knows Jesus before this very night is over. They are more troubled than ever before.  

Now I’ll read John 14, starting at verse 1 as you follow along. Remember this is God’s holy word. [Read John 14:1-6.]

Many people long for something only a relationship with God can satisfy. Many people have heard of God and have sought some aspect of god-life in order to find the gnawing emptiness sated. But longing for it and hearing about it is not the same as standing in the relationship itself. Knowing of the AT is one thing. Standing on the trail is another. So, it is with God. Jesus says not only that there is a way to God but that he is the way and that we can find life in him. But, it is not enough to stand on the trail, to receive the life only Jesus brings. We must live that life. We must walk the trail. You see, the way is not only a route from where we are to where God will take us. It is a way of living on that way. That way of living is characterized by Jesus as the way of truth and life. Eugene Peterson describes it in these words: “The Jesus way wedded to the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life. We can’t proclaim the Jesus truth but then do it any old way we like. Nor can we follow the Jesus way without speaking the Jesus truth.” (The Jesus Way, p. 4)

I’ve never met Bruce Nelson, but I’d like to. Bruce was a firefighter from Alaska when he started his thru-hike of the AT in 2001. According to Bruce, less than 15% of the people who commit to a thru-hike, actually finish. Vast numbers of hikers find they get too homesick, discouraged or disillusioned. Many have the mental drive but suffer injuries that preclude their finishing. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% drop out by the time they reach Neal's Gap, only 30 miles from the start of the trail.  

Bruce found that there were six “common characteristics of successful thru-hikers”:

• The greatest is an unshakable dedication to completing a thru-hike
• Confidence in, and knowledge of, themselves,
• The ability to maintain good morale in tough conditions,
• Decent physical condition, no major problems with knees, ankles, backs, feet or hips,
• Good judgment: knowing when to push and when to rest, etc.
• Outdoor experience

As challenging as thru-hiking the AT is, it has nothing on being a lifelong learner of Jesus. Borrowing from Bruce’s AT list, being a follower of Jesus takes

• Unshakable dedication [to complete the journey]
• Confidence and knowledge [not only of oneself but of God]
• Good morale [encouragement in tough conditions]
• Spiritual Conditioning
• Good judgment [about pacing, when to push and when to rest]
• Jesus Experience [which builds one moment to the next as we live in Jesus]

Following Jesus is arduous. Remember how troubled the disciples were that night at supper? That was nothing compared with what would unfold the rest of that night as they left the house, walked through the streets, crossed the valley and went up to the garden of Gethsemane. Troubles would pile up as Jesus was arrested and his followers fled for their lives. It puts in sharp relief those simple words of their rabbi: “Come, follow me.” “I am the way.” When I led trips on the AT, I could put myself at the head of the line of some three dozen hikers and say, “Follow me.” With guidebook and map in hand, I could get us to our destination. So, every hiker could walk on with some confidence in me. In reality we were all in the same position. Any of us could lead and it was our habit to change leaders frequently on the trail. We were all relying on the layout of the trail, the blazes on trees, the guidebook, the map, individual intuition and collective reasoning to get us through.  

When Jesus says, “Follow me,” it is totally different. Where we go from here has to be the way of Jesus. It’s not about my way or your way or zpc’s way because our ways will always get us off the path. We must surrender to Jesus, to allow him his way with us. Individually and corporately the way must constantly be the way of humility, repentance, forgiveness, hope and love. Words attributed to the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick, affirm our reliance on Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. Look at these words and read them quietly to yourself. Please read these words with me.

 Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

It is all about surrendering constantly to Jesus so that every word, action, thought and attitude is increasingly like Jesus. Here, Peterson is insightful once again as he writes, “Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life.” (page 7)

So, where do we go from here as we follow the Jesus way?

1. Now is the time to yield all that we know of ourselves to all that we know of God.
2. Now is the time to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
3. Now is the time to love each other and honor each other like God requires.
4. Now is the time to root ourselves in Jesus. The next two weeks celebrate this Jesus and his mission through Palm Sunday and Easter. And then, we will start a deep look at the way of Jesus as we study the book of Ephesians here in worship for the rest of the year.
5. Now is the time to mend what is broken, to affirm what is whole, to assist each other on the way and to give ourselves fully to the trail ahead, following Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life.  

There’s one image to which I invite our attention once again. It is the AT blaze for the Appalachian Trail. I offer it to us for our journey as zpc. For the “A” think “all” as in all of me into all of God. For the “T” think “today” as in each day, fresh and new for the rest of our lives. “AT”, “all, today.”

Let us pray.