Not being able to see God face to face makes perfect sense to me. You see, God cannot be quantified--God doesn’t have a face. Or a head, or arms or legs. God isn’t some old man sitting on a throne….unless God as an old man sitting on a throne is a comforting image to you….you see God isn’t anything one thing God is every little thing, everywhere, always and forever. God is light, God is Love, God is energy. All depictions of God as a man are simply the imaginings of artists….we can’t see God face to face because God is not static, God is not mortal, God is not physical.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t see God. If we pay attention, we can absolutely see God. And that, I think was God’s point in this encounter with Moses.
Just as Moses could “see where God has been,” we, too, can see where God has been…. And where God will always be….we just have to look around.
Remember what Aidan said at our congregational meeting a few weeks ago, that he thought we should take our money and give it to people who didn’t have any…tell me that isn’t a stunning example of “where God has been and will always be….”
Consider the Pet Food Pantry---all the folks who volunteer at it, all the churches who have emulated it, all the grateful clients, who are served with grace, dignity and joy and tell me that’s not a stunning example of where God has been and will always be.
God is active in and around us, but-- and here’s the problem facing the modern church--- does the world notice? If you ask the secular world about God, I don’t think you’d hear much about God-sightings.
There’s a new study out, exploring all the reasons that church attendance, continues to drop at a pretty steady, and frankly, alarming rate. One point really impressed me:
"When the unchurched were asked to describe what they believe are the positive and negative contributions of Christianity in America, almost half (49%) could not identify a single favorable impact of the Christian community…
Nearly HALF couldn’t identify how churches favorably impact society?
Yikes.
Folks, what this means is that people aren’t noticing God in this world…so we have more work to do, because our job is to increase God-sightings. Frankly, I think we do a pretty good job of making God’s handiwork clear to those who are looking….the trick is getting more people to look…and to see.
I think our move into Good Shepherd’s building will be a great opportunity for God Sightings.
You all are showing the diocese, once again, what can happen when a group of people keep their focus on Love of God and Love of Neighbor. You know that old hymn, “They’ll know we are Christians by our Love?” I am proud to say that the Church of the Ascension is a wonderful example of that sentiment. Soon the diocese will know that we are the real deal by our love…for even in the face of great challenges you have risen above and beyond those challenges by focusing on Love and Joy and Hope.
Sadly many other ”Christian communities,” have completely lost their way. As author and pastor Joe Daniels puts it: Far too many churches today have become drive-in, spiritual social clubs and not the agents of community vitality and life transformation they used to be. As a result, communities are suffering, churches are dying, and far too many people are searching for hope in all the wrong places.
We must show people that God is at work in our world through us.
It isn’t up to God to show God’s self to the world, it’s up to us!
We CAN show the world God. If we live God-centered lives, people WILL notice.
In today’s Gospel Jesus asks the Pharisees what mark is on the coin they have challenged him with—they rightly respond, Caesars (Emperors). Jesus’ point is clear, we must bear the mark of God, not the mark of the Caesars of this world—all the things that are “not of God” that consume and distract us.
When we boldly and actively bear the mark of God in all that we do and every place we go, people will notice…they’ll notice that God has been and always will be here.
These next few months will be challenging, they’ll be sad, they’ll be frustrating. Come January when we are worshiping in a new space, in a different part of the city, things will feel uncertain and foreign but one thing will remain—we each and everyone of us, bears the mark of Christ in our hearts. We are faithful, courageous people who love God and each other.
Remember that. Remember that in all the uncertainty and strangeness we will, as we also have had, each other and God.
We may not see God’s face, but we see God each and every time we greet one another, and our neighbors, in love. God has just passed by, can you see it? Can you feel it? Can you?
God was here. God is here. And God will always be, right here. With us. Among us and in us.
The world is watching. Will they know we are Christians? Yes, I believe they will.
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