Loading...I have committed to swim the English Channel in September of 2021.
What comes to your mind when you hear that declaration? Maybe your mind thinks, “Endurance sports are the new midlife crisis.” or “Why?” or “No way.”
Some say swimming the English Channel is the athletic equivalent of climbing Mount Everest. https://openwaterswimming.com/2019/08/mount-everest-vs-english-channel-which-is-more-difficult/ I’d like to debate that. As of today I have no desire to climb Mount Everest, but it was not long ago I felt no desire whatsoever to be an athlete. What happened? And what might happen next?
For example, there was once a time when I did not know what running a 5k meant because I did not know what a “k” was. One day I was given the chance to run a 5k and to my surprise I did. Not long after I found myself running a 50K. Suddenly, unexpectedly that which once felt impossible or confusing was possible and sensible.
Prior to my transformation, my faithful friend Claire would often invite me to run a mud race. I would look at her and say, “ No way,” - with attitude. “No way” is the attitude many convey to me about their Christian journey. “I want to feel close to God, but I just don’t know how.” Or “I want to follow God’s path but there seems to be no way possible. God is so confusing.”
Whenever this attitude gets a hold of me I have to remind myself that there is nothing I can do to make me and God feel close to one another. God is free, and gets to be present wherever God wants to be present. Holy scripture gives clues about places God likes to be or has often been found by others and many people find success going to those places. Let’s look at some of those places in our devotion today.
1. God is present in prayer. One of the reasons Jesus is ascended to the right hand of the Father is to pray for us. The collect for today is one of my favorites worth praying anytime of year.
2. God is present in praise. Wherever you hear singing, you might feel close to God. For example in Psalm 122 I felt glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.
3. God is present where there are mountains. In the reading from Isaiah, people feel close to God on a mountain top. And not just any mountain top, the highest mountain top. Let’s talk about finding God on a mountain for a minute.
At 29,029 feet above sea level Mt. Everest is the highest of all the high mountains. Now there are days when just climbing the steps into church may feel like climbing the highest mountain either physically or figuratively. Hopefully climbing into church feels like a place to feel close to God, especially at St James.
Imagine now that St James is the place which fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah: a place where all nations can come and receive instructions and hear the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord judges and arbitrates. The judgement and arbitration of the word of the Lord results in people who turn their weapons into farm equipment and forget about fighting. Which thing sounds harder? The Everest Challenge where one spends years training and preparing, countless dollars to make all the arrangements and THEN be vulnerable to weather and countless other uncontrollable conditions.
OR The Isaiah Challenge: to trust that God has plans and purposes for you in God’s life. Those plans and purposes include fulfilling God’s mission of peace for all people? Can you imagine a world where the same mission Isaiah prophecies is fulfilled at 401 LaGrange Road? You can say, “no way” and I wouldn’t blame you because Isaiah’s prophecy can sound just like my friend Claire saying, “C’mon and run a mud race with me — it will be fun.”
Guess what. Running a mud race IS fun. I regret not trying it sooner. The only thing I had to lose was a sense of insecurity.
Would you be willing to consider that it is possible to feel close to God in places or people to which you have said, “No Way”?
4. God is present in in places or people or events who responded to God with ‘no way.’
Like Noah in Matthew’s gospel, God is regularly directing God’s people to do things we would rather not or believed we could not begin, participate in, achieve, etc. God’s desire for peace sweeps people away.
5. God is present where impossible and confusing feelings sow seeds for the possible and sensible to occur. For example, when an innocent man dies to atone for the sins of the entire world - that seems impossible - and even more confusing when I say “that man is the son of God.” Yet here we are today to tell stories of events and achievements once thought impossible and confusing. Now we stand and claim impossible and confusing things as statements of faith when say things like the Nicene Creed, or Alleluia, or Lord have Mercy.
Transformation happened to me. I was not ready like Jesus tells his disciples to be. God swept me away. Who can be ready for something like a flood that changes the entire world. Who can be ready to set aside the ‘No way.” and put on the “What if?”
