Leadership Moves Forward—Gen. 50: 14-24; John 14: 1-6
As we wrap up our series, Christian Leadership in Present Times, we reflect a little today on what it means to move forward—on why our lives and successes depend on us living into God’s future instead of fading into the struggles of the past. Back home, there is a saying. Now, I cannot find the origin of this, but I know I heard it growing up once or twice, but then, you hear a lot growing up in Appalachia. Here’s the saying, “You’ve got to get on with the gettin’ on.” Leadership moves forward because, as we learned from Lot’s wife last week, forward is really the only way to go.
In our Old Testament today we arrive near the end of Joseph’s life. His father, Jacob, has died, and the fear of the past has fallen heavy on Joseph’s brothers. If you recall the story of Joseph, his brothers plotted to kill him out of anger and jealousy. However, in a last-minute decision, they sold him into slavery instead. Trial and tribulation haunted Joseph as he went from slave, to Potiphar’s honored servant, to prisoner, to the King of Egypt’s most trusted leader. If anyone had a reason to dwell on past wrongs in his life, it was Joseph.
His brothers understood this as well. In their minds, Joseph was biding his time until he sought revenge for what they had done to him. What we learn about Joseph, though, is that he was truly a strong leader. He had moved forward, followed the presence of God, and gotten on with the getting on of life. He had truly forgiven his brother’s sin against him and believed they were in a good relationship together. The brothers took every precaution trying to make sure Joseph wouldn’t destroy them. You might even miss it, but they went back to their old, deceitful tricks sending him manipulative messages allegedly from his father in order to manipulate Joseph’s grace towards them.
Joseph had moved on and found hope and success. His brothers still lived in the guilt of the past. They could not forgive themselves, and in turn they could not believe in Joseph’s forgiveness either. There are many times Joseph weeps in the Genesis story—for fear, sadness, relief. But here, Joseph weeps in grief for his brothers. They were trapped by the guilt of their past, and it cost them the joy found in Joseph’s forgiveness and the hope found in God’s forgiveness.
We all struggle with this idea of “you’ve got to get on with the gettin’ on.” The other day someone sent me a joke that said, “When I was a child, I thought piranhas and quicksand were going to be more of an issue as an adult.” Laying aside what we see in adventure movies, I would suggest that quicksand is actually a big problem, but not exactly like you think. For many of us, our past is a quicksand of sorts. We become mired and bogged down in guilt, in grief, in hopelessness, in anger at wrongs against us. We get stuck and cannot get on with the gettin’ on. There’s an old quote said in a variety of ways, but my favorite is this, “The past is a nice place to visit, but certainly not a place to stay.”
Into this struggle, this figurative quicksand comes Jesus with a rope to pull us out and keep us moving forward. Too often, I think we sit and debate the meaning of today’s scripture in John. Is Jesus the way, a way, the only way, which way, and now the thought’s gone away. Don’t overcomplicate it. When Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” it’s not a theological essay, it’s an invitation to you and me who may be stuck in the quicksand or setting up residence in the past never to move forward.
This is what Jesus offers us: a way forward, the truth of God’s grace, and life both here and hereafter. Jesus is there to help you get on with the gettin’ on in life. You may have major points of life that haunt you—failures that you live with, abuse and trauma that lingers, addictions that pull you back down over and over, spiritual abuses by manipulative church leaders, dark secrets and dull aches that seem to arise at the most inconvenient times and when you think everything is okay in life.
There’s help—professional, medical, spiritual, and otherwise. If there are deep-rooted issues, don’t go it alone. There is no shame in seeking help. But also remember that every step forward into your future, Jesus walks with you showing the way forward, revealing the truth that God loves you and offers grace without condemnation, and that life here and forever is a gift from God that we should take full advantage of.
We cannot stay in the past, whether it’s suffering that won’t let go, nostalgia that lures us back like Lot’s wife to Sodom and Gomorrah, or spinning our wheels here and now. There’s a temptation to believe that things were better in the past, and it’s just more comfortable there. Maybe it is. But that robs us of the future God is calling us to and the present God is gifting us now. Don’t sacrifice where God is leading you—the way, the truth, and the life—for a fond memory in the distance. The future may be hard, but God has called us to move forward, but in that has promised to be with us each mile of the journey. My Nanna sometimes says, “I don’t recognize this world very much anymore.” But even in that tension of so much new and changing, she still sends me Facebook messages from her own Facebook.
We have to adapt, move forward, get on with the gettin’ on. Sometimes that looks like forgiveness for wrongs done to us like Joseph. Sometimes that looks like letting go of our own faults and failures and embracing God’s grace like the brothers. Sometimes that looks like growing and adapting to change even when we’re just not sure. In any case, God calls us to move forward and promises to be with us, for great is God’s faithfulness unto us. All throughout the Bible people are on the move—travelling to the promised land, returning to rebuild Jerusalem, following Jesus around Judea, or as Paul taking long missionary trips. God leads each one of us forward with a calling, a hope, and a promise of God’s powerful presence.
Joseph is the example of one who forgave, who moved on and followed God. In the end, God brought him through full of hope and joy. His brothers, however, could not leave their past behind, and seem to have suffered their entire lives for it. Friends, God forgives, God heals, and God walks with us. Jesus is the way forward, the truth of grace, and the life of hope and promise. As the old hymn says, “Yes, I feel like travelin’ on, oh I feel like travelin’ on. The Lord has been so good to me, yes I feel like travelin’ on.” We walk with God, whose faithfulness unto us is so great, and who gives us strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. So let us get on with the gettin’ on.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/120519616643475