3/20/66

Scripture: John 1: 6-18 (Phillips translation).

One of the shorter books of the Bible, near the last of the Old Testament writings, is the book of the minor prophet Habakkuk. The third, and last chapter, of the book begins with a prayer in these words: “O Lord, I have heard the report of thee, and thy work, O Lord, do I fear.” [Habakkuk 3: 2]. There is one translation of this same verse which begins: “O God, I have seen thee in action.” Which brings up the inquiry in some minds: does one see God? If one sees him, how and where does one find him? One answer, given in the New Testament lesson from John which we have read this morning, affirms that “It is true that no one has ever seen God at any time.” This is a restatement of the Scripturally-expressed truth that “God is a spirit, and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

Probably people need this reminder stated fairly often. Because we direct our minds and attention toward God through the personal, in our words, speaking of the Deity as Him, and praying “Thee” and “Thou” and “you,” we tend to think of a corporeal person. Probably many young children have a mental image of God as appearing like their kindly, or stern, father; or as some other venerable person. I, myself, had to grow out of such a little child’s “anthropomorphic” concept. And it was my grandfather who first helped me over that particular hurdle of doubt.

Some children seem never to grow up at this point. Their concept of God may resemble some artist’s picture of Jesus or of Moses. And these are pictures that make an impression. Recently I thumbed through a book of Christian symbols and reproductions of famous paintings. One of the painted works of art was a picture of the first man, Adam, lying on his side while the Creator brought forth Eve, the first woman, from one of Adam’s ribs. The Creator was pictured as a man in robes that look like pictures of the ancient prophets.

Few such attempts are made by artists, and there are those who feel it to be possibly a sacrilege to attempt to do so. If God is a spirit, they argue, it is not possible to produce any eye-comprehending image of the Deity. Indeed, to do so violates (they may say) the second of the Ten Commandments, which begins: “You shall not make yourself a graven image.” [Exodus 20: 4]. Devout Jews and earnest Christians have long been accustomed to the concept of God as not-to-be-perceived with the eye nor measured by any of the human senses. And yet hosts of people have felt so sure of the heavenly father that they gladly testify to his reality in their lives and in the whole creation. Because it is not easy to express one’s conviction and experience without recourse to human imagery, we speak of “hearing” God’s voice or receiving His “call”; we feel “seen” of Him and “guided” by His will. We stand in awe as we worship gratefully, expectantly, sometimes fearfully. And there are times when the divine presence seems more vivid than at other times. Some have felt it before an altar. Many of us feel it when we come into the church sanctuary. Some, like Paul, perceive it in some emergency on the highways of living. It is real to us, though difficult to put in measurable words. And we would testify that God is by no means dead. He is and was and is to be forever.

Those who proclaim that “God is dead” may be able to lay low and to discredit some human concepts of God --- some peoples’ ideas of what God is. But once one grasps the notion that God is the Goodness, the Righteousness, that forever is; then one realizes that God has no beginning, and certainly no ending. God is not what our minds make Him out to be. The Truth that is Eternal --- that is God. And God is forever.

Incidentally, in connection with recent concern over what is called “God is dead” theology, you might like to tuck away this choice morsel of verse by McGregor Smith, Jr., which appeared in the March 9th, 1966, issue of the “Christian Century” magazine. It is titled or headed, “Straight from the Shoulder.” The lines read this way:

My child read, “God’s dead,”

And brightly smiled

While I pondered.

Head on shoulder, sleepy

Child consoled me:

“Don’t worry, Daddy.

He must have gone to heaven,

‘Cause God was good.”

Many months ago, the Russian cosmonaut, Titov, was reported to have said that he had not come across God in his flight through outer space. Some of us smiled a bit indulgently at so naive and childish an attitude. It sounds a little like the philosophically-minded college student who desired to be the atheistic son of an atheistic father and who used to hang a great length of paper (like we put on our church dining tables) all around the four walls of his room. Then he would make a crayon-marked representation of as many constellations of stars as he could get on the paper to represent that part of the universe that we can perceive. Then he would say to his fellow students who were in the room with him: “Now, will any of you fellows take a pencil and mark among those stars the point where you think God is?” And he was pleased with his device for showing up how foolish is the notion that there is any place called “heaven” where God can be found. Of course it is foolish for man to think of God in such limited concept. No Titov, nor anyone else, is going to bump into a localized deity out in space.

But the concept changes when we associate our idea of God with the marvelous conditionings of nature, the amazing intricacies of the universe, the incalculable distances we can only try to imagine, as well as the infinitesimal designs and orderliness of sub-microscopic beings. It was in this context that the American astronaut, John Glenn, differed profoundly with Titov’s statement.

And it is in this association that the same college student whom I mentioned a few moments ago, changed his line of thinking. There soon came a time when he would start again, in the same way, lining the four walls of his room with a great length of paper, dotting it as full of stars, and constellations of stars, as he had room to place them. Then he would hand his crayon to a fellow student and challenge him to place a dot anywhere among all those galaxies where God is not to be found! Whether he convinced many others, I do not know, but I do know that he decided to give his life attention to God whom he now perceived. He enrolled in a first-rate theological seminary, where I met him briefly as a fellow student, became an ordained minister, and has served God vigorously through a ministry of more than 1/3 of a century.

To hosts of people who have learned, or are learning, to think in this way, the visible universe and the natural order point beyond themselves to the ultimate reality on which all depends. A British peer, Sir James Jeans, puts it like this when he says that .... “The universe looks more like a great thought than a great machine.”

Some people find God in this kind of mental awareness. Some find Him by other tokens or experiences, as if to perceive God in action.

