Hello Dear One!
Today’s Text: Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[k] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Here’s a song from Jess Ray that we’re loving for thoughtful contemplation about the love of God. Lyrics are here.
Here’s new take on a beautiful old favorite may be a good fit for after the message.
This song is such a good declaration that we won’t fear but lean into God our Salvation. Lyrics here.
Question for discussion
Here’s a verse from Romans 8:38, 39.
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What do you find the most empowering about this verse?
In your group:
I would suggest offering each person an agreed upon amount of time to answer this question, with someone working as a timekeeper. It is important that this time of conversation reflects the entire gathered community - even those who don’t usually share very often.
And as you close your time together:
I leave you with this blessing:
I release you in the power of the Holy Spirit into the world God so loves, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the God, who sees the goodness and grace in you and walks proudly with you.
Many blessings,
Carmen
This post is offered for individual worship, and for sharing with your small group and member congregations. It is offered free of charge at this time - you do not need to be a paid subscriber to access this content. Please do share it with others who may appreciate the blessing in this message.
Notes:
God loves you. I feel like I could stand here for the next 10 minutes and tell you that God loves you in a thousand different ways. But sometimes we have mindsets that make it hard to believe God loves us.
So let's talk about who God is, and let's talk about the character of God. Our tradition is to refer to God as “Father God” as distinct from the other persons of The Three. Or maybe Yahweh, Adonai, Jehovah, El Elyon – the Most High God, or El Shaddai – the all sufficient one. We can talk about Jehovah Nissi, or Jehovah Jireh, or Jehovah Shalom. There are many ways to think about that part of the Three that is God.
The Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective has this rather poetic view of God:
God’s awesome glory and enduring compassion are perfect in holy love.
God’s sovereign power and unending mercy are perfect in almighty love.
God’s knowledge of all things and care for creation are perfect in preserving love.
God’s abounding grace and wrath against sinfulness are perfect in righteous love.
God’s readiness to forgive and power to transform are perfect in redemptive love.
God’s unlimited justice and continuing patience with humankind are perfect in suffering love.
God’s infinite freedom and constant self-giving are perfect in faithful love.
It's poetic. These aspects of God's love are really attractive, maybe even magnetic. If there is anything I know of God, it's that I have felt drawn in as if by an unseen magnetic energy. I have felt drawn to God.
Scary God
In my younger years, I was sometimes troubled by the idea of a scary God who was easily angered. A small infraction could have big negative consequences. There were stories that freaked me out as a kid, like the fact that Moses didn't get to go into the promised land.
In Numbers 20 the people are thirsty, and Moses and Aaron go to God and ask for water. God tells them to speak to the rock, and water would come out. Instead, Moses says to the people “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Now as a child I didn't understand the nuance there, I just understood that God was angry. And Moses didn't get to into the promised land because of this situation. Listen to it again. “Listen you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Moses and Aaron are standing there before the people “must WE bring you water? They didn't let the people know that a good God who cares about their hunger and thirst was going to provide water. “Must WE bring you water?” They were misrepresenting WHO was going to give them water. And maybe they were also misrepresenting God by not acknowledging God’s kind provision. In hearing this story over and over again as a young person, what I heard was: “God is scary. And you had better be obedient or there will be consequences! Pay attention and be sure to do everything just right, and I tried!
Fire & Brimstone
My Dad and I were talking about the fire and brimstone preachers of his generation. I've heard my share of those “turn or burn” preachers, and I'm not a fan.
You know that verse that says
“perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18)
Well, why did those guys use fear to scare people into a faith in Jesus who casts out fear? I have some complex feelings about that.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Have you heard that phrase: “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”? "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a sermon delivered by Jonathan Edwards in 1741, known for its vivid imagery and powerful depiction of God's wrath and the precarious position of those who have not accepted Jesus Christ. An angry God sounds scary to me.
So is God angry? Do we need to be watching out for the wrath of God?
Isaiah 58
Isaiah 58 comes at a time when God and the people weren't really getting along. Just listen to the mismatch of expectations where the people are seeking God, they're fasting and humbling themselves. But God's not buying it. They fast and then they exploit their workers. God asks them – I'm paraphrasing here – you're doing all this religious activity, but you're also ignoring the poor?
