The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for July 17, 2005

Texts: Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24/Isaiah 65:1

Title: “Great One-liners”---Installment Four

              The surpassing might and glory of God beggar description. Mere words, even words of scripture we deem authoritative under God’s covenant with us, fall short.  Yet words do convey meaning, can convey great meaning even when imparted to us in the small envelope of a single verse.  A single verse, Isaiah 65:1, is in my judgment a great one-liner.  So I invite you to join me as I attempt to establish that fact. 

               Computers need nutrition too.  So when one of our office computers became sluggish and slow we gave it a nutritional supplement.  Nutritional supplement in computing comes in the form of what is known as RAM (Random Access Memory). Install some RAM and the sluggish and slow computer that has been performing like a plough horse smartly picks up its gait and performs the moves of a frisky colt.

              Unfortunately there is no RAM equivalent for the human brain.  By virtue of good nutrition and mental exercise we may maximize our brain’s potential, however, there is no over the counter download we can acquire that will enhance our mental performance.  We’re pretty much stuck with what we’ve got. 

              Faced with a finite amount of storage capacity, what are you and I to do?  I can think of one thing. We can avoid attempting to know too much. 

              Details can clog the brains circuitry. Because I don’t want that to happen, I have made it my objective not to know too much about a lot of things.  Let’s start with computers.  On the subject of computers I know what I know and that’s enough.  Don’t ask me for details about software or hardware. I can get along just fine with my computer without knowing a thing about gigabites, hard drives, or program directories. 

              Automobiles have been part of my life far longer than computers, but the same applies. Hold your technical questions.  Don’t’ ask me for details about transmissions, catalytic converters or condensers. I’ll enjoy my Chevy without attempting to know too much.

              I make it my policy not to know too much about a lot of things.  Gardening, woodworking, scuba diving, line dancing, and the Chinese language are a mere sampling of that list.  I will get by without learning how to miter and fit a piece of molding, or how to perform a fancy move on the dance floor or how to use the proper Chinese verb in a sentence.  

              Occasions do arise, however, when we are forced to deal with details we would otherwise ignore.  For instance, this week the “check coolant” light began flashing on my car’s dashboard.  While I know that a car needs coolant, I wouldn’t normally need to know more than that.  The flashing red “check coolant” light, however, elevated my “need to know.” Coolant became a detail I was forced to deal with. 

              What do we do when details clutter the mental landscape?  Let’s stay with the coolant example.  I did what most of you---though probably not Al Sindibaldi or Henry Wilson---would have done. I took the car to the mechanic. 

              It turns out, and fortunate for me, that coolant is a detail that my mechanic cares about.  When I presented my problem, Ray down at Canal Shell was ready with a solution.  He added a quart of coolant to my coolant reservoir, and I was on my way.  Relieved that I had one more detail I could erase from my life, I drove out of the garage.  Unfortunately, my relief was short lived.  A block from the station my annoying nemesis, the red coolant light, came on once again. I am stuck with a detail, a piece of mental clutter I could easily live without.

              Let’s now remove the issue of details from the domain of the automobile and place it in the context of our morning’s lesson.  The context surrounding the verse I read is a very rich one. It was the sixth century BC., and Israel’s fortunes in life had improved markedly.

              Many details impressed themselves on Israel’s consciousness.  Liberated from exile and judgment in Babylon, the nation could commit her energies to reclaiming and rebuilding her homeland. Our friends to the east who suffered through Ivan last year and Dennis this year have a good handle on the kind of task that Israel faced. More details to deal with than the most capable among them could handle.

              When details clutter the landscape the last thing you want to do is take on more.  Traumatized by her exile, Israel really hadn’t been able to get her act together.  So much to think about, so much to do, she really couldn’t be expected to be on top of everything.  And she wasn’t, as our morning’s lesson so dramatically indicates. 

              So much to think about, so much to do, but amid all that stuff one detail refused to go away---and folks it was a big one.  “I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me.  I said, ‘Here I am,’ to a nation that did not call on my name.”

              The prophet Isaiah doesn’t provide the peoples’ response to God’s lament, but we can presume from that lament that God was fully aware that he had failed to make the cut when Israel drew up her list of priorities. But what should we make of that oversight?  The people might well have reasoned that God was a detail that could be dispensed with until a later day. If that indeed were the case, you would have to say that they misunderstood God entirely---and they did.

