|
On worshipping a blind God |
Last Sunday was sultry and hot, not unlike the lazy summer days of my childhood memory. I had the luxury of spending a lazy hour in the cooling evening breeze, swinging in a hammock. It’s amazing, the things you see and hear while lying on your back outdoors. The leaves of surrounding trees were whispering their secrets to each other in a language only they can understand. Birds were flitting about, catching a bedtime snack before turning in while others were chirping their evening songs. The sky was alive with clouds that roiled and boiled in winds far, far removed from my safe haven. As I lay still, I became ever more aware of this wonderful world that God has made for us, and I want to share some musings of that with you now.
1. The adoration, homage, or veneration given to a deity.
2.
The rites, ceremonial forms, and prayers such adoration requires or
assumes.
3. Excessive or ardent devotion.
The adoration, homage, or veneration given to
a deity. Do you adore your
God? Adore: To
love or honour with intense devotion. How
intense is that devotion? And just why do
we adore this God? I
used to think it would be very depressing to be God.
How could God possibly process all the information that
comes in at any given moment? How
could all the prayers and pleadings be heard, much less answered? How does God know what we need?
But I was often reminded that God
is all-seeing, omni -present, all-knowing.
A few years ago, a friend of mine shattered
that image of an all-seeing Creator.
He said to me, “God is actually blind!” Think
about it.
The God we know as the divine Creator is blind!
“Yes,” he said. God cannot see a
thing. But we have been given eyes with
which
to see, and it is through us that God sees everything.
All the good and all the evil. All
the miracles of health and healing,
as well as the ravages of disease.
All the beauty of majestic mountains and roaring seas, as well
as the
destruction of a war zone. All the
beauty of a loving relationship, and all the hatred in a relationship
gone
bad. How else can you explain
omni-presence? God cannot be
everywhere at once, so depends on each and everyone of us to see for
God. As surely as our optic nerves take in
the information and pass it along to the brain, that information is
also passed
along to the deity. God cannot see
unless we see.
This friend also surmised that God is
deaf. God cannot hear a thing
unless we hear it first and pass it on.
God cannot hear the cry of a newborn babe or the last breath of
a dying
man unless one of us hears it.
Cannot enjoy the rich fullness of an orchestral symphony, or the
bray of
a donkey. Cannot hear the waves
crashing on a rocky shore, or a babbling brook as it breaks over the
pebbles on
its way to the sea. Cannot hear
the cries of hopelessness and despair.
And that’s why God depends on us, you and me,
to be one with the Spirit. For we
are the messengers. (In the Bible,
another name for messenger is Angel.
In this case, the messenger not only brings messages from God,
but to
God.)
I
think about this analogy quite
a bit. This thought has stuck with
me for a few years now. And it
gives me a different way to view and listen to the world around me. If I am looking with God’s eyes, and
listening with God’s ears, then I want it to be right.
God wants me to see everything that I
can, because God wants to know what’s going on. I cannot ignore what I
don’t
want to see and hear, because God wants me to see and hear it.
And that brings me to my next point. Do
you suppose it’s possible that the
Creator might also not have hands?
If God is dependent on me to see and hear, then might God also
depend on
me to do? If I find pleasure in my
surroundings, then God also finds pleasure. If
I am disturbed, then what can I do to change the situation? When I comfort a frightened child, then
God comforts a frightened child.
When I send money to Mission and Service, the Canadian Cancer
Society
or the Heart and Stroke Foundation, then am I doing a little of God’s
work? I like to think so.
When I am aware of what I can do to be
a good steward of the earth, I am participating in God’s plan. When I practise music or till the earth
and plant seeds that produce food for nourishment or flowers for
pleasure, then
I am co-creating with the One Who is the Beginning and the End.
This led me on a train of thought about all
the good things done in the name of God that so many people around me
do. I know people who not only work in the
Soup Kitchen, but who are passionate about the people they serve. They serve willingly and happily, with
no judgment on those who partake of the food and drink that is offered. Many in this congregation knit toques
for the homeless of Vancouver’s downtown Eastside.
And THERE is a whole other ministry. There
are some who make it their
personal ministry to call someone up and say “You did a good job
today,” or
“I’ve missed you, have you been away?”
We have had missionaries speak to us about the call to go
overseas and
help out in a personal way where most of us can only read or dream
about. There are doctors and nurses in
this
congregation who meet crises on a regular basis and are often awestruck
when
they recognize God’s presence in the midst of turmoil or joy. There are teachers and principals who
work with children and parents to create the best possible learning
experience,
and have sometimes witnessed a hopeless situation become a time of
great
learning for all concerned. I
could go on and on, and I’m sure many of you are right now thinking
about
someone who has done a life-changing deed in your or someone else’s
life.
What do you think? Is it possible?
Is the ONE WHO IS from the beginning indeed blind and deaf? Is the Creator dependent on us to be
the hands that alleviate suffering and bring joy? It’s
something to ponder.
AMEN.
Carol Grolman.
| Sermon Listings |
Spiritual
Resources |
Home Page |