God and Your G.P.S.

Text: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Theme: God and Your G.P.S.
11th Sunday after Pentecost
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 8, 2010
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

IN THE NAME OF JESUS

1Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. 3By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
8By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. 9By faith he stayed for a time in the land he had been promised, as in a foreign land, living in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11By faith he received power of procreation, even though he was too old-and Sarah herself was barren-because he considered him faithful who had promised. 12Therefore from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, "as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore."
13All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, 14for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. 16But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.

Love, joy, and peace to you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Is this really happening? It’s almost unbelievable. As early as five years ago, if someone were to tell me that I would become a member of a Presbyterian church, join the staff of the same church, become an inquirer and then a candidate for the ministry of Word and Sacrament in the church, and then receive a call to the be the pastor of another Presbyterian Church, I would have laughed long and hard and said, “Sit down. We need to have a chat!” But, as it turns out, it was the good Lord and you dear people that got the last laugh. It was the good Lord and you dear people that said, “Sit down. We need have a chat.” And that’s exactly what happened. The Lord, through First Presbyterian Church (that’s you), has extended me a divine call to serve as your pastor.

Today, I publicly acknowledge before you – with great joy and happiness -- that I have accepted that call. I want to thank my wife, Diana, my family here in Texas, my father in Nebraska, the good people of St. Andrew down the street, and all of you for your faithfulness, encouragement and support that have led to this day. It never would have happened without you. These are the facts; they are beyond dispute. End of discussion.

I am in awe of the trust that the Lord and you wonderful people have placed in me – a trust that, for many years, I thought I would never be anywhere near worthy of or have again. With God’s help, I promise to earn that on-going trust to the best of my abilities. I will make mistakes; we all do. We’re human. When we err in our ministry together (and we will), let us seek out the most available commodity in the world, and that is the blood-bought forgiveness of God – brought to us by the Gospel and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Let us share it with one another. When we receive blessing upon blessing and achieve success in our ministry together (and I believe we will – for ourselves, for the church and for our broader community, and for the many who have yet to come through these doors), let us remain humble and give God the glory which is due unto him. In all things and in all times and during the good, the bad, and the ugly, let us recall our chief end: that is, in the words of the Westminster Catechism, “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” God is to be worshipped. Absolutely. The Gospel is to be proclaimed as the good news it really is. Most definitely. The sacraments are to be administered according to the institution of Christ. Certainly. People pray to God. Yes, they do. God is often doubted. Very true. But today, let us recommit ourselves to making First Presbyterian Church a place, a sanctuary where God is enjoyed!

When God is enjoyed, we can even chuckle at our own faults and foibles. After all, perfection is a fiction; forgiveness is a fact! When I was out of the ministry for nearly ten years, I learned a little something that has stuck with me, and it goes like this: Cling to the thought that your dark past (with all its sins, mistakes, failures, and what have you), in God’s hands, can be your greatest asset. It could very well be that you are the only one around who knows what another person around you is going through, and who would be better than you, then, to provide understanding, and support, and help? A minister friend of mine once said: “Every day is an adventure as hell itself is put to flight by that holy laugh born from Christ’s forgiveness.” Speaking of forgiveness, I hope the men of the church will extend it to me because I’ve messed things up already – even before my first sermon. All last week I was getting my computer set up and my computer’s calendar up and running (Microsoft Outlook, for you technological buffs) and the computer synced to my mobile device. You know, there was a time when we all got by without these things, but the world has sped up quite a bit since then. Anyway, I neglected to plug in the men’s breakfast scheduled for yesterday morning. I get to church yesterday, later in the morning, and it dawns on me that I missed breakfast with you guys at Old West on Dallas Drive. To quote a popular two word phrase: “My bad.” Next time we have a function at Erwin Hall, I’ll fry the sausage and flip the flapjacks!

Speaking of technology, wouldn’t it be something if we had a device that would tell us immediately what to do? If things went wrong, we could then blame the device! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had some kind of contraption that would jog our memory right when it needed to be jogged? Wouldn’t it be something if Steve Jobs and his engineers over at Apple could come up with an application for an iPad or an iPhone that would tell us the right thing to say, the right thing to think, the right thing to do in any situation? I’d be all over that, as my brother-in-law says, “like a rat on a cheeto.”

Do any of you have one of these? I brought with me in the pulpit today a G.P.S. portable navigational system. G.P.S. stands for “Global Positioning Satellite”. This unit hooks up with that G.P.S. – “Global Positioning Satellite” – up there and tells you where you’re at. More than that, it tells you how to get where you want to go. My family and I made good use of this little doo-dad on our way up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado for vacation earlier in July. You punch in a destination, and it tells you, audibly, where and when to turn. For example, it might say: “In and 1/8th of a mile, turn right on Interstate 35 South.” The thing even anounces, with a woman’s voice, the names of the streets. Sometimes it mispronounces the names, and we all got a laugh over that. If you miss a turn or somehow get off the beaten path, it will say, in usually about ten seconds, “Recalculating route.”

