Sermon – Where is God?
Philippians 2:1-12; Exodus 17:1-7
Farmville Presbyterian Church
October 1, 2023
– Finding God wherever we are
You know Ernie and Greg, those precocious little boys who always seemed to be getting into all kinds of cute and not so cute hijinks? They were Dennis the Menace x2 with a little bit of Calvin and Hobbes mixed in. Their parents did not know what to do with them. Mom and Dad were at their wit’s end. The 8- and 10-year-old boys were already the talk of the town. Then, a new minister moved into the community who had a reputation of being able to change lives. Greg and Ernie’s parents did not know what else to do, so they sent the boys to the minister’s office. First entered Ernie. The minister began by bringing the conversation directly to the divine, “Ernie, where is God?” The boy did not quite know how to answer that question, so he sat there in silence. The minister was undeterred, and he took it up a notch, “I repeat, where is God?” Ernie was just not getting this and continued without a word. Finally, the minister put everything into the question, “For the last time, Ernie, where is God?” The young man could not take any more but dashed out into the lobby where his brother was waiting. “We have to get out of here, Greg. It sounds like God is missing, and they think we had something to do with it.”
By the way, if anyone tries to start a rumor that I can straighten out problem children, well, that might not sit so well. Who knows? I might make them into preacher’s children. Thankfully, my little ones are doing ok for the most part, but that is largely by the grace of God.
Back to the question. Where is God? We do need to know where God is.
This might sound like something of a silly question. This is one of those things that they teach you in Sunday school at an early age. God is … everywhere, right? Question #4 of the Shorter Catechism, which catechism is something a number of people memorized as a child, points us in the “God is everywhere” direction with its answer:
- 4. What is God?
- God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in his being wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
That doesn’t sound like a God who is likely to be found in any particular place. We have been telling ourselves from our beginnings that God is everywhere. Because God is Spirit, there is no bounding, no limiting, no boxing God. God is infinite, so God is everywhere all off the time. Our church Book of Order reminds us that all space is suitable for the worship of God, and anywhere we that might worship, there we can encounter God. Yes, God is everywhere, but this can also be a problem as strange as that may sound. It is actually really easy to forget an omnipresent God. It is so plain and so obvious and so taken for granted that I for one know I do not really appreciate this as much as I should. Maybe you struggle with this, also. It is hard to remember sometimes when our calendars barely give us time to breathe that God is with us. It is hard to remember sometimes when our bodies are so wracked with pain that God is with us. It is hard to remember when lines for help get longer and longer that God is with us. It is hard to remember sometimes as we get some really difficult news that God is with us. It is hard to remember sometimes when we are not sure whether anyone cares that God is with us. It is hard to remember sometimes when the world does not seem to make any sense that God is everywhere and with us right then and right there. Yes, friends, God is everywhere and with us, but do we really believe it? Knowing it in the head and heart are not the same thing.
That is the question that the Israelites put to Moses. It is about water and dehydration and walking in the desert, but it is really about whether God is still there. Moses knows. He has been dealing with God for a good while on a personal basis. They have been through trials and conflicts, and Moses has no doubt that God is with them. In fact, they are headed to the same mountain on which God met Moses, the same mountain at which they will receive God’s law and God’s promise and become God’s covenant people, but before they get there, they look lost and confused and really thirsty. They are terrified that they have been led out into the wilderness with no plan, no path, and no hope. This God who was supposed to be with us – where is that God now?
If I were living in Syria or Ukraine or Sudan or Yemen or Haiti or Afghanistan or Honduras or Columbia or China, I can imagine asking where God is. America is no stranger to moments of seeming godlessness, too. Having churches every few corners does not necessarily balance all of the other places that draw struggling people: liquor stores, payday loans, strip clubs, or pawn shops. There is too much in our society and culture that is fine with people having the life squeezed out of them, gripped in a vice of fear for themselves and their children. Sounds a lot like the Israelites thirsting in the wilderness. Does anyone out there care?
That is the question the world was asking when the miracle happened, when God answered in the deepest, most amazing, and most unexpected way. God was not just out there, God came in here. In Jesus, God broke into our history, our time, our story in a way that changed everything. It would be something like Billy Graham, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mr. Rogers all showing up here one day and saying, “We are going to serve your church.” Everything changed.
This passage from Philippians was well loved even back then. It reads like something they would use in their worship to remind themselves that not only God was with them, but God was one of them. The highest and mightiest took on the form of the lowliest and weakest. He endured everything that the world could throw at him and took it with love for us all. God walked our streets, lived our lives, and loved us through death itself.
When the people were crying out to Moses, notice God’s response. Yes, they will get their water, but Moses is going to use the same staff he used in Egypt for the miracles. He will hit the rock with that staff and water will come out, but even more, the very presence of God would be right there in front. “I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb … and the people will drink.” There is supposed to be no doubt whatsoever. Over two thousand years before the birth of Jesus, God was telling the people to know that God was there with them.
I do not know what it is like to carry the burdens, the cares, or the worries that many of you do. I do not know all the hurts that have changed your lives or brought you to finding God’s grace. Of course, you do not know mine. We have all come here, though, to this time to find God and to know that God is in our midst. We are here to find Jesus among us, as one of us. We find him in the eating of bread and in the drinking of juice. We find him in the embrace of one another. We find him in words of comfort and compassion. We find him in joy and laughter and remembrance. We find him when we take to heart what it means to be a family in faith together and we live that out.
We have had our times of loss. People have come and people have gone. The one who has been faithful through it all is our Lord. Not knowing our future, I find comfort in knowing that wherever we go, we are not alone. In fact, there is great comfort in being in Christ in this day and in this place. When the people of God struggle to retain its gospel drive or to shine with a little more Jesus, that is where God meets us – in the struggle. Whether it is trying to figure out what to do with an ICE detention center or a monstrous confederate flag or the state of healthcare or nursing care in our town or a good education for all of our children or why for the sake of Jesus we cannot be a more inclusive community. There in that struggle Jesus is calling us to join in and find him. There where God’s children are begging for living water is a rock being knocked with faith, and God is there.
Too many are starved or parched for the presence of God when God is right here with us. Come taste and see that the Lord is good. To God be the glory. Amen.