Perhaps this illustration may be crude, but let us try it anyway. Let us go together into a great railway station like Grand Central Station in New York City. Before we go inside we may see some of the railroad tracks that lead into, and out of, the station. They are an intricate pattern. They are connected by switches so that a train may move from one track to another. Now here is a train that will go 150 miles to Albany, non-stop, for it is a fast express. Here is another, also an express, but it will stop at Poughkipsie. On a third track is a train that will stop at every station, since it is a local. Beyond that is a commuter train serving Connecticut.

There are other trains --- an express for Boston, a local for the north shore of Long Island Sound, and another for the west shore of the Hudson river. Connections can be made for Washington, DC. And of course there are the trains for Chicago and points farther west.

They all come into, and go out of, the station in orderly fashion --- but not by haphazard chance. Somewhere (I do not see him in action) there is a dispatcher. You and I are sure he is somewhere in that moving labyrinth of action. We can see the red, yellow, and green lights flashing. Now and then we are close enough to see the switches turn; close, open. And each train is on its way. Each will arrive at its destination. Unless the Albany train runs into falling rocks in a cut, or the Boston train goes too fast over a trestle, they will arrive. There is an orderliness in the action that assures us this is so. It is neither foolish nor difficult to reason that there is a purposeful orderliness that dispatches our living in an assured fashion.

I. And then there are token days in this Lenten season wherein it is possible that we may see God in action. First, by the token of tomorrow, the 21st day of March, which is the day of the vernal equinox. This is the day when, as we have learned, the hours between sunrise and sunset equal the hours between sunset and sunrise. On this day, the sun follows a path that crosses the celestial equator on its way north. The sun, if there are no clouds, will at a certain moment, shine through your window. It will not be early; it will not be late; it will be on time. The sun has a good dispatcher --- the God of all good things as they are. I have not seen God with my eye; but I have perceived Him in action. And when I see God in action, I am so constituted that, sometimes at least, I find my wonder stirred. And that wonder is a part of worship. I am moved with awe when I see the dawn over a quiet lake, or twilight among the trees; when I see a sleeping baby, and then watch him stretch his tiny arms and wave his soft-fingered hands while he wakes from his sleep.

I have seen a little boy climb one of those low, bush-like trees with safely pliable branches that let him touch back to the ground; where he then stood with interested wonder at this expression of nature, where he know its action.

There are days when our eyes are not glazed with indifference, and our minds are not too clogged with materialism to rob us of a sense of awe. The mystery of God slips into action; we experience God. When we see God in action, as in the day of the vernal equinox, some of us feel a deep sense of dependence on Him; and gratitude is stirred within our being.

II. By the token of Good Friday we may see God in action. We still know the truth of John’s saying that: “No man has seen God at any time.” But on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus said to his friends: “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” [John 14: 9]. Is not Jesus --- “God in action?” It seems to me that I can see God’s action in the birth of Jesus. God acts in the teaching of Christ, for his words and his attitude are actions. God acts in the deeds of Christ. God acts in the death of Christ. This is God loving.

This inspires our wonder at so remarkable a life; at teachings so simple and yet so penetrating; at deeds and decisions and determination so wholly right; at death met with such matchless bravery and confidence that it brings us saving grace.

This, again, gives us a sense of dependence. And it stirs our gratitude.

III. By the token of Easter, we see God in action. It was hard, at the time, to see any good in the action of crucifixion Friday. For many, it must have been a moment of despair. But on Easter, we see God winning. He comes in triumph. His way is a conquering way. We look, eagerly, for this token of action each Lenten and Easter season.

Again we are moved to wonder; we find no other who could have broken the bonds of sin and evil in which we are enmeshed and enslaved, or the bonds of death out of which his action can lift us; we surrender our willful hearts to him in joyful gratitude.

The whole Lenten season can be, to us who will see it, a season of reminder and revelation of God’s actions.

IV. And, yet further, by the token of every day, we see God in action. (1) Each day dawns dependably, in evidence of its Creator. It may be sunny; it may be cloudy, serene or stormy --- but it comes, full of possibilities to be seen expectantly.

(2) God loves every day. What blessed assurance comes with the dawn. Haven’t you watched, in anxious concern, through a night of some emergency such as the critical illness of one in your family, and felt better when another night has passed and a new day has come? When Paul was being taken as a prisoner to Rome, the ship on which he was being transported was wrecked, and the crew more-than-half-expected to be lost with the ship. They threw out anchors to keep the storm from pounding their ship to pieces in the night on the rocky shore “and wished for the day.” [Acts 27: 29]. It came, bringing renewed hope for life -- which Paul received as assurance of God’s love.

(3) God wins victories every day. If we look around us we can see Him in those victories. James Thurber remarks: “Let us not look back in anger, or forward in fear; but around us in awareness.” And Martin Buber asserted that “the world was created ---- for the sake of him who has the power to choose God.” The impulse to redemption proceeds from our choice to look for God and to see His victories.

We can not see God, in the sense of Titov’s taunt. We can see God in action. We can see Him in the evidences of terrific power (the unharnessed power of a storm, the unleashed power of atomic fission, the controlled power of an electric motor. We can see Him in the power of a great, good idea; in the power of good will; in the power of dedicated, sacrificial love.) We can see God in acts of bravery; in the miracle of life and growth. We can find God in the chance to work. For we see Him in action.

By this, we stand in awe; we bow in dependence; we look up in gratitude; we grow in a knowledge of God.

Let us pray.

O God, whose blessed Son came into our earth to live and love, to suffer and overcome for the sake of all mankind; grant to us the grace that, right observing this holy season, we may learn to know Thee better, to see Thee in action all around us, to serve Thee with a more perfect will. We pray Thee through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.

Amen.

-----------------------------

Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 20, 1966.

Also at Waioli Hui’ia Church, March 17, 1974.