6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? - Isaiah 58:6,7
I mean... here's a chance for God to really throw some thunderbolts because they are ignoring all those things God actually cares about like sharing food, providing shelter, providing clothing.
And instead God shows them what would happen if they actually did engage with God's priorities. Isn’t this gracious?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. - Isaiah 58:8-9
Don't you get the impression that there's so much more that God wants to be for them? But they have no compassion for the poor. And we see the frustration of God when we show up for the religious activities like fasting and prayer, but ignore the core values of God's heart.
The Flood
Oh, and then there is the flood. THIS is the anger of God, right? Just flatten the whole place and wipe the earth clean of it's human infestation!
God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, “I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I’m sorry I made them.” - Genesis 6:5-7 MSG
And here we see a God that had regrets. We notice that the evil poured out on the earth broke God's heart. And as a child, I was scared of God. But what I had missed was the heartache of God. What little-girl-me didn't understand was that the evil of humans toward other humans was breaking God's heart. Here we see God's heartbreak for his people, and his anger toward oppression and injustice.
I didn't know that God's heart could break.
“God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.” - Romans 2:4
God Is Kind
I heard a quote in my 30's that kind of rocked my world. Graham Cooke said:
“God is the kindest person I've ever known” - Graham Cooke
I had to wrestle with the truth of that a little bit because at that time I didn't see God as kind. But what if it's true? What if God is really and genuinely kind?
Julian Of Norwich
One of my faith heroes is a Benedictine nun, Julian of Norwich, and “Julian” might not be her birth name. She was a 14th century mystic and theologian who lived in Norwich England.
She lived in a tough context. During her life, bishops in Rome and in Avignon France both claimed to be Pope. There was the 100 Year War (that was actually 115 years) between England and France. And a Peasants Revolt. There was the Black Death also known as the Bubonic Plague (1349-1351) which was intense for 3 years, and then continued to break out for 21 years. The Bubonic Plague killed approximately 25 million people, or half the population. The church lost half of her clergy at a point when people were especially afraid of going to hell. It was a tough time.
Author Miabai Starr called it “a profoundly patriarchal, hierarchical, judgmental, exclusionary, imperial, and warlike period of history and Christianity”
(Starr, Mirabai. (2022). Julian of Norwich: The showings: Uncovering the face of the feminine in revelations of divine love. Hampton Roads Publishing.)
And when Julian was in her 30's she became ill and she had a vision of Jesus. And in that vision she came to regard God, not just as Father, but also as Mother.
Another mystic, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1181) “says that we are 'hugged' and 'encircled by the mystery of God'” and “Just as a circle embraces all that is within it, so does the God-head embrace all.”2 Hildegard is using womb-like imagery regarding God.
A few centuries later, Julian says
“Just as God is truly our Father, so also is God truly our Mother.” and “God feels great delight to be our Father and God feels great delight to be our Mother.”
The Hazelnut
One of the things that happened in Julian's vision was that God gave her a small thing like a hazelnut. A little round thing. And then God gave her the epiphany that
God made it
God loves it
God sustains it.
God is our creator, our lover, and our sustainer. This tiny object was a symbol of all creation. She talks about being thoroughly oned to God, so that no created thing could come between God and her. She says God is already oned to us, but that we need to draw near and be oned to God.
There is no wrath
In Julian’s vision of God she experiences God and finds:
“There can be no wrath in God. He endlessly upholds all that which honors him and with infinite power and perfect justice, opposes the forces of evil, which busily conspire to act against the divine will.”
“I could not find blame and anger anywhere in God”
“The Master sees the servant with compassion and not with blame.”
She writes: “I saw that in truth our Beloved is never angry, nor ever shall be, for he is God.”
God is good, God is life, truth, love, and peace. God's power, wisdom and loving kindness leave no room for anger.
It is contrary to his nature to be angry, but God is himself the goodness that is incapable of anger.
Sky Father
I took a Seminary class called “The Old Testament Text in Context”, I came across something that I found very interesting. Now the language is a little strange, but see if any of this sounds familiar:
God is respected as a sky father who is chief over all. Even those who are not his natural children address him as Father, and it's important to rise in his presence. Among his symbols are the thunderbolt, the eagle, and the scepter. His name means “to shine”. His anger is legendary. Disobedience, disrespect, or challenges to his authority will make him angry. His anger manifests as awful storms with thunder and lightening that cause widespread devastation. He inflicts suffering on those who offend him. His anger leads to war and chaos. (adapted from source)
Here's a trick question for you: Does any of that sound familiar? These are the ancient beliefs about the pagan god Zeus in ancient Greek mythology. How much of that view of a big scary wrathful distant, cold, and disapproving god has filtered through history into our generation? How many of us still believe God sends big scary storms as punishment? That's Greek mythology, not the truth of who God is.
