Bazaar United Methodist Church

Bazaar, Kansas

Sermon Text
Genesis 1:1-5, 26-31
Psalm 139:1-18, 23-24
John 1:1-5

Is Your God Too Small?

How big have you allowed God to be in your life? Most of us limit God in one way or another. I find far too many people who think God has a scoreboard and is keeping score. Went to church. Good point here. Said bad word. Bad point there. If God is no more than an Almighty scorekeeper in your life, your God is way too small.

Others seem to think God is a policeman who is out to get them. No matter how many times they have been told God is love, they still expect that God is really watching to see if they do something wrong, so that he can swoop in and punish them. And if anything goes wrong, if any failure happens, it must be a punishment from God. God gets the blame for every bad thing in their lives. This god is an evil and sadistic god. This god is way too small.

But what I find most of all is those who believe that God only spoke to the Apostles in the scripture. That he only acted in their lives and in the lives of great Saints but that it is just not possible for you and me. And I'm telling you, if this is you, if you think that God can't or won't speak to you, can't work through you, can't change your life so you can be like Jesus, then your God is way too small as well.

And I will tell you the most amazing place from which there is evidence. Concrete evidence that God remains still at work in the world today. In our Affirmation of Faith we affirmed that we believe that God has created and is creating. Well that is a truth we can hang our hats on because the scientific community is proving it for us virtually every day.

Too many people who call themselves Christian seem to be afraid of science. But science is our friend. The scientists who hold to the Big Bang Theory believe that the Big Bang began with something infinitesimally small; smaller, in fact, than an atom. Yet it produced an energy that has spun out billions of galaxies that are constantly expanding. These galaxies, the ones we know of, only used 4% of the energy in the big bang. The momentum of the explosion would have monumentally exceeded the pull of gravity which is relatively weak except for one thing. There is in the universe a cohesive force, a universal glue, a consciousness, if you will, that works to hold everything together. Scientists can't find it because it is in the spaces between matter yet they know it is there.

More and more often science is proving the order of the universe as they discover it's increasing complexity. Not long ago Chaos Theory seemed too far out to be anything of any use at all. How could it be possible that a butterfly flapping its wings in South America could make a difference in whether there was or was not a hurricane in North America? Yet Chaos Theory soon brought mathematicians to fractal dimensions. Fractal images are created by something that seems to be a chaotic movement. But as it repeats over time, it produces complex self-organized patterns of behavior that are beautiful to behold when they are plotted out. Such organization from seemingly random events, most scientists admit, cannot happen by chance alone. If you want to see a picture of a fractal there is a book on the back table with a couple of pictures. Though the fact is, you are familiar with some fractals. You see them in nature, a head of cauliflower is a fractal, so is a fern. The repeating pattern that we see is fractal in nature.

Chaos Theory and fractals demonstrate that complex organized patterns emerge from seemingly random, even chaotic movements and events. Scientists are increasingly convinced that such complex organization couldn't possibly occur through mere chance. Even elliptical orbits beg the question of "how." And the answer returns continually to the One who has created and is creating.

And so we turn to ourselves; those God made in God's image. So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27NRSV) The psalmist catches the wonder: For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. . .My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. (Psalm 139:13-14a, 15-16a NRSV) None of us is alike. Check out the palm of your hand. It is unlike any other hand. Your finger print is unlike anyone else's finger print. Even identical twins do not have identical fingerprints. And that just has to do with your physical make-up.

There are other things about you, that are just as unique; parts of your personality, of your soul, of what makes you, you. Whether it's your sense of humor or how you think, your ability in a certain area or the way you lift your eyebrow. You are a totally unique individual. There has never been another person like you and there never will be. God made you one of a kind. And God desires to be in relationship with you, just the way you are.

The problem with most of us is, we simply don't believe that. We want to believe. But we don't. We don't believe it enough to go out on a limb and experiment long enough to find out if God will really demonstrate his presence and power in our lives. We're too afraid of failure. So we don't try at all. And we live miserable lives as a consequence.

