Sermon No. 374 THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

A sermon delivered by Phillip E. Morrison at the Church of Christ in Falls Church, Virginia, and broadcast on the Christ For Today program on radio stations in the Middle Atlantic and Northeastem states.

* * * * * * * * Just a few years ago we entered a new era of automobile travel when significant portions

of our interstate highway system were completed. We are now able to travel much more quickly and safely than before from one place to another. But we've paid a price for that speed and safety. We've zoomed along so quickly, so far removed from all of the beautiful things that we had formerly enjoyed, that we've passed them by without stopping or even pausing to look. That has brought a new word into our language, the word "shun-pike." It means to get off the main roads, to shun the turnpikes, to get back on the narrow and less traveled roads where one.has time to sJ:op and see the beautiful things, the flowers, the birds, and the waterfalls.

As we travel we make a variety of choices, each of them seeming best for the time and circumstances. Life itself requires choices not unlike those we make in the kind of travel that I've described. Robert Frost, in some very beautiful lines said,

"I shall be telling with a sigh Somewhere, ages and ages hence, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all.the difference."

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, said something very much like that: "Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it" (Matthew 7:13,14). Isn't Jesus telling us to choose the road that is less traveled by? Isn't He telling us to deliberately make the choice that is less easy, that is at least for.thepresentless attractive? Isn't He telling us to go against the crowd, to swim against the tide, to make the choices that are going to lead us ultimately to the place where we desire to be, rather than the choices which might, in a given moment, be the more comfortable and even the more desirable? The more desirable road in the long run is not always the one that is the quickest and the most popular. If we-·­are interested only in getting from point to point in the quickest possible time, then we may choose one road, but if we are interested in getting the greatest possible good from the journey, we might choose a different road,the road less traveled by.

The meaning of Jesus' words is clear. He has reference to the choices that we make where our etemal destiny is concemed, and He says there are only two. But there are some other implications in what Jesus has said and in these things that we have said by way of introduction. In the living of our Christian lives there are many less traveled roads which are far more attractive than those that are more crowded.

There is, for example, the road of peace and the road of conciliation. There are not a lot of people traveling that road unfortunately. The absence of peace and the reality of confrontation is something that we live with daily, whether we are thinking of nations or of people or of the church. Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with a series of beautiful say­ings; in those Beautitudes there was one, "Blessed are the peace makers: for they shall be called the sons of God."

Quite often the peace maker is not respected. Quite often the man who steps in the mid­dle of the fray to separate two combatants ends up being attacked by both, and he comes out bruised and battered while the conflict continues. But the blessing for the peace maker is still there. The blessing for the one who chooses the less traveled road of conciliation is still available.

#374 - p.2 There's the similarly less traveled road of unity and brotherly love. Jesus prayed in

the seventeenth chapter of John, before He went to the cross, that His followers might be united, united as the Father and the Son were united because the Son was fully committed to doing the Father's will. Unity has to be more than just superficial agreement that is based on some doctrinal conclusions which you and I happen to share. It has to mean a deep associ­ation in which our lives are brought together and in which we are knit together in the broth­erly love that was so characteristic of our Lord.

A friend of mine told of a Saturday telephone call from a lady who was a member of the church and had just moved into the community. Her question was, "Is the church where you preach a Church of Christ that has Sunday School?" He said, "Well, yes, but I don't really understand your question." And she said, "Well, I've come from an area of the country where there are some anti-Sunday School churches, and I don't·wantto get involved with one of them." My friend assured her that they were not an anti-Sunday School church, that they had Sunday School classes, and that the Sunday School classes would meet the next morning at 9:30. And she said, "Well, I won't be at Sunday School, because I can't manage to get up and get started ear-iy-enough on-Sunday mornings to attend." You see, her concept of unity was wholly doctri­nal and entirely superficial. She wanted to be with a group of people who shared her doctri­nal conclusions, but she didn't really want to participate actively in that in which she pro­fessed to believe.

