Dr. Ron Sumners
May 25, 2003
A woman hovers between life and death in the hospital's Intensive Care Unit. A tangle of tubes is connected to various parts of her body. From time to time she awakens to the blips and beeps of the monitoring machines and the steady "whoosh-whoosh" of the respirator.
The family visits the hospital four times a day. As they stand by the bedside hour after hour, as they hold their loved one's hands and stroke her hair, as they hold on to each other, they can be heard to say, "We'll be all right as long as we have each other." They know in their heart of hearts what is sustaining them, day after day. They know in their heart of hearts what is enabling them to hope and to love in the wilderness of the hospital. They know in their heart of hearts that it is God's Spirit that gives them life. Even as they are confronted with the distorted figure lying before them, and the painful possibility of death, in their heart of hearts they experience the sustaining grace of a gracious God who gives meaning to it all.
Years ago, an experiment was conducted to measure people's capacity to endure pain. How long could a bare footed person stand in a bucket of ice water? It was discovered that when there was someone else present offering encouragement and support, the person standing in the ice water could tolerate the pain twice as long as when there was no one else present.
Soon after her brother was born, little Jenny began asking her parents to leave her alone with the new baby. But the parents worried that like most four-year-olds, Jenny might be feeling a little jealous and might do something that would upset or hurt the baby. So, they said "No." But Jenny showed no sign of jealousy and treated her little brother gently and affectionately when her parents were present. And finally, they said, "Okay, Jenny .We'll let you be alone with the baby for a few minutes." Eagerly, Jenny went into the baby's room and shut the door, but the parents cracked the door a bit and listened quietly. They saw little Jenny walk quietly up to her little brother, put her face close-to his and whisper, "Baby, tell me what God feels like. I'm starting to forget."
Would you do that for me, dear friends? I will try to do the same for you. You see, I think we are starting to forget! We know what experiencing God feels like when we experience the loving, caring, encouraging, supportive presence of another person, a Christian brother or sister.
As believers, we try to get in touch with the presence of God as something more than a concept or an idea. We try to become aware of the presence of God as something that involves our inmost being. We want to let God touch us inwardly as well as outwardly. For true believers, it is not enough to know about God intellectually. An intellectual knowledge is not enough. The God who saves us, liberates us from the bondage of aimlessness and absurdity, is the God who is present to us at the deepest level of our being.
Scripture tells us that at a certain time and place in history, the essential being of God, the Christ Spirit, which was with God from the beginning, was fully embodied and revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. And, for this reason, Jesus is called "Messiah," "King of Kings," "Lord," and "Savior."
Moreover, the Gospels inform us that this same Christ Spirit that was embodied in Jesus is also in us. At the center of our being, the Spirit through which God created all things is alive in us. The Christ Spirit is here, and this, the Apostle Paul says, "Is your hope of Glory: the glory of wholeness of life now and the glory of the life that is to be.
In Luke's Gospel, we read that Jesus welcomed the crowds that followed Him, and He talked to them about the Kingdom of God; and He cured those who were in need of healing (Lk. 9:11). Jesus sent out seventy-two of His disciples to do the same thing. He instructs them to cure those who are sick, and say, "The Kingdom of God is very near to you" (Lk. 10:9). And after the seventy two carry out Jesus' instructions, they come back rejoicing!
So many people - among us and all around us - seem to find little cause for rejoicing in the lives they are living. So many people are discovering that the quest for happiness, apart from God, inevitably leads to boredom and frustration and depression and the disintegration of marriages and families. So many people are discovering that money, after all, isn't really what life is all about; that fame after all, isn't really what life is all about; that power after all, isn't really what life is all about. Jesus told us that God is what life is all about; that accepting God 's love and entering into a lifelong love affair with God is what life is all about.
By accepting God's love, in this way, we become whole; we "get it all together." By accepting God's love, we become the people He desires for us to be; the people He created us to be. Out of this wholeness comes the desire and ability to love people in a life-enhancing way, not manipulating them, not trying to dominate them, not trying to take life from them, not trying to use them. We can do this with our lives, but only if they are founded on the solid rock of a loving relationship with God. God has taken the initiative. God gives Himself to us. And when we begin to rejoice in the discovery of what God feels like deep within us, we simultaneously begin to discover how to rejoice in our relationships with others.
If we try to build relationships apart from the reign of God, we will end up hurting rather than healing one another. You know how it is: people are always doing things to us and our immediate reaction is either to be hurt and feel rejected or to get angry and fight back. And the alienation sets in; husbands versus wives; parents versus children; nations versus nations. This is the natural reaction.
Has there been a time this past week when the presence of God's grace in your life has reversed that natural reaction and made a difference? Has there been a time this past week when the presence of God 's grace in your life has reversed someone else's misguided notion that God doesn't care? Will there be a time in the coming week when the presence of God's grace in your life convinces someone that a gracious, loving God is in control?
Robert Ingersoll wrote:
Love is the morning and the evening star. It shines upon the cradle and the babe,
And sheds its radiance upon the quite tomb. It is the mother of art,
Inspirer of poet ... patriot ... philosopher ...
It fills the air with melody,
For music is the voice of love.
Love is the enchanter that changes Worthless things to joy ...
It is the perfume of the wondrous flower
The heart -and without that sacred passion, We are less than beasts;
But with it, earth is heaven.
A bus was bumping along a back road. In one seat, an old man sat holding a bunch of fresh flowers. Across the aisle was a young girl whose eyes came back again and again to the man's flowers. The time came for the man to get off the bus. Impulsively, he thrust the flowers into the girl's lap. "I can see you love the flowers," he explained, "And I think my wife would like for you to have them. I'll tell her that I gave them to you." The girl accepted the flowers, and then watched the old man get off the bus and walk through the gate of a small cemetery. And for that girl, it was a moment to remember - a moment in which she knew, in her soul, what God feels like. And she rejoiced in the experience of the Kingdom of God within her!
After 33 years in the ministry, 26 of that serving as pastor, I have learned a lesson. The majority of the people in the pews really don't care who the pastor is as long as he does his job as they think he ought. The pastor is a functionary who has a prescribed job. I realize that many of you have a great deal of affection and even love for the pastor, but for a great many of you I am not a real person. You think of me like you do the salesperson at the store. He or she is not a real person, therefore it is okay to promise the salesman or the pastor anything you think will appease him. You can tell the salesman that you will definitely return to purchase an item and know all the time you are lying. You can make similar promises to the pastor, and you know that you really don't mean a word of it. And you know that he knows that you don't really mean it, but you have been trained that the words are enough.
I said that to say this. I really do love you. I love you whether you are as close as family or if you see me only as a talking head who performs a prescribed function. I love those of you who have grown into Christian maturity and I love those of you who choose to remain spiritual infants all your life. I do not say this so you will think well of me, or for shock value, I say it because I have no choice but to love you. Christ loves me. His Spirit dwells in me and therefore I love you. I know what God feels like because I love you. I know what God feels like because so many of you have shown love for me.
I love you. I will always tell you the truth. I so much want for all of you to remember what God feels like!
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