              The misunderstanding to which Israel succumbed betrays a classic misunderstanding to which all who seek to know God are prone.  Namely, that God is some disembodied higher power or force that impersonally dispenses weal and woe, a remote God who only intervenes in human affairs when he has a reason to do so. 

              Of course it is much easier to deal with a detail, if that detail doesn’t make demands of the sort that God does. Failing to reckon with God on the personal terms that God had established, Israel went about her business, deferring her God work to another day.

            It is quite easy to relegate God to a detail when we cast him as something other than the God to whom scripture introduces us.  It is so easy, in fact, that you and I have no problem at all doing it. 

               Yet, let’s be fair.    It is quite easy to relegate God to a detail when our source book for knowing God, Holy Scripture, reports that God is overall unfathomable and mysterious in his being and his doing. It is quite easy to make God a detail when we consider that God is not a physical presence we see and can relate to day to day.  It is easy to make God a detail when we consider that God is only truly knowable by faith.

              Who is God?  Scripture forces us to deal with what appears to be a contradiction.  Can God be both high and lifted up, and at the same time one who invites us into relationship?  Thus we read in Psalm 8:  “O Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens….When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  [Yet, and here the psalmist appends this declaration of his personal faith] Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”

               The psalmist praises a God both majestic and glorious above the heavens, yet one who also granted human beings the gift of sharing his marvelous estate.  The nature and work of God is enough to challenge the most mentally capable and spiritually fit.  Plainly God represents much more than we at the peak of our faculties can absorb. Do you see where I am going? High and lifted up, yet at the same time so personal that he demands recognition, calling out “Here I am, here I am.  Deal with me”

              Details can clog the brains circuitry, and our God is a detail-laden God.  When we look at the vast heavens we with the psalmist puzzle at the extraordinary detail God’s sovereignty encompasses.  When we reflect upon our unique place in the economy of God we likewise puzzle that God would form us just a little lower than himself, and ascribe to us glory and honor.

                 God, of course, is mindful of our circumstances, our limitations in grasping God as he is. God goes so far as to open his arms to those among us who believe that God is a detail they lack the interest or inclination to deal with, “I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me.” 

               God is dedicated to finding ways to get through to us, to move from the status of detail in our lives to active partner in them. Though both the Old and New Testaments provide numerous examples of how God has chosen to do that, I would like to isolate just one. 

              The setting is the wilderness and a burning bush.  The story will register with most of you immediately.  The plight of the Jews under Egypt’s pharaoh has reached the ear of God.  Stationing himself in the burning bush, God calls Moses to turn aside and listen to what he has to say. God straight away informs Moses that he is about to rescue the Israelites, and that he, Moses, will play a prominent role in that plan. 

            Immediately Moses spots a problem.  “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of our ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  The name was a detail Moses refused to overlook.

               God complied with Moses’ request, stating, “I am who I am.”  Rather ambiguous that, so he continued, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.”  Adding, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” 

               Moses anticipated a problem.  What would he do if the people to whom he was sent demanded to know in his whose name he was speaking?  God’s response is very specific.  Moses was commissioned to report that God had a name, he was the God of their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a God active in their history.

God maintains one ambition that has literally not changed from the very beginning of time. He wishes to move from the status of detail in our lives to active partner in them. Yes, the one sovereign God is high and lifted up, but he is also the God who is imminent, a present and active partner in the history we are making.

              We can know this God, for he is eager to be known.  We can know him in the scriptures that report his deeds.  We can know God through Jesus in whom God’s image is perfected.  We can know him through participation in the church, where seekers like us come together to worship, study, and fellowship. 

              Many have relegated God to the status of a detail in their lives.  A certain percentage of that number have no tolerance for details at all, even if that detail bear the name God.  Another group effectively treats God as a detail, but would argue that such is not the case.  This is a significant and large group, and I would like to say a word about them.

                A recent survey revealed that 70% of the US population says they believe in God. The number is very impressive, especially when compared with the numbers reported in Western Europe and even Canada.  In that general population of believers are a significant number who refer to themselves as “spiritual.”  These are people who for the most part choose to practice their religious faith, exercise their spirituality, outside of the church.  They will tell us that they believe in God, but they can’t abide “organized religion.”  Of course if they ever chose to hang out around a church for very long they might discover how unorganized the religion we practice can be.  [But that’s a story for another time.] 

