The Kingdom of God

Connect with God

Today we continue our series on having the perfect summer after a year of lockdown. We are exploring different ways we can reconnect after the pandemic has forced many of us into near isolation. Last week we looked at connecting with those around us, how having friends improves our lives and makes us happy. Its even at the core of how God created us. We are meant to connect and to show God’s love for us in our relationships with others. Today we shift from our connections with others to our connection with God. How can we reconnect with God after this difficult season we’ve gone through?

We are going to hear our passage for today from Mary Ann. She’s going to read from Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus is giving his longest teaching called, the sermon on the mount. He shares how to love your enemies, pray with simplicity, and here...how to pursue God. Let’s listen to verses 25-34; as we hear now the word of the Lord.

Matthew 6:25–34 (NRSV)

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

And from Isaiah 40:25-26

Isaiah 40:25–26 (NRSV)

To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

The word of the Lord for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Let us pray: Lord, helps us to be an inclusive community passionately following Jesus Christ. May we pursue a deeper relationship with you as we pursue life in its fullness. Work in our hearts today as we consider your word. Amen.

Most of us don’t really like to go to the dentist, but my son, Hal, really doesn’t like to go to the dentist. I think part of the reason for that is my fault. When children are really little they don’t “need” to go to the dentist, but its good for them to so they can have a positive experience. Between the pandemic and moving to a new town, it had been long enough between visits that Hal didn’t really remember what it was like to go to the dentist. So a few months ago when it was finally time for his appointment, he was nervous; he did not want to be there. We encouraged him as much as we could and told him how his last visit was really nice, but he was worried. “What if I have a cavity? What if they try and pull my tooth out?” I imagine most of us can relate to those fears, especially if we don’t brush and floss!

The good news is that by the end of the visit, you would have thought the whole time he wanted to be there! With the stickers and new toothbrush they gave him, it was like he won the grand prize at the carnival. All was well in the Neville household, that is...until just a few weeks ago. Hal had brushed his teeth the evening before, and when he went to brush them the next time his toothbrush was no where to be found. He asked for help finding his toothbrush so Mom and Dad came looking. It wasn’t in the bathroom, it wasn’t in the drawers. We asked if he walked somewhere else brushing his teeth the day before and he said no. It was gone. So we asked his older brother, Davy, if he knew anything about it. He said no…and then got a strange look on his face. As we quizzed him more on it, it seemed more and more like he was lying and that he did know something about the missing toothbrush. He was, afterall, the last person in the bathroom before Hal. But after a stern talking to and assurances that he had nothing to do with it, we were convinced and went and got Hal a new toothbrush to use. Then, just this past week, the same thing happened all over again. Hal’s toothbrush went missing, we looked everywhere, asked Davy, and he had the same strange response as if he knew but he wouldn’t tell us. His mom even said, “if you tell us where it is right now you won’t get in trouble. But if we find out later you were lying you will be in a world of punishment.” Ya know, momma doesn’t mess around! He stood his ground. He said he didn’t take it, and somehow Hal’s toothbrush just completely disappeared. Still, we don’t know what happened; its a total mystery.

It makes me wonder if, when we move out of the house we’ll somehow find it in the most obscure place possible. Maybe this has happened to you; I drop something and I cannot find it. I think it couldn’t have gone more than 3 or 4 feet, but its just gone. Have you ever had a mystery like that? Something seems like it should be right there, but you just can’t find it. That is a hint at what can happen with God. We feel like he’s right there and then suddenly ‘whoosh’ he’s gone. What happened? Where did God go?

This is actually a very ancient problem and some of the best minds in the world have wondered over exactly this; how do we connect with God? God is mysterious. God is unknowable. How can mere mortals connect with the divine? Thomas Aquinas was a 13th century philosopher that said, “you know, there must be a God, because everything we see is a result of something else. But someone has to be at the start of that chain.” He said that start of the chain was “the unmoved mover.” It was God. God is the root cause of everything and in order for anything to exist, there must be someone outside of us, outside of the chain.

The founder of the Lutheran Church, Martin Luther, was quite sure of God’s existence, but he did feel God’s absence. He experienced what is called ‘the dark night of the soul;’ a crisis of faith so intense it was as if God had completely rejected him. It was as though God just ceased being loving and present.

A few more hundred years later and we see someone most of us think of as the smartest person who ever lived, Albert Einstein, talking about how God is there, but, perhaps more distant than we might like. He says, “We see a universe marvelously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly.” - Albert Einstein

The world around us shouts out that that there is an order and purpose. And even Einstein would have affirmed that this order comes from God. God is here. God is among us. We see it in math and science and in all the exploration we do of this world. But of course, in all our searching, in all our exploration, we can only get so far. We only understand so much and only see hints of God at work.

