Where is God?

How far is safe?

I want you guys to picture something for me. You’re driving down the highway, at whatever speed you usually drive down the highway at, and you see a police officer parked on the side of the road - pretty obviously clocking people as they drive by. You have that image in your head? Alright, now I have a question for you. I’m going to list a handful of different ways you could react in this situation and then I’ll go through them again and I want you to raise your hand for the one that you’re most likely to do. You’re on the highway, you see the police officer, and you . . .

maintain speed because you were driving the speed limit the whole time.

slow down a little bit so he doesn’t decide to pull you over.

speed up so he can’t catch you.

Meditate on that a second and be aware that I am judging you based on your answer here. Now, raise your hand for the answer that is most likely you. You’re on the highway, you see the police officer, and you . . .

maintain speed because you were driving the speed limit the whole time. *cough no way cough* Oh, sorry, I had something in my throat. I said “bless your heart.”

slow down a little bit so he doesn’t decide to pull you over. Yeah, probably a wise move for most of us.

speed up so he can’t catch you. These types of people need to be studied, because y’all ain’t right.

So for most of us, we slow down a little bit when we see that police officer and maybe we’re a little more careful about using our blinker to change lanes - although out here I’m not as sure about that. My follow-up question is this, how long does that last? How long do you follow the rules a little more closely? Is it just when you’re pretty close to the officer, is it just while you can still see the patrol car in your rear view mirror, is it until you forget that you saw the officer at all, or are you going to try and deceive me and say that it’s always? There’s some sort of range where the officer influences us to act a little bit more right.

Here comes the flip, today we’re talking about how we relate to God and I have a very similar question. How long does your faith impact your life after a Sunday morning? Is it just when you’re here in this building? Does it last until Sunday night, until Monday afternoon? Is it just until something in your life makes living right uncomfortable or difficult and you forget about it? None of us can honestly say we are always directed by our faith. There’s some sort of range or circumstance where our faith influences us to act a little bit more right.

That’s the issue that Isaiah is dealing with in our reading, the Israelites built this incredible temple in Jerusalem. The problem was that increasingly the attitude out in the country became “God is in that temple in Jerusalem, He won’t see or doesn’t care what I do out here.” Some Israelites thought there was enough distance between them and God that they could act as they saw fit instead of acting as God called them to. And we’re not too different. Too often, what we learn and say we believe on Sunday gets relegated to Sunday morning - and the entire rest of the week we keep God at arms length. We say hurtful things to co-workers, we treat people without any kindness, we don’t spend time in prayer, we don’t spend time building others up - and I think it’s not intentional necessarily, we just lose awareness that God is still there and His instructions for our lives still apply.

What’s the magic word?

So that’s one extreme on this spectrum of how we relate to God, where we visualize God being. But Isaiah also talks about the other end of the spectrum, about people who think God is at their beck and call. This is Isaiah 66:3

Isaiah 66:3 (ESV)

“He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations;

This is not a verse in support of vegetarianism. When he’s talking about slaughtering an ox, sacrificing a lamb, presenting a grain offering, or offering frankincense - he’s talking about different sacrifices that people would use to try and manipulate God into doing what they wanted.

It reminds me of a class I took at Vanderbilt. It was my junior year and I had to take a writing intensive class - so I signed up for a course called Southern Religion and Culture, because I am from the South and felt I was fairly familiar with the religious landscape. I was wrong about the class though, because it was mostly about pre-Civil War religion and culture so I did, in fact, have to do my readings. One of the things the class talked about was voodoo. When we were talking about it, the question was brought up - what is the difference between magic and religion? I was, and am, pretty proud of my answer - not in the least because it was good enough that the professor moved the discussion forward. The difference between religion and magic is primarily who is in control. With religion, God is in control. With magic, the practitioner is in control and manipulates forces by rituals or spells or whatever.

God is not our magic servant who comes to do what we want, when we want. You can’t just ignore Him until you want something, then say a quick prayer and make Him do something for you. Praying the right way, worshipping consistently, even being in the Word regularly - none of them can somehow manipulate God. We are His servants, not the other way around.

So on one end of the spectrum, we can be tempted to view God as limited just to church and live the rest of our lives like He doesn’t exist - a sort of practical atheism. On the other end of the spectrum, we can be tempted to view God as a servant who we can manipulate and get to do what we want. Neither of these is a particularly faithful view, which raises the question, what is?

Red Shoes

Well, I have a video that I want to share with you that gets at this idea. But I’ve gotta explain it a little bit first. Every year at the Seminary, a bunch of the students come together and put on something called the Follies. It’s a variety show of sorts but all of the content is provided by Seminarians. This video is from that and I need you to remember a couple things.

Everyone involved is a Seminarian - so you should kinda expect it to be nerdy and at least a little cringy.

Dr. Joel Okamoto is a professor of Systematics at the Seminary (that means he studies big picture theology) with a degree from MIT and who does; in fact, almost exclusively wear red tennis shoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uux2AHOi1jQ

So I hope you caught the refrain, well not so much the part about the red shoes, but the rest of it.

God is God, you are not, know your Bible, read it a lot.

How do we properly relate to God? Recognize that He is God and be intentionally aware that He is involved with and influences every part of your life. And how can we do that?

When something good happens to you, thank God for making it happen. This will help you be more aware of the ways He is blessing you.

When you’re faced with a decision that you get time to think about, ask yourself “what would Jesus have me do?” Don’t as WWJD - because Jesus can do a lot of things you can’t. In this question, you are asking consistently what God would call you to do in that situation.

Spend time with church people outside of church. You don’t even have to be doing church-y things. This helps shape your instincts, slowly but surely, so that in situations where you don’t get to think stuff through you still act faithfully.

In parts of your life that are most difficult to remember God, put a physical reminder there. If you get road rage - put a cross or a Bible verse on your dashboard. If you have to put up with insufferable people at work, put a sign above your office door to remind yourself every day to treat them with grace and love. If you forget to do your devotions before bed, every morning put your Bible on your pillow so you have to pick it up before you lay down.

And always putting your faith, always reminding yourself about God being present, will it help you to act and speak and think more faithfully - sure, yeah. But more importantly, it will help always keep on the forefront of your mind the relationship you have with Him. It’ll remind you of His incredible grace and forgiveness for you. It is my prayer that you can do some of these things and that by doing them you never forget the work of Jesus, born in a manger, who lived, ministered, taught, suffered, died, and rose again so that all of your sins would be forgiven and that you would get to have an eternal relationship with God.

How do we properly relate to God? Only by His grace and mercy, in every place, every second of every day of our lives. Amen.