ee

IT IN? BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURC
5-17 Lafayette, Indiana
9 MAY 19, 1974 John M, Buchanan
Mi en he gg east
One time while he was on a lecture your ny rey gan to BP er that
dash.é of Yr eke Selon rau od why'l -
Mark Twain ws uead. Always dry and witty, Twain began one ee -

“WHERE DOE
Benesis

acknowledging the rumor with the comment; “contrary to what you may have
in 14 a
heard, the tnitial reports of my death are rt exaggerated.”

Light years ago the rumor was in the air that God was dead. Under the
banner, “The veath of God" a small greup of influential theoloaians wrote
books, delivered lectures and handed releases to the press announcing their
conclusion thet God nad, in fact died. It was my experfence at the time,
Since confirued on many occasstons, that very few people understood what
the theologians were saying. It offended the piety and sense of propriety.
of a lot of peqie, as might be expected. Time magazine, the week before
kaster in 1966, carried it on the cover and all over the land preachers
mounted to¢eir pulpits to do rhetorical battle h these mocern day Assynains.

Billy Graham limited his contribution to the then public uproar by saying

God couldn't be cead because he had just taiked to him that morning. And
while it is on that final personal note that the issue must be resolved, the
qlibleness of the comment snowed that much of America was simply unequipped
to deal with some rather heavy tissues that the theelogians were raising.

In the meantiwe they got very rich. Be0k sales rocketed, lecture fees
followed suit. And although none of them has been heard from much in the
past five years or so it is an amusing irony that they succeeded to contem-
plate them now enjoying the a-fluence that resulted from telling 92% of the
Meerican peopie that they were all wet.

In any case, the initial reports of God's death, like Mark Twain's were
somewhat exaggerated, God is not dead: not quite at least - and not yet. But
the men who first daid it had a point I believe.

It might be helpful to understand very quickly what the theologians were
saying.

Some were saying that ther e never was a God: that humanity has a need

é

“WHERE 8GES GUD FIT Ii"? -2- MAY 19, 1974

for a celestial father figure which accounts for this disturbing proponderance
Of religion in man's nistory. but thet now is the time to grow uo emotionally
cut tue chord ana ackaowledge that we are an accident, living on board an
accigeic, ccwing from ne where and scing nowhere.

DUmhe Were Saying that God used to est: that he came among men in Jesus
Of nal2aetns tAce wsen that man died Sod died ~ in an ultimate act of self-
givigg@, Gnu wast was Lorn afterward was a spirit of love anc hope.

20hG Otuers “cre Saying, Mowever, that God was very much alive, but
that tne classic ica of tec was dead. Thsee men tad a point. God may not
NAVE Chaiyec vue wun Aes. "nd in ther secular world of the 20th century the
question thet vast te asked is “Where dues God Fit int"

That, dil ny @estination, is the question, to whieh tueslocians, tie
wnele caurch a intividuel christtans need te addross themselves. For
Wnether vod is - or is net: vetaar Gol is dive or dead, is a moot point if
it doesn't iutter cituer way. Atheism comes in several disquises: classic,
philosapiic atheism taat counts us the edter aa! concludes that thete fs
no Godt ana sragnatic, practical «thaism that continues to cive verbal assent
to the existence af Gol but then pracesds to live life if it were a YXFK. Tie,

ere Joes God fit in? What differenes dees if make in the Tong run?
It is a cuestion tugs thoughtful sen hava keen cosine since the beginning
of time, If caly God would be a Tittle more overt and conspécious! If only
20g would show his hand in a way that no one would miss or misunderstand.
That's not a particularly mocern prohinm. In fact, the prophet Isaiah com-
plained -‘Truly, thou are a Goce who hidest thyself”.

And yet the pres Bn comes at us today with a new urgency and a new
immediacy. Tia Jewish Philosopher. Martin Buher, coined the ohrase the
“eclipse or aad", and suggested that God is vary bit as presat as he has
peen, but tht the very natuse of modern life serves to put a shade betwween
God and maa. Sut probably the major factor about the way the issues comes

at us today is that wo ~ in our time - have Jived through the kind of

"MHERE OVES GOD FIT IN? ~3e MAY 719, 1984
experiences that seen, inherently, to say that it is foolish ta gu on beliey-
ing ia Sod,