The title of this morning’s message is “God and Your G.P.S.” Notice: it doesn’t say “God IS your G.P.S.” God is not a global positioning satellite. A G.P.S., hooked up to one of these, can tell us where to go. But, if I read God’s Word correctly, God does far more than just tell us what to do and where to go in life. Yes, God gives direction. But more important than that is that God gives gifts. “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life,” say John 3:16. Picking up on that, St. Paul said: “By grace are you saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.” It’s the gift of God, dear friends; it’s not because we followed the directions perfectly. I don’t know about you, but that comes as quite a relief.

One of the gifts of today’s Scripture reading is that it tells us about the gift of faith and illustrates it beautifully. Speaking of faith, do you have complete, total, 1000% faith in your air conditioning unit? Do you have complete and total faith that Denton Municipal Electric is going to hang in there during these triple digit dog days of summer? Maybe you’re reasonably sure, but not quite completely sure. Do you have faith that when you call a business you’ll hear an actual, live human voice on the other end of the line? I have almost zero faith on that score.
Our text says that “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Now I hope that they find a cure for autism, but I’m not 100% sure they will. I hope the economy rebounds beautifully, but I’m not convinced. I hope that we will never see another war in our lifetimes, but there are no guarantees. I hope that whatever it is that motivates someone to burst into their place of employment and murder their co-workers and then take their own life (as happened this past week in Connecticut) is a motivation that we’ll never see again. But who knows for sure? If faith is based only on what we hope for, from what emerges from our hearts and minds, then that faith can be wobbly. Doubts can emerge. But if our faith is lodged, embedded in what emerges from the heart and mind of God, if our faith is based on what God hopes for us, then I proclaim to you that there’s no doubt.

What are God’s hopes for us? What emerges from the heart and mind of God? That we believe and know that, no matter what, we are loved. That we believe and know that, no matter what, we are God’s children; we are not orphans; we are not alone; we are not Robinson Crusoes left to fend for ourselves. We are not the spiritual version of Tom Hanks in “Castaway”. Rather, we are family. That we believe and know that, no matter how grevious the sin or how badly we’ve bolixed things up or how morally suspect we may have been or are, we are completely forgiven. One of the songs we used to sing at St. Andrew’s evening service went like this: “Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.” And here’s another hope God has for us: That we believe and know that even when we turn away from God’s plan for our lives, as we are so prone to do, God will recalculate the route.

Do you remember that towering figure, Abraham, in the Bible? He’s mentioned in our reading. He didn’t have a G.P.S. He didn’t know where he was going. God called him to go somewhere, and our text says he didn’t know where he was going. But he obeyed that call to go – not out of fear of punishment, but because he had the gift. He had the faith! Some folks obey because they don’t want to pay the penalty if they don’t. That wasn’t the case with Abraham; he obeyed because he had faith.
Abraham and his wife were way past child-bearing age. But God had promised they would have a child. They hung onto God’s promise, and they did. It says that they – Abraham and his descendants – were strangers and foreigners on earth. Have you ever felt like that? I have a home. I have a job. I have a spouse. I have children. I exercise. I eat right. But sometimes I wonder: is there something more? Am I missing something? What’s the point? Where am I – really? Where am I headed?

Have you ever felt like that? Sit back and relax. It’s okay. You’re in good company. Like Abraham, those doubts and uncertainties about where you’re at in life don’t necessarily mean that you lack faith. It may be evidence – in fact, it is evidence – that you have hope that is not yet realized.

It’s funny how the mind works. I remember, years ago on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, there was this stand-up comic singing a little song that went like this: “Oh, when it all comes down I hope it don’t land on you.”
That’s where a lot of people are in life: they just hope that it (whatever it is) doesn’t land on them. I think that’s a fatalistic – if not, boring – way to live. I don’t want to live that way.

I mentioned earlier that we vacationed in Colorado in July. There was a time toward the end of that trip when we all sort of sensed that we were ready – if not, eager – to be on our way home. The navigational system and the G.P.S. performed beautifully, and we made it.

By extension, all of us – whether we’ve lived here all our lives or have relocated many times – are on our way home, on our journey to that place whose builder and architect is God. Wherever you’re at in life at this moment, take comfort in this: God is not ashamed to be called your God because He has prepared a city for you.
My wife and I – and many others – are so happy that our journey to that city is now linked with yours. Lets invite more people to join us. I believe people, without even knowing it, are crying out for what God can offer here. Our prayer today could easily be the first line of that popular Kenny Loggins Christmas song: “Please, celebrate me home.” Our faith in Christ – for all the gift that it is – will navigate us there.

To all of that, there is only one more word to say, and that is Amen!

May the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.