Bible Talks - Traditional Church (Sunday 8am)
Series: Christmas
Out On A Limb
Thursday, 25 December 2003
Are you a limb‑climber or a branch‑sitter? Do you like to stay where you are, all nice and comfortable? Or do you like to take risks, accept a challenge?
Well Joseph, the forgotten hero of the Christmas story was perched firmly on his branch in the tree. It was a nice thick branch, reliable, and perfect for sitting. It was so strong he didn't shake when the winds blew, nor did he tremble when the storms came. Joseph’s branch was predictable and solid. He had a comfortable living as the village handyman. He’d found a nice young girl who was willing to marry him. Joseph had no intention of leaving his comfortable branch. That is, until God told him he was to go out on a limb.
As he sat securely on his branch, he looked up at the limb God wanted him to climb. He'd never seen one so thin! That's no place for a man to go!" he said to himself. “There's no place to sit. There’s no protection from the weather. And how could you sleep dangling from that quivering twig?" He inched back a bit, settled himself more firmly on his branch, leaned more securely against the trunk, and pondered the situation.
Common sense told him not to go out on the limb. "Conceived by the Holy Spirit? Come on!"
Self‑defence told him not to do it. "Who will believe me? What will our families think? She claims that she loves me and her she is already pregnant with someone else’s baby."
Convenience told him not to do it. "Just when I was hoping to settle down and raise a family of my own."
Pride told him not to do it. "If she expects me to buy a tale like that. Virgin birth.. pull the other leg."
But God had told him to do it. And that's what bothered him. It bothered him because he was happy where he was. Life next to the trunk in his particular tree was pretty good. His branch was big enough to allow him to sit in comfort. He was surrounded by all his branch-sitting mates. He was well respected in the branch-sitting community. He had made some valued contributions to the tree community. After all, didn't he make regular visits to the sick at the North Branch Medical Centre? And wasn't he the best tenor in the Tree-sitters Chorale? And what about the class he taught on religious heritage, appropriately entitled "Our Family Tree"? Surely God wouldn't want him to leave. He had ... well, you could say that he had his roots down here, or at least down below there. In Matthew Chapter 1 you can look at Joseph’s family tree back to his illustrious ancestor, Abraham. He came from a pretty impressive line. Kings like David and Solomon, heroines like Rahab and Ruth, Josiah who had rebuilt the temple, Zerubbabel who had ruled when the exiles returned from Babylon
I’ve got a cousin who’s researching the Bassett family tree. So far she’s traced it back to my great grandfather who was an engineer in a tin mine in Cornwall. I always reckon that in the Bassett family tree I come from the hollow log where they keep the nuts.
Adding to his reluctance was the fact that Joseph knew the kind of fellow who goes out on a limb. Radicals. Extremists. Liberals. Always going overboard. Always stirring the leaves. Guys with their heads full of strange ideas in search of exotic fruit. Why, the stable ones are the ones like me who know how to stay close to home and leave well enough alone.
Do you find that you can relate to Joseph? You know how he feels, don't you? You've been there. Are you smiling because you, too, have been called to go out on a limb a time or two. Do you know the imbalance that comes from having one foot in God's will and one foot in your own? Do you know what it is to have sunk your fingernails into the bark to get a better grip when that foot in God's will starts moving away from the safety and security of your favourite comfortable branch.? Do you know only too well the butterflies that swarm in the pit of your stomach when you realize changes are in the air.
Perhaps for you changes are in the air right now. Maybe you're in the midst of a decision. A decision that will change the direction of your life. It's disrupting, isn't it? You like your branch. You've grown accustomed to it and it to you. And, like Joseph, you've been a pretty good branch‑sitter. And then you hear God calling:
- "I need you to go out on the limb and take a stand. Some of the local churches are organizing an anti‑pornography cam�paign. They need some volunteers."
- "I need you to go out on the limb and move. Take your family and move over�seas, or into a new housing estate. I have a special work of ministry for you."
- "I need you to go out on the limb and forgive. It doesn't matter who hurt who first. What matters is that you go and start building the bridge.
- "I need you to go out on the limb and evangelize. That new family that just moved into your street; they don't know anyone yet; go meet them; befriend them; invite them to church; Tell them about Jesus in your life."
- "I need you to go out on the limb and sacrifice. The missionary society is having trouble raising sufficient money to meet the mortgage payment due this month. Remember the special bonus you received last week. Give them some of that?"
Regardless of the nature of the call, the conse�quences are the same: internal civil war. Though your heart may say yes, your feet say no. Excuses blow around your mind like leaves in an autumn wind. "That's not where my gifts lie." "It's time someone else took charge." "Now’s not the right time. I'll do it tomorrow, next week, next month, next year……" I’ve married a wife, I’ve bought me a cow.
But eventually you’re left staring at a bare tree and a hard choice: God's will or yours? Joseph chose God's will. After all, it was really the only option. Joseph knew that the only thing worse than a venture into the unknown was the thought of denying his Lord. So, resolutely, he grasped the smaller limb. With tight lips and a determined glint in his eye, he placed one hand in front of the other until he dangled in the air with only his faith m God as a safety net. Matthew says, “24When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
Have you ever seen that T-shirt that says on the front, “Cheer up things could be worse.” Then on the back, “So I cheered up and sure enough things got worse?” As things turned out, Joseph's fears were justified. Life wasn't as comfortable as it had been. The limb he grasped was, indeed, a slender one:
The Messiah was to be born to Mary and to be raised in his home. He took cold showers for nine months so the baby could be born of a virgin. He had to push away the sheep and clear out the cow patties so his wife would have a place to give birth. He became a fugitive from the law. Fleeing to another country to save the life of his infant son, who wasn’t even really his. He spent two years trying to understand Egyptian.
At times that limb he went out on must have bounced furiously in the wind. But Joseph just shut his eyes and held on. But you can be sure of one thing. He never regret�ted it. Sweet was the reward for his courage. One look in the face of that heavenly toddler and he knew he would do it again in a heartbeat.
Have you been called to go out on a limb for God? You can bet it won’t be easy. Limb‑climbing has never been easy. Ask Joseph. Or, better yet, ask Jesus. He knows better than anyone the cost of hanging on a tree.
Tonight we’ve already heard the account of the challenge God gave to Joseph. In a few minutes we’ll hear again the account of the challenge God gave to Mary. In each case Joseph and Mary responded to God's extraordinary challenge with ordinary simple faith expressed in ordinary simple obedience. Joseph “did what the angel of the lord had commanded him.” Mary accepted the Lord’s command “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
Often, when god calls us to step out on a limb, all it really takes is ordinary simple faith in our extraordinary God, expressed in ordinary simple obedience to our extraordinary God.
The Christmas story is the account of the start in God's definitive action for the salvation of mankind. The call to us is take that step of faith and be saved. We can sit on our comfortable branches or we can step out on the limb. But salvation is found out at the end of the limb; not back on the comfortable branch.
Let us pray.