Reflections on "Maps to Anywhere" Genesis 12: 1-9; I Corinthians 1: 17-24

I spent too much time in the sermon on personal stories about iPhone map issues.  Still trying to find the balance between using the iPhone as a bridge to the sermon and the iPhone stories dominating too much of the sermon.  Did not find the correct balance this week.

I hope the segue into the predestination issue worked out ok.  I went ahead and added that point, in part because I have been in several discussions recently about heaven and who goes (or does not go) to heaven, Perhaps this point in the sermon was helpful.

I had a bit too much material for this sermon and did not find a tight focus for the sermon.  Each of the points could have been its own sermon.  In fact, each of the sub-points of the second move could probably have been a stand-alone sermon.

The song from "Big River" would have been better if it had been sung, but I was not working far enough ahead to make that happen, and I didn't think I could pull off singing that song as part of the sermon.

I mentioned my friend Cletus Johnson who took me when I was a Sr. High to San Antonio for a Synod Youth Workshop.  Remembering him brought back some great memories of church youth groups activities, games of Trivial Pursuit, and a New Year's Eve party with Cletus and other college students when I was in college.  Cletus taught art and seemed to know a little bit about everything, which always made life interesting.  I still fondly remember our conversation in the van on that particular trip, but also lots of other great conversations through the years.  I am reminded how blessed I have been to be surrounded by people who nurtured and challenged me as I have grown in my faith.

“Maps to Everywhere” September 20, 2015; FPC, Troy; iPhone theology series; Genesis 12: 1-9; I Corinthians 1: 17-24

Introduction: There was a time when taking a trip meant getting out the Atlas, tracing the route to where we were going (sometimes tracing multiple routes), adding up the mileage, figuring out how long it would take to get to each stop along the way, and then writing up detailed directions complete with mileage between points for use on the trip.

I also had maps and an Atlas in my car to use in case we got lost (this proved particularly helpful when I realized we were in Delaware and Delaware was not on the mapped out route, but that's another sermon!).

Then, we moved into the time of Mapquest or Google maps, with the computer telling me the best way to get somewhere and printed directions to follow as we drove along.

Now, with my iPhone 4, I have a map function on my phone. It apparently always knows where I am, so all I have to do if put in the location of where I want to go, and soon I have step-by-step directions. No voice talking to me, but directions.

Gone are the days, well mostly gone are the days when I would try to find places based on feel and some sense of knowing where I was going.

Map function and discipleship.

Move 1: Hearing God's call means a journey.

a. We read this morning God's call of Abram.

1., we know God's call will be life-changing one as marked by Abram becoming Abraham and Sarai becoming Sarah.

2. The change is not just about who they are by name, or whose they are now by God's claim, but the hearing God's call involved packing up and heading out on a journey.

b. We in the gospels that following Jesus means going on a journey.

1. When Jesus calls his disciples, he tells them to "follow me." “Quit what you're doing and let's go!”
2. When the rich, young ruler is confronted by Jesus, Jesus tells him to sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor (that' the part we usually remember), but then adds, "and then come follow me.

         3. We focus on the selling of possessions and assume that's why the young ruler won't go, but maybe he was not willing to embark on the journey of following Christ.

           4.Ironically, as we live in what we consider to be a transitory time when people move a lot, most of us do not have a clear sense that when we hear God's call it means pack up and move.

    c.  Being a disciples means change.

          1.  A life of discipleship means a life of turning to God and allowing God to guide us

           2.  Discipleship ought to lead us to different places.

           3.  can you imagine turning your life over to God and following Christ and hearing God say, “Stay exactly like you are. Don't move, don't change?”

           4. Resident Aliens, Willimon and Hhauerwas, p. 5.2) When we are baptized, we (like the first disciples) jump on a moving train. As disciples, we do not so much accept a creed, or come to a clear sense of self-understanding by which we know this or that with utter certitude. We become part of a journey that began long before we got here and shall continue long after we are gone. FPC, mt. Sterling, Feb. 6, 1994

4. As you look back over your life as a follower of Jesus, can you see how you have moved to different places in your understandings, in your approach to life?
   d. Map function on my phone gives me a series of steps to get from one place to the next.

the life of discipleship is a series of steps, going in the direction God sends us.

Move 2: Lessons from the journey

a. Cletus Johnson –riding shotgun in the van on the way to San Antonio; “Getting lost in a new place is the best way to learn about it. If you go straight to where you are supposed to go, you don't learn anything!”

b. Important to have the correct directions.

