Meeting God Again
May 1, 2005
Acts 17:22-34
John 14:15-21
Images of God, of Jesus are sometimes beautiful, sometime hokey, but always just a glimmer of what one person believes the great one to be. Just as a living, breathing man was a glimmer but this presence we have within us…this presence of the Holy Spirit is the living God available to us today. A living breathing God that interfaces with us not just visually, but sometimes speaks, compels, allows us to feel…This morning we’re going to examine how to meet that God within ourselves, our community of First and our Community of Tucson.
Abide means: Stand fast, remain, go on being, to stay, reside
Abide in me
We spend a lot of our time filling ourselves up. When we feel a little empty we go out to eat, call a friend, go shopping, do some homework…whatever it takes to fill that space up. Today’s message is about that practice. When we take time each Sunday to center ourselves, we’re attempting to create some space. In the middle of all of our schedules, the kids, the doctor appointments, the worries, the vacations, the chores, the to-do lists, in the middle of all of that is room for a space. Paul was talking with the Athenians about this very thing. They were filling up their spaces with these same types of things, lots of academic work, debate, dialogue. And, Paul even came across one altar to the Unknown God. Paul comes into the high court in Athens, northwest of the Acropolis, and he reminds the well-educated people who are gathered. He uses rhetoric to reach his audience and remind them of where they are located and what they worship. And, everyone is with him, he has the room until he brings up the resurrection. He is brilliant in his framework. He reminds that they have made some brilliant pieces of art to capture God, yet they remain lifeless…no matter how hard we attempt to capture God, it’s always a one dimensional attempt. Jesus, Paul reminds, was a living breathing man…isn’t a resurrected man better than a lifeless idol? This Jesus is as alive as this Christian God.
We fill our lives up with a lot of idols: money, degrees, jobs, positions, friends, social clubs, kids, schools, keeping busy, but the gospel cries out today, to create space to allow our God to abide in us. In John’s gospel today, Jesus promises his presence as a gift to his disciples. It’s not something to achieve but it can be something that is avoided. Our Scriptures tell us that God’s disciples must demonstrate their love as disciples in order to keep Jesus’ commandment to love one another. Today’s word is a call to action, a call to presence. We must be intentional about making time to create a space for the presence of the Spirit to abide with us. This happens when we focus on the love of Jesus and the space love grows within us.
Abide in us First
And, it’s not just about creating space within ourselves to fill with God’s love. For whatever was of Jesus is of God, and this advocate, this counselor, this Spirit Jesus gifts us with also is of God. When we express the love of God, we do the work of Jesus in expressing that love by keeping the command to love.
I was reminded of a story by two of our own this week. Cathy and I had a habit when we moved to a new neighborhood to try all of the churches in that neighborhood that interested us. When we moved into Madison, when I was teaching school we set out to find a UCC we might join. We picked an Open and Affirming Church. It was vibrant, filled with a variety of people, a wonderful children and youth ministry. A sound social justice ministry and a large lesbian/gay/bisexual community. We desperately needed a community where we didn’t have to be the first ones. Shortly after we began to attend one of the couples that had been together maybe 20 years decided to have a wedding. The wedding was publicized in the bulletin. I remember one Sunday when two of the women sitting behind us began talking about those kind of people and how they were making a mockery of weddings. Every word they spoke was like a piece of hot coal shot onto our backs. It was the longest service I’ve ever been to. The sparks that came from their mouths seemed to light our chairs on fire. Hearing such hate-filled words in the midst of a sanctuary where our guards were down hurt twice as much. Someone in our community told me this same story about an open and affirming church in Tucson. When we use our love to create space that reaches out in love, it’s all of our responsibility to care for that space. Those two women could have sent Cathy and me away from questioning or knowing God…And that’s not the commandment we’re to follow. Our words are very connected to what our space fills with. It’s not enough to say we’re open and affirming, we must live our love to all who come through these doors.
We created space for the Zambian Children’s Fund when we moved into this building. We did that after the Women’s Fellowship voted to take them on as a mission project, after the Social Concerns committee was formed and took them on as a mission project, after Kathe came to meet with us and came to our worship service and asked us, after we found a building and had no other mission project happening on a regular basis, after Jim Barzeele made a motion and Sarah seconded it. We created space for them. But, if we don’t create space that’s filled with God’s love it’s not the gospel. We must work to create that space within ourselves, our lives, our community: a supportive group of love. Our ministry of providing space is our communal response out of love. But, it’s not enough just to create space for them, we must keep that space open through our witness to God’s love through the actions of Christ. Those children are dying every day…God’s children are dying 6,500 of them every day in Africa from tuberculosis, tetanus and AIDS. We are creating a loving space to try to witness to the hope of new life through our support of Chishawasha. But, we have to support it with our words, our actions, our presence as well. It was an incredible feat to send a container that cost $11,000 to ship filled to the brim with over $150,000 worth of supplies for that school, the orphanage, the home ministry off to Zambia last week. The space we created helped allow that to happen. We are showing our love for the least of these and we’re doing it as a witness to our faith and our call to love one another.
Abide in our community Tucson
We can create this space in Tucson as well. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be the community people come to in order to see the gospel in action. But, not just in our service, in our living? When we create this space within ourselves, within our community of faith, within our community, we radiate the presence of God. Let’s use our mouths, our work, our space in this community to fill it up with God’s love and the commandment that we will love one another. Let’s be the community that proves to the least of these, that we will hold a space full of love for them, for God abides with us. Amen!