The Greek gods expected the humans to serve them as slaves, the God of the Hebrews set his people free from slavery.
The Greek god Zeus was angry, distant, and uninterested. The God of the Hebrews walked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day.
The Greek god Zeus was destructive. The God of the Hebrews spoke the world into existence with the power of his word and his creative love.
The hands of God have scars, not thunderbolts.
God's love is shown for us in Jesus who came to serve us, not enslave us.
Did you catch that? God’s hands have scars, not thunderbolts! Isn’t that good news?
God created you and me. God loves us. And God sustains us.
Can we together turn our backs on a leftover pagan idea of a big mean angry thunderbolt god who is distant and uninterested? I think it's time we do.
I think it's time we do.
One Julian researcher notes:
Julian shrewdly penetrates into the strange inability of human nature to accept the self as lovable, making us paradoxically more comfortable with God the judge, whom we must always strive to please and appease, then with God the mother, who simply loves us as we are. -Mirabai Starr
Wow, so let me rephrase that. We don't think we're lovable, so we're more likely to view Father God as a scary judge who we need to please - than we are to believe in a Mothering God who simply loves us because we are Hers.
Now I'm not here to gender God, gender and sex are part of creation and God lives outside of God's creation – so God has no gender. I do think that the perception we have of God as overwhelmingly masculine may limit our scope of understanding the remarkable love God has for us. And that's sad.
Outpouring of Love
There was an outpouring at a little church in Elkhart, Indiana many years ago. And I went there. I was a little scared, but my heart was hungry. And they talked about the presence of God and how wonderfully healing it was to experience the presence of God. And so it came to that part of the service where the musicians were worshiping and there were prayer warriors there who would pray with you. And we were invited to go forward if we wanted to. So I wrestled with myself for a while and then I finally went forward. The man who came over to me to pray was really gentle and sweet. He spoke gently to me and began to pray with his hand on my forehead. And in a few seconds I was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of the love of God. And I cried and cried, because I was blown away with the realization that I was loved by God. I just stayed right there in that sacred space. Even though people were moving around me and I didn't care. I was there like a sponge soaking up this beautiful love of God that was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. That guy prayed for me, and sometimes it sounded like the words were coming directly from God to me. It was pretty cool.
And through the years since then, I went through times when I was so hurt and disillusioned about the things Christians did that I wanted to walk away from the whole thing. But I could never forget that God was real, and how it felt to sense the love of God. And it was not a moment I could explain away. I felt the love of God. I knew it was real. I know it's real.
And so friend, can we just agree to leave that little angry Zeus mindset behind us? Can we agree to press in to who God really is with open hearts?
If the Presence of God just moved right here in the room with us, what would like sound like?
Would it sound something like this?
Dear one, I love you. I want you to know that I am for you and not against you. I call you to myself in grace and goodness, not to crush you. I will not do you harm. I have a perspective that is above yours and I call you up higher into my realm out of earthly squabbles. You live in a temporal world with chaos and decay. I live in eternity where the flowers never fade. My love for you is eternal, and there's nothing that can take that away from you.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from my love that is in my son Jesus for you. - Romans 8:38,39
Friends, God loves you, because he loves you, because he loves you... don't let a pagan mythology color who God actually is for you. Because I promise, God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness.
Prayer.
Lord we put away our old perspectives on who you are. We put away pagan thoughts of a mean thunderbolt-pitching God. Lord, we ask that you would reveal your goodness and kindness to each of us listening today. And Lord, though this week ahead give us each a revelation of how good you are and how much you love us.
We bless you and thank you for your kindness, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for the way you have faithfully walked with us in our lives. We know you will continue to do so. So we thank you Lord. We thank you Fathering God, we thank you Mothering God for loving us as You do. Amen.
I leave you with this blessing
I release you in the power of the Holy Spirit into the world God so loves, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the God who sees the goodness and grace in you, and walks proudly with you.
Amen.
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