a sermon about looking for God

Address 13th August - Ullet Road


I have been looking for God all my life. Where is God to be found? Some will say that God created the world and then left it to develop all on its own. If there was a plan it was to leave the human race to finish off the work of creation until it was a place that God could return to.

Or was God not quite that efficient - there were ‘t’s not crossed, ‘i’s not dotted and the creation has run out of control. God is not omnipotent - not all powerful and not all seeing.

Or maybe creation was never complete. We have a part to play with God who is still active and guides it along a certain course - making adjustments as the failures of the human race take it in the wrong direction.

Or maybe there never was a God and never a moment of creation - that it is a process that happened because the conditions were right. In those far off early days, when the rain first fell on the earth - a difference of one degree centigrade would have meant no rain and no life. The truth could be that there never was a first cause - a particular moment.

I never thought about it once. When I was young going to church was part of life. Sundays was a special day -- including a Sunday lunch when we came home. It was unheard off not to go to church - whatever the weather - and childhood excuses of headaches and tummy aches just did not wash - off we were dragged and in our Sunday best too.

There was something about church - the atmosphere - the space - and even then the empty pews; the stained glass windows - the organ playing and the moment when the long procession of choir and acolytes with their crosses and rods of office and vicar slowly walking behind them up the aisle.

We learnt the ritual of the prayers and the responses - the sing song voice that called on God to save us the people and save the Queen and the Government and its ministers.

I knew that God was in that place. The stories from the Bible were mostly beyond my childish mind but I loved the adventures of Samson and David and Goliath, David and Saul - and of all the sermons I heard in that Liverpool church, I remember only one - about Abraham planting oaks and how confident that was because he would never lived too see them grow into mature trees - but he had the confidence in his God that all would be well.

I liked the story of Jacob and his stairway to heaven - but in those days never thought it any more than a story of magic. The God of the old Testament was securely rooted in my mind.

I thought of him like the king in his palace and I the simple subject living my life, getting on with my life - wary of the king but only of his power to punish. And God was a king - very male.

I never thought of receiving any favours from this King but was aware of the consequences of breaking the laws - well except when I was really stuck.

As I grew older my life began to experience the ups and downs that come to all who step out from childhood into adulthood. Plans might not work out; events just happened or just not happened. People were not all the same - some were cruel deceivers, some were real helpers. The horizons of life broadened out and more of the world came into view. I began to see that the world was not a fair place. God the king did not save all the people - did not punish the wrong doers and did allow the innocent to suffer - often the innocent were punished for nothing - why should someone die young or be born with difficulties that would make their life so hard?

The world was a chaotic place. Life was like living in a city of strangers - where nothing was totally real - where it was easy to sink beneath the waves of anonymity - being invisible amongst a multitude - part of the drab column of comings and goings that were the daily grind.
Somewhere, walking along the grey streets a glance behind revealed - nothing. God in his palace was no longer there. The city was a God forsaken place. The churches were grimy, uninviting and vacant.

Beyond the city, there was a new experience - amongst the hills and beside the streams there was a new presence - a new God. Not the God of the Old Testament - not even a God - but a feeling - a feeling of peace - of serenity - of eternity - of aeons of time gone by undisturbed and aeons of time waiting ahead and nothing need change. footfalls fell where feet had never trod before. The pebble in the stream was a million years old.

What does such a place speak about God? That this is what was intended? That this is the deep soft resonant milestone of eternity? That here the heart is tuned to the timeless song of the universe? This is the permanent now of a God saying - before Abraham was, I am. Of the king Melchisadek who blessed Abraham being a priest before time and of time.

To this God there is no movement at all. No involvement in the clamour of the multitude - no directing of paths but a place to be found.

It is not a place for the Old Testament with its anger and punishments and sacrifices. Of columns of fire and Elijah calling flames from heaven to light the sodden stones in a contest with the priests of Baal.

Neither is this sacred place a place to stay. It is an experience and not a physical refuge to escape into forever.

I have known people who have experienced such moments of eternity but when they return to the city, the experience fades and is forgotten. What use is that.?

The mystic Christians of the middle ages spent years in prayer and contemplation seeking that wonderful moment they called union with God - but it was always a temporary moment - there had to be a consequence.
The God of the mystics was far beyond the light of the god the ordinary mortals worshipped. Their god was the light beyond the darkness.

Such perhaps was the God of Jesus - the God far beyond the light of the early followers who only knew the God of Judgement - who only knew about sacrifices and rituals and the holiness code of Moses. Not even like the mystic Cabalists who performed the rituals to keep the universe solid and God from slowly fading away.

And how sad that the God who was the god of Jesus also seems to have faded away - faded away behind the darkness and become an image. In the Christian church God has become an image in the likeness of the God of Israel, of the Old Testament ; taking sides, blessing the poor but giving them nothing, blessing the tanks that go to war; a god of fire and punishment and privilege.

I do not want that God.

I am looking for the God that arose out of the quiet hillside by the streams of time. I am looking for the God that touches the life force when a child is created in the womb. A god that is a blessing to those who stumble in the ruins of their cities and gives them courage and gives them hope; a god who is calm and constant and unchanging when there is chaos everywhere - when the bombs fall and the crops fail and love of life collapses in despair.

I am looking for the god who is reflected in the dirty faces of the rescuers and the calm assurance of the doctors. I am looking for the god who walks silently behind the Good Samaritan in the streets of shame. I am looking for the God who dares to feed the starving

I am looking for God in the creators of peace and I am looking for God amongst those who have the vision of a kingdom of God.

I am looking for God in the conscience of every human being - who walks beside you without footsteps and inspires you to live in the namless presence that is the true God.

Amen