[Sorry, no audio today. Forgot to replace the memory card!]
Sermon – Stopping for Directions
1 Samuel 28:3-15; Matthew 26:36-44
Farmville Presbyterian Church
3/2/25
It was not that many years ago that everyone did NOT know what GPS is. Just a couple of decades would have given us at least a few people who had no idea what those initials represented. Today, I feel pretty confident that everyone knows what GPS is. That probably even goes for our young people who are still years away from driving. It has become something generally necessary. Back in the day, specialized GPS devices gave us directions for years, and now, it is at the touch of a finger or a call of a voice on our phones. I cannot tell you how many times I have asked Siri to take me home from wherever I happened to be, and I always get there. We might not know how it really works or just how it is really possible, but we all know what it is: GPS gives us directions. The question I need to follow now is “WHY is it called GPS? Do you know for what the letters stand?”
Admittedly, some of you are tech-savvy enough to believe the initials point us toward Global Positioning Systems. That is a pretty good answer, and on Jeopardy, you might be considered correct, but what I am comfortable telling you this morning, what I am comfortable admitting especially to all the ladies in the room, is what the initials really mean: Guys’ Pride Security. GPS (or Guys’ Pride Security) was created so that we would never have to be asked to stop for directions ever again. There was once a time when a passenger, often a person of the lady persuasion, would question the validity of the natural directional sense inherent in male DNA. This could lead to that moment of crisis when that passenger, perhaps a lady passenger, would urge the driver to stop and ask for directions. We hated to do it. Makes us look amateurish, unprepared, and inadequate. All of that changed with the Guys’ Pride Security devices or GPS. Now, our pride is protected, and we never have to stop. Amen and Hallelujah!
If only that were so. And yes, this is well beyond a male and female thing. And no, I am not very protective of my pride. Being up here makes me pretty vulnerable each week. I did this to point out that we have created systems for helping us to get places in life, but no matter how intelligent our devices might be or become, we will always need to double check from time to time, or to stop and figure things out, or to even ask for help and directions.
Today, we have two amazing stories of having to ask for directions, perfect for this series on journeying in life. We are all on our paths, but we are not alone no matter how dark it seems. King Saul was scraping the bottom of the barrel for his success as Israel’s first king. From the beginning, he was really set up for failure. Honestly, who could really be the perfect king? There is a higher standard for those in those positions of leadership which we seem to have abandoned in more modern times. Saul started out strong as king. He was successful in military actions and in using Samuel as his advisor, judge, and priest, but eventually when things got tough died, Saul got confused and unsure and tried to make things happen with God and decide things for himself. Here, the king who had gotten rid of mediums and necromancers, that is people who use the dead to do things that look like magic, is compelled to got talk to the very same kind of person he had hunted down. This is like Elliot Ness, the image for busting people in the alcohol business during the years of Prohibition, needing a drink and going to a bar. It is ridiculous, but Saul is at his wit’s end. He goes to the medium of En-Dor in disguise and at night. Think seance. Even when Saul is found out, he continues to go forward with this hairbrained idea. It does not make sense, at all. God clearly outlawed these people. We just read about that law this week in Bible study. Sual had pursued these people, and now he was seeking their help. And it worked! How is any of this possible?
Everyone in this story is angry or upset, but Saul does get a message from God, even if it is the hardest message he would ever hear. His life and kingdom was coming to an end, the lives of his children would also end, the army would be defeated, and Israel would be captured. That is a pretty grim message for all of that work. The passages reads like God is not talking to Saul, and that seems to be the way Saul goes about all of this. He assumes God has written him off, so he goes for answers, not even to God, but to the ghost of God’s prophet. But God did share what was going on and Saul got his answers, even if it was the hardest ones to hear.
When Jesus was also asking for answers to his hardest question, he was even more upset. You would have to be to be the Son of God and question the whole plan. Jesus knew what was supposed to happen and had second thoughts. His frustration to Peter and the disciples about “weak flesh” is also a reflection of himself. He was scared and needed reassurance. He dreaded the road he was about to walk. Certainly, any of us would, but he questioned the need three times. Is this really the only way?
I have been to the Mount of Olives where this happened by tradition in the Garden of Gethsemane. The view of Jerusalem on the wall outside the kitchen is from this place. It overlooks the city and the Temple. You can see where he was to be held as a prisoner and questioned. It was all right there. The path was literally right there to take him to this terrible day. You heard a difference between Saul and Jesus in their questions, though, that needs to be recognized. Both men were so pressed that they had to stop to ask for help, understanding, and guidance, but only one of them was willing to go wherever God needed them to go. Jesus expressed this three times: if there is any other way to do this, let it be, but your will be done.
The humanity of Jesus is a beautiful and welcome thing. We are in the same flesh as both Jesus and Saul. We have the same worries and concerns. We see trouble coming and get scared. Our faith wavers, and we are not sure if we can do it. Both men were looking for another way to face the trouble, but only one of them was willing to face it with God.
The story for Saul could have ended there, but he was so weak because he had not eaten. He was famished and could not return home. The medium, that person marked for death by God, made him eat. She gave him food even though every second she was around Saul was risky. In fact, the text says she had a fatted calf that she prepared for him. I find that pretty remarkable and wonder what kind of compassion in her might have been stirred by God to help Saul. God did not hate Saul. There were easier ways to get rid of him if that is what all of this was about. David needed to become king. Saul fought that tooth and nail. He tried to kill David. King Saul needed to face his end as king in battle, but there was no faith in God – only his self-serving need for survival. Even then, though, there was compassion for Saul.
As the world seems always more bent on difficulty and struggle, we need to take the time to ask for directions. Yes, we all probably know the need for prayer, but there is a bigger and more important lesson. Jesus prayed for God’s will; Saul prayed for his own skin. Saul has no interest in doing what God wanted. He just wants to know how he can beat the Philistines and save himself.
Selfishness is something that is built into our core. This is going to bear out in our prayers as much as in any other part of our lives, but prayer is itself something that can grow our hearts for God and our awareness of God’s heart in us. If our asking is all about ourselves, then we will not find the growth and richness in prayer that we crave. If we turn our prayer into seeking God’s help and God’s will, then we will find ourselves change.
Jesus invited us to take the same walk in faith when he taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Whenever we need to ask for directions, it is best to remember we are walking together. To God be the glory. Amen.