Seeking God

Written by Ed Kauffman

Seeking God

August 28, 2011

Scripture:  Exodus 3: 1-15; Romans 12: 9-21

 

“Amish. School. Shooting.  Never did we imagine that those three words would appear together.  But the unimaginable turned real on October 2, 2006, when Charles Carl Roberts IV carried his guns and his rage into an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.  Five schoolgirls died that day, and five others were seriously injured, “ thus begins the preface to the book, Amish Grace, written by Donald Kraybill, Steven Nolt, and David Weaver-Zercher.

But the interesting thing is that the book is not primarily about the shootings.  One might expect such a book to focus on the shooter, his motives, background, etc. But, as the title suggests, the book is primarily about what happened within days of the tragedy as the Amish community voiced and acted out their forgiveness toward the killer and his family.  Already that evening, members of the Amish community visited the widow and the father of the shooter, who had finally turned the gun on himself,  and offered their words of sympathy and forgiveness.  Amish attended the funeral of the killer, and were clear that some of the funds donated from around the world were to go to his family for their support.  

And the world was astounded.  Within two days the news stories were no longer about the tragedy of the shootings, but rather about Amish forgiveness.  How could they do it?  Was it real?  What did it mean?  And so, the authors, who have a great deal of experience writing and answering questions about the Amish wrote this book to explore those questions raised by the media and others.

And their conclusion is that it was a real response of the Amish community.  But it was a response that was in place long before the events of October 2, 2006.  For the concept and practice of forgiveness runs deep in Amish spirituality as they recount the Biblical stories of forgiveness and tell the martyrs stories from our Anabaptist history, and twice a year examine their own relationships as they approach communion.  Thus, say the authors, it is only in that context that we can understand how the Amish could do something that seems so antithetical to the norm and forgive so quickly.

I was reminded of something Peg Chemberlin, Director of the Minnesota Council of Churches , said following the events of September 11, 2001.  A public official remarked at how amazed he was that the Council could put together an inter-faith service so quickly, including Christians, Jews and Muslims.  “But,” Peg noted, “we could only do that because we had spent years building relationships and meeting together. “  Things don’t often “just happen”. 

We all recognize that fact.  Elsie didn’t just one day decide to sit down at the piano and begin playing like she does. (At least I presume not.)  And she still practices.  Hockey players or football players don’t become skilled just by deciding they want to play.  And if I recall the piano teachers correctly, they told our sons that if you do something wrong, you have to do it right seven times in order to erase the wrong way from your mind. 

And the same is true of our spiritual lives.  We don’t become spiritual just by thinking about it.  In Roman 12, Paul noted what are often called the marks of a true Christian. 

9Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;10love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.11Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.13Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.16Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are.17Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.

How do you do those things?  It’s not what our society, or maybe even our human nature, conditions us to do.  Get real, we might say.  And it’s true; those are not the ways we usually respond.  So if we want to respond in those ways, we need to practice them; make them a part of our daily lives so that whne we are faced with extraordinary conditions, they become the natural response. 

It’s what the authors of the Amish Grace book called a “repertoire.”  The things we can fall back on, that we can do without a lot of thinking.  Pianists have them as do preachers – sometimes called our “King George sermons.”  And in our lives we also have a repertoire of responses and actions that are part of our normal practices and responses.  Paul suggests that those marks of a Christian ought to be part of our repertoire. And I would agree.  If we want to be, and act, like Christians, then we cannot wait until something extraordinary comes along so we can show off what it means to be a Christian.  We need to practice it all the time.  Being a Christian needs to simply be part of our repertoire of daily living.

So, you might be asking, how do Moses and the burning bush fit into this?  Well, as I note in the bulletin, I am starting a series of sermons focusing on nurturing our spiritual lives.  This was one of the themes highlighted in the Future-Looking discussions we had last winter.  It’s also a focus that is central to the practices of a missional church, which we aim to be.  And part of that nurture is to recognize where God is at work within us, among us, and in the world around us.

Now it would be nice if God would always appear to us as God did to Moses.  We really don’t know a great deal about Moses’ early life.  We, of course, have the account of his birth and his mother’s efforts to hide him among the reeds of the river.   We know he was nursed for a time by his own mother, at the request of the daughter of Pharoah, and eventually was returned to the palace.  But then we skip in the text to his one incident of killing an Egyptian, and fleeing for fear to the land of Midian where he married a priest’s daughter.  Of his religious training we know nothing.  Some have suggested that, indeed, the God whom he meets here was the God of his father-in-law, Jethro. 

In any case, a burning bush would get your attention, especially in a dry land where fire was dreaded.  As we came through Montana we saw numerous fires, thankfully at a distance.  But they still get you attention.  It didn’t take Moses long to take notice, especially since the bush didn’t seem to be burning up.  And perhaps it wouldn’t take us long either to notice if God appeared to us in such a dramatic way.  But I wonder sometimes if that’s true. 

One of the readings our guide read for us as we began our five day canoe trip last week talked about entering the wilderness with our bodies, but not with our spirits.  When we do that, we miss all that the wilderness has to teach us, and the wonder of God’s creation.  And yet, I think that is the way many of us go through life, moving from place to place and activity to activity without paying attention to our spirits, or God at work around us. 

We’re like the man who was sitting on his rooftop during a flood, praying that God would rescue him.  When a boat came along, the man declined the ride, saying God would rescue him.  Likewise with a second boat, and finally with a helicopter.  When the man finally drowned and appeared before God, he complained that God hadn’t answered his prayers and recused him.  “Strange,” said God, “I sent two boats and a helicopter!”  

It was Elizabeth Barrett Browning who wrote:

"Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God,

But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

The rest sit round and pluck blackberries." 

Just as the actions of being a Christian must become part of our repertoire, so seeing God must become a part of our regular lives.  If we don’t see God in our daily living, chances are we will miss God, even if God comes to us in a burning bush.  We will have other explanations, or perhaps miss it altogether. 

Being a missional church means joining with God in God’s activity in the world.  But that means we have to recognize where God is at work.   We have to begin practicing an awareness of God in the world around us.  Perhaps we see God in persons that we meet or situations that present themselves.  Perhaps we see God at the bedside of a dying friend, or in the quiet moments of our own devotional life.

But if we don’t practice, if seeing God doesn’t become part of our repertoire of life, then we may never hear God’s call to us.  We may even miss the burning bushes God uses to get our attention.  And those marks of a Christian life will ring hollow, and perhaps even be impossible to achieve.

Hans Denck, an early Anabaptist writer said, “No one can truly know Christ except they follow him in life, and no one can truly follow, unless they know him.”  Living a Christian life, and being aware of God’s activity and presence go hand-in-hand.

And so I invite you to begin a practice of looking for God.  Where are those burning bushes that catch your attention throughout the week.  And each Sunday, we want to have a sharing time to report in, to begin to share together where we have seen God throughout the week.  And as we do that, seeing God will become more and more a part of our natural response, our repertoire of life.  As with most things, it may seem a bit strange at first, maybe even sometime a bit forced.  That’s the way it is with disciplines.  But as it becomes more familiar, as we practice it more and more, it becomes a natural part of who we are, just as forgiveness is part of the Amish way of life.

Open our eyes, ears, and minds to see you, O God.

Amen