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"The Mysterious Character Of God” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – February 8, 2015 Centenary United Psalm
147:1-11, Isaiah 40:21-31
This morning, I thought it would be interesting to discuss some of the mysteries surrounding our understanding of God's role in our lives. Everyone may take their own understanding for granted, believing that each of us has a similar point-of-view. That is not the case. People are as different as their fingerprints when it comes to discussing their thoughts about God. They range from not believing in God to every conceivable notion. We have an image of God and a man almost touching fingers that is
featured in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in As we look at our two lessons this morning, we can readily see that both the Psalm and Isaiah passages could have been written by the same author. Both authors proclaim God as the most powerful energy in the universe. Both authors believed that God created the stars, lifts up the downtrodden and crushes his enemies. King Solomon, who wrote centuries before these two authors, made the same observations. However, he added ideas that may be more accurate of how we feel about God. He wrote, "God has set the right time for everything that happens. He has given each of us the desire to imagine what is going to happen in the future, but God has not given us the satisfaction of understanding how he works." (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Solomon was a deep thinker. He had considerable leisure time to think about God, the universe and how everything fits together. He was the wealthiest king in the known world. (2 Chronicles 9:22) He had everything any human being could possibly desire, yet he remained confused about God. Solomon had the desire to think about God but he had no past experiences that would have helped him do that. Jesus brought us new information that Solomon did not have. The Psalmist and Isaiah were also talking about God from their limited perspective. They did not have The Big Bang theory that has been supported from data coming from the Hubble Telescope. They did not have Bio-tech companies that have a rich stream of pharmaceutical products that can conquer and destroy the demons in which these authors believed. Has science and human ingenuity pushed our understanding of God to the sidelines? Some believe that they have, but others are sensing that what Jesus was teaching is finally being realized throughout today's societies. Why did Solomon write that people will never solve the mysteries
of how God works? Do we
really have to graduate from
this life before we understand how people and God are intimately
connected?
Perhaps it is our understanding of how God works that needs to
graduate. According to the Psalmist, trusting God's constant love is the
key to having the courage to face anything that comes up for us.
(147:11) Isaiah developed
the same conclusion reached by King Solomon.
Isaiah wrote, "God never grows tired or weary, yet no one
understands what God is doing.
God strengthens those who are weak and tired. Those who trust in
God will find their strength renewed."
(Isaiah 40:28f) The
message of the Psalmist and Isaiah is how God empowers people to face
life when it frightens them with
mountains we must climb.
In our lifetime, cancer represents one of these mountains. However, look at where support for our faith is coming from to carry-on in spite of cancer's presence. On Thursday, February 19th from 6:00-7:30 p.m., P.A.L.S. is sponsoring a program called, "The Body-Mind-Spirit-Connection." Science has assumed a role in the discussion about the energizing power of the human spirit in the healing process. This was an aspect of life that, in former years, was only addressed by the Church. The presenter in this instance is not a pastor. He is Dr. Rob Rutledge, a Radiation Oncologist. Among his talking points are these: How to empower the body, energizing the ways people think and feel, and the science supporting the body-mind-spirit connection. It is being held at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. Primitive people placed this mysterious source of energy in the
external universe. The
Egyptians worshipped the sun god
Amun-Ra. They reasoned
that crops grew in the sun and they withered in the shade.
The When the Apostle Paul was on one of his missionary journeys, he encountered so many Greek divinities that he once remarked, "I see that you Athenians are very religious. After visiting a number of the places where you worship, I noticed an altar with an inscription, 'To An Unknown God.'" (Acts 17:23) The Greeks were meticulous. They did not want to miss any divinity so they created this shrine just in case they did. What Jesus brought was a new understanding of God. God was the creative energy that flows through all of us and all living things. (John 15:5) This is where understanding God's mysterious character becomes complicated. Jesus was teaching that the greatest way to honor God comes when people energize the creative powers that are within them. Instead of praying for deliverance from this world, Jesus was teaching people to trust that when they develop their potential, God will always have their backs. (John 14:12) What Jesus was teaching is being experienced everywhere in the world. The form of this teaching may appear unlike anything being taught by institutional religions. People are discovering their inner world's creative abilities every day. However, the guidance to discover this mysterious source of creativity may not always come from a church. It comes from people that have discovered their personal treasure trove that pours forth from their imaginations. They have learned to look within themselves rather than at what was available to them from their society. Two weeks ago, an 18-year old was interviewed on CNBC for creating an amazing application for mobile devices. Both Google and Apple are very interested in his creation. His vision of what is needed in society came from his imagination. A man in his early thirties is developing his fourth start-up company and has already accumulated wealth in excess of 500 million dollars. He does not care about his personal wealth. His primary interest is in using his visionary skills to anticipate what the world's people are going to need in the not too distant future. We can look at such people as a "God-thing" or we can choose to
believe that these are people that are climbing an economic ladder to
fabulous wealth.
God
employs all kinds of people in creating
the tapestry we call
creation. Until the church expands its message from what Jesus did for us to a message that also addresses what Jesus was teaching us to do with our lives, religious institutions everywhere will continue to lose their usefulness. We need to stop looking in the rear view mirror and begin developing and harnessing the power of our inner world. Finding the source of our treasure is a refreshing new step for
humanity. The next GIANT
step is the development of the spiritual dimension that makes love
visible in everything that we do.
God is very mysterious
and creates footprints where
no one is looking. Do
we remember Nathanael's question to Andrew several weeks ago, "Can
anything good come out of What may come as a total surprise to many of us is that if
current growth rates continue, How did this happen? Did God intervene? Perhaps, but the intervention has not come in a conventional form that many Christians might expect or visualize. Creative energy is entering history but it is flowing through the ingenuity of individuals. There may be little in this process that resembles religious institutions, priests or Biblical imperatives, but Jesus' Kingdom within is dramatically becoming visible in ways Christians and others may never notice. When Jesus taught that yeast becomes invisible when mixed with the other ingredients in the making of bread, he also knew that without the yeast, nothing else will work. For humanity to continue its evolution, the desire of individuals to create what works is what will produce a more wholesome world for everyone. Instead
of being preoccupied with ISIL, and the tiny percentage of people who
are committing atrocities with their deeds, perhaps we ought to lift our
eyes to where God is active all around us.
Remember, "Can anything good
come out of |