Sermons

“Why Does God Matter?”

Psalm 46; I John 4:7-21 – Rev. Rebecca Littlejohn

Vista La Mesa Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), La Mesa, California – May 27, 2018

“Faith Matters” Sermon Series #2

Holy God, bless the speaking and the hearing of these words that we might deepen our understanding of your presence and love in our lives. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

We are now in the second week of my sermon series called “Faith Matters”. This sermon series is part of a broader season in which we are renewing our commitment to growth in both ministry and members. In order to do that effectively, we have to make sure we’ve got the foundation secure. We need to know what we’re about here and why it’s important. So over the next few weeks, I will be talking about some of the fundamentals of our faith and why they matter. This is a time for each of us to examine what we believe and why we give our time and resources to the ministries of this congregation. Each of us needs to figure out what it means for us to be “All In”. The growth that needs to happen is going to take all of us, doing all we can.

This season has arrived for two reasons: one, because we’re approaching some make-or-break realities when it comes to finances and numbers; and two, because we’re ready. God has been equipping us for just such a time as this. The Spirit is moving here at Vista La Mesa Christian Church. It’s time for all of us to get on board. One of the ways to do that is to be right here, right now, and every Sunday, in worship, especially as we work our way through these reflections on the matters of our faith. I’m glad you’re here.   Let’s talk about God!

A number of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Burke Lecture over at UCSD. The Rev. Traci Blackmon was the speaker this year. She serves as a congregational pastor at a church outside St. Louis and as the Executive Minister of Justice & Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ. Rev. Blackmon began her talk with some wise words she’d heard years before from one of her professors in seminary. It’s possible she always starts this way, but I’m guessing that night it was especially because her professor was in the room, as he is now. “Dr. Kinnamon,” she said, “taught me something on our very first day of class: The most important thing to remember about God is that God is God, and I am not.”

God is God, and I am not. God is God, and you are not. God is God, and we are not. Or as God puts it, according the writer of Psalm 46, “Be still, and know that I am God!” It’s a good starting place. Much like a young child has to go through a process of discovering that it is a separate being from the rest of the world, including Mother and Father, as we mature in faith, we are faced by the reality that we are not God. We are neither our own creators, nor the masters of our fate. Everything we have and everything we are came from Someone Else. This realization brings us into a posture of humility. All those ideas we had about our achievements and our capacities are dimmed somewhat in the light of God being God. We are saved from the idea that we know what’s what. It’s humbling, indeed. It’s also incredibly relieving, I find.

Have you ever had that experience where you’ve gotten a little too big for your britches, and you’ve made all sorts of impressive claims about who you are and what you’re going to do, and it’s starting to make your stomach hurt because you’re realizing you’re probably going to have trouble following through on all that? What a gift it is to suddenly admit that God is God and you are not, and that you’re going to have to ask for help, and that’s okay!

The humility that comes from this truth influences everything we do as Christians. It’s what reminds us that our perspective is limited, which means we might even be wrong sometimes. It’s why we approach the world not as “owners” but as faithful stewards, caring for all our resources as the precious gifts from a Loved One that they are. It’s where we find encouragement when it seems as though our efforts at justice are fruitless, by remembering that we are called to tend the garden and God is the one who produces the fruit. There is only One about whom we sing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Praise be!

Once we’ve explored why God matters, we need to go a little further. It’s not just that God matters, but that what we proclaim about God matters. What we say and believe about the God we worship and share with the world makes a difference. When we proclaim a loving, merciful God and not a wrathful, punishing God, we deal with the world differently. “God is love,” we read in First Peter, and that means we are called to love our brothers and sisters. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” we read in Psalm 46. God makes wars cease. God’s perfect love casts out fear. God is with us. Certainly there are other images of God in scripture. But there are some that rise above the others; there are some we can claim with conviction, which will shape our way of being in the world. The light of the gospel helps us discern which of these human portraits best reflect the true nature of God.

