Here and There a God

Sixth Sunday after Easter – Year A

May 25, 2014

Acts 17:22-31

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.'

"Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

In just a few weeks the school year will be over, summer will have hopefully arrived, and many of us will be thinking about if, when, and where we may be going for a summer vacation. I think all of us like to get away, whether it's across the country, around the world, or just across town. There's something refreshing about just getting away from our daily everyday surroundings and stresses. Changing our location, our setting, frees us for at least a little bit from all the things that happen every day at home, at work, in our neighborhoods. It's nice to get away from home.

Being away from home, though, eventually makes us think about home. We get homesick. Maybe it's our friends and neighbors, maybe it's our bed. There are things about home that we find comfort in, even if there are other things that are sources of stress in our lives. One of the things I tend to miss when I am away from home is food.

Everywhere we come from, every house and family we call home, has it's own recipes and food practices. Now, for me one of the joys of traveling is that I get to taste some of the different types of food that are specialties of that particular region or country. There's nothing quite like the wild rice soup you get in northern Minnesota, the sauerkraut in Germany, and let's face it, no matter how hard other places may try, there is nothing quite like an Iowa Chop. Now, as much as I enjoy trying out new things, new foods, new flavors, there comes a day when I really want to taste something that is familiar, something that tastes like home.

The tough part is, that if I'm not at home, what I'm likely to find to fill that desire, that hunger, is not really going to measure up. It might get close, but it's still not there. You can live with it because it's close, but if you get the real thing that would be so much better. I think you know what I'm describing. There's nothing that quite measures up to the real deal, the real McCoy. You might be able to live with a substitute if you had to, but you would still be hungering and thirsting for the genuine article.

Augustine was one of the Bishops of the ancient church, and perhaps the thing he is remembered for most was his comment, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Within each of us there is a hunger, a thirst to be in contact, communion, relationship with God, and we will always be restless, always be searching, always be wondering if there is something more until we find our place in God.

The search for meaning in life, the search for an encounter with the holy can be expressed in so many different ways. Just look around. The number of different religions, and spiritual expressions and denominations we see on a regular basis is mind-numbing. If we think that the situation for Paul in Athens was different than for us, we haven't looked around well enough. Almost every where we look we can see signs of the search for meaning around us, people searching for a taste of God, seeking to fill the hunger and thirst that is within them.

Paul came into a community where the search for meaning and an understanding of god found itself expressed in the worship of multiple gods. In the Greek and Roman cultures that were prevalent at the time, there was quite literally a god for every need or purpose. Need a better crop, there's a god for that. Need to win a victory in war, there's a god for that. Want beautiful children, there's a god for that. Want to make sure the party you have planned for tomorrow goes well, there's a god for that, too. All you have to do is determine which god is the one who can deliver on what you are looking for, figure out what that god demands from you, do it, and your desires are fulfilled.

When Paul begins his speech, he doesn't tell the Athenians how wrong they are, he congratulates them for recognizing their hunger for the holy. If there is an altar to a different god on every corner, it's clear to see that people believed in something. That's true here in the United States as well, over the last fifty years the Gallup Poll has consistently reported that about 95 percent of Americans believe in God. The question is: which god? What is the image of God, the understanding of the holy that is carried around by people in their hearts. Who is this one in whom “we live, and move and have our being”?

When it comes to thinking about God, there are two basic ways in which we as Christians have envisioned the one in whom we live and move and have our being. What's fascinating is that both of these understandings of God have existed together with little conflict, and it's possible to trace both of these understandings back to the beginnings of monotheistic faith, faith that was based in the belief there was only one God.

One way of thinking about God envisions a God that is very person-like, but out there somewhere. This is the God that sits on a cloud in heaven and watches us. This is the God that created everything that is, and sits apart from that creation. God is somewhere up there, out there somewhere beyond the confines of the universe, while we are here. God doesn't always stay separate from us, from time to to time God comes and does stuff, intervenes in our lives; makes miracles to happen. In the Bible, we see this God in Jesus, we see this understanding of God in miracles and other spectacular events like the flood, the plagues, the falling of the walls of Jericho. This is the God we still pray will come and be present, will act powerfully in our midst, will listen and respond to our prayers and supplications.

The other way of thinking about God imagines things quite differently. In this understanding, God is not somewhere out there, God is right here. The universe is not something separate from God, but within God. Everything is in God. This is different from the understanding of pantheism, which says everything is God. No, this is pan-en-theism, every thing is in God. God is the power, the all encompassing force, the Spirit in whom everything that is, is. This is the vision that Paul paints when he describes God as the one in whom we live, and move, and have our being.

Theologians have used the fancy words of transcendence and immanence to describe these two ways of understanding God. Transcendent for the God out there; immanent for the God who is right here. As both of these understandings have coexisted for millenia, I don't believe it's possible to say one is right and one is wrong, or that one is more correct than the other. That said, I think there is something very attractive to everything being in God, and something potentially problematic in a God that is somewhere out there.