The fact is, when we step out in faith, trusting that God will do what God says, we will be amazed at what happens in our lives. Will everything suddenly be perfect and wonderful and we'll never have problems again? No. That is not the promise of the scripture. It is certainly not what happened to Christ Jesus or the Apostles. But can we develop a relationship with God that nourishes us, that literally feeds our soul and spirit? Then the answer is a resounding "Yes."

While it is astounding and unfathomable, it is true that the God who created the universe, the One who put the worlds in motion is also the One who hems me in behind and before. The psalmist understood that the transcendent God of the universe was also the immanent God who is "intimately involved and profoundly concerned" with the lives of his people.

We all have the image of God within us; the imago dei. We sell ourselves short when we fail to recognize it. God continues to reveal God self today to those who are seeking to know him. And God's revelation can be heard, seen, felt, and known in a variety of ways. Yes, God can still reveal himself in the scripture. I can still read scripture and find God speaking to me in a different way than he has before through a scripture that I have read many times. But scripture is not the only place to expect God's revelation.

Sometimes God reveals himself through the most unlikely of persons. A clergy person I used to know told of a time when a homeless man came to the church and asked if he could have a meal. Well, they weren't really set up to give him a meal but they'd be glad to give him a sack of food. No. He didn't have a way to transport it, open it or cook it. If he could just have a hot bowl of soup or something that would be fine. The pastor was a little irritated. He was busy and wanted to get back to his work but he took the man to the church kitchen, found some soup, a kettle, a bowl, even some bread in the fridge. There were some canned pears he opened too. He gathered it all, prepared it, made some small talk, but didn't bother to probe too deeply into the man's life. The man ate as one who savored all that was good in life and the pastor started to wonder about him. So he thought he'd ask some questions. Are you from around here? No. Where do you come from? But he just shook his head and continued to eat. When he was finished, he raised his head, said thank you, stood up and left. The pastor was frozen where he stood because when the man thanked him and looked him in the eye, he was washed in such love that he could not even breathe, much less speak or move. This pastor is not prone to fits of fancy or to mystical experience. But he is certain Jesus visited him that day; and he came close to turning him away because he was busy.

God may reveal himself to you through the words of a friend, a child, a person you don't know or even someone you don't like. But when you hear them, you will know them. When I was contemplating divorce from my first husband, the comments of three people came out like the voice of God. Only one of them knew that I was considering divorce. The other two were completely in the dark. Yet each of them made a comment, each unrelated to the other, which added up for me to a decision from which I would never waver and never doubt God's permissive will.

God continues to reveal God self through modern writers both of good fiction and good theology. I know some of you are reading The Shack. Personally I think it is a wonderful vision of God and radical forgiveness. But it is a work of fiction and we all have to recognize that. Max Lucado, Madeline L'Engle, and C. S. Lewis are all Christian writers who may expand your knowledge and understanding. There are lots of others who can help you stretch beyond where you are now.

Certainly God is not limited by the ways that I have listed today. God can reveal himself in any way God chooses. I am constantly surprised that God meets us in new and unusual ways. Our God is the God of infinite imagination who delights to know us and to help us know him. So God reaches out to us in ways we have never imagined. The ways God will meet you are as varied and different as we are as people. But God will not force you to recognize his advances and the more often you ignore them, the harder they become to recognize. It's as if you build up a callous against their recognition. But as soon as you truly desire to meet God, the scales will fall from your eyes, and his grace will pour into your life in abundance.

What we have to be sure of is this: God's revelation continues today. It didn't stop 2000 years ago in a small corner of the world. If we limit God to that, we also limit ourselves. And our capacity in spiritual matters is limited, as Oswald Chambers says, by the promises of God. Those promises are pretty broad, pretty sweeping, really bold. When we believe them to be true as Jesus did, when we live into them, then our lives will bear a striking resemblance to the life and love of Jesus Christ. Amen.