Sermon: Where is God?

Delivered at Dunean United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina on July 22, 2012.

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

Where is God?

Scripture:

Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, "See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent." Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you."

But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell My servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build Me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, "Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?" Now therefore thus you shall say to My servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take My steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before Me; your throne shall be established for ever. In accordance with all these words and with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

2 Samuel 7:1-17 (NRSV)

I will swim in the deep

'Cause You'll be next to me

You're in the eye of the storm

And the calm of the sea

You're never out of reach

God, You know where I've been

You were there with me then

You were faithful before

You'll be faithful again

I'm holding Your hand

From "Let the Waters Rise" by MIKESCHAIR

Jesus juke is a term coined by writer Jon Acuff to describe something that occasionally happens in conversations between Christians. Just as a football running back might juke a defensive player by suddenly changing direction to avoid being tackled, a person performs a Jesus juke by suddenly steering a conversation into a religious direction in a negative way. For example, imagine someone talking about her favorite book, saying, "I read the whole book in one sitting!" If someone wanted to perform a Jesus juke at that very moment, he might say something like, "Too bad people don't read the Bible with that much enthusiasm." Jon Acuff encourages people not say such things because Jesus jukes bring down a conversation, make people feel guilty, and fail to actually bring people any closer to Jesus.¹

In the Second Book of Samuel, we read of King David saying something that is not dissimilar to a Jesus juke. One day, King David is relaxing at his palace with his friend Nathan, a prophet of God, when suddenly he says, "Nathan, look around you. I live in this big, beautiful palace made of cedar. It's too bad the almighty God, the Creator of the universe, has to live in a mere tent."²


The Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle

Not too long before this conversation took place, David brought to Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant, an artifact that symbolized both the Presence of God and God's covenant with Israel.³ The Ark was basically a golden chest that contained the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written and possibly some other symbols of the covenant. Atop the Ark was the mercy seat, the throne of God made up of two golden cherubim.⁴

Years before the kingship of David, the Ark of the Covenant was housed in the Tabernacle, a place of worship constructed by the Israelites while they camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai after God delivered them from Egypt. The Tabernacle consisted of tent and a surrounding courtyard which was enclosed by curtains. Within the courtyard was the brazen alter on which the priests offered burnt sacrifices to God and a basin where priests underwent cleansing rituals. The tent itself was divided by a veil into two partitions: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The Holy Place contained an altar for incense, a golden lamp stand, and a golden table on which sacred bread was placed. The ark itself was housed within the Holy of Holies.⁵

A key feature of the Tabernacle was its portability. The Tabernacle was covered by the Presence of the Lord, which at that time was manifest as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. When the Presence of the Lord rose from the Tabernacle and began to move, the Israelites would dismantle the Tabernacle and follow the cloud. When the cloud stopped, the Israelites would reassemble the Tabernacle and set up camp.⁶


The Temple of the Lord

The Tabernacle was still in use at the time of King David, though the Ark itself was housed in a tent David had set up in Jerusalem. David did not believe it was right that the sacred object that symbolized the very Presence of God was kept in a meager tent while he lived in a luxurious palace. The prophet Nathan can see that what David desires is to build a temple fitting for the Lord; and, Knowing that the Lord is with David, Nathan tells him to go ahead and built a temple. Later that night, God gives Nathan a response to relay to David, essentially saying, "Why do you want to build temple for Me? Did I ever complain about living in a tent?"⁷ Building a temple was not what God had in mind for David.

Still, I believe that God must have been touched by David's dedication and love, for God went on to give David a promise. God promises an age of peace for the people of God. Honoring David's wish to build a temple, God also promises that one of David's descendants will build a house for God's name. God promises to treat this descendant as a son by loving him faithfully and by chastening him for any iniquity with blows delivered by humans. God then promises to establish David's dynasty forever.

