The God Who Comes

John 1:1-5, 14   (NRSV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being

So John begins the famous prologue to his Gospel.  A Gospel that is concerned to help us understand that Jesus is "the Word (that) became flesh and lived among us."

In mid September 2008, about 11 inches of rain fell over Northwest Indiana in a very brief period of time.  The result of that rain was flooding that had not been seen in the region in most people's lifetimes.  The storm, which was remnants of hurricane Ike, caused 2 deaths in the region and over 26,000 FEMA applications.

I will never forget how in the days following the storm we struggled to figure out how in the world we --- as individuals, communities of faith, along with the business community could help. 

I was at a Chamber of Commerce meeting the following week when someone came up to me and asked; "where was God in the storm?"  I invited them to come with me after the meeting across the street to the Munster High School which was being used as an emergency shelter and as we walked through, and see all the people being helped I said: "There, there is God!"

I want to be very clear about something --- I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT GOD CAUSES DISASTERS --- I know some that religious leaders have been known to proclaim that God does do that. But --- I DON'T BELIEVE IT!  What I have come to believe, is that God gives us the opportunity to respond to the hard places in our lives.

And when we try to understand what it means that God "became flesh and lived among us" I think many of us struggle with that concept when things become difficult.

When things are beautiful, when we seem to have the world at our fingertips, God seems everywhere.

          Every Sunset is the presence of God      

          Every baby is the presence of God

          Every good thing that happens we can sense God in the midst of it

BUT, when things don't go the way that we expect --- then we often wonder --- "Where is God."

Without a doubt, one of my favorite passages of scripture is the 139th Psalm. 

I imagine many of you know it as well.

Psalm 139 NRSV 

O LORD, you have searched me and known me. {2} You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. {3} You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. {4} Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely. {5} You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. {6} Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. {7} Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? {8} If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. {9} If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, {10} even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. {11} If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," {12} even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

If we read Psalm 139 carefully, we may be surprised by what the Psalmist writes. 

The Psalmist does not seem to raise the question of “Where is God, or where can I find God in the midst of all my troubles” which is the question that we often ask; instead the Psalmist seems to declare that there is no way to escape from the presence of the living God.

This is a God who permeates all of human existence, from the heights of joy to the depths of despair.  

I can't tell you how many times I have sat with a family in the midst of tragedy over the past 30 years.  And I have no doubt over the next few years; I will sit with some of you who are here today.

And when we confront these difficult moments, the question that often seems to be asked is WHY?

Why does God allow these terrible injustices to happen?  Where is God?  Why does it feel that God has left us in the midst of our grief?

Can any of you honestly tell me that at one time or another that you haven't cried out like Jesus did from the cross:

          My God, My God, Why have you forgotten me?

My first memory of the 139th Psalm is from a sermon my father preached the week my brother was diagnosed with a tumor --- and days before they surgically attempted to remove the mass from his stomach.

The Thursday before he preached on this passage he got a phone call from my 22 year old brother Stewart and this is what he said:

"Dad, the doctor has just called to tell me that I have a stomach tumor, and that I must go as soon as possible to see a specialist.”

Can you imagine having to stand in front of close to a thousand people three days later and preach from this passage? 

To try and answer the question: WHERE ARE YOU GOD?

In that sermon he said:

In that moment the world seemed to stand still and my life changed forever. Of all the bad things that I had feared might happen to Stewart as he grew up, it had never occurred to me that he might have cancer. Young people have accidents, get into trouble with drugs, but they do not have stomach cancer. By the end of the week we had discovered that Stewart had a large tumor in his stomach, ulcerated and bleeding, probably malignant. On Monday, Stewart will have surgery in a heroic attempt to remove this tumor.

And so now I cried out the words that I had heard on the lips of so many of you, “Where is God”.  “Why is this happening to a young man who is so full of life, who loves people so much, who is preparing himself for a life of service as a teacher?”

I do not know why this is happening. It seems so unfair, so devoid of meaning. I struggle to try and understand because if I can understand the “Why” then I will have a source of power to cope with this terrible event.

Despite what a few television evangelist try to tell us, and contrary to the very early Jewish belief that God rewarded good people and punished the wicked (--- using whatever means God wished --- weather, war, illness); Jesus, and even Judaism itself, turned that notion on its head.

Jesus very clearly reminds us that God does not cause evil.

In Matthew (5:45) Jesus tells us:

for (God) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

Yet, as a 25 year old seminary student I had to wonder.

          Is that really how it works?

I read and re-read the book of Job trying to find an answer.

