An Accompanied Journey--September 2, 2021

An Accompanied Journey--September 2, 2021

"By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and 'he was not found, because God had taken him.' For it was attested before he was taken away that 'he had pleased God.' And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." [Hebrews 11:5-6]

Some of my most treasured memories with my kids are just taking walks with them.  Some of my dearest memories from my own childhood are walks, too--with my mom or dad, or with my grandfather.  It's funny, though--what stays in my memory isn't the destination in those walks, but just the recollection of going side by side on the road together.  In those times, when there is nothing else in the way, or occupying your attention, you can simply be with someone else, even if you end up exactly where you started.  The walk itself is the point.  The accompanied journey itself is enough.

The Scriptures invite us to think about our faith in God in much the same way.  It's not about us "getting" something from God, or about God "needing" something from us.  There's no transaction, no deal, no quid-pro-quo.  It's about a walk together.  Faith is living our whole lives as an accompanied journey with God--aware of God's presence, and choosing to set our pace and our course with God as our companion on the way.

This is at the core of what Enoch's story in the Bible is all about.  Enoch is, to be sure, one of the less-well-known figures of the Bible, because he gets all of two sentences' worth of mention in the early chapters of Genesis, and he is often overshadowed by Cain and Abel earlier or Noah and the ark later.  We know very little about his life, other than, as the writer of Hebrews notes, that he "pleased God."  The writer of Genesis says it this way: "Enoch walked with God."  That's it--no mention of doing favors for God, no religious rituals that won him God's approval, no sacrifices or particular good deeds done, and no mention of how many Bible studies Enoch had attended, and no record of what specific theological propositions he believed.  All we get is that he "walked with God."  

In fact, the way the writers of Scripture tell it is simply to say that Enoch walked with God all his life long, and then at some point, God just said to Enoch, "How about we keep walking to my house, and keep this journey going?"  He's one of a very few people mentioned in the Bible who don't "die" per se, but who are somehow taken right into the presence of God without the misery and messiness of our usual way of talking about death.  They were just walking along, Enoch and God, first in Enoch's neighborhood, and then they just continued right on into God's.

I think that's a poetic way of saying that Enoch was someone who tried to live his whole life with God as conversation partner, sharer of the journey, and participant in what he did and said.  To live by faith is to recognize that all of our lives matter to God, and there's no part or fraction of our lives we get to box God out of.  We don't get to "allow" God an hour of our Sunday mornings and then tell God, "But you don't get to tell me how to live my life or treat other people in the rest of the week--I've got my personal freedom, y'know!"  To live by faith is to share the walk of our whole lives--every facet of our existence, every mile of the journey.

Sure, there are times when we mess it up and try to elbow God out of our way.  Sure, sometimes we tell ourselves we can't reasonably follow the way of Jesus in this or that area of our lives because it would complicate our lives... or make us look "weak"... or because it would rearrange our priorities.  But seeing faith as a lifelong walk with God means that when we realize we have parted ways with God like that, that we try to get back in step with God and continue our walk together.  That means repentance and forgiveness are less about appeasing an angry deity through the mechanisms of sacrifice or prayer or good deeds, and more about getting back in step with the One we were meant to be walking with all along.  And it means the only thing necessary to get "back" toward walking with God is simply taking the next step... and then the next... and the next.

How would it change your day today to see every moment of it shared with the God who walks with you--through your choices at work, in the midst of your conversations with strangers and friends alike, beside you as you deal with the people you really struggle to be kind toward, and on the journey with you as you look down the road to the horizon?  Let's dare to live this day with that vision.

Lord God, go with us on our journey, both today and all our lives. Let us walk with you today, as we trust you accompany us, too.