OK, God, I need directions

"You know the way to the place where I am going ..." -- John 14:4

Recently, someone said, "Well, actually I didn't know where Augusta was when I agreed to drive there. It was further away than I thought."

"Which way did you go to get there?"

She answered, "I don't know. I just followed what the navigation said." Boy, technology!

Today is holy Saturday. If you are Catholic, you have the Easter vigil. If you are Jewish, it is almost a month until Passover. For many of us, it is a good day to have the Easter egg hunt or bake something to carry to church. Or set out the luminaries at Wesleyan College for the sunrise service.

This morning is also roughly equidistant from Mary's asking the gardener for some directions and Thomas' having shared out loud that he had no real clue as to Jesus' destination. Thomas spoke from the table of the Last Supper.

Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" is such an elegant piece of artwork. Chances are, no piece of artwork has done more to shape our view of what happened on that Thursday evening. The life-sized disciples are all on one side of the table. It is as though we have been invited to sit on the other side and watch. We see the two groups of three on either side of Christ. It is a snap shot of their reactions when Jesus tells them, in John 13:21, that one of them will betray him.

It is from this table that Jesus teaches. The scripture heard at many Christian funerals happens at this table. ("Let not your hearts be troubled. ... I go and prepare a place for you. ... I will come again for you.") It is also in these verses from John, Chapter 14, that we have Thomas' request for directions. Or his admission that he doesn't know the destination -- even if Jesus says that they do: "You know where I am going." Thomas speaks for the whole group, "We do not know where you are going! How can we know the way?"

To bring this message into present times and current technology, Thomas says, "We don't know what to enter as our destination." And as the old adage goes, "If you don't know where you are going, any old road will get you there."

Directions are nothing new to the Bible. In Jeremiah 6:16, God says, "Stand by the roads and look. Ask (directions) for the ancient paths. (Ask for) the good way and go that way."

Jeremiah's counsel is great counsel -- especially if you have ever passed by your exit because you couldn't get over to the right lane in time. Take your time to figure out where you are going; get clear directions; enlist the help of others.

Mary is asking directions of the groundskeeper. She knows that the dead body of a great religious leader has been moved. She wants directions as to where. It turns out, she does not have to travel far at all.

So here we are on this Saturday, right between Thomas' saying he needs help and Mary's request of directional guidance. In both cases, the news that they have heard, or the events they have seen, have caused them to lose direction.

Often times, a church, a person or a business seems to have lost direction. It is at that time that we should ask for help. On this Saturday -- when it has not yet dawned on Thomas what is about to happen and as it about to "dawn" on Mary what has happened -- we stand by Jeremiah's road and ponder which way leads to the good way. It is not yet tomorrow. We look for the waymarks.

Jeremiah says to set them up; make guideposts. Consider the roads that got you to this point (Jeremiah 31:21).

Here is what I like about our new technology: Certain smart phones can help you get some place. You type in where you want to go and click on "Present Location" as the starting point.

Asking for directions from your present location will get you on the path from being lost to being found. I love that God wants to find us in our present location -- no matter how lost, confused or turned around we may be. Said differently, God does require us to first get some place, on our own, before the journey can begin. It starts here. It can start today. Even though your cell phone may be in a dead zone, Christ's antenna is constantly pinging your location.

And as Mary found out, we aren't always as lost as we first thought. We are right where we need to be. And, as for the dead man, he was as alive as you and I; God did an amazing thing! Oh, yes God did!

May you have a joyous Easter. Turn on your (spiritual) location services with a prayer. Travel from "once was lost" to "now am found." Ask God for directions.

Jarred Hammet is the pastor of Macon's Northminster Presbyterian Church.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 8:44 PM with the headline "OK, God, I need directions ."