GOD IS STILL SPEAKING -- REALLY???

((Preached on Sunday, December 12, 2004)

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”                                                   -Matthew 11:2-3

 

Last Sunday as she left worship, Janet Blum, our Financial Secretary, handed me the following anonymous note which someone placed in the offering plates. 

The note read: “Pastor, Why should I come to this church?  What do you offer or promise.  Fellowship?  Salvation?  Where?  Here on earth or in Heaven?  What are the benefits of my coming to this church?  What do you offer me?  What do you expect in return?  What will I get here that is a greater reward than I would get if I stayed at home or went to another church?  What is your message for my soul?  It is what [I] need from church.”

 

Some very pointed questions.

Some very good questions.

They illustrate the truth that we are all looking for something — some message, some meaning, some word spoken into our souls — and we usually struggle to find it.  The United Church of Christ has claimed as a new theme for our Church, “God is still speaking” but I believe these questions might be summed up by the retort, “Really???”

 

John the Baptizer, Jesus’ cousin, the one who had baptized Jesus in the river Jordan at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, sends messengers to Jesus from his prison cell, asking a deeply troubling question.

“Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”

John is one of the great figures of Advent.

He is a great preacher of promise.

He is the forerunner, the one who comes preaching such stirring sermons, a man full for fire and fierce preaching.

John’s message is searingly direct: Get ready, the Messiah is coming.  The Kingdom of God is upon us.  He is great than I.  He is a man of fire, unquenchable fire, coming to burn away all of the impurities in Israel.

John was a courageous prophet who attracted meany hearers.  People came out from the cities, from all over, to hear his strong preaching.

People did not struggle to understand his direct and straightforward message.

 

In contrast, they did seem to struggle to understand Jesus’ message.

And John, in prison with time on his hands to think, seems to be one of those struggling to understand.

Once the outspoken forerunner, John now appears to be a critic, questioning just who is Jesus.

Perhaps the source of his question lies in his hearing “what the Messiah was doing.”

John had predicted a rather more dramatic and fire-filled ministry for Jesus.

He predicted a Messiah who would come and separate the true from the false, the good from the bad.

In Jesus, there is a Messiah who heals, who works among the poor, and who preaches the good, rather than bad, news.

Jesus did not meet conventional expectations for the Messiah.

They wanted someone who would move in with power, with undeniable works of majesty and glory and fix everything, beginning with kicking out the Romans.

What they got was a Messiah who healed broken bodies and lives, who loved the poor, who preached good news of God’s acceptance and love for all people.

 

Woody Allen once said toward the end of one of his movies, “I don’t hate God.  No, I think the worse thing you can say about God is that he is an underachiever.”

Here came Jesus, the one who was mighty, and he is telling people to turn the other cheek, to “Do good to those who hate you.”

We expected so much of Jesus.

And he delivered so little.

When they put him on a cross, we expected him to act like the Son of God, to be able to throw himself down from the cross, to say, “Now it is payback time.”

Instead, he looked down from his cross, hanging there in utter misery, and said simply, “Father, forgive.”

Just like John, we look at Jesus, we look at the world around us, and we have trouble seeing the power of God at work.

We ask “God is still speaking — really???”

 

Let me share with you what has happened this past week and you tell me if God is still speaking.

In the first week of the UCC commercial there have been more than 350,000 visits to the Stillspeaking.com website and more than 170,000 visits to UCC.org website.

In the first two days the commercial ran, the volume on the websites was so great they had to increase its bandwidth 9 times to handle all the traffic.

There have been 70,000 users of the “Find a Church” search; 600 comments requiring no reply (running favorable 7:1) and at least 356 newspaper or web stories.  In Miami alone there have been two columns about the commercial (including Leonard Pitts sharing the news that he is a member of the UCC) and a focus article in the Saturday faith section by Donna Gerhke-White about the UCC and our local presence in South Florida.