When God is out there, up there, somewhere that means that God must leave there to come here; that God's transcendence must become immanent, and it happens for a reason. God decides to change their home address. And when you choose to do something, you normally do it for a reason. So, when God becomes immanent, when God enters into our here and now, God does so for a reason. So, when God does the miraculous, when healing occurs, when prayers are answered, God chooses to do those things; because God chose to leave the transcendent and become immanent. If that is true, then the opposite is also true. When the miraculous does not happen, when prayers go unanswered, then God is choosing not to become imminent. And that raises all sorts of questions. Why does God choose to come to some people's aid and not others? Is there something about their prayers which is better? Does God love them more?

Of course not. When the miraculous happens, when prayers are seemingly answered, it's not about God moving from one place of existence to another, from there to here, it's about God becoming visible in our midst. Not having come from anywhere else, but felt here now. And we are content to not know the why's. And prayer, prayer is an expression of our belief that God is here and intimately with us. Prayer is conversation with our best friend who sits beside us, walks beside us, embraces us, comforts and celebrates with us. Prayers are whispered into the ear of the one who never leaves our side. Prayers aren't sent up into the heavens, with the hope to be heard; they are a declaration that we know God is here and active now.

Faith then, is not about finding God, but about finding our place in God. It's not about making space in our life, a place in our heart for God to dwell. It's about recognizing that our entire life is within God, that our heart dwells within God. We don't go to God; and God doesn't come to us because God is already here, we are already within the circle of all that God is.

Paul speaks to the people of Athens, he calls them out, he points out to them that all their idols, all their shrines, all their gods are expressions of seeking for that which is beyond them; a god that is somewhere out there, a god that must be cajoled, sacrificed to, worshiped and served in order to enter into our world. Paul declares that God is here, that everything found its beginning in God and continues to exist in God. It's not about trying to find something to fit into the God-shaped hole in our lives, it's about seeing our lives as part of the God-shaped whole. Amen.

Everybody must get stoned

Fifth Sunday of Easter – Year A

May 18, 2014

1 Peter 2:2-10

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
   "See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
      a cornerstone chosen and precious;
    and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
   "The stone that the builders rejected
      has become the very head of the corner,"

and

   "A stone that makes them stumble,
      and a rock that makes them fall."

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people,
   but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy,
   but now you have received mercy.

When I was younger, one of my favorite toys were my Lego's. I spent literally hours putting elaborate constructions together. I had the flat sheets that had painted roads on them, I had the large green sheets, I had small pieces, and larger pieces. I had long pieces, and shorter pieces. I had pieces in all the colors that Lego made. I had thousands of those little plastic building blocks. One of the things I will always remember about playing with Legos was sorting through the boxes looking for a specific block. Maybe it was the color, maybe it was the shape. Either way, I would sort, looking, finding, rejecting piece after piece. Eventually, I would find the piece I was looking for, and be able to complete my building project.

This last year, we finally introduced our girls to Lego building blocks. Wow, have things changed. It used to be that Lego's came in about 4 or 5 colors. Now, they come in every shade of the rainbow. Back when I was playing with them, the cars and trucks you built were basically little boxes with wheels. Now, they have curved edges. You can buy a kit to construct just about anything. I was curious and found a kit that you can use to build a 3 and a half foot tall model of the Eiffel Tower out of almost 3500 pieces. It sounds awesome, and awesome comes with a price: $2500! When I saw that, all I could think about was what would happen if you lost a crucial piece or two.

Legos have changed. It used to be that you could walk into the store and find a bucket with a few hundred bricks in it, and you could build whatever you imagined with those bricks. Now, try and find a bucket of bricks. It's almost impossible. Locate a kit to build the Batmobile, no problem. A kit that you use to construct Hogwarts, no problem. Even a kit that you can use to build a yacht. Where are the buckets of bricks with all sorts of 'generic' bricks? The kits are full of special blocks that you need in order to build that special finished project – and lose a brick, and the project can never be completed. The building becomes focused on the special bricks rather than the great majority of regular bricks that are used to build.

In our texts today, there is a theme that runs through several of our texts. In our text from Acts (Acts 7:55-60), we read of the stoning of Stephen, the first of the Christian martyrs. In our Psalm (Psalm 31), we read of God being our rock and refuge, our fortress. Then, in our text from 1 Peter, we discover that the young believers in the church are called stones. Stones, rocks, bricks.

Often when we think about rocks and stones in the church, we think about Jesus, the solid rock. The one who is described by Peter as the cornerstone upon which everything else depends. We think about the God who is described in our Psalm for today, a rock , a fortress, a refuge from the turmoil around us. We all can think of songs and hymns about Jesus or God as the rock – Jesus is the rock and he rolls my blues away, on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand, the Lord liveth, and blessed be the rock, A mighty fortress is our God. Without question God, Jesus, is the rock, the one who we look toward, the one upon who we can build our lives of faith. But, as Peter points out, if Jesus is the Rock, then we are the stones, the building blocks.

