Feel that Rhythm.

I was recently talking to a friend, and she was telling me how the other day she was pulling into a parking lot and the space closest to the building opened up. She said it was a sign that God was with her. This reminded me of the time I was at the grocery store with my mom a couple years back. One of the items she wanted was on sale that day so she says “This just shows how great God is!” A while ago ago, one of my dear friends lost her uncle when his cancer suddenly came back and I remember around that same time, one of my relatives had been healed. Everyone was talking enthusiastically about how God had intervened and healed their sickness and the whole time I’m thinking, “Well, what about my friend’s uncle? Where was God? Why hadn’t God intervened with him?” If God can help people find things on sale, why doesn’t he spend more time on things that seem so much more important? Like hurricanes, and earthquakes, famines, sickness.

When you think about God, when you hear the word God, what images come to mind? An old man with a beard, sitting behind a white curtain and working a whole bunch of levers…healing some and finding parking spaces for others? I think for many people their concept of God is build around a God who is outside of everything - a God who is somewhere else – a God who made the world and then stands back, and watches it from this other vantage point. A God who’s up there and from time to time comes here.

The problem with this concept of God is that you end up having to prove that this God exists. What happens then is we start with real life (we focus on the things that we can actually see, feel, touch) what we all agree actually "exists". And then people start arguing and debating whether there is a God somewhere who had something to do with this – the things that “exist”. But the writers of the Bible seem far less interested in proving whether God exists and far more interested in what God is like. Like in the book of Exodus, a man named Moses wants to know God’s name, and God responds, “I Am.” God is beyond anything our minds can comprehend. What does it mean to have a personal relationship with this kind of God? For me, it’s just so hard to put my mind around! I believe that God listens, that he cares and he’s involved, but I find the whole relationship idea hard to comprehend. And then, loving this kind of God, what does that look like? What does it mean? And more importantly – how do you do it?

When I think of God, I hear a song. It’s a song that moves me; it has a melody, a certain rhythm. And people have heard this song for hundreds and hundreds of years, across continents and cultures and time periods. People have heard this song and found it captivating, astonishing, and they have wanted to hear more. There has always been a crowd of people who have denied this song, who can’t hear the music – but the song keeps playing.

Jesus came to show us how to live in tune with the song. He’s the way, and the truth, and the life. People always argue that their religion is better than all the other religions – but the last thing Jesus came to do was start a new religion. Instead, he came to show us reality. He came to show us how things are. Jesus is like God taking on flesh and blood. So in his generosity, in his compassion – that’s what God’s like. In his telling of the truth – that’s what God’s like. In his love and forgiveness and sacrifice – that’s what God’s like. That’s who God is. That’s how the song goes.

The song is playing all around us all the time. It’s written on our hearts. And everybody is playing the song. The question isn’t whether or not you’re playing the song – it’s, are you in tune with it? --- Written in the book of Acts, it says that God gives us life and breath and everything else. God is generous. So when we’re stingy and selfish and we refuse to give – we are out of tune with the song. Later, in one of John’s letters, it says that God Is Love. Unrestrained. Unconditional. Love. So when we see someone sacrifice themselves for another, for the well being of someone else, it’s like their playing in the right key. That’s why it’s so inspiring and powerful - there in tune with the song.

Some of us know a lot more about music than others. They know stuff about pitch, and modes, keys, instruments. They hear things that maybe other people can’t. They appreciate other things people might miss. It’s also possible to be so caught up with the technical aspects of the song that you miss the simple, pure enjoyment of hearing it.

There are also people who talk as if they know everything about being a Christian – but yet they seem so out of tune. But others who would say they don’t know much at all about the Christian faith, can seem very in tune. I’ve met lots of people who struggle with what it means to have a relationship with God – but they haven’t lost faith and love, hope, truth and compassion, justice and generosity.

And maybe you have this sense like you have no relationship with God because all these things and ideas about what that means, things that you have been told about what it is or what it isn’t - the idea of this infinite, massive, invisible God -that’s just hard to get our minds around. But truth, love, grace, mercy, justice, and compassion – that’s the way that Jesus lived. I can see that. I can understand that. I can relate to that. I can play that song.

So may you come to see the song is written on your heart. And as you live in tune with the song, in tune with the creator of the universe – may you realize that you are in relationship with the one living God. He is love. unrestrained. Unconditional. Love.