I think for many this becomes a reason to reject God, to say simply “God does not exist.” I didn’t see the proof or the evidence I needed, so I reject God. But that seems far too simplistic to me. Maybe instead of saying ‘there is no God,’ we ought to be saying ‘Perhaps I misunderstood who God is; what God does.’ Just because our expectations aren’t met doesn’t mean we deny God’s existence. To me it means we need to embrace the mystery of who God is. It means we keep exploring, we keep working to understand, even if we can only see things dimly.

When we look at the scriptures, particularly the Gospel of Matthew, we see a few things about who God is. Chapter 6, as I mentioned is part of the sermon on the Mount, and earlier in it Jesus teaches about giving to the poor. He says do it in secret; don’t tell everyone about your giving. And a little later he says don’t pursue wealth and storing up treasure. Instead, he says, “don’t worry.” Trust that God will provide. The culture around us might say that food is wining and dining at whatever restaurant we want to go to, but God says, “look don’t worry. I’ll provide. Maybe not what you expect or how you expect it, but I will provide.” The same is true for clothing. We might expect designer fashion or clothes just like our friends in school or our co-workers, but that’s not exactly the promise God makes, is it? God just says “clothes.” You’ll have something, because that’s how God’s provision works. We can see that it flows from the creation and it flows from people. How many of you, if you saw someone that didn’t have adequate clothing, would give what you can to help them? I bet most of us here would. That’s part of God’s provision, that’s how we know this passage is true - because we are an expression of who God is. That’s maybe not exactly what you expected, but that’s how this works. God provides the basics of what we need to survive through creation and through people, made in the image of God.

So do you have to worry about food and clothing? No, not if you are willing to accept the promise of God for what you need. If you can shift your thinking and expectations it doesn’t seem so farfetched that God has always provided for you since the day you were born! You have had everything you needed to get through to the next day, just like the birds and flowers. What we truly need is right there, if we will say yes to what God provides.

The passage ends saying God knows what we need so, “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you...” Not, ‘everything you could ever want will be given to you.’ Its all that you need will be given to you. So if you remove that constant effort to accumulate more and more, to make sure you have everything you need. And instead just trust God that you’ll have the basics taken care of, now suddenly you are free to give. You can give to the poor and not care if other people see it. You don’t need their approval. You don’t need them to think well of you so that when you are in need, they will feel compelled to help. Just trust God. People will give. Creation will provide. That’s how God set it up.

This is how my favorite teacher in grad school says it, “It is when [God’s] people care for others in need among them that God supplies the needs of his people as a whole.” - Dr. Craig Keener

When we truly trust God, then the promise of provision is fulfilled. So one way we can connect with God this summer, is if we more fully put our trust in God. If you lean and depend on God more, in general you’ll feel more connected. Being released from striving after the things the world says you need, can actually help make you a more spiritual person, in the best way possible.

You know, it may seem counterintuitive, but one way you can learn to trust God more is not by trying to figure everything out, but instead by embracing the mystery of God. We call this awe. We might feel it when we climb to the top of a mountain or when a child is born, but feeling awe more often can have all kinds of benefits. It helps us emotionally, our body; it makes us happier and more satisfied with life. So how can you do that more? Well you could climb a mountain, sure, and if you know a baby being born, good for you, but for the rest of us, we can experience that awe by praying and meditating. Just pausing and really noticing the world around you, reflecting on how God has provided for you and sensing God’s action in this world. That’s how you connect.

Let me end with this. Jacob Needleman was an observer at the launch of Apollo 17 in 1975. He says, “On the night of the launch there were hundreds of cynical reporters all over the lawn, drinking beer, wisecracking, and waiting for this 35-story-high rocket.

"The countdown came, and then the launch. The first thing you see is this extraordinary orange light, which is just at the limit of what you can bear to look at. Everything is illuminated with this light. Then comes this thing slowly rising up in total silence, because it takes a few seconds for the sound to come across. You hear a 'WHOOOOOSH! HHHHMMMM!' It enters right into you.

"You can practically hear jaws dropping. The sense of wonder fills everyone in the whole place, as this thing goes up and up. The first stage ignites this beautiful blue flame. It becomes like a star, but you realize there are humans on it. And then there's total silence.

"People just get up quietly, helping each other up. They're kind. They open doors. They look at one another, speaking quietly and interestedly. These were suddenly moral people because the sense of wonder, the experience of wonder, had made them moral."

When we have a sense of wonder toward God, we too have our lives changed for the better. Experiencing awe, even in the daily moments of life can draw us to the kingdom of God. Will you pursue that kind of life? Will you seek to connect with God this summer so you can not only know about God’s kingdom, but you can live it. I pray you will, and you’ll be transformed by it. Amen? Amen.

As I reflected on today’s sermon, I realized that it can be really hard to think about God. We don’t see God, we don’t typically hear from God. How can we even think about being connected to this being