Sermon delivered at the Presbyterian New England Congregational Church, April 24, 2022
Revelations 1: 4-8
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed[d] us from our sins by his blood, 6 and made[e] us to be a kingdom, priests serving[f] his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7 Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Who is God, anyway?
God is known by many names. Lord, Jesus, Spirit, Yahweh, Allah, source, creator, universe and many more. When I am praying in my head, I usually say Dear God or Dear One. If I am addressing God in front of people I don’t know, and whose faith I don’t know, I usually use That which is, was and ever will be. These are a start, but I would guess we all really want to know, who is God, anyway?
The book of Revelations was written by a person named John, probably not the apostle. The writings were given to him to share with the world, as prophesies. He starts with God saying, I am the Alpha, which is translated to mean the beginning, and the Omega, the end.
Growing up, I felt that God was in all people. I grew up in a logical, fact-driven family, so I also was curious and wanted explanations for everything. So I was not one who believed in God just because, or on faith. I wanted to know who God was, what God was, where God was.
The best explanation for me came from science, which is congruent with the Bible. In the beginning God created every thing, according to the bible. Science calls that beginning the Big Bang. Before the Big Bang, there was no Thing, just energy, just God. Then a huge explosion created all matter. All matter is made of atoms, which really are just particles of God’s energy and space.
I am the beginning and the end, says God. Before the Universe, God was. And if all matter came from this huge explosion, and if nothing material existed before then, then all matter came from God. All matter IS God. Science tells us that energy and matter come from each other, and that they cannot be destroyed. So, God is in everything and God is everything.
God is the Creator and God is the created. God is also the Omega, the end. More about that later.
God is, was and will be. God is in us: and each one of us is a unity of body, mind, emotion and spirit.
Body and physical
Let’s now talk about how God is in each part of us. We start with the body, meaning all things that are physical, including our body.
Because of the Big Bang, every atom in the Universe is from God. God is the earth, the moon and the stars. God is water, air, dirt under our feet. God is in the plants that use God’s energy from the sun, the air, water and the soil to grow. These plants then bring us food like fruits and vegetables, and give us oxygen. God is in the animals that breathe the air, eat the plants, drink the water and that create food for us. And God is in all humans, too. In every atom, every molecule, every cell. All humans, including you and me. Makes you feel kind of special, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because you are!!
God is in all life, God IS life! Let’s take a deep breath of air. Feel the molecules fill your lungs. Notice that this air is a gift from God, bringing you air that was created millions of years ago, that existed when Jesus walked the earth. Take this moment to appreciate your body, the air you breathe, and the world that God created.
As we said in the call to worship, God created all things on earth, and gave us the responsibility to take care of them. Two days ago was Earth Day. a friend sent me a video from Bill McKibben, an environmentalist and activist for the earth and her climate. He said that Antarctica was 70 degrees above normal last month! Let that sink in. 70 degrees. Wow. He writes in a recent article that “burning fossil fuel has driven the temperature of the planet ever higher, melting most of the sea ice in the summer Arctic, bending the jet stream and slowing the Gulf Stream.” He writes of ending our dependency on oil, as the US is one of the largest oil-and-gas producers of the world.
If God is in all things, God is also in oil and gas. In the production of cars. And in the air and water that becomes polluted. And in the child who develops asthma. And the elderly one who develops COPD. And it is us who are responsible. Responsible for the mess, and responsible for cleaning it up. God is telling us, through the rapid change in climate, to take care of our home. Now.
Mind
God is in our minds and our thoughts. Some call God the collective consciousness. So God is there when we remember to turn off the lights when we leave a room, or carpool, or use a reusable bag for the loose potatoes. I think the God of the mind is how we make decisions. We are given free will to do as we desire. In my humble opinion, God’s will is that which is congruent with the best outcomes for God’s creation. Now, I don’t know what God wants. I am way too puny to understand God. So, while I am working out my ideas, please bear with me.
Let’s say that God’s will for people basically comes down to love everybody and everything. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Our will is the ability to do as we see fit. And sometimes we mess up. Perhaps even daily. An obvious example is driving an oil tanker too close to the shore, so it breaks up, spills millions of gallons of oil, and then covering it up. Obviously not God’s will.