1. My wife Leslie, my daughter Noelle, and I were driving to College Station from Houston to do a college visit at Texas A&M
   mind you, this was not a new drive for either of us, although it had been several years since we had made the drive and we were in fact on a new highway since the last time we made the trip.
   Leslie punched in Texas A&M on her map app on the phone. M on her map app, and it kept giving us info that did not seem possible. I kept ignoring the requests to turn here or there. She kept asking me why I would not follow the directions. Finally, she discovered that her iPhone was giving us directions to some Texas A&M branch in Houston

2. We cannot live into our calling unless we listen for the directions from God.

3. we live in a world with lots of people willing to tell us where to go and what they think we should be doing.

4. But we must listen for God's voice, we need to turn to God in prayer for guidance; we need to hear from those in our faith community who help us discern God's call for our lives.

               5. the directions God has for us maybe different than what the world tells us.

b. there may be detours along the way.

1. Sidney at night.
2. Two bridges out (or maybe one that I came to twice from different directions) and one other detour.
3. As we live our lives, we find ourselves in unexpected situations or in places we had not anticipated.
4. Those detours are not the places we abandon our faith, but the places where we especially need God's guidance and direction.
5. Be ready for detours and see them as opportunities to learn and grow.

c. We learn along the way.

1. Fast forward from Abraham to the Israelites leaving Egypt and heading to the Promised Land.
2. The journey for the Israelites to the Promised Land was not the most direct route.

3. in fact, God led the Israelites “the roundabout way” (Exodus 13: 18)

4. I looked – my iPhone map has an option for a walking route, a biking route, a driving route, staying off highways, but no roundabout way!
5. God worried that the Israelites were not ready for the Promised Land.
3. they might turn back out of fear if they went the most direct route through the land of the Philistines.
4. They needed to grow out of people who understood themselves as slaves and grow into people who could claim the Promised Land.
5. God led them on a journey through the wilderness to allow God time to work on them, shape them, prepare them for the Promised Land.

d. sometimes you need to stop.

1. Rush of finding someplace.

2. either trying to figure it out or having the navigator punch in directions.

3. Still moving while having the map reset.
4. Not reading the little map on the phone screen correctly (remember, I don't have a voice, so I have to read it and figure it out!).

5. I've learned that sometimes it's better to pull off to the side of the road and take time to figure out where I need to be going.

6. Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of a woman who was lost on the country roads trying to find Taylor’s house. She was eventually pulled over for speeding. She said to the officer, “I am sorry. I know that I was speeding, but I’ve been lost for the last forty minutes and I cannot find Tower Terrace anywhere on this map.” “Well, I’m sorry about that too, ma’m,” he said, writing up her citation, “but what made you think that hurrying would help you find your way?” (134) Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church

7. Sometimes along our journey of discipleship we need to stop and collect our thoughts, renew that conversation with God about where we are headed, and then move forward.

Move 3: Sometimes we make our journey about getting into heaven.

a. I tried to map a journey to heaven. Got lots of choices, but not the one that comes with eternal life, although the option for Heavenly Ham seemed inviting.

b. if we make our journey to follow Jesus all about a journey to heaven, then I think we miss the point.

1. In the musical "Big River,": there's a song "Do you Wanna go to Heaven."  Huck Finn is told that he better learn to read or he won't be able to learn how to go to heaven.  Here are the lyrics:

DO YOU WANNA GO TO HEAVEN

FROM BROADWAY MUSICAL "BIG RIVER"

Writer Roger Miller

Looka here Huck, do you wanna go to heaven

Do you wanna go to Heaven

Well I'll tell you right now

You better learn to read and you better learn your writin'

Or you'll never get to heaven 'cause you wont know how

You may think that the whole thing is silly

But it ain't silly really and I'll tell you right now

If you don't learn to read then you can't read your Bible

And you won't get to heaven 'cause you wont know how

Read more: Roger Miller - Do You Wanna Go To Heaven Lyrics | MetroLyrics

2. Suggests that our life of discipleship is about finding the secret knowledge or path that gets us into heaven.

3. God does not send Abraham on a journey to heaven. God calls Abraham to be a blessing to all the nations.

4. when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he does not describe how they can get to heaven. He calls them to the foolishness of the cross, to live out their faith as the follow the resurrected one.

b. Predestination.

1. Reformed theology noted for that thought.
2. The idea that every step of our journey is pre-ordained and mapped out, and all we are doing to following along the predestined path.
3. Not sure that is biblical, nor an accurate understanding of John Calvin's argument.
4. For Calvin, predestination was not about our journey of discipleship, but about not having to worry about salvation.
5. Remember, Calvin is teaching people who had grown up Catholic with a high sense of having to do penance or give money to ensure salvation.  Without that model for how to get to heaven, they were unsure how to understand salvation.
6. Calvin offers predestination as a way to rely on God's grace, rather than spending effort trying to earn one's way to heaven.

Conclusion: iPhone can provide you with maps to anywhere, but the faithful follow the path Jesus puts before them.