Loading...In talking with people in congregations and out in the big wide world,
I hear a variety of descriptions of God:
...in the laughter of children
...in the beatify of the mountains and forests
...in the colorful “painting” of a sunrise or sunset
...in the joy of a loving friendship, spouse, parent, or sibling.
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
You may have said one or more of these, and there is truth in them.
But, let’s remember that God is also
...in the weeping of loss and grief
...in the righteous anger of facing injustice with truth
...in the choosing of suffering in order to be with one in pain
...in the love of someone sitting with their friend of beloved who facing loss.
God is in all of these, and more.
~~~~~~~~~
“Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning? ...
It is [God] who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers –
[“Ooooo, they’re like little ants running around!”] –
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,”
who doesn’t give the time of day to those who think they’re “all that”
because they’ve pulled themselves up by their bootstraps,
or because they have power, money, prestige, or whatever.
But who knows everyone,
numbers them,
and calls them by name.
“Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting,
the Creator of the ends of the earth,
Who does not faint or grow weary,”
who understands you and gives you strength
who heals the brokenhearted
and binds up your wounds.
The same one who numbers and names the stars in the One – the Divine One –
who lifts up the downtrodden and reminds the wicked that they’re dust too.
So often we tend to think of God
as either the glorious Creator
or, the friend we have in Jesus.
God is great and awesome and all powerful;
or, the bruised and broken reed, the suffering servant.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
But God is both. All. At the same time.
The “fancy-pants”, grad. school words are
“transcendent” and “imminent”
Big, great, glorious AND intimate, close, personal
public AND private
Jesus both casts a demon out of a man publically in a synagogue
and
heals Simon’s mother-in-law of her fever in the privacy of the home
(plus, Jesus actually knows her name, even if we never do).
Jesus teaches, heals, and tells stories in public
and
goes off in private to pray in order to be renewed.
The Spirit blows throughout creation
and
is the very breath in your body.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is not an “either/or”.
It is a “both/and”.
Have you not known? Have you not seen?
Our God loves the whole world,
all creations, all creatures, all peoples, and you.
Our God is transcendent and imminent.
Grand and glorious AND intimate and personal
meeting you in all places
in all your joys, challenges, grief, anger, surprise, yearning, frustration,
happiness, contentment, curiosity, and losses;
in public – worship and fellowship
in private – prayer, one to one conversations, and silence.
Our God loves you with passion deeper than the seas,
higher than the mountains,
broader than the desolate places in which you may find yourself,
so that you are always embraced by the presence of God.
Amen
