The airport was the Promised Land. He was going to get there come Hell or high water.

It had taken months to close the negotiations and to select this date for the visit. Finally everything had seemed to be in place. The nervous man was not going to let a mere rainstorm wash away his chance to turn things around. The market had fallen faster than the raindrops crashing around him. His division was leaking money, and investment streams and cash flow had slowed to a trickle. This new turn around campaign could mean his division's salvation. Without a new direction, the division would fold. The quiet man arriving by plane at the airport held the key to the nervous man's future.

The name and picture of the turn around expert was in the report that headquarters had sent by courier to the various division heads weeks ago. The nervous man knew it was a very important report. He knew that people were saying good things about the plan that had been advanced by the expert who would be waiting for him at the airport. But the nervous man hadn't actually gotten around to reading the report for himself yet. He wasn't even real sure about the expert's name. It's was "Bartlesfield", or maybe "Bakerstein", it was "B" something. He told himself he'd glance in the file and double check the name and the photo when he parked the car at the airport.

If you had asked the nervous man why he had neglected to delve into these important details earlier, he would have asserted that "The swamp was too full of alligators," or "I was too busy putting out brush fires to read a report right then." Although he seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of urgent metaphors it was about to become apparent that he had run out of time.

An hour and a half ago, the nervous man had been putting files in his briefcase when the weather suddenly turned. The sky crashed and turned a dark and threatening gray. The air smelled like electricity. The first big raindrops fell and all the water in the world seemed poised to come down out of the sky in the next few minutes. The man knew he must rush to his car and then drive quickly to the airport or he would risk missing the landing of the incoming plane. So he had grabbed the campaign file, threw it into his briefcase and ran to the door.

Now, finally, the nervous man was speeding into the airport parking garage. He screeches to a stop, and glances down. In an instant he sees that the folder he had thrown into his briefcase is marked " camping". With a great sinking feeling, he realizes that the one marked "campaign" must still be on his desk with the National Parks travel brochures. What will he do now?

Imagine yourself standing in a busy regional airport. Look through the eyes of the nervous man. You are there for a crucial rendezvous- a matter of life and death. But you're not sure of the name of the person for whom you are looking. You know little of the real details of the plan he has offered. You wouldn't recognize him even if he happened to be standing right in front of you. And then you realize that you do not even know the sound of his voice, because someone else has had all the conversations on your behalf. How do you think it will turn out for the nervous man?

On Solomon's portico at the temple in Jerusalem, agitated men bunch around Jesus and want to know if he is the turn around expert. "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

They anxious and angry men at the temple cannot see what is right in front of them.
Jesus states," The Father and I are one, " and still he goes unrecognized.
Jesus does not fit the expectation of the nervous men in front of them.
They discount his deeds or do not know of them. They challenge his words.
They ask to be told plainly, but will not listen when he speaks.

Are we so different?

How shall we know the sound of the messiah's voice if we do not practice listening?
Conversations with God are called prayers. Like all conversations, both parties are supposed to get a chance to speak. Do we provide enough time in our lives for God to speak?

The nervous man at the airport had the plan in his hand, but had not read it. The men on Solomon's portico had the witness of Jesus words and action but had not seen them for what they really represented. We have the witness of God's loving kindness to all of humanity over millenia and the eye-witness accounts of Christ's disciple telling us the stories of salvation history. Have we read the report? Do we know the details of the turn around plan? If we do not study scripture we are missing vital information on matters of life and death.

How shall we assess the nature of Christ's works if we do not really know the stories?
Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me."
The voice of God rings out in the words of Scripture. The voice of God speaks through the actions of Christ. If we learn the stories well, they will teach and lead us. Are we following Jesus now, or do we imagine we will just open the file as we near our final destination and try to learn about the mission then? The nervous man standing in the airport clutching his camping catalog knows the futility of this approach.

It is time to get ready, now, not when disaster strikes. Now is the time to learn to hear the voice of God. Now is the time to call on the name of Christ. Now is the time to read the plan of salvation and to draw near to the true turn around expert.

This turn around expert has done so much more than rescue a failing company,
or bolster a sagging economy This turn around expert has ransomed the world.

This is the one who calls us to kneel at the rail, to work in the world for justice and for peace, to congregate on porches for study and for prayer. This is the one whose name and voice and story we need to come to know more deeply that we might be turned around.

All times and all places from green pastures to the valley of the shadow of death are transfigured and transformed by the knowledge of the presence of God. May we let ourselves be deeply known by a loving God. And may we follow where God leads.