               There is another group of the “spiritual” who attend services but treat worship as a Sunday morning elective, attending if nothing more pressing has appeared on the schedule. There are others who have no patience for church dogma, dogma generally defined as anything they might have picked up from the Bible with which they happen to disagree, or dogma any position the church endorses with which they happen to disagree.

                America is populated by spiritual people, but God can too easily become a detail in our lives if we don’t commit time and energy to acquainting ourselves with God on God’s terms. Not the projection of our own personal wants or needs, God stands apart from us desiring to be known on his own terms. “Here I am.  Get to know me.”

            There is nothing wrong with labeling ourselves as “spiritual,” but we must also be willing to commit the kind of effort that will lend meaning to that term. 

              The God who created all that is, announced himself to our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, came to earth in human form to fulfill promises made of old, and daily intercedes for us through the Holy Spirit, is much bigger than our spirituality, however we choose to define it.  And he is ready to be sought and found.  Listen carefully, and you might very well hear him calling, “Here I am, Here I am.” 

              No, God is not a detail.  God insists on being heard.  The question is, will we take time and commit energy to listen?  AMEN

PRAYER

              Almighty God, whose might is revealed to mortal eyes in the wonders you have wrought, we behold your works in awe and gratitude, and we are amazed that one who inspires such awe seeks to be part of our personal lives, calling, “Here I am, here I am.”  Amid all the details and distractions of this life your voice is authoritative above all others, for you created us to enjoy life in abundance. Awaken us to the wonderful possibilities a relationship with you can confer, and equip us through the decisions we make to act upon those possibilities.  Where a superficial response to your call is all we can offer, may that be, O God, a foundation to a deeper more enduring relationship with you who are the guardian of our souls.

              O God, Strengthen the faint-hearted who struggle with problems that challenge their ability to cope.  Bring resolve to the tempted, clarity to the confused, and hope to those who see all personal options foreclosed. Be with caregivers, counselors, pastors, and all those who through their vocational commitments are given opportunities to support and encourage those in need. Be with the church that it may claim the powers to heal that Christ conferred, and may the church use those powers wisely.  

            The afflicted cry out for help, O God, and so we in solidarity with them pray for those deprived of human rights by their oppressors.  We pray for those who lack food and shelter.  We pray for those who toil day and night, and despite their efforts fail to adequately provide for their families.  We pray for those who live paycheck to paycheck.  We pray for the unemployed and the underemployed.  We pray for those who suffer abuse in the home, children who are neglected and women who suffer mistreatment at the hands of their husbands. We pray for those who mourn this day for the victims of violence. We pray for the entire continent of Africa, that the day will soon arrive when the African people will be self-sustaining and command sufficient resources to become full participants in the global community.

                Lord, we are grateful for all the gifts we enjoy that give life its luster.  For restorative rest away from the daily demands of life we give you thanks.  For gatherings of family and friends, for fellowship and good conversation we give you thanks.  We thank you for unexpected kindnesses, words spoken and deeds done that made our spirits soars. We thank you for grandchildren and the gifts of energy and joy they radiate.  We thank you for the awe the breaking dawn and the setting sun inspires.  We thank you for the gifts of books, art and music that open up new worlds.

              O Christ, head of the church, may your life sustaining Spirit breathe life into this church.  Appointed to preach, teach and baptize in your name may we do so from the authority you yourself impart.  Charged to groom disciples who faithfully live after your holy example, O Christ, we accept that responsibility with humility knowing that your grace alone can sustain us. Though we shall never by our own efforts be worthy of the investment you have made in us through your death on the cross, we know that you compensate for what we lack in all instances where our shortcoming are exposed.

               O Christ, light of the world who reigns with God and the Holy Spirit in total unity, may your light illumine this world in shadows and bring restoration and peace to the people you died to save. 

                For this day, for the fellowship of the church and all good gifts received we give thee thanks, O God, as we ask for your intercession on behalf of Katherine as she convalesces from surgery.  We pray for Lloyd Dias and Rudy Schuller as they wage their battles with illness.