WHERE GOD HEETS MAI ) January 23, 1972

Psalm 77 John HH. Buchanan
— Romans 8:35-39

The following is taken from a cover article in Time fagazine (April 8,
1966, P. 82): —_

"Is God dead? It is a question that tantalizes both believers, who
perhaps secretely fear that he is, and atheists, who possibly suspect
that the answer is no.

Is God dead? The three words represent a summons to reflect on the
meaning of existence.

HYDROGE!! & CARBON. To those who do formulate a God, he seems to be
every thing from a celestial gas to a kind of invisible honorary president
“out there" in space, well beyond range of the astronauts. A young
Washington scientist suggests that "God, if anything, is hydrogen and
carbon. Then again, he might be thermonuclear fission, since that's
what makes life on this planet possible.” To a streetwalker in Tel Aviv,
"God will get me out of this filth one day. He is a God of mercy,
dressed all in white and sitting on a golden throne." A Dutch charwoman
says: "God is a ghost floating in space." Screenwriter Edward Anhalt
(Becket) says that "God is an infantile fantasy, which was necessary when
men did not understand what lightning was. God is a cop-out," A greck
janitor thinks that God is "like a firey flame, so white that it can blind

you." “God is all that I cannot understand," says a Roman seminarian.

A Boston scientist describes God as "The totality of harmony in the universe."

Playwright Alfred muses: "It is the voice which says, “It's not good
enough - that's what God is."

Even though we know better, plenty of Christians find it hard to do
away with ideas of God as a white-bearded father figure. William iicCleary
of Philadelphia, a Roman Catholic civil servant, sees God “a lot like he
was explained to us as children. As an older man, who is just and who can
get angry at us. I know this isn't the true picture, but it's the only

one I've got."

-7-

share a cup remember me. ilot just in the current ritualized version -
but whenever you break bread. That makes every meal a sacrament: that
makes all wine a symbol of his presence, not just Welch's unfermented
grape juice.

The whole idea of worship is that it helps us observe and celebrate
a reality that we discover the other six days of the week: it begins on the
premise that God is out thcre in our relationships, our jobs, our pol itiéss/
our families, our loving - and that on a regular basis we have to get
together to celebrate it.

I don't think I ever had an experience that so vividly portrayed |
that truth as a small worship experience I was privileged to participate
in last Sunday morning.

The Session of this Churchwas at Geneva Center and as you were
getting ready to come to church we found ourselves sitting in a circle in
a smal} meeting room looking out on a crisp, white January morning. To
say that we were uncomfortable is to put it mildly. There we were - in
sweaters and slacks, no organ, no choir, no sermon, no peves, no bulletins,
no liturgy. A group of Christians being asked to do a very simple thing -
to worship God. And without those things regarded as sacred - as 11
secular people, forced to think about the meaning of worship, we were
scaréd. I know I would rather have preached a sermon to a thousand people,
without notes, but with robe and pulpit to hide behind rather than walk
gnto that room of people to worship. ,

Well, somehow for me - and I think for most of us, it worked. We
filled up an hour. ‘le shared some thoughts, some reading, we stumbled
through some prayers, we even sang a little, we thought about the rest of
you, we passed a piece of bread around and reflected onvhat it reminded us
of: we all shook hands and then went back to business. And as I Feflect

on it, it was one of the most vivid moments in my life in terms of sensing
the reality and power and love of God. Because he's there all the time:

-3-

God: hy pointing to those places along the way where men in the past
have sensed that they were dealing with the Holy, the other, the God and
Father of Abraham, Issac and Jesus Christ. Therefore, if your need this
morning is for a tight little theological package: for a set of simple
answers to complex questons, this sermon isn't going to do much for you.
If, on the other hand, you are struggling with some very basic matter -
such as the existence of God - this sermon is aimed at supporting that
struggle.

A beginning point might be to explore the reasons for the current
predicament. How did we get so totally secular? What ever happened to the
faith of our fathers?

As usual, it's a long story, but at the risk of treating history
irresponsibly I will condense it. Our Hebrew ancestors knew nothing
about our concepts of secular and sacred. God alone was holy, but God
was so much a part of the common life that everything else was holy as
well. Israel had tabernacles, aod rituals and temples and synagogues -
but these were not regarded as the places and things of religion owtovcr
against the rest of life which © non-religious or secular. Rather, the
temple was the place where something permanent was celebrated. God was a
part of all of life, and in the temple he was specifically recognized
and worshipped. Israel's law was wt a religious law per se - it was
simply the law - both secular and sacred. The kings of Israel were
regarded as God's annointed, and when they strayed from the will of God,

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a prophet would quickly remind them of the error of their ways.

Compare that, for instance,with the way things were in the Hiddle
Ages. By that point in time, the sacred and the secular were totally
separated. On the one hand the realm of the sacred was represented by
@ powerful institution - the Church, with great wealth, armies, buildings,
and masses of people in its ranks. On the other hand the secular was ©
represented by the crovm - also woalthy, powerful, with armies, buildings

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than others because the Bible holds out for a God who is Lord of all
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creation: and whose presence inhabits all places and all times. Wothing
is specifically sacred - because everything is sacred. Several years

ago vandals broke into this building and did some rather unpleasant
things. In reporting the incident the newspaper used the word “desecrate”
i.e. the sanctuary of this church was made unsacred by what took place

in it. ilow, fortunately newspapers don't hire theologians to write the
news. Yet the use of the word "desecrate" illustrates my point. In the

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Biblical idiom it is no more desecrating a man's house: it is no more

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sacriligious to do certain tiings here than to do them anywhere else.
Because God inhabits his world - not just those spaces we design and
build to celebrate its presence.

The Bible is both secular and sacred. Secular, in that it takes man
seriously: it confronts the bitter sweet nature of man's life: it deats
with everyday concerns.

Think about the Psalm which I read this morning: lumber 77. It
was written by a man who was pretty anxious: “up-tight" to use the vernacular.
We don't know what it was that made him that way, but when. he speaks we
can sense his honesty, because we've been there-:=

"I think of God and I sigh;

I meditate and I feel discouraged

He doesn't let me sleep:

I am so worried that I cannot speak.

I think of days gone by

and remember years of long ago

I spend the night in deep thought:

I meditate, and this is what I ask myself:
"Will. the Lord always reject me?

Will he never again be pleased with me? arr
Has he stopped loving me?"