Preached by Michael Cheuk
May 17, 2009, Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; John 17:6-19
As we prepare to take family trips to St. Louis and Houston this summer, one thing that we are glad to have in our car is a “GPS,” or a “Global Positioning System.” A GPS is a very handy device. We program into the little box our final destination, and then a voice calls out directions, turn by turn, through every intersection along the route. If I fail to follow the instructions, the GPS pauses and then announces . . . “recalculating,” and then it guides me along an alternate route or suggests that I make the nearest U-turn. While our GPS is not perfect, it certainly has been very useful in guiding us in our travels, especially while driving through strange and unfamiliar parts of the country.
A couple of years ago, Beth took our kids and her dad on a driving trip around Texas. For the trip, Beth and her dad both thought it was a good idea to have a GPS on hand to guide them. Their trip was great – Beth’s dad grew up in Texas, and so they stopped in a variety of towns and cities across the state and met up with relatives, friends, and some of her dad’s old army buddies. While the GPS guided them capably along the way, there were a few times when Beth’s dad would say, “I know the GPS wants you to take the interstate, but let’s turn along this old highway – it doesn’t take any longer and will be a prettier drive.” So, throughout much of their travels in Texas, Beth and the kids relied on another GPS, the “Grandpa Positioning System.”
Don’t you wish sometimes that we could have a GPS to help us navigate the major crossroads in our lives? When considering a job offer, it would be nice to have a GPS to offer guidance like: “Accept job offer and stay for three years.” When deciding which college to attend, it would be handy to be told: “Recalculating . . . Wrong turn to Virginia Tech. Turn right to UVA.” When in a long-term dating relationship, it would helpful to be instructed: “Propose to Mary next weekend,” or “Recalculating . . . take next exit; dump Frank now.”
Well, this morning in our New Testament lesson from the book of Acts, we find the eleven apostles of Jesus at a major crossroads in their lives. They needed guidance in the days immediately after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. It must have been quite a change for those followers of Jesus. For three years, they literally followed Jesus, talking to him, learning from him, receiving direct instructions and commands from him. But now, Jesus was no longer with them to directly guide them, especially in the selection of another apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus who met a gruesome end. Peter carefully proposed that this replacement apostle must have these qualifications: he should have been with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry to the end, from Jesus’ baptism to his resurrection and ascension. And out of a group of one hundred and twenty believers, the two best finalists were chosen: Joseph called Barsabbas—also known as Justus—and Matthias.
What happens next is hard for us modern minds to understand. The group cast lots as the way to seek God’s guidance for their decision. The practice of casting lots is mentioned seventy times in the Old Testament and seven times in the New Testament. Not much is known about the lots themselves. They could have been sticks of various lengths, or flat stones or pottery fragments that had “yes” or “no” written on either side. For us, the closest thing to casting lots is likely rolling dice or flipping a coin. So these early disciples of Jesus cast lots and the lot fell to Matthias, who was then added to the eleven apostles.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I read this passage, a question I have is “So, how can we be sure that Matthias was actually God’s choice and not just the result of blind chance?” We don’t roll the dice or flip a coin when we seek God’s guidance for a major decision. We don’t usually flip a coin when deciding which college to enroll or who to marry! We Baptists think we have come up with a better system in seeking God’s guidance in congregational matters—we vote. But really, is voting necessarily superior to casting lots? You may think that I’ve just lost my mind, and maybe I have, but I’m trying to be a little provocative here, so just bear with me for a minute. In voting, we believe that the majority rules, but did that work so well for the Israelites when Joshua and Caleb were “outvoted” by the rest of the spies who were too afraid to enter the Promised Land the first time around? On a more trivial matter, did voting work so well last Wednesday, when America crowned the next American Idol? From what I’ve read, the finalist considered to be the most talented by the judges was not the one who won the most votes. Yes, we believe in the democratic process, but we’ve also heard too many stories of power plays, fraud and underhanded tactics to influence the outcome of elections. At least in the case of casting lots, it is much harder to manipulate the outcome, and for Jews back in Jesus’ day, they believed it was a way of making decisions that placed the results solely in God’s hands.
I’m not saying that we should scrap our democratic, electoral process, since while it has flaws, it may be the best system for collective decision-making available to us as citizens. What I’m saying is that within the body of Christ, voting is not the only, and may not even be the best method of seeking God’s guidance. While voting may protect us from religious tyrants, it is no guarantee that it will do so. In fact, it may just substitute the tyranny of the autocrat with the tyranny of the majority. On the other hand, I’m certainly not saying that we need to restore the practice of casting lots. While God may speak through the throw of the dice, it does seem too haphazard and indiscriminate. Also, in the Bible, I don’t see casting lots as the regular and preferred option to discern God’s will.