That kind of story is repeated all too often. There are a lot of doctrines to which we pay lip service. There are a lot of Bible teachings that we have come to accept for one reason or another, but which we do not really accept deep inside. That kind of attitude is destructive of brotherly love and it's destructive of unity. It may be the road traveled by many, but the road less traveled is far more attractive.

There is the road of faieh, not a road traveled by many. Most of the people in our world do not know Jesus Christ, even by name, to say nothing of having a deep and abiding faith in Him. Most of the people in our nation now, more than half of them, say that they do not have any formal religious affiliation, and you and I know that many of those who claim some affiliation do not really have a meaningful one. Many who, on the surface, would appear to be men and women of faith, deep inside are not really. We've not really learned to trust the Lord to win our victories and choose our changes and chart our courses for us.

An expression that I hear over and over again, which on the surface appears to be a very practical observation, is really an admission that faith is not vitally present. The expres­sion is, "We can't do that until we see our way clear." My friend, don't you know that when you see yourwayclear you are walking by sight and not by faith. Jesus has taught us to do just the opposite. He has taught us to launch out when we can not see, when we have no rea-·· son to expect success, when there is no rationale by which we can humanly justify our course. The existentialist philosophy is foreign to the Scriptures and yet there are some values in it. One is the recognition that at some point in life there is the leap of faith, that man comes to a place when he cannot see, and when he cannot know, and he cannot reason, and he cannot rationalize, and he can only say, "Because I believe, I jump." He acts because he believes. That isn't the crowded route, but that road less traveled by is an attractive one nevertheless.

There's the road of the courage to do what is right. We talk about courage. Sometimes it means a man is willing to put on some boxing gloves and risk a few cuts and bruises for the sake of a prize if he wins a fight. Sometimes it means a soldier is willing to risk his life or give his life for a cause he believes in. But the kind of courage that is most often missing in our world is moral courage, the courage that it takes to stand for the right when there is opposition to so standing, the courage that it takes to go against friends and against acquaintenances, and against superiors and against family members and against whom­ever one must be against in order to be for Christ. That road will never be crowded. There are always more cowards than there are brave men. That's the history of mankind. It will ever be true. But that less traveled road of courage is the one that somehow we must find the courage to travel.

#374 - p.3 There's also the road of discipline. We don~t like to talk about discipline. We don't

like :to-· talk about self~discipline. We don't like to talk about discipline in the home. We _ think it just means whipping children wit:h a razor strap or a cane switch. We've forgotten

that discipline does not necessarily mean punishment; it means training and guiding and di­recting. We like to ignore discipline in the church. It's a traumatic experience for human beings to have to discipline one another on any level and we find it easier to rationalize away what the Bible says about it than to put it into practice. It isn't a crowded road, but the less traveled road is often the more attractive.

There·'s the road of service. Serving mankind, comforting the afflicted, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked. When I watch the newscast these days and I read about individuals who, apparently motivated only by their innate desire to do something good, are reaching our for the Vietnamese refugees, and when I hear about religious organizations and service organ­izations that have mobilized themselves to meet the challenge of this moment, I wonder where we are, and where I am in that picture. The sad truth is, most of us are not in it. And the sad truth is that most of the time when there is some service to be rendered, we are not in the picture. ---

Jesus can't be pleased with that. When He lived on the earth, He was constantly in the thick of things. He wasn't always on the popular and well-traveled road, but He was always where the action was. He was there at the point of decision, at the point of impact, at the point where changes were being made, at the point where the course of life was being deter­mined. Can His followers afford to do less? It costs some of one's self to be a service­oriented person. You can't do it all with money; you can't do it all with the gifts of things. It has to be the gift of self, and that's the most difficult of all gifts to give. It may not be a well traveled road, but it is a road that has rich rewards.