I've spent a lot of time talking about Lego's, but there were no Lego's around when Peter wrote his letter, no Lego's around when Jesus walked along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. No, there were only rocks, and stones, and bricks; and that's what we are. I almost hate to admit it, but one of the first things that came to my mind as I reflected on the texts this week was the Bob Dylan song, “Everybody must get stoned.” Laugh if you want, but a little bit of research and you can easily discover that Bob Dylan wrote the song, and chose those words not as some statement about getting high, but because of what happened to Stephen in today's text from Acts. In fact, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2012, he said that people who think the song is about drugs, “aren't familiar with the Book of Acts.”¹

When you take a stand on something, when you declare a position, you place yourself at the mercy of those who stand against you. As people of faith, we all take stands about all sorts of issues. The church and individuals have staked out positions (sometimes on differing sides) on issues of racial equality, economic inequality, justice, war and peace, the environment, contraception, sexuality, poverty, just to name a few. And when we do, we open ourselves up to being figuratively 'stoned' by those who disagree with us; as we saw happen in the last week as the Pope himself came under criticism for his declaration that economic inequality was an issue of faith. And sometimes, as in the case of Stephen, people are going to throw their rocks and accusations against us, no matter who we are, and what we say in our defense. We must all be prepared to be 'stoned' for positions we take, for the causes we choose to support.

But there is more to 'being stoned' than being used as a punching bag. If we are the stones, the building blocks through which the church of God is constructed, then when we are 'stoned' we are living into our identity as children of God.

A few years ago, when I was in Germany, I had the opportunity to watch some skilled stone masons working on repairing a centuries old stone wall. As I sat in the cafe, I watched them with fascination. They spent a great deal of time searching out, looking for the right shaped stone, the right colored stone, to fit where it was needed. But, they rarely if ever just stuck it into place. They would shape it carefully. Knocking a corner off on this one, shaving an edge on this one, only when the stone was prepared, shaped, adjusted was it placed. The shaping of the stone allowed for it be a part of the wall, a part that fit and did it's part perfectly.

Just as the stones in that wall in Germany had to be shaped and formed, we too, as the stones that are the church must be formed and shaped. All of us have edges that need to be smoothed, hard corners that need to be knocked off. And we are shaped by God, not just for fun, not just to prove how much we all need to grow, how all of us need to be corrected, improved. No, but because God desires that we be a part of the realm that God has formed, the Kingdom that God is constructing here in this place. God desires each and every one of us to be a part of the proclamation of the God who has made and formed us, walking with us out of the darkness of what has been and into the light of what can be.

Chipping away at our rough edges, knocking off our sharp corners is not always a process that is comfortable; in fact, it is often a painful process. Yet, if we are to be used by God in the building of the Kingdom it's a process that we all must go through. All of us are in the process of being molded and shaped, broken and chipped, prepared for use in the Kingdom of God, prepared for use in the world that we live in, prepared to be distributors and sharers of God's grace and love. But as painful as it is for us to be remade and refashioned, we must not forget the price paid by the one who shapes us.

When I was in Germany, watching the masons laying stone, one of the things I noticed was the ways in which the bodies of the masons had been changed through a lifetime of working with rocks, bricks and stone. The signs of their work was evident in their body. Their hands and knees bore the marks of their years working with the stones. All of us know how the work we do leaves an impact on our bodies – our knees, our backs, our eyes, our hands. The master stone-shaper who shapes and reforms us also bears the marks on his body. His hands and side are marked with the love he holds for his work, with the price he willingly paid that we could know what it is like to have once been in the darkness, but now live in the light. The price he paid that we could be part of something, be shaped and built into something beautiful.

There are all sorts of things that you can build with bricks and stones. But, we are called and tasked to be the bricks and stones of the church of God. One of my favorite composers of modern church music is Marty Haugen. He was written a song that expresses the calling and tasking we have with better and more poetic words than I could ever write:

Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live,
a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace;
here the love of Christ shall end divisions:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where prophets speak, and words are strong and true,
where all God’s children dare to seek to dream God’s reign anew.
Here the cross shall stand as witness and as symbol of God’s grace;
here as one we claim the faith of Jesus:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where love is found in water, wine, and wheat:
a banquet hall on holy ground where peace and justice meet.
Here the love of God, through Jesus, is revealed in time and space;
as we share in Christ the feast that free us:

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where hands will reach beyond the wood and stone
to heal and strengthen, serve and teach, and live the Word they’ve known.
Here the outcast and the stranger bear the image of God’s face;
let us bring an end to fear and danger:
All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter, prayers of faith and songs of grace,
let this house proclaim from floor to rafter:
All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.²

Let us build, let us be built into this place. Amen.

1http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bob-dylan-unleashed-a-wild-ride-on-his-new-lp-and-striking-back-at-critics-20120927

2 All are Welcome, by Marty Haugen 1995, GIA Publications, Inc.