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LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
LakewoodUCC@gmail.com

Date: May 29, 2011
Scripture Lesson: Acts 17:22-31
Sermon: Groping for God
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

On a trail in the mountains, a hiker stopped near the edge of a drop off to take in the vista. As he went to get out his camera, his foot slipped on the steep incline which ended a few feet away at the edge of a precipice. In trying to regain his balance and manage his camera and day pack, the hiker slid to the edge of the cliff and grabbed on to a scrubby bush nearby as his feet dangled over the edge and his pack and camera tumbled through the air landing hundreds of feet below on the jagged rock. The hiker was alone and hadn’t seen anyone else on the isolated trail all day. Hanging between life and death he prayed, “God, save me.” He heard a faint voice. “Let go.” Again he petitioned, “God, save me!” He heard the same response. Louder this time. “Let go.” He glanced to each side, and even hazarded a fleeting look downward. Again he begged, “God, save me.” And again, he heard the response, “Let go!” Finally, the man shouted, “Hey, is there anyone else up there?”

Depending on our circumstances and situation, we can be very willing to adapt our image and conception of God! This applies not only to our individual circumstances as humans, but also to the human species throughout history. Primitive humans millennia ago had very different conceptions of God than we do today, based on their experience and understanding and development. When you don’t know how lightening is formed, it is easy to conceive of a spirit being who throws bolts of fire. Confronted with an erupting volcano, we can see how people could imagine a divine spirit hollering below the surface of the earth to create such a disruption. As we look back, we see different manifestations of humans groping for God, for the divine. As humans have evolved, we have attributed occurrences in nature as well as human behavior to divine beings. Yes, many cultures have gods of rain and sun but we also see gods of war. We see the god of war in the Old Testament. The Hebrew people believed that God led them into battle and was responsible for the outcome. To slight God in any way was to jeopardize the outcome of the conflict. When they won, they attributed the victory to God. When they lost, they attributed the failure to their lack of devotion to God.

By the time of Jesus, we don’t see Jesus referring to this warrior god. The conception of God we see from Jesus is more focused on God as creator of the cosmos, and of the human community which is intended to reflect divine creativity by creating communities of compassion, justice, loving relationships, and spiritual devotion . So Jesus teaches about the realm of God, the beloved community; human relationships and communities that reflect divine caring, support, and grace. He talks about giving devotion and reverence to the God of love for the whole world. This is a far cry from thinking about gods as individual divine beings that put stars in the sky and make fire burn. As humanity has developed and evolved, the conception of God has changed and adapted to new understandings and situations. We see a continual groping for God.

Human conceptions of God are also contextual. In a tropical context 2000 years ago, the people would not have imagined a god of snow. Talking about God in one context may be quite different from talking about God in another context. We might very well say something very different about God in a village in Africa where most of the people are dying of AIDS than we would in an MIT classroom. Context comes into play in our imaging of God. We see this with Paul, the New Testament apostle, in the reading we heard this morning. Just a few verses earlier in the book of Acts, Paul has been accused of being a hayseed, a simple rural person. He is seen as naive and ignorant. Now, here he is in the big cosmopolitan, sophisticated capital of Athens, home of democracy and Socrates, speaking in the areopagus, the center for philosophical discourse. In this speech, a portion of which we heard this morning, Paul conveys his thoughts with intellectual insight appropriate to the setting. He talks about all the shrines and temples he has seen. He quotes an inscription he has read. He includes quotations from two prominent Greek philosophers in his discourse. He meets the Athenians on their own terms. He adapts himself to his context. He puts across his message in a way that the intellectuals of Athens will be able to hear and consider given their frame of reference. Paul takes his context into consideration. He meets the challenge of the groping for God of the intellectually elite Athenians.

This is the challenge and the opportunity facing each new generation of every culture and context. Paul tells us that humans of every era are innately spiritual beings created with a groping for God. The ongoing challenge of the spiritual life and the religious community is to address this inherent spiritual need, this groping for God, in ways that make sense for the time and the context.