The Temple of the Lord was built in Jerusalem under the leadership of King Solomon, David's son. The Temple was larger and more ornate than its more modest predecessor. Like the tent of the Tabernacle, the inner sanctuary was divided into the two parts: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The inner sanctuary was completely overlaid with gold, and the walls of the temple were adorned with carvings of cherubim, palm trees and flowers. Within the inner sanctuary were two fifteen-foot-tall statues of cherubim, also overlaid with gold. Surrounding the sanctuary were treasure chambers.⁸ The Temple had an outer courtyard as well as an inner courtyard where burnt sacrifices were offered.⁹

The Temple took seven years to build, and on the day that the Temple was dedicated, the Ark of the Covenant was brought inside, along with the Tabernacle's tent and the artifacts contained therein. That day, the Presence of the Lord, manifest as a cloud, entered the Temple, and the Presence of the Lord was so think that the priests could not carry out their duties.¹⁰ The Temple was destroyed by Babylonian invaders around four hundred years later, rebuilt when the Jewish exiles returned to their homeland, renovated by King Herod at the time of Jesus, and destroyed again by the Roman Empire just decades after that.¹¹ One remaining courtyard wall, often called the Wailing Wall, still stands in Jerusalem to this day.


A Different Kind of Temple

Believe it or not, there is actually a third kind of temple mentioned in the Bible, a temple very different from the Tabernacle and the Temple built by Solomon.

One day, around the time of Passover, Jesus is visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. He looks around and sees people selling animals for sacrifices and exchanging Jewish currency for Roman currency. For some reason, Jesus goes ballistic - maybe He saw people cheating each other, or maybe He was offended by the blatant materialism going on in a house of worship. Jesus makes a whip out of some cords, starts cracking it, and drives everyone out of the Temple, yelling, "Take these things out of here! Stop making My Father’s house a marketplace!" Naturally, people are upset by Jesus' actions, and when He is confronted He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."¹²

What is interesting about Jesus' statement is that He is not referring to the Temple of the Lord, as people thought at the time. Jesus was actually calling His own body a temple. The Presence of the Lord was not found in a temple of gold but in a temple of flesh and blood: the man Christ Jesus. Later on, Jesus will say, "Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father... The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own; but the Father who dwells in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me..."¹³

An early Christian hymn states that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, "though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross."¹⁴ The pious people of the day would not have thought of Jesus as a likely temple. He was born in a stable under very questionable circumstances; He hung out with people from the wrong side of the tracks; He constantly butted heads with the religious elite; and He was executed on a Roman cross like a criminal. Of course we know that Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day, just as He prophesied.


The Temple of the Holy Spirit

Many of the prophecies recorded in Scripture can be understood in multiple ways, and the promise that God made to David through the prophet Nathan is no exception. God promised David that one of His descendents would build a temple and that David's kingdom would be established forever. Normally we would see a fulfillment of this prophecy in King Solomon, since he was the one who built the Temple in Jerusalem. Remember that Jesus was also a descendant of David and that He was lauded as a king by the Magi, by the people who followed Him, and even by Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. The prophecy states that this descendant will be like a son to God, and Jesus himself was the Son of God. The prophecy states that God will punish this descendant for his iniquities by blows delivered by humans, and, though Jesus committed no iniquity, it has been said that He was crucified for the iniquity of others.

Like King Solomon, Jesus also built a temple - a temple very different in nature from the other three dwelling places of God. One day, Jesus asks His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" The Disciples throw out various rumors circulating about who Jesus is, and then Jesus asks, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon, the most vocal of the twelve, answers, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus turns to Simon and says, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."¹⁵

So what did Jesus mean when He told His disciples He would build His Church? St. Paul offers us some insights in his first letter to the Corinthian church in which he writes, "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?"¹⁶ The temple Jesus came to build is a temple of people bound together by a single Spirit. The Presence of the Lord entered this temple on the Day of Pentecost when the Disciples heard a sound of a mighty rushing wind and saw the Holy Spirit descend on them like tongues of fire.¹⁷ From that day on, followers of Jesus Christ all over the world have offered up their lives as living sacrifices on the altars of their hearts, burning bright with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

We are the Church, the worldwide communion of the followers of Jesus Christ. We are Temple of the Lord, and we are the Body of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry on the ministry begun by Jesus Christ nearly two thousand years ago. We - a group of very human, very flawed, and often cantankerous followers of Christ - are the ones in whom God has chosen to dwell and the ones with whom Christ has entrusted His ministry. Not only do we, the Church, believe in God, God also believes in us.


