When a craft needs to dock with the ISS, there is a strict procedure to which it must adhere. First, match the ISS speed and orbit at a position below the ISS, approximately a football field away (110 meters; include the End Zones). From launch to this position can take days. The craft must hold at this point until given permission to advance.
Once cleared to advance, the craft cuts the distance to a little less than half (50 meters) while using its nose and tail rockets to alter its pitch, yaw, and roll to match that of the ISS. This usually takes a couple hours.
Next, again after receiving permission, the pilot moves the craft at a pace of about 2 inches per second, stopping the approach about 10 meters (33 feet) from the ISS. Once more, the pilot awaits clearance from mission control before moving any closer.
The final leg of the trip, that last 30 feet or so, goes very slowly; about 2 inches every 20 seconds. It takes about half an hour. And even after the craft has docked, the crew must wait another two hours for the connecting passage to pressurize before they can enter the ISS.
This is a long and complicated process, made even longer by the fact that at multiple points fresh permissions must be obtained before proceeding.
I think most of us believe getting to God works much the same way: full speed toward God; stop and wait; get more permissions; slow our approach; stop again; get even more permissions. And then, right when we think we have finally made it, jumped through all the hoops, we're told to wait ... Again.
We see ourselves as the rocket, expending all the energy to connect with God; and we see God as the ISS, floating majestically out in space, expending no energy at all, just awaiting our approach. But we have a fundamental misunderstanding about the ISS: we think it can't maneuver. On the contrary, it can maneuver; it just doesn't maneuver any more than is necessary. Any fuel it uses must be replaced (i.e., brought up from the Earth). Plus, at an expense of over $10,000 per pound of propellant, a single 180 degree maneuver costs more than $1,000,000 to execute. At that price, it's no surprise the maneuvering is usually left to the approaching craft.
God has no such limitations.
Nor does God expect us to "do all the work." The scriptures are clear on this, no matter whether you read the Old Testament or the New. James writes, "Draw near to God and God will draw near to you." Don't get the wrong idea, though; it's not a quid pro quo. Look at the father in the parable about the prodigal son: as soon as he sees his son "still a long way from home," he runs to his son, meeting him well down the road (Luke 15).
That is the spirit of more than one passage from this week's Lectionary selections (Ezekiel, Psalm 95). God is not waiting for us to execute a painstaking series of maneuvers in order to approach him. He is searching for us, looking down the road, ready to run to us at first sighting.
Start your approach ... God will take care of the docking.
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A slightly different version of this reflection appeared in November 2014.
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For more about docking with the ISS, link to:
http://www.howitworksdaily.com/docking-with-the-iss/
"Docking With The ISS"
How It Works Magazine
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
REIGN OF CHRIST
Proper 29(34)
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
(November 26, 2017)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=170
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Psalm 95:1-7a
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46
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