Odd Like God

Recently in Dallas I was able to defeat my GPS. I wasn’t trying to. That was never my intent, but despite my best attempts at navigating a city that is full of 1 million U-turns, my GPS cried “Uncle.”

The lady on the machine didn’t actually say that, she’s far too polite to admit defeat, but I won. Or rather I got lost.

I shouldn’t have. Hertz has a navigation unit in rental cars called “NeverLost.” It started out that way in the morning, but by mid afternoon, the name should have been “SometimesLost.” By late afternoon, “OftenLost.” By that night? “AlwaysLost.”

I whupped that GPS, until finally I thought to myself, “The only thing this navigation system is good for is a GPS sermon illustration.”

Have you ever heard one of those? In 2009, pastors were contractually obligated to use a GPS sermon illustration. (I know I heard a few over the years).

Seems pretty self explanatory. I’m surprised you had to ask, given how clear that idea is. But what might not be so obvious is the GPS sermon illustration. Allow me to introduce you to:

The 3 Most Common GPS Sermon Illustrations

1. The “I wish God spoke as loudly as my GPS” illustration. Wouldn’t that be nice? You’re going in for a job interview, and as you sit in the lobby, the voice of God says audibly, “Please proceed to the highlighted route out of this building. Travel 0.2 miles until you are no longer interviewing at this company. It’s not the right job for you.” Or as you get ready to walk down the aisle, “Please make a sharp right corner at the front of this church and continue 42 miles away from this guy. He’s not the one you’re supposed to marry.”

2. The “If you ignore the directions, you get lost” illustration. “Last weekend, my wife and I were driving around. The GPS wanted me to go one direction, but I thought I knew better. It kept telling me to turn around, but I ignored it. I drove and drove and drove, thinking I knew best. I got lost. For hours. If I had only listened to the directions, I might have saved myself a lot of time and frustrations.” Segue to the book of Proverbs.

3. The “Grace is even better than recalculating” illustration. When you take a wrong turn with my GPS unit, not to be confused with “G-Unit,” the lady’s voice on the system pauses for a second and then calls out loudly, “Recalculating!” That is code for “You are so dumb, so dumb, so dumb.” She very clearly told you where to go, and you made a mistake. You know she really wants to say, “Seriously? The sign for 40 east is the size of a whale shark. There were 14 arrows pointing in that direction. Were you texting and driving? Were you cheating on me with Google Maps on your phone?? Is that what this is all about?” Sometimes in sermons pastors will relate this to the times we fail and how God doesn’t react that way. Although he wants us to “u-turn,” his reaction at seeing us fail isn’t, “You blew it!”

Now a lot of people are going to tell you that this list should have one more on it, the “Sometimes God takes you off the map just like a GPS” sermon illustration. I thought about that one, I did. The reality is that sometimes if you watch your little car icon on a GPS, you’ll look up and realize, “Whoa, I’m driving in just a big field of green. This road is newer than the maps my system has in it. I’m off the grid. This is like driving in the Matrix.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20200225213016/http://stuffchristianslike.net:80/2011/08/11/the-gps-sermon-illustration

Some of these seem really funny and odd today as our GPS units have improved significantly since 2009. Most of us have learned that we should probably just trust the GPS. However, if we stop and think about it, doesn’t some of what God asks us to do and the directions he gives us seem kind of odd like the older GPS units? For that matter, don’t some of the ways God accomplishes things seem odd to us - they either don’t add up or just plain don’t make sense?

Have you ever thought to yourself - boy that seems odd - or man that is sure an unusual way to act - or they are just plain odd? I’m sure we all have at times. We each have our idea of what “normal” looks like - though I would challenge any of you to give me a consistent definition of “normal.”

I think we could all agree that we come across things that seem odd or unusual quite often. Merriam-Webster defines odd as “differing markedly from the usual, ordinary, or accepted.”

Hmm…by that definition I’m pretty sure that makes me odd and probably makes many of you odd as well. Now before you think to yourself why is my pastor calling me odd - hear me out this morning. When we think about God’s story that we see in Scripture, there are many odd things that come out when we are looking for them.

Let’s take a look at a passage that on the surface seems odd, even though many of us like to accept it as followers of Jesus. Turn with me to:

Ephesians 2:19–22 NIV

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

You might be asking - what is so odd about this passage? First - did you notice is verse 19 that we have been made “fellow citizens” with God’s people? And not only that but members of his household? Where do we see anything like this in our society? This is odd by the world’s standards. We respond in many different ways to odd - amused, threatened, intrigued, opposed, defensive, ignorant, confused, or angry to name a few.

As followers of Jesus, we will be found to be odd by many in this world! The question is how do we deal with it?

But before we get into that question, let’s look at some examples of what makes God’s story a bit odd by the world’s standards.

Let’s take the idea of the Trinity - three persons in one, yet three distinct persons. If this one doesn’t get people looking at you like your odd I don’t know what will. However, when we stop and take a look at the idea of the definition of a person from the world’s perspective versus a biblical example, it might start to make some sense. Dr. Boone gives the following definitions for a person as the world defines this (I think you’ll find these to sound familiar):

I am an individual. I am distinguishable from you.

I have a Social Security number that is different than yours.

I exist in this identifiable skin-sack.

I make choices in line with my ruling desires.

I enter relationships that are meaningful to me.

I seek out experiences that are relevant to me.

I have limited time and do not want to waste in on uninteresting people.

I am not obligated to you unless I choose to be, and you have no right to expect anything from me unless I give you that right.

I choose my politics.

I am responsible for myself.

Now let’s compare this “consumer” mindset and definition of a person with the biblical definition of a person:

I am a child of God.

I belong to the people of God by baptism.

I exist as a body within a body.

I take interest in the lives of my brothers and sisters. Some are energizing; some are draining.

I am obligated. People have the right to expect certain things of me in light of the covenant that exists between us.

I seek to be faithful to them.

I cannot think of myself apart from the body of Christ.

I am a new creation.

Did you notice the stark difference? The first was a consumer - someone who consumes experiences, people, and things. The second is a member - someone who belongs to the others. Stark difference. If we go back to our passage in Ephesians, we see that we are members of God’s household - that comes with a set of expectations as does being a member of anything. If I join a club there are some expectations of me. No different with what we are talking about here. Let’s look at:

Romans 12:4–5 NIV

4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

and:

Ephesians 4:25 NIV

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

When we see ourselves and others in this way, we will find people thinking we are odd - it is drastically a different way of thinking than that of the world around us.

Next - let’s take a look at Jesus ministry - what an odd way for God to redeem mankind.

Plan to redeem mankind and restore relationship with God - sending Son as sacrifice

Sending a Messiah, King, Lord as a baby in a manger - as a servant, unlike any earthly idea.

Jesus serving the least of these - the poor, crippled, shunned, untouchable - those that “leaders” of the day rejected

Jesus’ loving natu

standing in the middle of the pagan world and religious fundamentalism - our turn to be odd (end of chapter 1) - members of Christ’s body, identify comes from God not our individualism - that is odd by today’s standards

what kind of church do we want to be? What kind of Christian do we want to be? Safe? Final Word? or Maturing?