The Point

So why would I take all this time to discuss all of these different temples? I believe that this eclectic assortment of dwelling places gives us an important insight into the nature of God. King David believed that living in a simple tent was beneath God and that God belonged in a large, ornate temple. Perhaps, like David, we believe that there are some places - in the world and in our lives - where God simply does not belong. The different temples in which God has chosen to dwell demonstrate the truth that God is equally comfortable and at home residing in a movable tent, dwelling in a temple of gold, sleeping in a manger in a dirty stable, or inhabiting the deepest, darkest corners of our hearts.

This simple truth reminds us that there is no place we can go where God is not to be found and that there is no time in our lives when God is not with us. The Psalmist writes:

Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, You are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol,¹⁸ You are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there Your hand shall lead me,

and Your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light around me become night',

even the darkness is not dark to You;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to You.¹⁹

A popular poem by Mary Stevenson describes a dream in which the poet is walking on the beach with God. As she walks, she sees scenes from her life flashing across the sky in front of her, and, in each of these scenes, she sees footprints in the sand. She begins to realize that, during the happy scenes of her life, she sees two sets of footprints and that, during the darker times in her life, she only sees one set of footprints. She reaches the disturbing conclusion that, during the dark times of her life, God was nowhere to be found, and she asks God, "Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?" God replies, "The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, is when I carried you."²⁰

For nearly two years of my life, I worked in the gambling industry as a software engineer, writing software for video poker machines and video slot machines. It was not a proud moment in my life, for I worked in an industry that benefited from the addictions of compulsive gamblers. In fact, I was so ashamed of my job that I tried to "compartmentalize" my life: my job was a part of my life I tried to keep in a locked box that was only to be opened from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Nevertheless, the shame and stress of my job still managed to seep into the rest of my life. Back then, my job was not a place in which I would expect to find God.

The company's flagship product was a video slot machine with a penny theme, and, for a while, one of these machines was set up near my desk. One day, as I looked at this machine, I began to notice the detail with which the pennies on the machine had been drawn. I then realized that sprinkled all over the machine, from the video screen to the illuminated glass on the cabinet, were the words "IN GOD WE TRUST." The name of God was written all over the godforsaken gambling machine!

At that time in my life, I was in a place where I did not want to be, a place where I believed, deep down, God did not belong. Seeing the motto "IN GOD WE TRUST" on that machine was a reminder to me that there was no place I could go where God was not to be found. In that dreary office in that godless industry, God was right there with me. Looking back, I realize that God used that time in my life to draw me closer. In that dark, dismal time in my life marked with shame and despair, God was carrying me, holding me close like a loving parent as in the poem about the footprints. I would never return to that job, but lately I have found myself missing something about that time in my life. Perhaps what I miss is the closeness to God I experienced at that time.

Maybe the places where we feel that God cannot be found are, in reality, the places where God is actually the closest to us, and maybe we actually need to step into these places to truly encounter the Presence of God. Shane Hipps, one of my favorite preachers, once said:
If you want to find God, if you want to experience the Presence of God, one place you will most certainly find that God is in the dark, shadowy back alleys of the soul and the world - the parts of ourselves that we repress, deny, and disown, that we are frightened of - in that dark back corner room with the locked door. If you were to go and open that door, what you would find, nestled in among the sin and the shame and the sickness and the sorrow, is the Creator of the universe, reclined and relaxed, completely at home, not the least bit offended, not the least bit surprised, not the least bit fearful - completely at home. None of it would surprise Him. It's this fascinating phenomenon that the divine dwells in the darkest places.²¹

God knows everything about us - our personal problems, our failures, our regrets, and everything we sweep under the proverbial rug - and still God has chosen us as the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the Body of Christ. Consider the Disciples: Christ knew their baggage, their shortcomings, and even their future failures. He knew that Peter would someday deny knowing Him; He knew that Judas would someday betray Him; and He knew that the Disciples would run away with their tails between their legs when He was arrested, put on trial, and crucified. Christ knew all these things, and still He handpicked them to be the materials with which He would build His church.