In Paul’s situation, not only is he in the hotbed of erudition in the ancient world, but he is also part of a spiritual community that anticipated the return of Jesus Christ in their life time. They are looking for Jesus to come back and begin the apocalyptic end times during their time on earth. Paul would have been shocked to hear that there were Christians who expected Christ to return on May 21, 2011. Impossible. Paul knew that would all be over and done with before the year 100 CE. He would have thought it was ludicrous to expect the beginning of the end 2000 years hence. When we take Paul’s assumptions and context into consideration, it sheds new light on how we see some of the teachings of the New Testament. Some things weren’t meant to be long term directives to apply for thousands of years, but were meant to apply to the understanding of the immediate circumstances. The end is at hand. But – Jesus did not come back as those early Christians expected. So the continuing Christian community had to evolve and develop in new directions, given the unanticipated circumstances. They had to grope for God in new ways and find new ways to express their spiritual devotion and faithfulness that were not based on a presumed imminent second coming of Christ.

Today, in many ways our context and circumstances are unlike anything that could have been anticipated by biblical writers. And we find ourselves facing the challenge of all previous generations. We grope for God in our day and time. Given our experience. Given our stage of development and circumstances. And people around the world in differing contexts grope for God in the ways that they feel led to do so as well.

Just think about this Memorial Day in the context of the Christian church in the United States. Our church sees this as an opportunity to be reminded of the cost of war and renew our commitment to seeking peace through non violent conflict resolution. There are other churches that will reflect on this day as we do. There are also churches that will take this secular holiday as an opportunity to emphasize the importance of supporting the United States of America, its war efforts, and its aspirations to be the leader of the world. For those churches, this day is an opportunity to observe a civil holiday in a religious context giving religious credence to America’s agenda of dominance and pre-eminence.

When we think of Memorial Day at the Cadet Chapel at the United States Military Academy at West Point, what might we imagine there? How might groping for God look in that context on Memorial Day weekend? Might we expect an emphasis on peace? Or on patriotism? Or something else? In the book, Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith, the author, Suzanne Strempek Shea, offers reviews of visits to different churches, one each Sunday, for a year. On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Shea chose to visit the Chapel at West Point. She wanted to be sure to attend a service that would pay respects to the fallen soldiers that we remember on Memorial Day weekend. Shea quotes the sermon given in the generic Protestant service at the Cadet Chapel: “Sometimes we get distracted, draw away, get caught at work, at home, have physical struggles and the lowest lows, and we go, ‘I’m lost, I can’t find Him.’ I tell you: God has never taken his eyes off his children. God says, ‘Acknowledge that you walked away. Acknowledge, repent, return, and you can enjoy and embrace again – we’ll walk together.’ If we don’t walk with God, this life is as good as it gets. If we do, the best is yet to come.” Shea goes on to describe the service: The sermon is over. . . “Chaplain Darrell’s friendly and matter-of-fact delivery delivered goods that were another appreciated reminder – as simple as the nudge to ask for help. To remember that we’re never alone.”

Shea continues, “But I’m still waiting for some mention of Memorial Day. This is the United States Military Academy, statues to deceased war heroes at every turn. The program states that some of the flowers on the altar have been donated in memory of First Lieutenant Laura Walker, USMA Class of 2003. She’d hardly left this place. Why not mention her?”

“. . . She was buried in the cemetery past which she used to run, and down the hill from the Cadet Chapel at West Point. Where, on this Memorial Day weekend Sunday, at the Cadet Chapel’s Protestant service, not a word about the dead was uttered.” [Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith, Suzanne Strempek Shea, pp. 50, 52] This surprised Shea, and it surprises me, it may surprise you, as well, but then we are all groping for God in differing ways in different circumstances and in diverse contexts. And this chaplain felt that this was the way to grope for God on that Memorial Day Sunday.

