Looking For God (Epiphany 5, 5 Februaty 2012)

Epiphany 5, 5 February 2012: Looking for God
© Wolf Kirchmeir
[Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147 1-11; I Corinthians 9:16-23; Mark 1:29-39]

O Holy Spirit, assist us we contemplate your word, that we may be enlightened by your truth. Amen.

Dear Friends in Christ,
     When I was reading the passages appointed for today, one phrase jumped out at me: the whole town gathered at the door. This, I thought, is about looking for God. So that’s what I want to talk about today: looking for God, and what happens when we find him.
     I think you’ve all heard the story of the somewhat inebriated gentleman who was crawling around on his hands and knees under a lamp post. A passing policeman asked what he was doing. “I’m looking for my house keys,” answered the gentleman. So the policeman looked around, too, but saw nothing resembling the missing keys. “Sir, where did you lose the keys?” he asked. The unsteady gentleman waved towards the darkness down the street. “Over there,” he said. “I lost them over there. In the dark.” “Good grief,” said the policeman. “Why are looking for them here?” “Because,” said the gentleman, “Because this is where the light is.”
     The gospel today continues the story of Jesus early days of ministry. He was visiting Simon and Andrew’s home town, preaching and healing. A whole lot of things happen. For example, Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. People hear about Jesus’s healing and preaching, so they come looking for him. Mark reports that the whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.
     The people of the town came looking for Jesus. They wanted his healing and his wisdom. And unlike the drunk who was looking in the wrong place, they came to the right place and found what they were looking for. They came looking for Jesus because that is where the light was. They came looking for him because he was the light.
     Jesus is the light, still. He is the light that lightens our darkness, the light that illuminates our minds, that warms our hearts, that shows us the way. The question is, will we come looking for him where he is, or will we wander around like the drunk who looked for his keys where they were not?
     There’s a picture of Jesus that has become popular: You see Jesus knocking on a door, and listening for a response. The picture asks a question: Will you respond to Jesus’s knock and let him in? If we think this picture shows us all we need to know about how we meet Jesus, then I think we’ve made a subtle mistake. I think so because Mark’s story turns this right around. His story doesn’t ask, Will you answer when Jesus comes looking for you? His story asks, Will you go looking for Jesus? The townspeople didn’t sit in their houses and gardens waiting for Jesus to come by. No, they gathered at the door.
     There are many other reminders in the Bible that God expects us to look for him. Recall Jesus’s saying, Seek, and you will find. And, Knock, and it shall be opened to you. These are not exhortations to wait for Jesus to show up. The advice is not, Wait, and Jesus will come to you. God doesn’t say, You don’t have to do anything, I’ll be along soon. He doesn’t want passive believers who think they’ve arrived at the truth, he wants active seekers who know there’s still a long way to go.
     It’s a bad idea to wait around for important things to happen. The Bible is not the only place we can find this message. One of the most famous plays of the 1960s was Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett. In it, Estragon and Vladimir, two friends who have seen better days, sit around waiting for Godot to show up. They pass the time arguing about why they should wait, what Godot will do when he gets there, whether they should keep on waiting, how to bring some interest or variation into their boring existence, and so on. They’re not sure whether Godot exists, and confess they can’t be sure they will recognise him if and when he shows up. There’s a lot of conversation along these lines.
     Then Pozzo, a slave owner, arrives leading his heavily-laden slave Lucky. Pozzo eats a meal, which he doesn’t share. Lucky is ordered to entertain the group by dancing, which he does. He then makes a jumbled speech consisting mostly of nonsense. Pozzo and Lucky wander off. A boy appears, announcing that Godot will come tomorrow.
     The second act takes place next day, and repeats the events and conversations of the first act, with variations. As the play ends, the two main characters are still waiting for Godot.
     As you may guess, the play isn’t exactly an action drama. In fact nothing much happens. Estragon and Vladimir just hang around waiting. They don’t do anything, and they know almost nothing. They know only that somehow Godot is important, and the encounter with him will be crucial. “Life-changing” is the phrase people use these days. But the play does offer many moments of comedy. The very situation is absurd: two guys waiting for somebody they have never met. Somebody they may not recognise when he does come. Somebody who may never come. The play draws you into its crazy universe despite yourself.
     The play also demands that you think about it. As you might expect, people have disagreed about what it means. The most obvious interpretation is that it’s about finding meaning in one’s life. The two friends are waiting for something or someone that will give some final meaning or purpose to their lives. The play contains numerous references to the Bible and Jesus, so I prefer to conclude that it’s about waiting for God.
     But of course God doesn’t show up.
     Now why did I say that?  “Of course, God doesn’t show up.” Because I don’t think God will show up. Or rather, he’s here, there, and everywhere, but just waiting for him to reveal himself is not the best way to find him. Quite the contrary: We have to do something. We have to look for him. We have to gather at the door, like the Galileans did. We have to seek. We have to knock.