So what is the regular and preferred option to discern God’s will and guidance? Prayer. After Jesus had ascended into heaven, we find in Acts 1:14 that the eleven apostles all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. Without Jesus’ earthly presence, these disciples relied on prayer, which was the original GPS — “God’s Positioning System.” And before they cast lots, all the disciples prayed: “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen.”
Prayer was an intentional and on-going practice of the early Christian community. In the book of Acts, in the excitement and busyness of the spreading of the Gospel, the disciples and the community of believers were often seen praying. Prayer was a priority in the early church as it connected Christian disciples to the guidance and power of God’s Holy Spirit. Unfortunately for the modern-day church, the busyness of daily activity has obscured the priority of prayer.
A story is told about Steven Covey, the management guru and author, who was teaching a course on ‘Time Management’ to a group of company employees. In front of him on a table was a large bowl, and next to the bowl was a pile of several large rocks, and two buckets. He proceeded to take the large rocks one by one, and place them into the bowl. Having done that, he turned his attention to one of the buckets which contained a quantity of smaller pebbles. He placed the pebbles into the bowl, along with the large rocks, so that the pebbles fell down into the spaces between the rocks. He did all of this without saying a word, and then paused.
By this time, the students in the class were beginning to see what he was doing. He asked if anyone knew what he would do next. Someone suggested that the other bucket might contain some sand. Sure enough, it did, and he continued by pouring the sand from the second bucket into the large bowl until the sand reached the top. Some of the students were about ready to hear what profound lesson he would teach them from this simple demonstration, but he had not quite finished. He took one of the buckets, filled it with water from a tap at the front of the room, and poured water into the large bowl until it was just about to overflow.
He then stopped, and asked the question that the class were waiting for. “What lesson about time management can we learn from all of this,” he asked.
After a pause, one student raised her hand, and said. “I think it teaches us that it is amazing how much you can fit into the time that you have.”
Steven Covey smiled and said “That’s pretty much the opposite of what I want you to learn from this. Actually, what it teaches me is the importance of putting the big rocks in first!”
Prayer is the big rock that we need to put into our lives first before we do anything else. And according to Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard: “The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.” As we intentionally take the time to pray, we become closer in our relationship with God and deeper in His love. The more we experience God’s love, the more we learn to trust God. The more we trust God, the more we’re able to hear God’s still small voice and to be guided by it. As we live into God’s guidance, we are transformed. Our prayer then becomes a version of the prayer that those disciples offered so long ago: “Lord, you know our hearts and we know your heart. Show us the path you have chosen for us.” When we as a church are truly guided by prayer, then perhaps it doesn’t matter whether we vote or cast lots as a way to finalize congregational decisions, for if we all prayed to discern God’s heart and follow God’s path for us, then our priorities will be right and God will be pleased.
Yes, we are guided by prayer, guided by our time of communion and communication with God as we open ourselves to hear and follow God’s voice. But we are also guided by prayer in another way. In our Gospel Lesson from John this morning, Jesus prays to God on his disciples’ behalf: “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:9). Do you know what this means? It means that not only are we guided by our prayers to God, we are also guided by Jesus’ prayer for us! Jesus prays for our protection and for our unity of purpose. Jesus prays that we will experience the full measure of His joy in us. Jesus prays that God will not take us out of the world, but rather to send us into the world so that we may fulfill God’s mission in the world!
As we launch our Prayer Triplets, I am very hopeful about how God will guide us in our church’s Spiritual Transformation Journey. I’m reminded that we have the right “GPS” for the journey – we have “God’s Positioning System!” God knows our destination even though we do not. God also promises that His Spirit will come to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). We just need to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10) and trust that God will show us the way that we should go (Psalm 143:8). The formation of Prayer Triplets is just one way that we can intentionally set aside time to be still and listen to God’s voice as He guides us every step of the way as individuals and as a church in our faith journey. Whether you are in a Prayer Triplet or not, I hope that in the coming days, you will make prayer a priority in your life.
And our destination? Allow me to share the words of Gary Shockley that I quoted in my sermon a couple of weeks ago: “I am trying to learn something at once both simple and incredibly difficult: the destination is not a place but a person—a person who loves me very much and more than anything wants to be with me along the journey of life. I am much more open these days to the idea that God isn’t all that interested in getting me somewhere. God is just interested in getting me!”
May God “get us” as we are guided by prayer, so that wherever God leads, we’ll go. Amen.
