“When God Shows Up…”
Matthew 17: 1-9
March 2, 2014

The question of God — of whether or not God exists and if so, then what is this being like — this question has haunted the hallways of humanity ever since those first humans stared into the heavens, wondering about life itself.  The question of life itself — where did it come from and where is it going — this question itself is intertwined in the God question as well.  If God is…then by that very definition, all else is understood in relationship to God.  If God is not…then nothing else matters and all bets are off.  If God is…then our life has meaning and purpose, i.e., we were created by someone for something.  If God is not…if we are just a cosmological accident born from the bowels of a universe which came from only God knows where and is going to only God knows where — oh, that’s right, we have no god; if God is not then nothing else really makes any difference.
Part and parcel of the question of God is our question of why God doesn’t show up?   Why doesn’t God do something, show God’s face or act in such a definitive manner that we all know that God exists?  This question leads to the question of our experience of God.  Have we, as humans, experienced the personal presence of God?  Billions and billions of people claim that they have had some experience of God — that they have personally been touched in one way or another by God. 
The claim to have experienced God is audacious and bold, but also noteworthy and mind-boggling — and to my way of thinking one of the chief reasons that we believe in God.  All the arguments for God’s existence pale in the face of one brief but powerful statement:  “I have experienced the hand of God (metaphorically) in my life.”  We can argue with theological proofs, but we cannot argue with one’s personal experience and interpretation of that experience.  If billions claim to have experienced God, then there must be someone there.
This experience resides at the heart and soul of our identity as Christians.  When we claim to have been “born again” or “born anew” or “born from above,” what we are claiming is that God has touched us at the core of our being; that this same God lives in us through God’s Spirit; and is now in the process of transforming us from the inside out.  Christianity differs from many other religions in that we not only claim to have a particular head knowledge of God, we also have claim heart knowledge, i.e., an intimate relationship of love with God.  The old adage “God has no grandchildren” bears out the truth of this relationship.  We believe that each of us must have his/her own, personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  We believe that being a Christian is not just about affirming a confession of faith or creed, but is about a living, breathing, relationship wherein we have been touched in the center of our soul by the God of the universe.
As humans we yearn to experience God and God’s presence — more and more and more.  The whole idea of worship is that in our rituals and celebrations we will encounter God in us and among us.  We believe that God really does show up, time and again.  To be sure, when we stop and think about it, when we pause and reflect upon what we are saying, we can get a little antsy and nervous. 
How can I be sure that this is God and not some wish projection?
How can I be sure that this experience is of God and not just bad pizza or left-overs that have my stomach doing back-flips?
How can I know for sure that I am experiencing God and not just doing psychological gymnastics?
What are the characteristics of our Christian experience with God that allow us to believe in and affirm their authenticity?
God shows up when we least expect God to do so.
I am sure that Peter, James and John were not that much different from you and me when they ascended that mountain.  That Jesus had chosen them to go apart with him was not that unusual, but what transpired really was.  God showed up — and they were not expecting God in any shape, fashion or form.  They had to think that this was just another trip apart, probably to pray and talk about the rising tide of opposition coming from both Jews and Romans.  However, when Moses and Elijah show up — the representatives of the law and prophets — they are stunned.  When all of a sudden Jesus is standing there with these and glowing with the Shekinah glory of God just as the others, they are stunned into silence.  Just as they had not expected God to show up that day when Jesus called them to follow him, so they really had not picked this day out.  But then, God doesn’t always follow our particular schedules.
Your Ministerial Staff spent several hours this past week discussing worship and how we can make it better and better.  We are pouring over every aspect of our services and asking how they can work together so to better enable a worship experience of God.  Yet, the reality is that plan as we might, God shows up when God chooses to show up.  Despite all our best planning and preparation, we cannot control the Holy Spirit. 
I’ll never forget the Sundays when, as a young preacher I would toil over a sermon and stride into the pulpit on Sunday just knowing that it was the greatest sermon ever preached.  After the service people would file out, give me the old limp handshake or pat on the back, and say something to the effect, “Keep trying; one day you may get there!”  I would go home devastated, believing that God must have made a mistake in calling me to preach. 
On the other hand there would come a week with multitudinous pastoral needs and I would have only minimal time to prepare and no time to write a manuscript.  I would go into the pulpit with the barest of outlines, praying something like “Lord, you better show up today, because this is one weak sermon.”  Invariably, after the service someone would come out and say “That’s the best sermon I ever heard you preach.”  Talk about devastating — I was clueless.  Then I realized something:  God showed up not because I prepared or did not prepare, but because in the earlier case I relied on my abilities and in the latter I was dependent upon the Spirit.  As I have grown older I have tried to strike a balance:  prepare like it depended upon me and pray like it all depends upon God. 
The truth is that none of us can predict when God will show up.  We cannot conjure up the Spirit of God with mantras, praise choruses, monasterial chants or even gospel music.  God shows up when God desires to show up — and we must accept that reality.
God shows up when our need of God is at its highest.
Quickly on the heels of this experience of transfiguration is the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus.  Not only did his disciples need this experience that they might survive those dreadful days, Jesus needed this as a reminder that God was with him in a unique and powerful way.  They go from the mountaintop of experiencing God to the valley of rejection and despair, but they remain faithful simply because God has shown up in their lives.