There are many ways of groping for God. Paul tells us, “From one ancestor God made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and God allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for God and find God – though indeed God is not far from each one of us.” [Acts 17:26-27] Our job is to grope for God, given our experience and our context. This is an invitation to invest ourselves in this quest. And to expect the results to be different in differing contexts. And as Paul shows us with his intellectual, erudite presentation to the Athenians, it is completely appropriate for us to bring our intellect to our spiritual quest. Indeed, our intellectual abilities are a gift of God intended to be fully engaged in our groping for God. There is no assumption that the groping for God necessitates adopting superstitious beliefs or magical thinking that is not integrated with our intellectual knowledge. We must also incorporate into our groping for God an awareness of the limits of our intellectual development and the acceptance of mystery as part of the spiritual quest.

The invitation to grope for God is a celebration of the spiritual journey of the human species, which takes place in different ways in different times and differing contexts and circumstances. We should expect that people have conceived of God in different ways throughout the ages. We should expect our groping for God to yield surprising results in the eons ahead. We should anticipate experiencing God in different ways as we make our journey through our individual lives. I know that my conception and experience of God is far different now than it was ten years ago or twenty years ago or forty years ago. To grope for God is to expect to have a changing, emerging view of God in light of our specific experiences and as the experience of the human species continues to unfold. There is always mystery. We will never fully know. It is always groping. Searching, reaching, reflecting, guessing, missing, and holding on. All of it.

While the spiritual quest may be very much a journey into the unknown, the only thing that truly scares me about religion is when I hear a conception of God that is fixed, certain, inflexible, absolute, and assumed to be unquestioningly correct. For me this is not the result of groping, but of idolatry. As Paul says, “. . we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals.” [Acts 17:29] God is meant to groped for, ever accessible, ever elusive: never fully known. We should strap ourselves down for the journey, and expect an exciting adventure, but we should never encumber God.

The native mountaineering guides in the Himalayas, known as sherpas, are intimately acquainted with the face of Mount Everest. They live in its shadow. As guides, they know the where the crevasses are and where to find the ropes for the climbers. They know the weather patterns and avalanche dangers. However, the sherpas know Everest only from one side – the view from their home valley. When they have been shown images of Everest from other sides, they do not recognize the mountain. They do not believe that it is Everest. Their disbelief changes to amazement when they realize that something with which they are so familiar can have other sides to it. This is how it is as we as a human species grope for God. There are new vistas and differing perspectives yielding new insights and images. [The Christian Century, 5/17/11, p.8]

May we expect to see God in new ways as we continue the human quest of groping for God. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Date: May 22, 2011
Scripture Lessons: John 14:1-14 and Acts 7:55-60
Sermon: Anxiety Antidote
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

A couple of months ago, the electronic keyboard from the church sanctuary was stolen. It was eventually located at a pawn shop by the police and we have it back. In this process, the police showed me a picture of the woman who they believe is responsible for the theft. Evidently, she has an 8 year old child, and told the police that she stole the keyboard to get money to support her child. Mind you, we got the keyboard from the pawn shop for $100. That was enough to motivate her to steal from a church and risk a jail sentence. She must have been really anxious and desperate about how she was going to care for her child.

People are experiencing anxiety in all different kinds of ways today. This woman had economic anxiety about how to provide for her child. People have anxiety about money. About growing old. About health. About the future of the planet. People have social anxieties about dealing with others and anxieties about relationships. People have anxiety about violence and war and crime. People have anxiety about the well-being of their families. And about drugs and drinking and addiction. People have anxiety over the influence of technology on the human species. People have anxiety about jobs and lay offs and cuts in government spending. Just ask a teacher or someone who works for the state or federal government. People have anxiety about personal safety, going out at night, going to school, traveling at home and abroad. There was a letter to the editor after the killing of Osama bin Laden wondering if we were going to go back to pre-9/11 security procedures at the airports now. Ha! And our anxiety level is jacked up by media and TV and entertainment that is filled with violence. There is anxiety about rejection, failure, and the big one, DEATH. Our society is churning with anxiety. You may have come to church feeling peaceful and secure, but now you may be starting to feel anxious and unsure!