Where God, where are you?

Why is this happening?

What did I do to cause this?

I am sure many of you have heard of Thomas Aquinas --- probably nobody has helped to shape Roman Catholic theology as much as Aquinas and he certainly is still a major influence in our world today.

He was without a doubt one of the greatest intellects to ever live.

Thomas lived during the thirteenth century and wrote one of the greatest systematic theological works called the "Summa Theology."

Aquinas was a part of the tradition of scholasticism and wrote about how God could be known through the intellect simply by reason.  For Aquinas the final and complete revelation of God is found in Jesus as his story is recorded in the Gospels.

On December 6th, 1273, while Thomas was at the Dominican convent of Naples in the chapel of Saint Nicholas, after Mass, Thomas was found to be lingering in prayer with tears before an icon of the crucified Christ.

Something happened, but no one knows because Thomas Aquinas never spoke of it.

But whatever it was it was so profound and life changing that when his aide asked him to return to work on his Summa he refused and said: "Reginald, I cannot, because all that I have written seems like straw to me"

And Thomas Aquinas wrote no more on his great work of theology. 

Apparently in that unexpected religious experience, he had encountered a reality that was beyond description. 

I know you have all heard of Sigmund Freud, the Jewish Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis

Freud regarded God as an illusion, based on the infantile need for a powerful father figure.  Religion, in his mind, was a necessary creation to help restrain violent impulses earlier in the development of civilization --- but it could now be set aside in favor of reason and science.

Carl Jung was a disciple of Freud, and was the son of a Lutheran pastor.

Jung disagreed with Freud over the issue of God.

Jung believed that there is more to the universe than mere material things, that religion is not a human creation but a human response to the spiritual realities that inhabit the universe, that there is a Great Spirit that we can experience and know. 

When Carl Jung was seventy years of age he had a massive heart attack and for several weeks lingered between life and death.  

During this time, he had a dream or a vision.  

In the dream Jung thought that he was standing at the very portals of eternity, a doorway that entered into a great celestial room. The room was filled with light, and Jung believed that when he passed through those portals that he would enter into life eternal and that he would know all things, peace and joy. 

Jung desperately wanted to go through that door, but just as he was going through the door, his doctor came into the dream and said: “Dr. Jung, there is a great protest on earth, a great protest against your leaving, you must return.” 

Jung lingered for three weeks between life and death, until he rather sorrowfully chose to return at seventy years of age. 

He lived on for another eighteen years and in those eighteen years he produced his life's greatest work, and rose to become a man of great influence. 

Then at the age of 87, amidst visions of glory and light, he died. 

Jung once was asked on a radio interview on BBC the question:

“Do you believe in God?” 

And Jung, on the basis of his experience, replied with these words:  

"Difficult to answer, I know. I don't need to believe. I know."

In a near death experience, this great psychiatrist came to meet and know “The God Who Comes,” an experience that gave new direction and purpose to the last 18 years of his life. 

As I wrestled with WHY, why would God allow a 22 year old, with so much life ahead of him get cancer? I found no answers.

It was only later that I learned I was asking the wrong questions.

But in the midst of this tragedy in my family's life I found the more important answer.

As I cried: "My God, My God, Why have you forgotten me?" I came to realize that God hadn't forgotten me.

No matter where I tried to flee --- God was there.

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? {8} If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. {9} If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, {10} even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. {11} If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night," {12} even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

I came to see that I was in love with a God who Comes --- a God who was willing to cry as deeply as I cried.

But I also came to see, that God was real in so many different people who also surrounded me.

When Stewart got sick, I was serving two little churches in North Carolina.

I have never experienced grace like they shared with me --- and I will forever be indebted to them for showing me a God who comes.

And then, the day before Stewart died and again a couple of days after his death, I was blessed with profound, unimaginable, unexplainable experiences of God. 

I will share them with you at some point, but when I do, I will be honest, I really cannot put the experiences to words that truly describe them. (I almost feel silly when I share them.)

But in both cases --- I awoke knowing that God was right there with me.

John wants us to know that we have a God who loves us so much, that he took on human form to come and be with us.

The truth is: John's description is beyond words.

At the end of the day, I can stand with Carl Young and say: I don't believe, I know, I know.

Carlos Carretto in his book: The God Who Comes, puts it this way"

"God has already come, and yet He is coming and He will come, as the kingdom which is already within us while we march towards Him."

May you too experience, not just in days of joy --- but days of sorrow as well --- a God who has come and dwells among us.


Audio version is available at: http://meridianstreet.org/sermons/