Again, God knows everything about us: the good, the bad, and the ugly. God knows what's right about us, what's wrong about us, and all the things we simply don't like about ourselves. God knows us even better than we know ourselves. In the same Psalm I quoted earlier, the Psalmist writes:

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

You discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down,

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

O Lord, You know it completely.²²

Echoing this very Psalm, songstress Laura Story writes:

You see the depths of my heart

And You love me the same

You are amazing, God²³

In the Presence of God we can be fully ourselves. Before God, there is no need to hide ourselves behind false modesty or some sort of spiritual facade: we don't have to pretend to be someone we're not. So often we think that we need to fix certain things about ourselves in order to be in a right relationship with God. Such a mentality is actually backward and is, in fact, a symptom of a wrong relationship with God.

St. John writes, "If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."²⁴ When we confess our faults, our shortcomings, and our missteps to God, do we really reveal anything that God does not already know about us? When we confess something to God, do we change God in any way? On the contrary, confessing to God changes us. Confessing to God means first confessing to ourselves, being brutally honest with ourselves, confronting and owning the very things we would rather hide, deny, and ignore. It means offering our whole selves to God to be redeemed and transformed. We can be real with God, and there is nothing that we cannot take to God. St. Paul writes, "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."²⁵

May you realize that there is no place on your journey in which God is not with you. May you realize that there is no place in your heart or soul that God is not willing to step inside if you will only open the door. May you remember that you can be fully yourself before God, because God loves you. May you remember that you too are called to be part of the Temple of the Holy Spirit and part of the Body of Christ, and may you embrace this calling with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Amen.


Notes:
1 - Jon Acuff. Stuff Christians Like: "The Jesus Juke." 11/16/10
2 - My paraphrase of 2 Samuel 7:2
3 - 2 Samuel 6:1-19
4 - Exodus 25:10-22
5 - Exodus 40:1-33a
6 - Exodus 40:33b-38
7 - My paraphrase of 2 Samuel 7:5-7
8 - 1 Kings 6
9 - 2 Chronicles 4:9
10 - 1 Kings 8:1-11
11 - Wikipedia: "Temple in Jerusalem"
12 - John 2:12-22 (NRSV quoted)
13 - John 14:9-11 (NRSV)
14 - Philippians 2:5-11 (NRSV)
15 - Matthew 16:13-20 (NRSV quoted)
16 - 1 Corinthians 3:16 (NRSV)
17 - Acts 2:1-4
18 - The grave
19 - Psalm 139:7-12 (NRSV)
20 - The Official Footprints in the Sand Page
21 - Shane Hipps. "The God in Nineveh." Mars Hill Bible Church Podcast, 02/21/10
22 - Psalm 139:1-4 (NRSV)
23 - From her song "Indescribable"
24 - 1 John 1:9
25 - Romans 8:38-39 (NRSV)

The replica Ark of the Covenant is from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. The photograph of the Model Tabernacle is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. The photograph of the Model Temple is public domain. Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple was painted by El Greco in 1600. The depiction of the Day of Pentecost is of unknown origin.


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Perspective: Tracing a Rainbow through the Rain

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

Tracing a Rainbow through the Rain

Scripture:

Weeping may linger for the night,

but joy comes with the morning.

Psalm 30:5b (NRSV)

O Love that will not let me go

I rest my weary soul in Thee

I give Thee back the life I owe

That in Thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be

From "O Love that Will Not Let Me Go" by George Matheson

I have a friend who will be going to seminary this fall, so, about two weeks ago, I attended his church to hear him preach one last time before he leaves the area. At the end of the service, the closing hymn was a hymn I sometimes have trouble singing. Music has always had a way of getting to me, and over the years there have been a few songs that have made me cry. One night, when I was little, I heard a certain song on television and started crying. When my mom asked me why I was crying, I didn't know what to tell her.