What we proclaim about God makes a difference. If we believe in a God who is just waiting to catch us messing up, we’re less likely to give someone else a second (or third or thirty-third) chance to get it right. If we believe in a God who gets what he wants by scaring or manipulating humans, we’re more likely to manipulate and bully others into doing what we want. If, on the other hand, we believe in a God who is generous, we’re more likely to give. If we believe in a God who encourages us in the right direction with gentleness and grace and humor, we’re more likely to forgive others when they step out of line. We’re more likely to forgive ourselves as well. If we believe in a God who is love and who loves us, we’re more likely to love others.

Once we’ve declared that we believe that God is God and we are not, it makes a difference what kind of God we’re talking about, because that will determine what we do in service of that God. But there’s another reason this matters. It came up in both our readings today. When we confess that God is God and that God is love, we discover something else: that means we do not need to be afraid. “Perfect love casts out fear,” we read in First Peter. “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,” it says in Psalm 46. The earth is definitely going to change. If we were not clear about who God is, that might be terrifying. But we don’t have to be afraid, because we know who God is. A life immune to existential fear is a life transformed. The world needs people like that, people whose motivations come from a place of love and not fear.

This is an especially important lesson for us as we enter into this season of revitalization. It is imperative that we do this, not because we’re afraid of losing something that was good, but because we’re convinced that we have something wonderful to share. Being freed from fear is wonderful. Living life from a place of love is wonderful. Being part of a community of joy and forgiveness and generosity of heart is wonderful. Finding a place where you can use your gifts and be yourself and make a difference is wonderful. Though we may be walking a tightrope through the perils of being church in the 21^st century, we are called to do it with joy and confident expectation, not with cynicism and anxiety.

And this, of course, brings us back to the beginning. If this church is going to grow, in ministry and members, it will not be solely because we decided to make that happen and got busy doing it. It will be because we seek out our best ways of partnering with what God is doing in our community. God is God, and we are not. Growing a church is not something we do on our own. Does it seem daunting to imagine that we are praying for 8-12 new households to join with us here over the next three years? I hope that it does! Because if it seemed easy, we would entertain the idea that it’s something we can do on our own. That’s a sure road to failure.

In declaring that God is God and we are not, we are committing ourselves to seeking out God’s help and guidance and power and direction for this season of renewal. That’s not a commitment we make just with words. It’s a commitment we make with our time. There are a lot of you who spend a lot of time working here at church. So perhaps this sounds crazy, but for your own spiritual health, I want you to spend more time here. I told the Board on Tuesday, and I’m saying to all of you right now, I want you to figure out how to make sure you’re here, at least once a month, for something that is simply aimed at nourishing your soul, something beyond Sunday worship. Maybe it’s the Women’s Study or Bible study, maybe it’s coloring, maybe it’s solitary prayer in the garden. Maybe it doesn’t even happen here, but over at Starbucks for the Senior Men’s coffee. Maybe it’s a parents prayer group that happens over text or some other medium of support we’ve yet to discover. All of us are going to need to re-commit to spending time seeking out God, so that this season of renewal isn’t in vain. God is God and we are not. God is love, and we are called to proclaim that with our words and with our actions.

I was trying to figure out a way to incorporate the choir anthem (“Shut De Door – Keep Out the Devil”) into this sermon, and it was quite a struggle. But maybe this is it. That door that needs to be shut isn’t the door to your house. It’s the door to your heart. There is a lot out there that claims to be God that isn’t. There is a lot out there pretending that God is something other than love. Our hearts are easily tricked. You may not usually think of the forces of evil in the world this way, but when the song says “Satan is an evil charmer” it’s not wrong. There is a lot out there pulling us away from the path we need to be on. Those are the things we need to shut the door on. God is God, and we are not. God is love, and we are called to share that joy. Let us allow nothing to get in our way! Alleluia and Amen!