So what does our faith tradition have to say to us about all of this anxiety? The two scripture lessons that we heard this morning address this very matter. The verses we heard from John are from the beginning of what is called John’s farewell discourse. Jesus has told his disciples that he will be leaving them. That he will soon be killed. They are overwrought with anxiety. They have followed him, left home and family, risked the ire and ridicule of religious authorities, and banked on him. He’s leaving them? To suffer and die a humiliating death? That’s not what they signed on for. They are worried and anxious about their future.

We can imagine their horror. Think of someone who has worked a lifetime for a corporation that goes bankrupt, and there will be no pensions or health insurance or any benefits for career employees. Consider someone investing all of their money in a business and the partner absconds with the funds and leaves the country. What about someone who has eaten right and exercised for years only to find out they are dying of a rare form of cancer. Or the family whose child is killed in a car accident by a drunk driver. Or the spouse, who after decades of marriage announces that she/he is leaving the relationship and the family. We know what it is to face the fear and anxiety of the bottom dropping out of our lives. That’s how it was for the disciples when Jesus tells them that he is going to be killed. What will they do? How will they go on?

To address this anxiety, the writer of John’s gospel has Jesus give the disciples a long farewell speech to calm their fears and reassure them. He basically tells them, “Don’t worry, trust God.” Jesus tells his friends to stay true to all they have experienced with him. Continue to believe in the goodness and love of God and love one another. Serve others. Invest yourself in something beyond yourself – in God’s hopes and dreams. These are the basic themes of his ministry. They need only stay on the path that they are
on and everything will be fine. God can be trusted. God is faithful.

In the case of Stephen, again, we hear of a situation fraught with anxiety. Stephen has given a long speech to the religious leaders and basically highlighted God’s faithfulness and the disobedience of God’s people. These leaders are filled with fury. And they stone Stephen to death for heresy.

The people who kill Stephen are anxious. They perceive a threat to their power and authority. They feel attacked. They are afraid. Those who stone Stephen are filled with malice and fury. They are blood thirty and poisoned with hatred. They lash out in vitriolic violence. They close their ears and their hearts and open their hands to throw stones. This is basically a lynching. They deal with their anxiety by engaging in reactive violence and destruction.

So here we see a stark contrast in the response to anxiety and fear. Jesus, Stephen, and the disciples are faced with threatening situations. And Jesus advises, follow the Way. Stay true to God and to love. And Stephen is a beautiful example of following Jesus. He dies like Jesus did. He commends his spirit to God and forgives his killers. He comes across peaceful. Serene. Steady. Calm. Loving. Trusting.

Then there are those doing the stoning. We are told they are loud, they rush against Stephen, and drag him away. They are hate-filled. Violent. Hostile. Rabid. So different from Stephen and from Jesus.

In the farewell discourse when Jesus tells his followers that he is the Way, he is reminding a small group of faithful people from a specific religious tradition that the way he has shown them will indeed lead them to the fulfillment of their spiritual longings. Jesus is assuring his anxious friends that they need to continue to trust all that they have experienced of the love, generosity, compassion, and mercy of God while they have been with him. He wants them to remember that through loving and serving others they have found joy and peace. And as the anxiety escalates, the threat grows, and their fears increase, they need to stay grounded in all they have learned from him.

“I am the Way, the truth and the life,” was not directed to a situation involving the threat of other religions. This was spoken to people dealing with a threat from within their own religion. Jesus was addressing anxiety related to a threat from within, he was not making a statement about Christianity or Judaism relative to other religions. Jesus was reminding his friends to stay true to anti-violence, love, forgiveness, service, and compassion. Don’t get swept away in the frenzy of reactive violence. Don’t lash out in hatred. Don’t abandon love. Don’t get taken in by an eye for an eye. Make a witness to the truth of love as the way to full and abundant life. Don’t let your anxiety and fear lead you to abandon your trust in the God you have come to know through me.

Several months ago, our church sponsored Neighbor to Neighbor dialogues at the local library which was an opportunity for people of different faiths to come together to discuss their beliefs and religious commitments. It was done to help diffuse hostility and tension and fear among people of differing faiths. We reached out in this way showing our trust in God’s universal love as we have learned of it from Jesus Christ.