No, God does not always show up in the way we want:  not all the hurting are healed, nor are all the damaged made well, nor are all problems removed.  This is a world with sadness and suffering sewn into its very fabric.  Yet, even in those moments we know that God is with us…holding us and suffering even as we suffer. 
Why does God show up in tough times more than others?  Probably because we are more awake and alert to the presence of God in these times.  When we are vulnerable, when our souls are laid bare and we know not which way to turn, God shows up.
The Holy Scriptures are full of such experiences — from God showing up to rescue Hagar and Ishmael after they have been exiled by Abraham to Moses experiencing the dramatic call with God at the burning bush.  Our scriptures affirm time and again that God shows up in our times of need —- for it is then that we are awake to God’s presence.
Christianity is not a dry as dust, head only religion.  True Christianity engages us in the depths of our souls, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually and intellectually.  If we are only engaged in one of these areas, then we are missing out on what God has to offer for us.  The reality is that God shows up more often than many of us realize: often we are too asleep or indifferent to notice.  How was it the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it:
                 Earth is crammed with heaven.
And every common bush afire with God.
And only he who sees, takes off his shoes.
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.
“The rest sit around and pluck blackberries…” If that doesn’t surmise much of what passes for life then I don’t know what does.
God shows up in our hearts as well as our heads.
I realize that we moderate Protestants are deathly afraid of emotionalism — of manipulating the emotions of others in our worship.  However, we need to ask whether we have come to the place where we ignore our emotions so highly that we are in danger of destroying the very faith we claim.  When we ignore our emotions, we ignore the prime vehicle through which the Spirit of God desires to move.  Why are we so afraid of our emotions?  Why is it that we “moderate, thinking Christians” are so afraid of crying, of laughing — of expressing ourselves?  We will laugh and cry at ball games, birthdays, weddings, the birth of babies and all manner of events.  Yet, if we display emotion in our worship — if we engage our emotions in the least — we feel embarrassed and fear that others perceive us as second class persons.
When was the last time you laughed in church?  I mean, really laughed, hopefully with others or at yourself?  Throughout scripture God shows up in laughter.  Remember Abraham and Sarah laughing when God said they would have a baby — and they were older than dirt.  So what do they do some nine months later when their son is born?  The name him “Isaac” — “he laughs!” 
Can we laugh at ourselves in church?  Sometimes I think we take ourselves so seriously, thinking we are God’s last and greatest hope.  How incredibly snobbish and wrong!  Can we laugh at ourselves and our ways of doing and being?
Think about this for a moment: Christianity is growing all across our planet, especially in Asia, Africa, and South America.  It is growing slower, but still growing, in North America — primarily the USA.  It is stagnant or not growing in Canada and Europe.  I can remember when, back in the 1970’s, we Baptists were going to reach the world for Jesus by the year 2000.  We just knew that we were the best thing God had going.  The reality is that due to our inabilities to get along with each other the Baptist movement, as a rule, and mainline Protestantism, as a whole, has stagnated.  What is growing is the Pentecostal version of Christianity — the place where emotion is primary as opposed to thinking.  It is almost as if God has played a great “joke” on us:  “Yes,” God says, “I will reach the world with the good news of Jesus Christ, but it will not be through your version of Christianity, but another.”  Laughter can be the voice of God as God calls us to not take ourselves so seriously, all the while taking the gospel with utmost seriousness.
In this passage Simon Peter provides a moment of comic relief.  He sees Moses, Elijah and Jesus and says the dumbest thing:  “Hey, its good we’re here.  Let’s build three temples and just stay here.”  Right!  Like erecting a physical building for spiritual beings is going to do any good!  So what happens next?  God shows up and just blows him away:  “This is my Son…listen to him.”  Translation:  “Close your trap and listen to Jesus.  You might learn something.” 
Life is tough, particularly given our economic desires and constraints.  We want to all live like kings, but we cannot do so.  For the most part, our problems and difficulties are the problems that only “rich” people have.  We have enough to eat, clothes to wear and homes in which we live.  Yet, comparing ourselves to others we often find ourselves feeling down and depressed. 
However, I have found that if we will pause, reflect on our lives — and just start laughing a little — we will be amazed at how God will show up in our lives.  No, I am not advocating ignoring real issues or evading difficult questions.  What I am saying is that we have a propensity to make life so much more difficult than it has to be.  God is trying to show up and enable us to handle what God gives — but we are so tense and wound so tight that we cannot begin to sense God’s Spirit.
One of the greatest speeches/sermons I have ever heard was a very short one by Jim Valvano: If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.
My addition:  You’re not only going to have something special — you will experience the presence of God right here in the middle of life.  Isn’t that what life is about, anyway?  Under Christ life is not about how much we can accumulate, but about experiencing the presence of God so that we are transformed and empowered to be the persons Christ has called us to be!  The only permanent aspect of our lives is our character — the person/soul God is forging for eternity.  This character is developed slowly but surely, through the anvil of our experiences and the hammer of God’s Spirit.  The more pliable we are the easier the forging will be. 
God shows up when we least expect; God shows up when we need God the most; and God shows up in our hearts as well as our head.  How has God shown up in your life?  Have you been open to experiencing God’s presence for you?