     That sounds pretty simple and easy to do, doesn’t it? But if you have travelled any distance on the road of faith, you know that things that look easy and simple are neither easy nor simple.
     So you’ve realised you should go looking for God, and not wait around on the off-chance that he may show up. You now have at least three questions. How do you go about looking for God? How will you recognise him when he shows up? What will you do when you’ve found him?
     Let’s think about how we may look for God. There are a couple of hints in the Old Testament readings for today. Isaiah tells us that God has created the world around us. [Is. 40:26] Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
     So just looking at this creation that we are part of should show us God, right? Well, again, it’s not that simple. Many pious naturalists have claimed to see God’s hand and mind in the design of the natural world. They point to the beauty of the butterfly, the fragrance of the rose. How could this not be the work of God? How can we not see God’s design in these delights? But I’ve noticed that none of these pious naturalists has ever explained parasites, some of which cause horrendous pain and suffering to their hosts as they slowly kill them. The natural world is amazing and wonderful, mysterious, an intricate interplay of forces and actions and energies that we are barely able to understand. To claim that the beauty of the butterfly and the rose testify to God’s bounteous love isn’t good enough. God also made the tapeworm and the bot fly.
     What Isaiah emphasises in his vision of God the Creator is on the one hand God’s power, and on the other our inability to understand him. God’s power is beyond out grasp; his purposes are beyond our understanding. [Is. 40:28] Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom. No matter how much we try to understand the universe, there will always be something beyond our ability to explain. To say “Well, God made it” isn’t an explanation. Isaiah is very clear about this: we may know or believe that God made the universe, but that’s not the same as understanding it.
     So what’s Isaiah’s point? Why is he emphasising the power and inscrutability of God the Creator? Simply this: God’s power will sustain you: [Is. 40:29] He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Trust in him, and you will have all you need to prevail against the troubles that encompass you.
     And that’s one clue on how to find God: look for him in the strength you didn’t know you had, in the healing you didn’t expect, in the light of hope that shines like a candle in the darkness.
     It’s not easy to do this. We may despair, crumble under the pain, wail in grief and sorrow. We may want to curse whenever fate has brought us low. Yet even in that darkness, we may see the light. Even as all the evils and trials of this world threaten to break us, we can trust in God: [Is. 40:30-31] Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
     Now you may want to say, “But those are just words. Wait till you’ve felt the pain that I’ve felt, wait till you’ve suffered the loss that I’ve suffered, wait till you’ve walked in terror as I have walked, and these words will not be so easy to say!” True. No one said it was going to be easy. But look for God in your pain, your loss, your fear, and you will find him.
     And when you’ve found him, what then? The Psalm tells us something about what to do when you’ve recognised God’s work in your life: Hallelu Yah! Praise the Lord! For he has done great things for you, for me, for us. [Ps. 147:1-5] Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. And even in that praise, the psalmist reminds ourselves of both the power that sustains us and the purposes which we cannot fathom.
      Praise is one response to the recognition of God. Sharing what we now know is another.
Paul in his letter to the Corinthians tells us how he responded when he found God. Remember, Paul was a deeply pious man long before he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. He did his best to live according to the law, and it was ambition that sent him on the road to Damascus. He intended to round up the Christians there and hand them over to the authorities. He was looking for confirmation that he was acting righteously. Looking for just such confirmation is one of the ways in which we seek God.
      Paul met God in a blaze of light that blinded him, and heard a voice that reproached him. Jesus reproached Paul not for his misunderstanding, but for his actions, for the persecution of the early church. And Paul became not only a Christian, he became the most zealous of missionaries.
      In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul explains what his encounter with God did to him: [1Co. 9:16] Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
     Will we do as Paul did? Can we do as Paul did? With God’s grace, we can. We can do it in the way we live our daily lives. We can do it in our meditating on how far beyond our understanding God’s purposes are, and yet how closely God’s hand guides us in our lives. We can remind ourselves that to see God means to see the divine light in each other. We can honour God the Creator in our stewardship of this, his creation. We can make our trust in God the background of our lives, the foundation that supports the building, the harmony that sounds underneath the song and gives it shape. Knowing that we have met God, and that his promises are sure, we can get on with doing what we have to do.
     Go out there, look for Jesus. Go out there, the journey is long, and you won’t get anywhere if you don’t take the first step.
     Let us pray.
     Lord God, Creator and Sustainer, give us grace that we may find you when we seek you in your creation, in each other, and in the tasks that you have given us to do. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.