Can you imagine hanging out with the Creator of heaven and earth?
If someone were to ask you what you thought was the most incredible, most astonishing, most majestic demonstration of God’s power in our world, how would you answer?
Would you say, Creation itself – the fact that God is responsible for everything in the cosmos?
Would you say, The Exodus – the story of when God rescued a small band of Hebrews from the clutches of Pharaoh and parted the Red Sea? Cecil B. DeMille might very well have agreed with you if you did.
I would suppose that a large number of Christians would cite the Resurrection of Christ as the defining show of power in Salvation History.
Now, of course this is one of those examinations that truly has no right answer, but I think our readings this week suggest that although all of the above are truly amazing and powerfully meaningful deeds, there is something even more remarkable that should amaze and dazzle us as believers in this God of ours.
Creating new worlds, parting great seas and even bodily resurrection should not really come as a shocking surprise to us since we have claimed for centuries that our God is omnipotent. As Marcus Borg puts it, such events as spectacular as they may be, are not much more than parlor tricks for a divine supreme being.
His point is not to diminish the events. His point is that as wonderful and even wonderfully meaningful as they are, none of them are as wonderful or wonderfully meaningful as the simple, yet utterly mind-boggling fact that God wishes to simply be with us. If I may use a phrase that seems to be coming back in a new generation of teenagers, and is in every sense of the word biblical, God seems to have this insatiable desire to hang out with us!
As many times as it has been said, and even though the Feast of the Incarnation, Christmas itself, is a favorite among Christians, I think it is still hard to for us to really, really believe that God prefers to dwell within us, that God prefers immanence over transcendence.
I think for most Christians, on Monday morning, God’s glory collides with their own sense of unworthiness. This was certainly the case for Isaiah in the Old Testament reading this week, talk about a vision of the awesome majesty of God! It is a vision complete with winged seraphs, some who were divine attendants and some who were singing, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. This is a vision complete with fire and smoke. This is a vision of the God who created millions of galaxies a hundred thousand light years long, and the first words from Isaiah’s mouth are Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.
How many times have each of stood before God feeling that same sense of unworthiness, that same sense of God can’t possibly think that highly of me, or This can’t be happening to me?
Fire is an ancient symbol of divinity, and how does the story end? It ends with the fiery hot coal of divine presence touching those very same unclean lips, declaring them clean and worthy. Isaiah didn’t have to beg or plead for this acceptance, it came spontaneously and automatically, because God is eternally positioned toward that which is created in God’s image!
In our Gospel this week, the very same thing happens to Simon Peter. He sees this same awesome, majestic and glorious presence living in one Jesus of Nazareth, and the first words from his lips are, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!
Jesus didn’t say, Well Peter, you are right, but I’ll stoop down to your level this once and give you a chance . . . No, Jesus’ only response was to embrace him, to call him into fellowship, and finally into leadership. Somehow, both Isaiah and Peter managed to get over this sense of separation and unworthiness that so many of us have with regard to God; somehow, they managed to say Yes to the offer, and one became the greatest of the Major Prophets and the other the rock of the church.
Just think what might happen if all of us could really believe that God really would prefer to take up residence in us? Just think if all of us would be willing to say Yes to God’s offer.
If you’re not convinced by these two examples, then consider Jeremiah, who we read about just last week. His response was, I’m too young, and God said, Jeremiah, I had you in mind even before you were born. It’s almost as if God can’t wait to walk beside us in this daily life that we think is mundane.
The presence of divine fire came to Moses with his stammering tongue, to Jonah with his misguided patriotism, to Paul with his constantly crippling thorn in his flesh.
Why? The only answer I can come up with is because God is Love and love begs to be shared and to be needed, doesn’t it?
My dear friends in Christ, true joy and true fulfillment will come only when we realize and accept the fact that we are temples of the Holy Spirit of God, and this is not our doing, but God’s. True joy and fulfillment will come only when we truly believe that no matter what we’ve done in the past, no matter how little we think of ourselves in the present, that God prefers it this way!
I love the story of the woman who was very proud of a precious vase that her mother had passed down to her. It was a family treasure. Then one day the woman’s little daughter accidentally bumped it, knocked it to the floor and into a million little pieces. She screamed in terror of the punishment that was to come.
The mother ran into the room and asked, What’s wrong?
I broke it, said the horrified child. I broke the family treasure.
Her mother was immediately relieved and, picking up the pieces said, It does not matter. I’m just so glad that you weren’t hurt.
When that little girl grew up and later recalled the story, she wrote, It was at that moment that I knew that I was the family treasure, and it made all the difference in my life.
Beloved in Christ. . . in the sight of God, YOU are the family treasure! And realizing it can make all the difference your life!
Wow! The ending gave me goosebumps! Thank you.