Godspeed Living -- FPC sermon excerpt
We’re older than we think.
Four centuries old, as a matter of fact. The year 2007 is our 400th anniversary as Americans.
This milestone has nothing to do with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Instead, our country’s 400th anniversary goes all the way back to 1607, when the first permanent English colonists arrived in Jamestown. They whupped the Pilgrims, beating them to the New World by 13 years.
One of the three ships that brought the colonists to Jamestown was Godspeed, a three-masted square-rigger that sailed the Atlantic for nearly five months to get to Virginia. The ship was just 88 feet long — about the length of a double tractor-trailer — and had a top speed of 4 miles per hour. The colonists endured what we would consider to be intolerable conditions, with 13 crew members working on the deck and 39 passengers stuck in the cargo hold with 40 tons of supplies.
The smell? It must have made grown men cry.
Imagine yourself onboard the Godspeed, pulling out of London on a cold winter day in December 1606. The weeks pass slowly, with nothing to look at, nothing to do. Boredom takes over. Food rots. Tempers flare. People stink.
Finally, you sail into the Caribbean. You head north in search of Virginia, and a violent storm strikes your ship. You have to drop sail and ride it out, running the risk of being blown onto the offshore bars of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. There, you would surely be washed into the sea and drowned.
But God is with you, and in May of 1607 you finally reach your destination — Jamestown. You have been delivered by Godspeed, a ship whose name means “May God cause you to succeed.”
That’s a good name to keep in mind as we begin our 401st American year.
Isaiah 43 contains a promise from God: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:2). This is the kind of promise that the crew of Godspeed must have lived by, especially as violent winds howled around them and towering waves crashed over the deck of their ship. “Do not fear,” says the God of earth, wind, water, and fire; “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”
Notice that the line “When you pass through the waters" starts with “When,” not “If” — it is certain that we will all face difficult times. When you move through the thing that scares you the most — “I will be with you,” says God. When you struggle through job loss, academic failure, personal betrayal, disease, depression or divorce — “they shall not overwhelm you,” says the Lord. God promises to give us help and protection and peace, in the face of the worst terrors and trials that life can throw at us. A focus on being God's people --in the face of any obstacle, any failure, any challenge, any terror, any trial -- is what I call Godspeed Living.
Four centuries old, as a matter of fact. The year 2007 is our 400th anniversary as Americans.
This milestone has nothing to do with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Instead, our country’s 400th anniversary goes all the way back to 1607, when the first permanent English colonists arrived in Jamestown. They whupped the Pilgrims, beating them to the New World by 13 years.
One of the three ships that brought the colonists to Jamestown was Godspeed, a three-masted square-rigger that sailed the Atlantic for nearly five months to get to Virginia. The ship was just 88 feet long — about the length of a double tractor-trailer — and had a top speed of 4 miles per hour. The colonists endured what we would consider to be intolerable conditions, with 13 crew members working on the deck and 39 passengers stuck in the cargo hold with 40 tons of supplies.
The smell? It must have made grown men cry.
Imagine yourself onboard the Godspeed, pulling out of London on a cold winter day in December 1606. The weeks pass slowly, with nothing to look at, nothing to do. Boredom takes over. Food rots. Tempers flare. People stink.
Finally, you sail into the Caribbean. You head north in search of Virginia, and a violent storm strikes your ship. You have to drop sail and ride it out, running the risk of being blown onto the offshore bars of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. There, you would surely be washed into the sea and drowned.
But God is with you, and in May of 1607 you finally reach your destination — Jamestown. You have been delivered by Godspeed, a ship whose name means “May God cause you to succeed.”
That’s a good name to keep in mind as we begin our 401st American year.
Isaiah 43 contains a promise from God: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:2). This is the kind of promise that the crew of Godspeed must have lived by, especially as violent winds howled around them and towering waves crashed over the deck of their ship. “Do not fear,” says the God of earth, wind, water, and fire; “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.”
Notice that the line “When you pass through the waters" starts with “When,” not “If” — it is certain that we will all face difficult times. When you move through the thing that scares you the most — “I will be with you,” says God. When you struggle through job loss, academic failure, personal betrayal, disease, depression or divorce — “they shall not overwhelm you,” says the Lord. God promises to give us help and protection and peace, in the face of the worst terrors and trials that life can throw at us. A focus on being God's people --in the face of any obstacle, any failure, any challenge, any terror, any trial -- is what I call Godspeed Living.
posted by Henry Brinton | 9:54 AM
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