Richard \aienstsin, a Qabbi. in nis buck, After Auschwitz, tells how he

Fold thei te ted to discard any vestiszaes of faith in a personal and all-
powerful Gog after World war Tl. fuschwitz did it. There can be no God -
for the worta dn vaten that happened. Atrocities always stir up the question:
consiver What tianpened to twenty scuocl children in an Israeli village last
weel. Laok at tas sicturss of prbdes teafre toey died of starvation - and it
is impossible to raody on thoughtless ptity. “where dees God fit in?"

rig anedstian Faith has always said two things about God - two separate
things the. neot to ta uadlerscorced and than kept ta a kind of tight tension.
Please cxcus: fa: Treroduction of theaslugical jargon but tae words ars goad
anda tiéy neay to £2 user on secassiti, ue betieve that 3a) is transcendent
and fumanent.

d¢@ beliicve, first, tase Sedte usly -other - different, above and beyond

a

what we @u. Uscause we are wan and Ae is Sod our best choughts are stil]
Auman Enoughes and wild Aaver Ciitdis a9 acequate unlerstandiag uf his being.
We can pile suserlatives on ton of supe@latives - and we still wave a list of
human ideas. 30 va are Teft with a mystary - and unfathonabTte mystery that

reduces us to fear and awa.

believe, Secunda, that Gos fe uvilh us. that he not only chose to reveal

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himself in the fife of desus Christ, but that he 13 vary much involved in
human history -and personal nistory. ie is inmediate, at home in his world,
available to his pecole as friend,comforter, father, judge, stimulater,
motivator.

These are the two ideas which must be kept prominently in tension:
transcendence and fmmanance, Ged the Almichty Creator - Gad the loving
father. TF am a Presuyterian, in pert I suppose because our tradition has
consistantly done this. For the fact of the matter is that a lot af reliaion
leans heavily akx fa one direction or the other and is the poorer for it.

The tendency to enphasize the mystery and transcendance of Sod at the

“WHERE DIES GOD FIT La?” ~4. MAY 19, 1974

expense of nis closcness has always bean with us, The great and grand cathe~
drais of the middi«: ayes express this sice of the tension eleauantiy. Bi

So do Geautiful Liturgies, uergic music. They tend to make a man feel small,
bumbde, avary. of fae qreit gay botewcen Sod and himself. Trouble is they have
away of saucting out the other idea altogether - the idea that God t& near
and personal,

The opp,ostiec tcaptation is to emphasize the nearness and immediacy of God
that any cheal ys sf ais iaajesty and grandeur is lost. That is the mistake
Of the “Jesus vieva.ant” aad the mors exuberant sects that talk about Ged as
if he were just SH one of theboys. Last summar I met with people whose sense
of Goc'’s neirdes3 a3 50 acute thattuey were cossulting JESUS ABGZT WHAT
clothes to puc on to go to Churea - and gotting answers anparently.

Wion tha tanstiaa seewoon tracecendence ane inmmanance: botween hajesty
ame Acarness Ts serena tye rssult is 4 poor faita, and a Ged waa does not
resemlte ths Golo nf the Tihtec. That is uay, for instance, tae Presbyterian
tradition dnasists on orderliness tu worship - aot vectuse we're stodgy or
unemotional or afraid to Joosen up. But Pecase worshin intencs to pat us
Th touch with & Gad wis is naly and almighty and mujestic. Norsiip ought to
Tift us up - se inspire us: the music and words and acts we do in worship -
Ought never to Lu Jona casually en! without the greatest care,

The other side of it, of course, is that orderliness ought myer to
eflinete personal intimacy. There must always be room for creativity and
spontaneity. we need sonetinges to free the issue ~ to structure expressions
such as our sractal early services that build up the opportunity to affira
a fod woo 7s hear as voll as far. Me need to stay with our custom of
Shaking cach other's hand in communion and addressing each other personally
as we Share the clements.

Ye're strayed a vit - but for a reason. Because I believe Sod is dying
for you if you cannot keep that tension. We need both experiences.

Tne Caristian Churci #as a formula with which it describes God. The

“WHERE DOES GOD FIT IN?" ~ Be MAY 19, 1974

Trinity - Ged ta three nersons. The troukte with that doctrine is that dt

ho longer says whet it intends ty sav. Fersons, For instance, daesn't rcaily
Mean Persans at ali. Tt comes frew the Latin persene whicw means personali-
ties - and tefors that from : worle that originally meant "mask" = the kind

of jack

44
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to identify what role they rere playtny, When we invoke
tae parass - Faller, Son and Holy Spirtt - we de not mean three Gods ~- but
one Coc wig clcge t¢ week reveal himself dn three WAYS: as the Father,
creacor, aay cue ani JEZUS, AND AS THE PRESENCE KHICH COUTIAuES TO TGUCH
the life of ach.

