River Road Church Baptist

November 23, 2005
Thanksgiving Eve Service

Dr. Michael J. Clingenpeel

“The Strength to Wander ”

For a total of 40 years, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness. When at last they arrived at the shore of the Jordan River, they established a camp and prepared themselves to go across the river into Canaan. It was there, camped east of the Jordan River, that according to the book of Deuteronomy, Moses delivered a series of sermons to his people. Then he died. Preaching obviously is hard work, but so is wandering!

The distilled essence of one of these sermons is found in the lectionary text for Thanksgiving Day. It is Deuteronomy chapter 8. In this sermon, Moses reminds the people of what God has given to them. God has given them hunger to humble and manna to teach them dependence and God’s gracious provision.

In his commentary on this passage in the Old Testament Library Series Gerhard Von Rad writes that “the strength to wander came from Yahweh who in this way demonstrated His faithfulness.” The strength to wander came from Yahweh.

Wandering has often been recognized as a metaphor for life. Rarely is life a straight path. Life is littered with detours, side streets, cul-de-sacs and dead ends. At times, this wandering is of our own making. Sometimes it comes uninvited, unwelcome, yet on other occasions it comes to us in a serendipitous, delightful, glad way.

The distance between where you sit tonight and where I stand, is only a few feet. But for me, the distance from the time I sat where you sit to where I stand tonight is a total of over 35 years. It is a long and winding road, and often we find ourselves going not on the straight way or the closest way, but on the wandering way.

When Moses led his people out of Egypt, his intent and their intent, initially, was to take the coastal road up to the land of Canaan; a journey of a very short distance, even at the slow pace of a crowd walking it would take only about two weeks. Yet God led them the long way, according to the text, and their wandering took a total of 40 years.

Where do we get our strength for wandering? How do we draw upon the resources of Yahweh that would enable us, despite our twists and turns and detours, to get where we need to go in God’s plan?

The first thing we need to do, according to our text, is to cultivate the gift of memory. Moses said to them, “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you.” There is much in their 40 years of wandering that these people would love to have forgotten; hunger, heat, snakes, scorpions, a steady diet of manna, a golden calf they built, grumbling and complaining. All of this was part of their 40 years, but Moses reminded them that we remember the bad as well as the good. The bad also can be our greatest teacher. So we cultivate memory. Memory is a great, great gift.

Secondly, we count our blessings; those wonderful things that God has done for us. There is a fascinating phrase in the text that was read for you a moment ago that I had never noticed until I studied it more carefully this week. The phrase is this…Moses said, “The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet did not swell for these 40 years.” Think about that. The clothes on your back did not wear out. He said nothing about how they might have smelled after 40 years, but they did not wear out.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, our niece was working as an intern in one of the hospitals in downtown New Orleans. She went on duty the night before the hurricane hit. She did not leave until the following Friday. Then she was carried out, along with others, in a boat where she boarded a bus and went to Houston. When she went out in that boat she had on a pair of green scrubs, and she carried with her one pair of green scrubs. That was all she rescued, at least initially, from the storm. Imagine what it would be like to wear only one pair of green scrubs for a total of 40 years.

The text says, “The clothes on your back did not wear out;” That is a blessing, it is a gift, it is a miracle. And then it says, “Your feet did not swell these 40 years.” How is it that you can do all of that walking for a total of 40 years and your feet never swell? It is a blessing, it is a gift. The text reminds them that they should count the blessings that God has given to them.

Every year I do a list of my blessings at Thanksgiving. Last year, I read you my list. Tonight I’m going to read you this year’s list. It’s my alphabet of God’s grace to me.

“A” this year stands for Apples. I love to pick Apples and in the fall I brought back with me from Western Carolina a bushel of Jona Gold apples. It’s a blessing. “B” stands for books, which stretch my mind and expand my horizons, and “B” also stands for bread, that basic in life.

“C” stands for Carbohydrates. You may see a theme here with bread and carbohydrates. “D” stands for Diet Dr. Pepper. “E” for electricity; I’ve watched enough storm coverage to remember just how valuable that is. “F” is for freedom; that wonderful gift we possess in this good land. It stands for the Food Network, which is one of my favorite channels.

“G” stands for the Grand Canyon, one of the great wonders of God’s world. “H” stands for heat. I wrote the list this afternoon after I almost froze this morning. “I” stands for the Internet. Almost any piece of information you desire you can get on the Internet. “J” stands for Jesus. As many years as I have studied and known Jesus, He stills remains an illusive mystery and a wonder to me. “K” stands for Kandy Korn. I know that some of you spell it with a C; I spell it with a K. One of the great sugar treats of the Halloween season. “L” stands for lists. I would not be able to function without my lists. “M” stands for music; the kind of music that we enjoy in this sanctuary week by week with this wonderful choir and organ. It also stands for Mosby, a new little creature in our family’s life; our cat. Anybody that knows I count a cat as a blessing knows that this has been an unusual year for me.

“N” stands for newspapers, which bring me words about the world. “O” stands for olive oil. How can you cook without olive oil? “P” stands for a term that I just heard a few weeks ago when talking with another person whose child had just finished college. “P” stands for post-tuition affluence. I had not heard that phrase before and I still don’t know quite what it means, but I hope too some day soon. “Q” stands for quart of egg nog, which we allow ourselves to drink one time every year, and that time is coming up in the next month. “R” stands for River Road Church, Baptist, one of the great gifts that has come into our lives.

“S” this year stands for service men and service women. We should always be grateful for these women and men who serve our country so nobly and faithfully. “T” stands for Tim, my son, Trixie my dog, and tea, which I drink every morning. “U” stands for umbrellas. “V” of course stands for Vivian. “W” for work because work is a nice thing. “X…” I had to work at this one. and then I saw a picture of the new X-box. I am grateful that an X-box is not a necessity for my life.

“Y,” is for yaks. I saw a picture this week of the President of the United States in Mongolia standing next to a yak. I’ve never stood next to the President of the United States, but some yak got to stand next to the President of the United States. It’s an unusual animal and I’m grateful that God is a creative God. “Z” is for zebras. This week I saw a 2,000-piece crossword puzzle with nothing but zebras, so I’m grateful for those intricate, painted, black and white outlines on those horses.

I don’t know what your alphabet of blessings is, but I hope you won’t get all the way to the Christmas season without stopping and making your own personal alphabet of God’s blessings for your lives.

The other thing we need to have the strength to wander is to hold on to hope. Hope is a precious commodity that does not so much drive us as it pulls us into the future. Here’s what Moses said, “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land; a land with flowing streams with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive trees and honey. A land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing…a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mind copper. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that God has given you.”

It is that picture of that land that gave to these wandering people the vision they needed to draw them into the future. Sometimes our hope is temporal. It’s the hope to finish a degree or the hope to have a baby or the hope to get that first job or the hope to buy that house or the hope to retire; it’s something temporal. Sometimes our hope is eternal. At some moment in life, that is the only hope to which we cling, the hope of heaven. Hanging on to hope is that fuel that gives us the strength to wander through life.

So tonight, on the eve of Thanksgiving, I remind you that life is not a straight line. It’s a time of wandering, and the strength to wander is a great, great gift. So cultivate your memories, count your blessings and hold on to hope, that you may praise God for the strength to wander.

May we pray? You have granted us so much, O God, and so often our lives do not have the kind of direction or sense of purpose that we would wish, but help us in our wandering to find as the central thread that you are gracious to us, that you guide us, that you provide for us every step of the way, and then give us grateful hearts for your great goodness. Through Christ we pray, Amen.


MC; lmk, mt