Global Positioning System

Matthew 7: 13-29

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.

For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?

In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Thus you will know them by their fruits.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’

Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!”

Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching,

for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

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Wade, my fiancé, and I are enjoying the ongoing process

         of getting to know more and more about one another.

One thing we have discovered is that

         we approach travel a bit differently from each other.

Wade either knows the best way to get from point A to point B,

         or he looks on a map before he leaves,

         and decides which way he will go.

I, on the other hand, being a gadget geek,

         have come to rely on my favorite “map app”

         on my smart phone.

Now, this is not to say that I don’t value the common map.

Long before I learned to drive,

         I was my dad’s map reader and navigator,

         and I loved figuring out the best way to get

         from here to there.

But these days, I confess that I rely on GPS –

         my global positioning system –

         almost completely –

to the point where I even set my destination to “NLPC”

         when I roll out of the driveway

         to head to church every morning.

There are two advantages to this, in my view –

         first, if there happens to be a traffic jam or accident

         along my usual route,

         the GPS will tell me where to go to avoid it

         and arrive the quickest

         of all possible options at that given moment.

And second, even if I am taking the usual route,

         it reminds me how many miles until the next turn

         or exit onto the next freeway,

         so I don’t find myself daydreaming

         and getting caught in the left lane

         when I need to be merging on the right.

The downside of GPS, as I see it,

         is that it tells you where to go, just one step at a time,

         one turn at a time.

Drive 8.0 miles on Mound Road.

         Turn right onto 18-1/2 Mile Road.

         Drive 1 mile to Van Dyke.

         Take the second exit off the roundabout.

         Drive 0.8 miles to Riverland Dr. Turn right. And so on.

If you want to see the whole picture,

         you have to go through several background steps.

It’s not impossible,

         but it’s not all that easy to see the whole map,

         or the full set of directions, from start to finish. 

You have to develop a sense of trust that, turn by turn,

         it’s taking you the best way you can go.

And of course, if you have ever used a GPS,

         whether it’s dedicated to your car

         or it’s an app on your smartphone,

         you will have experienced the strange reaction

         when you do not follow its instructions.

As soon as you make a wrong turn,

         or go past the spot where it’s telling you

         to enter the freeway or turn onto the next street,

         it will make a funny noise of some sort,

and then tell you, usually in a voice that is a combination

         of patience and annoyance, “recalculating”.

And of course this means that it now must figure out

         another way for you to get where you are going.

Some of the more current map apps

         are constantly checking the traffic on the various routes,

         and if your current route is getting slowed up by traffic,

         or an accident, it will reroute you enroute,

to ensure you are able to get where you’re going

         by the quickest route possible.

It’s quite remarkable, actually,

         and it does require that you place a level of trust

         that the app knows what it’s doing better than you do.

Some of us are better able to do that than others,

         and for all of us, it takes practice.

Sometimes the alternate route may take you through an area

         you have never been in before.

Sometimes you may not recognize your surroundings

         for a good portion of the trip.

It can sometimes be unsettling to keep on going – to trust.

In today’s reading,

         the last portion of the Sermon on the Mount,

         which we have been reading throughout Lent,

Jesus is placing a choice in front of us,

         a decision about the road we choose to take.

He describes the choice in a number of ways.

·      Enter through the narrow gate and take the hard road that leads to life, not the wide gate and easy road that leads to destruction.

·      Hear my words and act on them, and it will be like your house is built on rock. Hear my words and do not act on them, and it will be like building your house on sand.

·      Don’t just call me Lord, don’t just listen to my words, but act on them - do the will of God.

I have been thinking this week about whether

         this is one big choice we make –

the one-time, monumental decision to follow Christ,

         to enter through the narrow gate –

or if it is an infinite number of individual, daily choices –

         every day, every moment, every opportunity

         that is placed in front of us –

a choice to love God, to love our neighbors, to love our enemies, to serve and to give as freely as we have been served,

         as freely as God has given to us.

And as I’ve thought about this,

         I have realized that the choice Christ places before us

         is much like the experience of planning a road trip,

         where the first step is making the initial decision

         of where we are going.

And once we decide that, we generally set the path,

         decide in advance the mode of travel,

         whether car, or bus, or plane, or bicycle, or even by foot.

We map out the main roads, where to turn,

         what towns to go through, the speed of travel, and so on. And then we stick to it until we arrive at your final destination. At least, that’s what we hope.

But life as a disciple of Christ is actually a lot more

         like trusting that GPS. 

Because once you sign on, Jesus is going to lead you,

         one step at a time, wherever God wants you to be.

So a life in Christ is not about being assured

         a safe and easy journey to wherever you choose to go.

In fact, it’s far from it.

What it is more like, is turning over the steering wheel,

         as well as the route.

It’s trusting that, step by step,

         Jesus will lead you, not where life is easy,

         and not where everyone else seems to be going,

         but rather where God intends to use you.

It’s handing over the timing and the pathway

         to your final destination.

It’s trusting that God knows where you need to be,

         and that it will be revealed to you, step by step,

         but not all at once.

That you may stay in one place for a very long time.

And that when it is revealed, you have the choice to follow it,

         or to continue on in the way you think is best,

         to follow the crowd.

And here again is the paradox of a life in faith.

Because this feels to us more like the hard road,

         more like the house built on sand.

It doesn’t feel like a road that will lead to life,

          like a trustworthy structure or a reliable way to go

         on our journey.

But Jesus tells us that the wide road, the easy path,

         the one taken by many, is the road to destruction,

         and that the hard road,

         the one that feels wrong at so many turns, so many bends,

         is the road that leads to life.

Jesus tell us that going along with the crowd,

         turning from sharing all that we have from God,

         turning from loving one another

         to rejecting or shunning or hating one another,

         that’s the easier way,

         but it leads to destruction, for us and for the world.

Jesus tells us that it’s not just hearing his word

         as we have heard today,

         but it’s doing God’s will,

         that provides the strong foundation.

Jesus is our GPS, our global positioning system.

Jesus shows us the way, day by day, and step by step.

Jesus does not put the whole journey in front of us.

As disciples, God seeks to use us to do God’s will,

         in big ways and small, every day,

         and so we cannot know what the day’s challenges

         or joys will bring.

Like the GPS, we only see our path one turn at a time.

Like the GPS, God is continually recalculating,

         either to get us back on the path God wants for us,

         every time we take a wrong turn,

         or else to place us where someone needs us,

         needs our love and caring,

         based on the wrong turns they might have just made.

The word “repent” means to turn,

         and God shows us where to turn, how to repent,

         how to turn back, every time we stray.

And God sends people to us to lovingly help us when we do,

         and sends us to lovingly help others when they do.

Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

The way that Jesus is the Way is the Way of the cross.

It is the way of trust, of surrender,

         of letting go of the steering wheel,

         of making each turn, each day,

         toward the self-giving love of Christ,

         living our lives as followers of Christ, not just hearers. Knowing that the Way of Christ is not the safe way,

         it is not the easy way, it is not the way that is life-saving,

         but is life giving.

As individuals, and as a congregation,

         let us turn away from false prophets

         and false senses of security,

let us show by our fruits who it is we follow,

         let us trust that Jesus will position us,

not where we want to go,

         but where God calls us,

in order to do God’s will every step of the way,

         until we reach our final destination.

And all along the way, to God alone be the glory! Amen.