In the first century, following Jesus was about a lifestyle. It was about embodying generosity and community. It was about healing and serving others. It was about celebrating a God of love, mercy, and generosity. It was not about following rules or ascribing to doctrine and dogma about God or Jesus. Christianity began as a way of living that eschewed violence, hatred, and life centered on self interest. The Way was about relationships that crossed class and social and religious barriers. It was about helping the poor. It was about living for others and for the common good.

Today, Christianity is known predominantly for its theological truth claims rather than for the behavior of its adherents. In our society as a whole, can you identify the Christians by their behavior? Do they/we act differently enough that they stand out from others? Does our lifestyle give us away? For the most part, Christians are known for believing that Jesus is God, that he came back from the dead in the body, and his followers are going to heaven. Christians are also known for expecting Jesus to return, even if they can’t get the date right! These identifying characteristics involve theoretical beliefs. That’s how Christians are identified today for the most part. For beliefs. Not primarily for behavior. Back in the day, when Stephen was stoned, Christians were known for their behavior. For their love, forgiveness, and generosity toward others. They were known for serving the poor.

When we took in the homeless here at our church some years ago that was our motivation – to show God’s love and care in our actions. Little did we know that we were going to receive significant hostility even from other Christians. Today, Christianity is mainly about beliefs about God and Jesus, rather than the ethical imperatives in the teachings of Jesus.

This past week, there was an article in the paper about a church in West Palm Beach where the congregation is in an uproar over a prayer request. After seeing the way people gleefully celebrated the killing of Osama bin Laden, Henry Borga paid $10, just as others do, to have a person put on the prayer list at his church. Borga, taking his Christian faith to heart, wanted the church to pray for the soul of bin Laden. Borga says he believes bin Laden “needs forgiveness and compassion from God.” He feels that praying for our enemies is “what God has taught us to do.” But evidently, the congregants of the Holy Name of Jesus Church do not agree. The church secretary thought the prayer request was a joke. Reacting to the prayer request for bin Laden, one church member declares: “I think it’s totally wrong, he doesn’t belong in the Catholic religion. For what he did to Americans, he doesn’t belong anywhere. It’s unconscionable, it’s sacrilegious.” The priest of the church has shown understanding and compassion for the congregation, while noting that the church has never turned down a prayer request. He concludes, “Jesus tells us, love and forgive.” [St. Petersburg Times, 5/19/11, “Church split over bin Laden prayers”]

This story reminds me of the service we had here in this sanctuary on Sept. 11,
2001, where we gathered to pray and one of the first prayer requests lifted up from
someone in the group was prayers for our enemy, Osama bin Laden.

Regardless of our feeling about bin Laden, the Way of Jesus, the ethical imperative of the one we follow, is love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. We have the example of Jesus from the cross. And Stephen as he is being stoned. In the face of hatred, anxiety, violence and fear, are we going to lash out or love? Jesus made the way clear. Love. As Mahatma Gandhi put it, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

While we may not feel that our lives are being directly threatened at this very moment, we have our share of reasons to feel anxious and fearful and worried. The teachings of Jesus still speak to us today with reassurance. Trust love, forgiveness, and compassion. Invest in generosity and service to others. Pray for your enemies and forgive them. If you can’t think of emulating Jesus because he is the divine son of God, think of Stephen. One of the multitude of followers of Jesus. A regular guy, who chose to follow the Way of Jesus because it is a path to serenity and peace. To a calm heart and a joyful life.

Earlier I mentioned the woman who was involved with stealing the keyboard from the church. She was motivated by fear and anxiety about how she was going to provide for her child. The irony is, if she had come to church, explained her situation, and asked for help, we may very well have given her the $100 she needed from the Special Needs fund. By stealing from the church, she ends up with more anxiety, not less.

In the face of fear, dread, and violence, may we not close our eyes to the power of love, compassion, generosity, and forgiveness. It is the security and serenity system that cannot be breached. As we confront the anxiety of our days, may we hold fast to the way of Jesus; the antidote to anxiety. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.