What New Land?

I'm using the following text for this Sunday's sermon...

Beyond the Hills
by Rev. Samuel H. Miller

What lies beyond the hills?

Restless hearts, pilgrim feet -- these cannot be restrained from finding out.

Whatever is beyond the hills tingles in the air, and, like a far off trumpet call, hangs in the bright silence of the sky, easily heard despite the noise of trade and the shouts of busy men.

Once heard, the ear cannot forget, the eyes will look beyond the things they see, and the soul will stand and wait on tireless tip-toe for the first word of faith.

For such [people], the ruts and routines of what has already been established cannot be home. Their spirits are marked with the sign of Him who created the earth out of nothing, and the power of that image will give them strength to forfeit everything for the new life.

Beyond the hills -- beyond this rim of habit, this solid circle of established repetition, this rampart that hems us in and makes us safe, is there a land waiting to be “opened up”?

Or is the bulwark so high or so mighty that we shall not hear the silver spears of trumpets shattering the sky, or that hearing we shall not have the courage to go despite uncertainty and peril?

Unless a man loses his life, shall he find it?

from What Child is This: Reading and Prayers for Advent/Christmas by Samuel H. Miller

If this is not a call to transformative ministry, I don't know what is. What land waits for us beyond the hills, tingling in the air? And do we have the courage to go?

Sometimes I am afraid I do not. Sometimes I am entirely sure I do not. But every time I read this, it calls me more strongly to task.

This is not about roads diverging in a yellow wood. The way to life abundant does not lay neatly paved before us, if we would only choose correctly. This is about forging a new path altogether. There is risk here, and hard work. But think what kind of land we could reach!

My friends, what new land do you think lays beyond the hills? And what resources have we for forging the path there?

Psalm 85: 10-13

Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
The Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him,
and will make a path for his steps.