The Presence of the Wild Goose

The Wild Goose
The Way of the Wild Goose - Part 2
May 26, 2024
Acts 11:1-18, 15:1-21

God, who knows people’s deepest thoughts and desires, confirmed this by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, but purified their deepest thoughts and desires through faith. Why then are you now challenging God by placing a burden on the shoulders of these disciples that neither we nor our ancestors could bear?  On the contrary, we believe that we and they are saved in the same way, by the grace of the Lord Jesus.”

 Acts 15:8-11 

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For many today, the idea of finding God in creation is especially appealing.  It breaks God out of the box of our thick-walled sanctuaries and bloated institutional religious structures.  It invites us in some ways to encounter God on God’s own terms, rather than requiring God to meet us within the prescribed times and structures of our religious tradition or community. 

For others, the ability to experience God’s presence outside the church is a dangerous and fearful prospect.  There’s a concern that without religious boundaries, we may very well delude ourselves into making God whatever we want.  There is no accountability or required set of beliefs to determine who can be counted God’s beloved community. 

While there is a beautiful freedom in all of this, we who are more open to meeting God in nature or in other contexts outside the church would do well to take the concerns of the religious community seriously.  That is not to say that we must limit our relationship with the Divine to a particular segment of the church. It is, however, to remind us that God is still God, and we are not.   

Just as God cannot be confined to a church building, a liturgy, or a set of doctrinal standards, neither can God be limited to our favorite hiking spot, mountain, stream, or park bench.  Might we also dare to seek God’s presence in the urban jungle, in a hospital, in a refugee camp; in schools and offices and coffee shops and grocery stores; or even among the rich and powerful on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley or on Capitol Hill.  Yes, despite so much evidence to the contrary, the Wild Goose is present even there.  Perhaps on occasion, we might even still find God in church.

~ excerpt from The Wild Goose: Embracing the Untambed Beauty of the Holy Spirit, 24-25

In Acts we see the Holy Spirit showing up in all sorts of unexpected places with people who nobody would expect (a lot like Jesus did).  Every time we think we understand, she shows up somewhere else and  surprises us again.  Perhaps our best bet is to pray like Thomas Merton below, confessing that we have no idea where the Spirit is leading us.  Nonetheless, we will  follow, trusting that we never walk alone.

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My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your  will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

#BeUMC - Experiencing God

Experiencing God

#BeUMC - Part 6

Sunday, July 30, 2023
John 9:1-41, Psalm 34:8

Therefore, they called a second time for the man who had been born blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know this man is a sinner.”

The man answered, “I don’t know whether he’s a sinner. Here’s what I do know: I was blind and now I see.”

John 9:24-25

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

God's command to “pray without ceasing” is founded on the necessity we have of his grace to preserve the life of God in the soul, which can no more subsist one moment without it, than the body can without air. Whether we think of; or speak to, God, whether we act or suffer for him, all is prayer, when we have no other object than his love, and the desire of pleasing him. All that a Christian does, even in eating and sleeping, is prayer, when it is done in simplicity, according to the order of God, without either adding to or diminishing from it by his own choice… In souls filled with love, the desire to please God is a con1nual prayer…

 - John Wesley, A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (Q 38, ¶ 5)

We are a committed people. (Acts 2:42)

We live into our commitment to God by being committed to one another. The very first Christians, whose stories the book of Acts shares with us, serve as an example to us still today. In this handful of verses we read about their commitments to learning together, meeting together, eating together, and praying together. They took care of one another, opened their homes, and “demonstrated God’s goodness to everyone.”

We are a Jesus—Seeking people. (Matt 7:7-8)

Our seeking of Jesus does not end the first time we meet him. It is a life-long pursuit. Every day we seek to follow Jesus more closely than we did the day before. We do this through Times of worship and devotion, as well as acts of compassion and justice.

We are a Spirit—Filled people.  (Luke 4:16-19, John 20:21-23)

Some of us may have preconceptions of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It might be good to share them with your group, or write them down in a journal. The Bible, however, offers examples of a variety of ways God’s people can be filled with the Spirit.

We are a praying people. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-21)

Visitors to John Wesley’s home in London can enter a small room off of his bedroom where he spent an hour in prayer each morning. Wesley’s prayer practice strengthened him throughout his ministry. As those who seek God throughout each day, we are a praying people of God.

We are a grace—filled people. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

Grace is an important concept for United Methodists. John Wesley emphasized our dependence on grace in all aspects of life—from before we are aware of God’s presence in our lives, through our initial decision to follow Jesus and to our moment of death and entrance into heaven. Every step of the way is by the grace of God.

- excerpts from #BeUMC Study Guide

Jesus as Presence

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Jesus as Presence
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 6
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 15:4-5, Matthew 28:19-20

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.