"O Love that Will Not Let Me Go" is a particularly moving hymn about finding hope, joy, and renewed strength from God in the midst of pain and difficulty. Contemporary worship leaders have set this song to upbeat music, but the original tune, which a person is most likely to hear at a traditional church service, is just as poignant as the lyrics.

Though I find both the music and the lyrics beautiful and touching, this hymn probably wouldn't affect me the way it does if I didn't know the story behind the hymn.

George Matheson was a pastor in Scotland who had gone blind while he was in seminary. He composed this hymn at his home while suffering from a deep depression on the day one of his sisters got married. It is believed that his sister's wedding triggered some painful memories for him. Years earlier, he too was engaged to be married, but his fiancee broke off the engagement because she didn't want to be married to a blind man. Matheson never married.

The words to the song written within five minutes. Matheson claimed that the song came from a Voice deep within him.¹

I first heard this story at my church several years ago, and, when the congregation sang the song afterward, I got choked up. Matheson's story resonated with me, because I too am familiar with the sting of rejection. I too know what it is like to feel like I am not good enough, to feel as though I am undesirable, to feel like there is something wrong with me. Like Matheson, I too find it comforting to know that, though my fellow human beings may reject me, God will never leave me or forsake me.

At the church service two weeks ago, I made it through the first two verses, but I had to stop singing in the middle of the third verse:

O Joy that seekest me through pain

I cannot close my heart to Thee

I trace the rainbow through the rain

And feel the promise is not vain

That morn shall tearless be

If I had tried to continue singing, sob-like noises probably would have come out of my mouth. I think the contrast between the rainbow and the rain is a beautiful way to describe finding joy in the midst of great sadness.

A couple of months ago, my Sunday school class sang this hymn before the lesson. At that time I realized something interesting about this particular verse. George Matheson had gone blind years earlier, but he could still experience rain with his other four senses: he could still hear, feel, taste, and smell the rain. A rainbow, on the other hand, is a phenomenon that can only be seen, yet Matheson speaks of tracing a rainbow in the present tense. Since he could not observe a rainbow with his four remaining senses, there was only one remaining way for him to enjoy a rainbow:

he had to have faith that it was there.

In the Bible, faith is defined as "the assurance of things hoped for" and "the conviction of things not seen."² Faith gives us a reason to believe when we can find no logical reason to believe. Faith is our reason to keep going when we may feel as though we have every reason to give up. Faith is seeing a rainbow in the sky when our world is so dark we can't even see our hands in front of our faces. Faith is what we read in the words of a young Polish Jew who faced persecution at the hands of the Nazis: "I believe in the sun, even if it does not shine. I believe in love, even if I do not feel it. I believe in God, even if I do not see Him."

There are times when it's hard to see the good in life. There are times in our lives when dark clouds obscure the sun, and our whole world seems to be cast into a gray haze. There are times when we are so overcome by the storms of life we feel as though we are drowning. At these times we need to have faith:

faith that the sun is still shining behind the clouds,

faith that the storm will someday come to an end,

faith that we'll someday see a rainbow.

If you're going through a difficult time right now, may you find the faith to keep on going. May you realize that tough times do not last forever and that the storms of life will someday come to an end. Most of all, may you realize that you are not alone in your struggles, for God is with you.

Notes:
1 - Richard Niell Donovan. "Hymn Story: O Love that Will Not Let Me Go." 2008, Lectionary.org
2 - Hebrews 11:1 (NRSV)

The photographs featured in this perspective were taken by me after a recent summer thunderstorm.


If you have any feedback, thoughts, stories, or even arguments to contribute, please leave comments.

Introspection: The World Is a Miracle

I share these thoughts, hoping they are of help to someone else.

The World Is a Miracle

Scripture:

Jesus performed many other wondrous signs that are not written in this book. These accounts are recorded so that you, too, might believe that Jesus is the Anointed, the Liberating King, the Son of God, because believing grants you the life He came to share.

