Destination Unknown

Scripture:  Acts 16:9-15

 This Spring my family and I watched the latest season of the Amazing Race.  If you are not familiar with this long-standing reality show, teams race around the world competing various challenges inspired by the culture of the countries they are in.  As the season goes on, teams are eliminated, and teams compete to be the first team to reach the finish line of the final leg.  Often teams use taxis or public transportation to get around cities in other countries, but at a couple of points teams had to drive themselves.  The show does not allow them to have cell phones, but it did provide a map for directions.  It was interesting to me, because the teams that were comprised of people in their 20’s struggled with this and got lost frequently.   This is because they did not really know how to read or navigate with a map. 

 Then again, why would they?  I think people who have smart phones take for granted just how wonderful map apps like google maps or Ways are.   They really do make driving to new places incredibly easy.   At this point it has really revolutionized how we travel.  These apps provide accurate turn by turn directions.   There is no need to know how to read a map.  These apps have also greatly reduced the dreaded possibility of having to stop and ask for directions. Stopping and asking for directions was always a terrible proposition, because while the person you asked might know how to get to where you wanted to get to, their directions may not always have been the most helpful.  The directions could be things like, “Go down the road a little ways and then turn left close to where the Chevron station used to be, but if you get to the field with the big tree in it, then you done gone too far.”

Thanks to smart phones, giving “country directions” is becoming something of a lost art.  Honestly, that may not be a bad thing.   As charming as that way of giving directions might be, it also was never terribly helpful.   “Turning where the old gas station used to be” or taking the second road past the church, by the big sycamore tree in the cornfield” does not provide a lot of clarity for someone who has no real reference point for that community.    Without knowing the relevant reference points, those kinds of directions can be hard to follow and we can easily get confused and not have a good sense of where we are or what are surroundings are.
 
We can run into this same problem when reading the Bible.   This morning’s scripture is a prime example of this, because this is the kind of scripture that most people skim over because the names can look so hard to pronounce to us.  We get quickly lost because we have no idea what or where a place like Bithynia is.  While we do recognize the word Asia in this morning’s scripture.  What the Roman world called Asia is probably not what most of us think when we think of Asia today.  With no context, it can be hard for us to get a sense of the scripture’s context and what is going on.  Paul clearly could not get where he wanted to go, but he ended up where god wanted him.    I think the lesson of this morning’s scripture is that when we deviate from our planned directions we can end up exactly where we belong.          

Having a sense of the location names thrown around this scripture can help us get out bearings a bit.  Most of the names such as Phyrygia and Galatia are names of Roman provinces.  A Roman province is an administrative area, and Phyrgia and Galatia is the region where Paul begins this morning’s scripture.  This is the interior region of modern-day turkey.  While there were cities scattered about, it was a more rural area.  From here, Paul wanted to travel to Asia, which was another Roman province.

However, calling Asia another Roman province is under selling it a bit.  Outside of Rome, Asia was kind of the premiere Roman province.  The Roman province of Asia is along the coast of modern-day Turkey.  It consisted of multiple prosperous cities that were fiercely competitive with one another for power, influence, and prestige.  Due to this it was an incredibly prosperous and wealthy area.  It was so well known that “Asia” became the default word to refer to the land East of Europe.
 
It made sense that Paul wanted to go to this area.  This morning’s scripture comes from Paul’s second missionary journey, it was his goal to share the good news of Jesus Christ and spread the gospel. So of course, he would want to visit the influential cities in the most prosperous of provinces.   If his message could make inroads in some of the important cities along the coast, then it would more readily spread throughout the whole empire.  It made sense for Paul to go to Asia, but he did not, and we really do not know the details of why. 

 The scripture states, he had been kept by the Holy Spirit from entering Asia.  So Paul goes for the next best thing, which is the province of Bithynia.  Bithynia bordered the Southern part of the Black Sea.  While not as influential as he province of Asia, it still had several prosperous costal cities.  However, Paul could not get there either.  The scripture states “the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to.” We do not get any details about what that means.  Did the Holy Spirit literally speak aloud to them and say that you are not allowed to go?   Did circumstances such as a flooded road, a sick animal, or other circumstances come together in such a way that it made it clear they were not supposed to go that way?  Or was it like a cartoon and Paul walked headfirst into some sort of invisible force field that prevented him from going further?  We do not know the exact circumstances, but what is clear is in some way the Holy Spirit made it abundantly clear to Paul that he was not supposed to go to the province of Asia or Bithynia. 