F

A prafasser oF aine, Josenh daroutundan, used te Say that to understand
Coristian a3ctrias yiu ust Firse understand the fdaas - against which the
ductrins vas first formulated. Thus the dectrina of the Trinity vas devised
ang 43 retatiued parstisaiv ta Rian alive: that tensiogd I've bead deseribing.
ft intenas oo ga, buat Sod io a5 toere - da the vastness of the universe, but
tuat 73 was also bach thora tn tha life of that garticular san, and that he
is here, now in our vortd and da our Vive.

Sut waere? Where does God Fit in? Granted the necessities of all the

theulogical vicsitios vie've Seen tyhking about where can we see hin and know

i

him and expertence nin, Jur did Testamanet Lesson arovides a cue. Jacob,
you will reesll wos on iis way fros Beirsheba te Maran. fight comes and
he camps alone the road. fhers B¥% is nothing spectal about the place.
During the night Se nas a dream about a tedder and angels ascending and
descending. The next mornine dacol makes tye Statements, both of which are
true: “Suraly the Lord is xk in this place", as indeed he was: "I did net
know it," as findecd te did net.

That is tesay, the existence or presence of God did not depend on
dacob's ability to rerceive., Ad more importantly God was present for Jacob

in a rathcr unlikely set of circumstances. (See RM. Brewn, The Peadonymus

af God , P.73-74)

So, it seems to me, God fits in at times arid places when we are not

WHERE DOES GOD FIT IN? =~ MAY 19,1974

particularily looking fm him. In his book “How to Believe Again*- Helmut

Thiealicke tells a story of a catholic priest in the concentration canp at
Ravensbruck. «5 it's tatresting that he should choose the same circumstances
which for Rabbi Rubenstein mark the dath of God. In any case, when the whistle
blew to awaken the prisoners every morning the priest would jump to his feet
and sing the Sloria PATRI in a vaice bud enough to be heard all over the campe
despite being beaten and tortured becaum of it."

Thielicke suggests that we wao have been insulated from that kind of
thing ought to take very seriously the testimony from extremity.

Lateon tie same essay Thielicke cites a book published by a Czechoslovo-
Kian Cotmunist entitled “Gow is vot Juite bead" , a man who regards himself
aS & confirmed atheist - and yet one who is conténually badgered ty the idea
of God. And again Thielicke advises that the thoughtful oersen will take
very sériously the testimony of man who have tried ¥MREXKNKTRMETHXEKK and been
unable to shape the idea of God.

l believe God may be seen in the history that is being lived in our day.
I think the hand of God ~ the God who is eternally for all his people was
at work in the Civil Rigits movement - even though we were not ahays able
to s@@, and wany die dnot expect it, particularly there.

I think the presence of God was affirmed in our common life in moral
outrage in the last days of tne Viet lam war - @en though that presence
was not aiways affirmed in the Churches.

Angi dare to think that God4$ presence in our midst if affirmed today
in the slow but sure demand for imegrity on the part of our president and
his administration.

More personally, 1 believe God connects with your life and mine when
healing happens, when somehow love cvercomes apathy and someone helps
another person. I believe God is alive and present when his people give
sacrifically, without counting the cost and without expecting credit.

I believe God disturbs our consciences. I believe God makes us

re$tless with monoteny: I believe God prods us to think and doubt and

"WHORE GGES GOO FIT IN?" ~}- MAY 19, 1974
disemer, I see Cod tn the classroom, the leb oratory. = see him in the
Faces oi dapaciant youny pecete: L see atm in the lives of cosmitted men and

i

Were: £ sac nie py the Led site of ihe elderly ane the 171.
incre Dees Ge Ste Tat
tha @reedy to here, “fajestic in his holiness,yet as close and intimate
QS YOUr Gaarist
Hey we sof ida = tey we affirn tin - Father. Sen and Holy Snirit -

wou _t, . cote
GGG Wu us. lila

FATHER, igla as os Sue you et sore in your world. Grant us grace to know

and @xporteac. your sresance in oue ldves. Through Jesus Christ aur Lord. AMES
I “ i 5