John 20:30-31 (The Voice)

You light - light - light up the sky

You light up the sky to show me You are with me

And I - I - I can't deny

No, I can't deny that You are right here with me

You've opened my eyes

So I can see You all around me

You light - light - light up the sky

You light up the sky to show me

That You are with me

From "Light Up the Sky" by The Afters

In the year 2011, on the evening of February 13, a Sunday, I found myself sitting in a pew in the chapel at Furman University. I had struggled with the decision of whether or not to attend the service that evening because I had heard that the message would be about love and marriage. Though I figured such a message would have nothing to do with me, I ultimately decided it might do me some good to hear it anyway. As I looked inside the bulletin, I noticed that, at the end of the service, everyone in the congregation would receive a flower. "God," I thought, "You have some sense of humor."

After the chaplaincy intern finished her sermon, she invited everyone in the congregation to come forward to the front of the chapel to receive a flower. When I approached her, she handed me a pink one. I walked back to my seat, laughing on the inside.

For reasons I will not divulge at this time, that event was very significant in my life. For me, receiving a pink flower on the day before Valentine's Day during that particular time in my life was truly uncanny.

In fact, I can only describe the event as miraculous.

In The Barbarian Way, Erwin McManus tells the story of a miracle he experienced when he was in college. His friend Beth has just confessed to him that she doesn't believe that God really loves her, so he tries to reassure her of God's love by telling her that God will do whatever it takes to prove God's love to her. She then says, "Well, then I want it to snow." For some reason Erwin replies, "God is going to make it snow for you... within twenty-four hours." Regretting what he has just said, he goes back to his dorm room and falls asleep praying, begging God to make it snow for Beth. After a few hours, his roommate returns, wakes him up, and tells him to look outside. Snow was everywhere.¹

While I have never experienced an answer to prayer quite like Erwin's, I have experienced other answers to prayer that could be considered miraculous. A few years ago, I spent months praying for God to deliver me from a bad job situation. One Tuesday morning in May of 2009, I learned that my boss had decided to consolidate offices and to move all operations to another state. This news gave me a legitimate reason to end my employment with that company.

Another small miracle happened to me around four years ago. I lost my temper over something I no longer remember and broke the mouse I was using with my laptop. I drove to a nearby department store and shelled out twenty dollars to buy a new one. As I drove back home, feeling thoroughly disgusted with myself, I began to wonder if there was any hope for me at all. At that very moment, I changed the radio station and heard the chorus to the song "To Bring You Back" by Paul Alan:

I left the ninety-nine to find the one

And you're the one

I walked a thousand miles in the desert sun

Only to bring you back

I felt as though God was speaking directly to me at that moment. It was as though God was telling me that I was the lost sheep that Christ, the Good Shepherd, had gone out of His way to find. It was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment.

So do all of these stories really describe modern-day miracles? The mystic in me says yes, but my analytical side says that there are alternative explanations.

Let's deconstruct that last story. At that time, at least one of the presets on my car radio was a Christian rock station, and it was not uncommon for me to change the radio station while driving by randomly pressing the preset buttons. Some common themes of Christian music are love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness. All these things considered, it was not unlikely that I would have heard an uplifting message while listening to the radio in my car.

So did God speak to me in that desperate moment through the song I heard on the radio?

Or would I have heard such a message anyway because I just happened to change the radio station to a Christian rock station?

The other stories I mentioned all have explanations apart from the supernatural. When a young Erwin McManus prayed for snow, did God send snow to prove God's love for Erwin's friend, or was snow on its way regardless of whether or not it held any spiritual significance at all? When I prayed for God to lead me out of a bad job situation, did God put it in my boss's head to move operations out of state, or did the trajectory of the company simply give me an opportunity to leave my job behind? Did God sent me a pink flower on the day before Valentine's Day to tell me that that the pain and disappointment in my past did not have to define my future, or was it all just a really big coincidence?

Were all of these events miracles orchestrated by God?

Or can they all be chalked up to lucky breaks, coincidences, and natural phenomena?

To be honest, I really don't know.