Back to the central point that Jesus makes in the verses that were read in the beginning, Jesus is simply saying that the road which leads to life etemal is a road that is not trav­eled by many. It is a road that is traveled only when one is able within himself to make the tough decisions and to commit himself without reservation. It is easy to commit yourself tentatively, always keeping one foot back so that if things get too rough you can resume a former posture. But it takes something else to connnit yourself without reservation.

In Luke's account of the gospel there are some interesting exchanges recorded and some interesting observations of Jesus, in chapter nine and again in chapter fourteen. In Luke chapter nine this incident is recorded: "And as they went on their way, a certain man said unto him, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." You see what He is saying? He is saying to this impulsive man, "Are you sure you want to follow me? Are you sure that you want to endure the kind of hardship that even the. __ _ beasts of the field are not subjected to? Are you sure?" "And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. But he said unto him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God. And another also said, ?:will follow thee, Lord; but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house. But Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

Then in the fourteenth chapter, the paragraph beginning at verse twenty-five says, "Now there went with him great multitudes: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Whosoever doth not bear his own cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doth not first sit down and count the cost, whether he have wherewith to complete it? Lest haply, when he ha h laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, as he goeth to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or

#374 - p.4 else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and asketh conditions of peace. So therefore whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he can-

- not be my disciple. Salt therefore is good: but if even the salt have lost its savor (its saltiness), wherewith shall it be seasoned? It is fit neither for the land nor for the dung~ hill: men cast it out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

There is just one thing basically wrong with the well-traveled road. It isn't wrong because it is broad. It isn't wrong because it's smooth. It isn't wrong because there are a lot of people on it. It isn't wrong because it is fast. But it is wrong because it leads to the wrong place. If I am going to start on a journey, ·the first consideration that I have in choosing a road is whether or not it goes there. If it doesn't go there, then no other attraction can make it worth my while. I don't care how broad it is, nor how fast, nor how smooth, nor how beautiful nor how well-traveled, nor how well-marked. If it doesn't do where I want to go, then it's a useless road to me. That's exactly what Jesus says about the alter­natives that are available to us. There are just two and one of those goes to the wrong place.

,-~""''-~-1fflen··ve~~e-·to the things that are important in making those· choices, we often find ourselves experiencing a kind of loneliness that Jesus alludes to in these passages in Luke. A man who really believes often has to stand alone, he may have to go against those who do not choose to share his faith. A man who really chooses to repent may do so in spite of the fact that his companions and associates are urging a continuance in the kind of life already established. The man who chooses to confess his faith in Jesus as Lord may do so, may have to do so in spite of the fact that those who observe his actions scoff at the name of Jesus and at one who would dare to believe and confess. And the man who would dare to bury his sins in baptism and be raised to walk in newness of life may pay the price of having those who do not agree question his action, doubt his motivation,criticize his new direction, and break off association with him. Jesus said it is worth it. It is worth it, because once one gets on that road and makes those efforts that are required to stay on it he will come ulti­mately to the destination that he seeks. "I took the road less traveled by, and it has made all the difference."

When I think of Jesus hanging on the cross, I see Him and I see those two men crucified with Him, and I look back over their lives at the roads they had traveled. And I wonder what is it that makes the difference, what is the difference in the way that they die? What is the difference in the destiny that awaits them once they have crossed that threshold into the other world? One of the things is the roads that they've traveled by.

I think of Paul as he comes near the close of his life. He isn't where he started out to be; he is not fo1lowing the profession for which he was trained; he is not a prisoner of the philosophies that he earlier espoused, but he is able to say, "I've fought a good fight; I've kept the faith1 there is a crown of righteousness which the Lord has reserved for me."

It is as if he is saying, "I made my choice of roads; I took the one less traveled by; and that's made all the difference." And it makes all the difference in your life and mine. We are here today to choose, to choose a road. We may choose with the crowd. We may let our.selves be persuaded by numbers or we may let ourselves be persuaded by the Lord. If we choose that way that He has chosen for us, in obeying the gospel of Christ and committing ourselves to those choices forever more, life will be beautiful and eternity will be sweet.