 

More amazing news, there have been 308 web-donations made for a total of $28,000, of which 72% is from non-UCC givers.  (Is God still speaking?)

Listen to some of the comments those donors have passed along.

“I am a Buddhist but feel strongly that the rest of the nation needs to hear from faith traditions that are inclusive and welcoming.  Too many people think that religion is synonymous with self righteousness.  Thank you!”

“I haven’t set a foot inside a church in 14 years, let alone sent one money.  You’ve moved a mountain.”

“I am Jewish, my husband is Catholic, we have no official affiliation but care very much about the inclusion of every person in our society.  You are doing work that must be done and speaking words that must be spoken.  Thank you.”

“I am not a Christian, but I value the work that you are doing.  Inclusiveness should be the foundation of any spiritual endeavor.”

 

Is God still speaking?

The Rev. Ron Patterson, pastor of Naples UCC across the state, related on the web-site a powerful story of the impact of the commercial.

One of the long-time members of the Naples church is in her ninety’s and has a sixty-two year old daughter living somewhere up north.  The daughter is in a long-term, same sex relationship and has not attended a church since she was a teenager (over 44 years ago).  She saw the commercial, called her mother, knowing that mom attends Naples UCC, and announced that she wanted to worship with her mom when she visits for Christmas.  That might seem like a little thing, but for this woman it was an answer to prayer.  She was in tears as she told her pastor that story.

Yes, God is still speaking and doing amazing things.

 

One of the e-mails to the web site said, “Finally, breathing room...”  Perhaps that’s the best statement yet about the initial effect of the Stillspeaking Initiative — in a world bound up with stereotypes, intolerance, and insensitivity, the UCC is providing people with an inclusive space to breathe and experience the fullness of God’s embrace.

 

We should never underestimate the importance of such “breathing room.”

Far too many people, institutions, and churches try to give people the answers, try to program people and pattern people and fit us all into one mold.

Jesus didn’t.  And neither do we in the UCC when we are at our best.

Eugene Peterson, a Presbyterian minister who teaches at Regent College in Vancouver, tells the story of wanting to discuss some feelings and energies he was having that he believed had to do with God.

It was the summer after Peterson’s second year of college.

His first two attempts at finding someone who would listen to him didn’t work out very well.

Peterson tried talking to his pastor, but after about five minutes his pastor diagnosed Peterson’s problem as having to do with sex and began a lengthy lecture on the subject.

Then Peterson talked with a man who was considered a saint in his home congregation, who lectured endlessly about Ephesians to the young boy.

Finally, Peterson encountered one who treated his God-interest and prayer-hunger with dignity.

Instead of trying to shovel Peterson full of pious wisdom or viewing him as a “project,” a man named Reuben Lance prayerfully listened to Peterson and all his hopes and fears, questions and feelings. 

Years later Peterson would write, “He let me be.  He didn’t mess with my soul.  He treated me with dignity.  I felt a large roominess in his company — a spiritual roominess, room to move around, room to be free.”

Questions aren’t bad, but not allowing them to be asked is.

Questions are a way of loving God with our minds.

Through questions we reach and explore and gain a better understanding of important matters.

 

So, back to the questions of the anonymous author of the note I received last week.

I would love to explore them in depth with whomever wrote the note if you would like to do so one on one.

But in the meantime, let me share a brief, though undoubtedly partial, response.

What I try to offer each and every Sunday is that breathing room for us all to explore our questions about God, God’s presence in our lives and in the world, and what God might be calling us to do and be.

I truly believe that Jesus’ message and God’s vision are extremely simple: love.

I believe God loves us all, is not out to get any of us, and eagerly wants us to know we are loved.

I believe Jesus understood the power of love — the only power that ultimately leads to life — the power that will ultimately triumph over all other powers.

This power of love instills in us the moral values of honesty, care for others, not just tolerance but understanding and respect for other people and their beliefs, and peaceful resolution of differences.