Beloved of God,

“Geocaching.” Ever heard the term? If the answer is NO, there’s a good chance you don’t own a smart phone or spend much time on the internet. It’s a word that was coined twelve years ago this month when, on May 2, 2000, at approximately midnight, Eastern Time, the great blue switch* controlling selective signal availability was flipped. Twenty four satellites orbiting the globe processed their new orders, and instantly the accuracy of global positioning system (GPS) technology improved tenfold, and tens of thousands of GPS receivers around the world had an instant upgrade. By locking on to any three orbiting satellites the GPS could now triangulate your position to an exact location almost anywhere on the globe.

“Geocaching,” first coined on May 30th of that year, is the joining of two familiar words: the prefix GEO, for Earth, and CACHING, from the word CACHE. “Cache” has two different meanings: (1) The French word invented in 1797 refers to a hiding place one would use to temporarily store items (think voyageurs and pirates). (2) The contemporary, technological term refers to computer storage capacity used to quickly retrieve frequently used information. Simply put, geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game in which players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online. [Want to learn more? Go to: http://www.geocaching.com]

I got my first taste of geocaching the last Saturday of April when I headed to Vashon Island with Nicole K and five confirmands for a day-long “roving” retreat. There the seven of us (Ike, K2, Kyle, Noah, Stuart, Nicole, and me) found ourselves staring at the screen on Nicole’s iPhone, with one blinking dot telling us YOU ARE HERE, and another one pinpointing the location of the secret cache we were seeking. During the course of our five geocaches quests we posed with Cool Gary, avoided (barely) confrontations with NRA zealots (the sign with the revolver read: “Nothing I own is worth your life”), searched for clues left in rusted out boat hulls, and traipsed through old forests and thickets of nettles—all the while searching for the hidden treasure.

Sometimes the treasure cache was simply a small waterproof container with a log sheet we could sign indicating, “we were here.” Other times, in addition to a log, the cache contained tokens left by folks who’d been there before us. One cache contained a geo-token that we were invited to transport to another cache location, and then register the token’s key on a website, so that the originator could map his/her token’s cross country journey over time. The possibilities are endless…what a gas!

Throughout the Easter season the Sunday readings from Acts address the questions: What does the Spirit of the risen Christ do, unleashed into the world? Where does it go? What effect does it have? Whom does it touch? Each story in these opening chapters bears witness to Christ’s living presence and the Spirit’s transforming work in the fledging church. Each chapter invites and enlists us as witnesses—(as opposed to bystanders!)—who share in God’s mission of bringing gospel treasure into the neighborhoods and communities in which we live.

Here in Acts, with heart and mind locked on the Spirit, we find ourselves traveling to the heart of Jerusalem as a multilingual crowd suddenly hears good news in language they can understand; we see the disciple community practicing care for each other in such a way that no one has need; we peer into the once-useful begging bowl of a once-crippled man whose life and future have been given a new lease in Jesus’ name; we witness the bold courage of Peter and John refusing to be cowed by the institutional powers-that-be; we ride with an Ethiopian emissary as Philip comes alongside him, becoming his tutor and baptizer. On and on the Spirit goes, gaining momentum through ever widening circles, crossing boundaries once considered unassailable, and carrying us along in her wake. No stone is left unturned (or unrolled), no stump unsearched, no place is too remote. The gospel’s trajectory is unstoppable!

All these stories testify to the existence of true treasure and, like geocaching, give us routes to follow. But there’s one big difference. When you’re geocaching, the treasure, the goal, is beyond you and it’s up to you to read the clues and follow the signal until you find it. But when it comes to this journey of faith, the treasure, it turns out, comes to us! The One Triune God—triangulating via the divine global positioning system—locks on to each and every one of us and tirelessly seeks us out, emptying heaven to make contact. From all indications, God isn’t done playing yet. In fact, I have it on good authority that God won’t stop until every last one of us blinking dots has been linked back to the Source of love and has found its way home.  What an adventure we share! Thanks be to God!

Pastor Erik