Then again, maybe these are the wrong questions to ask in the first place.

The Gospel According to St. John records seven miracles performed by Jesus Christ before His crucifixion and resurrection. Christ, in His earthly ministry, transformed water into wine, healed a boy with a terminal illness, enabled a crippled man to walk again, fed thousands of people with a kid's sack lunch, walked on liquid water, gave the gift of sight to a man born blind, and raised a close friend from the dead.² The other three Gospels record Christ performing similar miracles, and other parts of the Bible describe other miraculous acts performed directly by God or through one of God's prophets.

But what is a miracle? So often we think of a miracle as some remarkable occurrence that contradicts human logic or defies the laws of nature - the parting of a sea to allow a tribe of people to cross on dry land, the pregnancy of a virgin, the healing of a person with a terminal illness. Perhaps a miracle doesn't have to be anything so extravagant. Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is." Maybe miracles are all around us all the time, though we don't even realize it.

Nearly two years ago, I lost my glasses at the bottom of a waterfall, so I had to wear old glasses for nearly a week. When I finally got my new glasses, I was overwhelmed by the vivid detail with which I could see.³ It seemed miraculous. I jokingly remarked that if I had seen a sunset at that moment I would have cried.

Lately, when I take walks at my alma mater, I have found myself praying for breezes to give me relief from the summer heat. I have also found myself thanking God when cool breezes do indeed come my way.

Many Christians believe in the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, the idea that God created the entire universe out of nothing.  Theologian Michael Lodahl suggests, as an alternative, the idea of creatio ex amore or creation out of love, suggesting that the creation of the universe is an outgrowth of God's loving nature.⁴ With that in mind, maybe everything God has created can be understood as a sign of God's love.

Consider the miracles of Jesus. Whether He was providing wine for people at a wedding party, healing a person with a terminal illness or a disability, feeding a multitude of people with a minimal amount of food, or raising a friend from the dead, He was showing love to people. In The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales, Peter Rollins notes that the true significance of a miracle is not some change in the physical universe but a change within a person's heart.⁵ The miraculous acts of Jesus transformed people's lives in profound ways.

Perhaps we experience a miracle whenever our senses are awakened to the love of God that is all around us all the time, whether we experience this love in some amazing event that defies reason or in a simple everyday occurrence like a sunset, a flower, the vivid green of leaves in the spring, the singing of a bird, or a cool breeze on a hot day.

In the 1999 drama American Beauty, teenage videophile Ricky is able to see beauty all around him, and he seeks to capture this beauty on film. At one point in the movie he shows his muse Jane what he calls "the most beautiful thing [he] ever filmed" - a plastic bag blown around by the wind. He describes the bag as dancing and compares it to "a little kid begging [him] to play with it." He goes on to say, "That's the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things and this incredibly benevolent Force that wanted me to know that there was no reason to be afraid, ever." Ricky saw the love of God in something as simple as a bag tossed by the wind.

On that night I found encouragement in the song I heard on the radio, maybe I experienced a miracle regardless of whether or not God caused the disk jockey at the radio station to play the song at that exact moment. Christian radio stations always play songs with uplifting messages, but the things that inspire these songs, namely God's love, mercy, and grace, are always present as well. Maybe the miracle is that God used that song to open my senses to this love, mercy, and grace when I needed most to be aware of them.

Do miracles really happen? I believe so. Maybe miracles happen all around us, all the time, whether we recognize them or not. Maybe the whole world is a miracle, and maybe everything God created is a sign that points us to God's steadfast love if we will only stop and take notice.


Notes:
1 - Erwin Raphael McManus. The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within. 2005, Nelson Books. pp 71-77
2 - John 2:1-11; 4:46-54; 5:1-9; 6:1-14; 6:16-21; 9:1-7; 11:1-45
3 - See my introspection "Through My Glasses, Darkly"
4 - Homebrewed Christianity: "The Creatio Ex Nihilo Debate!" 05/25/2012
5 - Peter Rollins. The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales. 2009, Paraclete Press. pp 168-173


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