May 17, 2020

Sixth Sunday in Easter
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:8-20
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21

Alleluia Christ is Risen!
Christ is Risen Indeed Alleluia!
 
We are still in the season of Easter,
 celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
 but even as we celebrate
our texts are starting to turn us toward the ascension
 when Jesus returns to his Father
and the bodily resurrection appearances stop,
leaving the disciples wondering,
 where is God?
 
Where is God?
 I think this is a question that we’ve all asked
 at some point in our lives,
 whether in the depths of sorrow
or simply musing about the meaning of life,
 in fact, how we answer the question
is impacted by who we say God is.
 
In our reading from Acts,
 Paul is traveling,
telling all he meets of Jesus,
 
when he comes to Athens
 he encounters multiple ideas of gods,
each with their own places of worship,
images, and spheres of influence
and though he considers them all idols
 he recognizes that the Athenians are very religious
 
so religious
that they have covered all their bases
by even erecting an alter “to an unknown God”
 a God without image or idol,
 
and Paul grasps on to this imageless God,
I know who this God is
Paul tells the people,
 this God that you consider unknown,
possibly in part
 because you have not been able to come up with an image,
is the God who made the world and everything in it,
 
 God who rules the heavens and the earth
and who created all people
 doesn’t live in a shrine
 or need the sacrifices of humans,
 
God cannot be contained in precious metals
or even in the imagination of mortals
because God is so much bigger than all that,
 
 and though this makes it seem like God is far away
 and that we humans have to search for God
 in reality
God is never far from us
 “for in him we live and move and have our being”
 
we are offspring of God,
 Paul tells the crowds,
which means we are in relationship with God,
God the creator of heaven and earth is a relational God,
found in relationships rather than places.
 
Which is good news
 because it means that we are not tied to any particular place
 for the worship of God
 
 but it does mean that we need to maintain relationships,
 with God,
 with other people whom God works through,
 and maintaining these relationships
 leads to regular places of gathering.
 
God is not tied to these buildings and locations
 and yet it is undeniable
 that there are particular places
where we feel closer to God,
 sacred spaces
where the veil seems thinner somehow
 and we seem to more easily slip into the presence of the divine,
 
 and separation from these places is not to be taken lightly
because they play such a role
in maintaining our relationship with God.
 
I found one of those places in college,
 at Gustavus there is an arboretum attached to campus,
 with a variety of walking paths,
 
sometimes it seemed like the only place
 for an introvert to go
 to get away from all the people on a residential campus.
 
There was a particular stone I’d go to and sit on
 and talk to God,
 pour out the anxieties and troubles of my late teens and early twenties
and there I felt the presence of God.
 
 When I graduated and moved away,
 I was surprised by the ache I felt deep within
at being separated from that sacred space.
It made me think of the Native Americans,
whose spirituality is so closely tied to the land
and who were forcibly removed from their sacred spaces
 and the ache that they still feel generations later.
 
Even if we acknowledge that God is greater than a single space or image,
we humans still search for more solid connections to God,
 whether it is a place, a building, a community,
or something else,
and when we find one of these connections
 we hold on for dear life.
 
The disciples in our gospel
have found one of those connections in Jesus,
in fact Jesus has told the disciples
that in seeing him they have seen the father,
to see Jesus is to see God.
 
and yet now Jesus is telling them
 that he must go away,
that they will no longer see him.
  
And the disciples are understandably feeling some trepidation,
 if they can no longer see Jesus,
 they will no longer be able to see God
and then where will God be?
It’s hard not to feel like they’re being abandoned.
 
And Jesus knows this
and promises the disciples “I will not leave you orphaned”
 he’s using the language of relationship,
 
 Jesus’ going away is necessary
but he reassures the disciples
that  it doesn’t mean the end of a relationship with God
 it will just take another form:
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth.... You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”
 
The gift of the spirit,
 received at our baptisms
 means that God is always with us,
 is as close to us as the breath we take,
even when we feel separated from God,
 God is there residing in us,
advocating for us.
 
I don’t think we often think of God this way,
 even as we acknowledge the gift of the spirit
we still think of God as separate
 and far off
 
and it takes a moment where the spirit makes herself very clear
 before we feel the intimacy of God,
for the disciples this happened at Pentecost,
for the rest of us it happens at different times,
perhaps in a special place, through prayer
or in the course of everyday life,
 often it happens at times when life has changed in some way
and we are feeling separate from God
that’s when God, through the spirit,
reminds us that God is with us.
 
We are in a time of change right now,
whether it be anticipated
like the graduation from high school or other life events,
 or because of what is going on in the world around us,
 
we may be feeling separated from God,
 but Jesus is with us
sending the gift of the holy spirit,
keeping the promise that he made to the disciples
 “because I live, you also will live.”
 
Christ is alive, Alleluia
Where is God?
Right here with us. Amen