John 15:4-5 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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Presence is a challenging word in our culture.  On one hand it seems simple enough.  When we were in school, the teacher called our name and we said “present” or “here.”  We are present by virtue of the fact that we are physically located in a particular place.   On the other hand, we have all been present in places or situations when we were physically there but our thoughts or feelings seemed a million miles away.  We’ve also likely been talking with someone only to realize that their mind is somewhere else and despite their physical proximity, they are not really present at all to the conversation.  Being fully present in a moment or with another person requires intentionality and paying attention.

In a spiritual sense, the word presence is even more complicated.  There is an element of mystery, uncertainty, and perhaps even fear involved with the idea of a spiritual presence.  Some describe feeling a “presence” in ghostly terms, like a chill up the spine.  Others find comfort in sensing the “presence” of a loved one who has passed away.  Any spiritual presence, particularly the presence of God, is impossible to fully describe or define. 

Even through all the mystery, Jesus promises to be present with us, to abide in us, so that we can produce the fruit of God’s love.  He also invites us to remain present with him in the same way he is present with us.  If we find it difficult sometimes to be fully present with another flesh and blood person, how can we abide in, remain in, or be fully present with Jesus?

Prayer is one of our primary means of connecting with or remaining present with Christ.  Esther DeWaal writes...

Absolute attention is prayer… If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place.  Something is given…

That “something” is nothing less than the grace of God and the gift of awareness that God is with us.  We need not live in a monastery or isolate ourselves from the world to pay closer attention to a God who is always near.  We only need to carve out those moments in the day where we intentionally turn our attention to God.

Just as with any other relationship, intentionality and paying attention is necessary to grow in our relationship with Jesus.  The question is not, “Where is God?”, but rather, “How is God inviting me to open my eyes and pay closer attention to Christ’s presence already with me?”

No matter how busy our lives may be, we can all learn to be more attentive to God’s presence in everything we see, everything we do, and in everyone we meet. 

What steps will you take this week to pay more attention to the presence of Jesus who is already with you, inviting you to be fully present with him?

Christ With Me

Christ with me…

The Lorica of Saint Patrick (St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer)

Christ with me…

Today we come to the most famous stanza of the Breastplate Prayer. These 15 lines are often used by themselves and they offer a powerful reminder of God’s continual presence in our lives. Let us take a moment to pray this segment together, slowly, line by line, breathing deeply between each line.

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

How do you feel?

For some, this may be a comforting prayer knowing that Christ is truly present in us and around us at every turn. For others, it may be a bit unsettling. We don’t mind going to God’s house for a weekly visit, but do we really want God hanging out in our house? It’s one thing to clean things up for an occasional guest, but we can’t keep everything straight all the time. What if Jesus sees how I really live? What will he say about the mess in the house of my life?

“Christ with me…”

Honestly, this is a summary of the next 14 lines. We could simply pray, “Christ with me” and everything that follows would already be implied. But there is a reason the writer broke it out in such detail. So rather than glossing over these feelings, whether comforting or worrisome, let’s take some time to really unpack each line and what it looks like for Christ to be present in all these ways.

It’s such a small and seemingly insignificant preposition, easy to read past without much thought. We see the word “with” and we immediately know there is a connection between two or more things or people. “I would like mashed potatoes with gravy” or “She is with her mom”. We wouldn’t bother taking time to analyze the meaning of such statements. It simply means that the two things or two people are together. We get it. Move on.

But what does it really mean for you to be “with” someone?

Am I “with” my daughter when she is watching a favorite show while I am on the couch reading? Well, yes… sort of. Are we “with” our friends when we are all sitting around the table at a restaurant on our phones while barely speaking to one another? Again, yes… sort of.

Technically we are with each other because we are “together” in the same place. If someone asked where I was, I would say I was in the living room with my daughter. If asked what we did last night, we might say we were out with some friends. And these would be honest answers.

But were we really “with” them? Physically, yes. But being together physically in the same space is not the same as being present with one another. In our world of constant distractions, being fully present in any moment is not easy. There are a million concerns that turn our thoughts away from whatever we are doing and whoever we are with in a given moment. We are not even good at being present in conversations because we tend to think more about what we are going to say or do next than about what the other person is actually saying.

And so when we pray, “Christ with me”, here is the question?

Are we simply aware that Christ is with us because, as the Psalmist writes, there is nowhere we can hide from God’s presence (Psalm 139:7-12)? Do we just live our lives with the Spirit hanging out in the same room without acknowledging Christ’s presence or do we live fully present “with” Christ who by the Spirit, chooses to be fully present “with” us?

Reflections:

1. Is the thought of Christ being “with you” more comforting or discomforting and why? Is the feeling different in different times, places or situations? Are there some places in your life you would rather Christ was not “with” you?

2. Reflect on a time when you knew God was “with you” but you were not fully present “with” God.

3. What steps will you take this week to be fully present “with” Christ?

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Our journey through St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer continues next week:

Christ before me,
Christ behind me…

Pray along with the full text of St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer