The Presence of God

I read a blog this week by a mother of a four-year old who went to Vacation Bible School this summer. The woman’s mother was Catholic and her father was Presbyterian. She and her siblings were baptized and confirmed Catholic, attended Mass and Parish School, and attended Protestant Sunday School on Sunday mornings. But aside from praying “God is great, God is good” at dinner, she says her family didn’t talk about God at home.

So, when her son came home from Vacation Bible School with questions like “Why did Jesus die for our senses?” and “Why did God build us?” she was determined to answer them, but she found she didn’t know how. She wanted to answer him with answers that she really believed, with answers that didn’t feel fake or memorized. She says, “I want him to embrace spirituality and feel something at church. But how?”

Do you ever have that same desire – you want to embrace spirituality and feel something at church, but find yourself wondering how? You want to know God. You want to know that God is present. But, you really don’t know what that would look like.

One writer says that “In Jesus all of human life and creation has become a sign of God’s presence, filled with…ways to grow closer to God if we just look again…at what is right before us.”

Everyday, all around us, God is present, in common things. But we have a tendency not to notice. I think maybe we are looking for experiences like Jesus and Elijah had just before the passages we read this morning.

Jesus is baptized and hears God’s commendation, “This is my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased,” as the heavens open and the Spirit descends like a dove and alights on him. OK, maybe we don’t expect to have an experience of God quite like that.

Maybe we are hoping for an experience like Elijah has. Just before he flees to the wilderness, Elijah has a showdown with Ahab, the king of Israel, who is a champion evil-doer and a worshipper of Baal. Ahab summoned everyone in Israel, particularly the prophets, to Mount Carmel. And they squared off – who is the true God, the God of Israel, or Baal? 22-24 Then Elijah said, “I’m the only prophet of GOD left in Israel; and there are 450 prophets of Baal. Let’s prepare to oxen for sacrifice. Then you pray to your gods and I’ll pray to GOD. The god who answers with fire for his sacrifice will prove to be, in fact, God.”

The prophets of Baal prayed all morning long, “O Baal, answer us!” But nothing happened—not so much as a whisper of breeze. Desperate, they jumped and stomped on the altar they had made.

This went on until well past noon. They used every religious trick and strategy they knew to make something happen on the altar, but nothing happened—not so much as a whisper, not a flicker of response.

Then Elijah told the people, “Enough of that—it’s my turn. Gather around.” And they gathered. He built twelve stones into the altar in honor of GOD. Then he dug a wide trench around the altar. He laid firewood on the altar, cut up the ox, put it on the wood, and said, “Fill four buckets with water and drench both the ox and the firewood.” Then he said, “Do it again,” and they did it. Then he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. The altar was drenched and the trench was filled with water.

Then Elijah came up and prayed, “O GOD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make it known right now that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I’m doing what I’m doing under your orders. Answer me, GOD; O answer me and reveal to this people that you are GOD, the true God, and that you are giving these people another chance at repentance.”

Immediately the fire of GOD fell and burned up the offering, the wood, the stones, the dirt, and even the water in the trench.

All the people saw it happen and fell on their faces in awed worship, exclaiming, “GOD is the true God!GOD is the true God!”

Now, that would be a sign, right? We could talk about the time we saw God – how God had burned that offering right in front of us, even though it was drenched. But it is maybe even more important for us to study what happened right after those incredible experiences.

After his baptism immediately, Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness where he is tempted. And as soon as Ahab gets home, he tells his wife Jezebel what happened, and she threatens Elijah’s life. And Elijah flees to the wilderness where he asks to die.

When we are looking for that great sign, that experience of God’s presence, we need to remember that Elijah and Jesus go from a great moment of experiencing God’s power and presence to the wilderness. Completely alone. No food, no water, no shelter.

Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread, but he draws on Scripture for strength. He quotes Deuteronomy 8:2, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Elijah just wants to give up, though. He doesn’t even have the strength to draw strength from Scripture. So, God provides him bread. Bread that will sustain him. God is present in the bread.

I think the answer for the mother whose blog I read, who wants to teach her child about God with thoughtful, honest answers, is to teach him the stories of the Bible. There we see that God is present in the high moments of our lives; in those moments when we know how loved we are, in those moments when the good guys win, in those moments when we feel like we are on top of the world. And God is with us in the wilderness. In the wilderness places, the Words of Scripture will sustain us, but we have to know them.

When we know the stories, we see God all around in common things like salt and light, water and bread. When we know the Scripture, when the words are written on our hearts, we see God all around. We remember God’s Word.

When we come to this table, Jesus says, remember me, the One who is God’s Word made flesh. As we eat this bread, may we remember that God is with us. God is present – giving us strength even in the wilderness places of our lives.