Where do you find God?
What is God like?
Scripture gets used appropriately and inappropriately for all kinds of things, but for me scripture is really about those two questions.
I don’t see scripture anymore as the place where I handpick the correct combination of do’s and don’ts to get God to like me.
Where do you find God?
What is God like?
Scripture is where we enter into the shared mystery of encountering the one who is holy.
Scripture is a vast, wild and diverse assortment of encounters that has been passed down to us that we may continue in the mystery and habits of encountering God.
In this vast cloud of encountering the holy we are always directed back to the world, to the details of creation and the biographies of human history, to our lives, the big events, and the never ending small ordinary stuff that fills our days.
The encounter with God, it always carries urgency.
Before it is too late, live differently, use time for what really matters before time runs out, catching us suddenly, and unprepared.
Moses is sent back to the world, back to Egypt
Meet God there, back in the world.
What is God like? Set the slaves free and find out. Hurry, before it is too late.
The Gospel lesson today has an interesting encounter of urgency.
Horrible things have happened in Jerusalem. Pilate, the governor, murders a group of Galilean pilgrims while at worship. Then there are eighteen people killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them. Where is God in that?
Angry men kill those at worship, where they are most vulnerable, whether in Jerusalem, New Zealand or Charleston. Where is God in that?
A tower collapses, super advanced aircraft fall from the sky, human error, random victims. Where is God?
The violently abusive and random disasters caused by human error. Where is God in that? Did the victims deserve it?
Jesus simply says that they did not disserve it. It was not divine punishment or God’s plan for the world.
Jesus doesn’t try to explain it, or make it make sense.
Jesus simply goes to Jerusalem himself. He is going to that place where bad things happen to the innocent, the place of the cross.
Rather than dishing out blame Jesus treats the encounter with tragedy as an invitation to turn toward God while we still have the chance.
Life is short, you aren’t dead yet, do something worthwhile before you run out of time.
The experience of God is like a fig tree that never bore fruit that was about to be cut down, but it is given a second chance, a vigilant gardener intercedes and cares for the tree that it may have one more chance to bear fruit.
God is like the surprise of finding ourselves still alive, that experience of life as a fleeting gift with a short time to bear fruit, to do something, to turn toward God, to encounter the holy one and the holiness of life and to do something fruitful.
Have you ever had that experience of finding yourself in the unlikely situation of finding yourself still alive? God is like that experience.
Like Ebenezer Scrooge waking up Christmas morning finding himself still present and accounted for.
Sometimes surviving carries guilt for those who didn’t make it, grief and anger, being left behind.
Living life as a gift can be harsh at times, saying goodbye, letting go, going forward in faith, trusting those who didn’t make it to the mystery of the holy one who bids us always to return to the world.
The resurrection bids us not to escape the world but to always return.
Did you know that this pulpit is a pulpit of gratitude? It literally is a pulpit of gratitude.
It has a very rare memorial plaque on it, this pulpit was given not in memory of someone who has passed away or in honor of someone deserving of honor.
It was rather given by a group of World War Two veterans for themselves, who were thankful for making it home alive.
Thank you for the unlikely occasion of still being here. We are not dead yet. “In gratitude for our safe return.” That is what it says. “In gratitude for our safe return.”
With all the pain and grief and futility of the most violent war in human history, they chose to be thankful and to do something with the time they had left. Not pointing the finger, not getting lost in resentment and suspicion, not wasting precious time on anger at a messy world.
This pulpit is its own parable of finding God in the mess of the world.
That’s the way to live, leaving gifts of gratitude everywhere we go, thankful for still being here, not the endless slavery of the pointing of the finger.
What is God like? Be set free and find out. Point the finger the other way and grow up, before it is too late.
What a gift! To be here for just a little while longer to find out, to bear the fruit of gratitude, to give the many gifts of thanksgiving.
The Gospel bids us to encounter the deep holiness of God that fills this messy world and our confusing lives. We aren’t dead yet. And when death does take us, the Gospel still bids us to return to the world and give thanks.
That is the power of the resurrection.