So then not really sure where to go next, Paul has a dream of a man in Macedonia.  If Asia was the prosperous and wealthy province where things were happening, then Macedonia was the “has been” province.  More than a century before Paul’s time, Macedonia was an important province.  It was the battleground for multiple wars as factions wanted control over it.  However, as the Roman empire began to expand the importance of Macedonia diminished.   While it probably would not be fair to call it a backwater of the Roman Empire, it probably was the Roman equivalent of “fly over country.”  It was a place to pass through in the Roman Empire, not a destination.

By the time of Paul, it was a province that was past its prime.  Its golden days were long behind it.   It was not high profile, and it is not a place where a big splash could be made.  Despite that, it is where Paul went.  He went there because it was where God wanted him, and it was exactly where he belonged.  The scripture makes this point, because as soon as he arrives in Phillipi, he meets Lydia.  Their conversation leads to the baptism of her whole family, and that is the beginning of a church that Paul would keep contact with, because we have one of his letters to that church recorded in the book of Philippians.

 As we consider the story of this morning’s scripture I think there are two big takeaways for us today.  The first is that “the best” is not always the best for us.   During Paul’s missionary journey the province of Asia was the best, it was the place where things were happening.   Again, from a strategic point of view it would have been the best place to do ministry, but it was not where God wanted Paul to go.  I think we can learn from this.   If you ever look at books on church leadership or most adult Sunday school curriculum, you will notice that much of the authors have something in common.  They are all the pastors of large churches.   It is a great rarity to find a church leadership book written by someone who has mostly served in churches with less than 100 in attendance.  This is because we assume bigger is better, and those who are big are doing it the best.   Therefore, if we are not the biggest, we are doing something wrong.  
Too often we let the nebulous church goal of “get bigger” be a weight that pulls us down because it is a goal we never seem able to fully accomplish. Pursing the idea of “get bigger” can cause us to fail focus on the specific needs and people God is putting right in front of us.  Likewise, It can be easy for us to look backwards instead of forwards, and long for the church’s glory days when all we had to do was open our doors and watch the people come in.  This is a trap though, because how things used to be are not how things are now. Trying to reclaim how things used to be would be like Paul trying to Asia even though the Spirit said “no” instead of going where the Spirit is leading now.   

The measure of a successful church is not just butts in the pews and dollars in the plate.  The measure of a successful church is are disciples being made and is the world being transformed?   Are we sharing the love, grace, and forgiveness, with the people around us, who need Jesus?    That is the true measure of vitality.  Paul went where God called him, and it was where God wanted him to be.  Lives were changed and a difference was made.  If we are faithful as individuals to following Jesus and seeking to love God with all of being and our neighbors as ourselves, then as a church we will also be faithful to where God is calling us.  If we are faithful to God, then we will grow.  However, growth may not look like what we have in mind.   Instead of worrying about let numbers, let’s focus on following where God is leading us and we let God worry about how full the pews get. 

This points to the second take away for us, which is that Paul went where God sent him without hesitation.  Specifically, the scripture states, “we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia.”  There was no hesitation, there was no “this is not a good time” or “maybe we should have a meeting first.”   There was none of that, instead they left at once.   God called Paul and his traveling companions to a place they were not expecting, and their reaction was the right one:  go at once.   When it comes to how we make disciples and how we transform the world, we can learn from this.  When God calls us to do something, we do not drag out feet or make excuses, we just go.  

Of course, we can be led to wonder just where God is telling us to go, but I do think we get a few clues.  First, we know where God is telling us to go because we are already here.  This church building is not going to grow legs and move somewhere else.  As long as there is a congregation here then God is calling us to the Rensselaer.  This church has stood the test of time.   After more than 190 years we are still here, which means this is where we are supposed to be, and it means God still has a job for us to do.   

This morning’s scripture also gives us some guidance.  The Holy Spirit leads Paul to Macedonia.  If we seek to be faithful in following Jesus, then the Spirit will lead us.  There were a lot of places Paul could have ended up in Macedonia, but God led him to Phillipi.  In the same way, there are a lot of people we can reach and there are a lot of differences we can make in our community.  We can trust the Spirit will lead us, and in following the Spirit we will find  God tends to be a God full of surprises.  This means that where we are to go, is probably not “the way we have always done it” and it is probably not the most obvious thing.  Where God is leading, it may be destination unknown, but if we are faithful in following then we can count on the Spirit to get us exactly where we need to be. 

May we all be faithful in following where God is leading us.  May we be willing to follow the Spirit’s leading without hesitation . May we follow the Spirit’s leading, and may our measure of success not just be bigger is better, but may we measure spiritual depth and lives transformed.   Wherever God is leading us, may we be willing to say here I am Lord, I will go Lord.