March 8, 2026 · Rev. Derek van Gulden · Psalm 32:1-11; Luke 13:31-34
Told to flee because Herod wants him dead, Jesus keeps right on with his work. Rev. Derek van Gulden remembers a hospital doctor who insisted The Da Vinci Code made seminary unnecessary, and suggests that when people or obstacles block our way, sharing our stories, and hearing theirs, can turn them into companions.
Transcript
Friends, will you join me in a moment of prayer? Gracious and loving God this morning. And I ask you to help me not to be the instrument of my own or anyone else's oppression, but to be an instrument of peace in every step and every breath, in every moment of every day. Amen.
So on our journey together, on the way, sometimes we need to find ways to go around. And that can be many things like the Scripture today, Jesus being told, you shouldn't be here. You need to go somewhere else because they're after you. They want to kill you. And Jesus politely says, well, this is what I'm doing today and I'm going to do the same thing tomorrow. And the third day, the same thing. He took and looks at an obstacle in his path and didn't change his mind to what he was going to do. He didn't run away. He didn't tell the disciples, well, let's go. We're going to need to hide somewhere. He found a way to let people know that he was still going to go in the direction he was.
Now, sometimes. Sometimes we find ourselves on our journey, and those around us have expectations of us that have nothing to do with our journey that we're on and how we journey. Nothing to do with on the journey. Sharing God's love. I don't know if any of you have ever run into something like that in your careers and your life, your walk where people had expectations of you that didn't really fit with what you plan to do or felt called by God to do.
I can only talk for myself, but I remember when I gave my notice at the hospital I'd worked at for sixteen years and. I'd known these people forever. A small town a little smaller than this. I was the only. Well, there were only two of us in my profession at the hospital, so it was a small place. Lovely. And about two days later, walking down the longest hallway in the hospital, which was only about from here to there, one of the doctors came up to me and he said, so I hear you're leaving. And I said, yes, why? And I said, well, I feel called to go somewhere else and do something different.
And then he said, I want to give you a book. Oh well. Thank you. And he hands me. The Da Vinci Code. And I said, I've read that. That's great book. But. And I read it, borrowed it from somebody. I'd love to have it. Thank you. And he goes, no, you don't understand. You do not need to go to seminary because everything you need to know, you can learn in this book. And I had to be a little careful. I had known this doctor for sixteen years. We had done many things together. My children had seen him when they were really sick. But he was also on the, what we would call in the hospital mahogany row where the CEO and the CFO and this doctor all had their offices. Now the doctor still had a practice in saw people, but he had a bit more power. And then I remember to myself, oh, I'm leaving. So I asked him to sit down and explain why, and he told me the whole story of The Da Vinci Code, and it was great. And I said thank you and took the book.
The first time I came back to the hospital was probably, that was in the summer. At Christmas, I came back and I worked a few shifts to make a little money. And he was there and he said, well, how much is this costing you? And I said, oh yeah, this is what it'll cost for the three years. He goes, why didn't you just read that book? And if you haven't figured that out, what good are you going to be at what you do? I said, well, thank you. I read it again and I will continue my journey without using the book for that.
When you walk on these journeys. We walk together here in this congregation. We're all walking together on our journey of faith, both individually but with each other. And there are times when we run into things, challenges, how we do things, people, obstacles, other things might get in our path. How we deal with those is important. When we stop and share our stories with the people we walk with, when we stop and share our stories with the people that seem to be an obstacle with us and invite them to share their story, we can come to a greater understanding and compassion about who that person is and what they may have to offer without realizing it. We come to an understanding and if we work on it, we can find a way to love that person because that's what we're all called to do on this journey.
Most of us or me, I run into people and I'm like, oh, I can't do this. And I walk around them or I turn around and go the other way. If we stop and truly listen to our stories now, there's about eight of us that have been on a journey every week for the last six years on Wednesdays sharing stories. And it's amazing. Amazing. Over those six years, what we have learned about each other and how we hold each other up, not just during story time, but beyond that and the connections that we have for a while. If you had no connection to Pennsylvania, you weren't allowed to join us. We just discovered one time when we were talking about something unrelated, that everybody shared a story that happened in Pennsylvania, and I think only two people lived there.
As we move forward, as we find those obstacles in the way, or we have to move around them, remember that God is inviting us and challenging us and has sent us on this journey to bring love and peace into the world, on the ground where it needs to be done. Remember, peace is a word of action and it takes us to start it. May we continue to find ways on our journey to learn from others and help them and ourselves. Find that love that we can turn into peace. Amen.