But what about when we do something in our daily life because it is convenient? But not the best for the continuation of our species on earth? That uses the limited resource of oil and then doesn’t break down, and might end up in the belly of a whale? A simple example is that most of us still use plastic bags. We know they are now not allowed for packing our groceries in New York State, but we can still buy them for sandwiches and kitchen trash. Instead we might use paper bags or bags that held something else like dog food. I am embarrassed by the amount of trash I generate from packaging. I try to cut down on it, but I confess, I have further to go.
Take a moment here and think about an example when a decision you made of your own free will probably was not God’s will. I imagine you can think of a couple from your teenage years.
So, God’s will or free will? When our free will choices match God’s will, we can feel it emotionally. There is no guilt or shame. We feel great about our choices. And at the end of the day, we sleep better. Yes, God is in our mind.
Emotion
God is in our emotions. You know the feeling of delight at a happy emotional moment? Like graduation, the birth of a baby, or falling in love? Sure you know God is in that. But you may doubt that God is also in sadness, pain or despair. Well, here is the deal. You cannot know happiness without sadness. Have you ever had a bad time in your life, when you were disappointed, hurt by someone’s actions, or were grieving? Sure you have. Everyone has been wounded. It is part of this thing called life. Now, remember the feeling of relief when you came out of it. The lessons learned. The happiness. The joy.
Take a moment to come up with your own example from your life.
There is no joy without despair. There is no happiness without sadness. There is no healing without wounding. God is there with you and in you through all the bad, as well as all the good.
Soul/Spirit
God is in your soul, in your higher self, your spirit. That part of you which is eternal, which goes on after physical death, this also is God. The Holy Spirit is the part of all there is that gives life and breath. The Holy Spirit moves through us and is the energy that comes from us. If we try right now, we can feel the Holy Spirit in this room, or through your computer. Close your eyes or cast them down and relax them. Take a deep breath in. Let it go. This next breath, imagine breathing in the love of God – just say it in your mind. Now as you exhale, say the word peace. Breathe in love, breathe out peace. One more time. Notice as you sit with your eyes closed or cast down, how calm you feel. You have the life of the Holy Spirit inside. Your soul is anchored in your body.
With the next set of breaths, send love and peace to the people around you, just by imagining that your good energy flows from your skin outward for several feet. Notice that. You might have felt tingles on your neck or a warm feeling in your stomach. One more time, send peace and love to the whole building you are sitting in. Breathe in love, breathe out peace.
I hope you can feel it. I hope you can feel God. The energy of peace and love that you send out and take in is the energy of God. From this place of communion with God your body feels less pain, you make better choices, you feel happier, your spirits are lifted. You get closer to being whole.
God said, I am the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
Past, present, future
God is the past. We hear that history repeats itself. This seems to be because we humans forget the past. We don’t learn enough about the past to understand the possible consequences from bad behavior. God has always been here, all the way back to the beginning. He says I am the Alpha – the beginning. I am the past. Learn about me, remember me. God was always here.
God is in the present. When Moses asked who was in the burning bush, God said I am that I am. The words I am come from the verb to be. When I meditate, I practice being, not doing. And I practice being in the present moment where I am not anxious about the future or upset about the past. God is in the being. God is in the present.
God is in the future. Your future and mine are created today, through our body and actions, our thoughts and mind, our feelings and emotions, and our soul. We pass down our genes and our beliefs and our habits to the next generation and beyond. We send out the God in us to influence the future.
And God is the Omega, the end. The earth is 4.6 billion years old, give or take. We have so little knowledge about the entire past of the earth, much less the Universe. So, what can I say about God being the end? Honestly and humbly, nothing.
I would like to take just a few minutes to speak about the end of humanity, though. Out of the last 4.6 billion years, man has only been here for about 6 million years. That’s only .13 percent. Less than 99.8 percent of the time. Our existence is just a blip. And National Geographic says there have been 5 mass extinctions before now. The reason I bring this up? Because we may talk about saving the earth, but actually our talk should be concentrated on saving life. Maybe then people would line up their free will with God’s will and we will reverse climate change.
So who is God? All of it. And we have this one life, as God’s creation, to use our body, mind, emotion and spirit to align ourselves with God’s will.
What will you do this week, as a person created by God, a body full of God’s energy in your atoms, with your free will to change your life for the future? You are more powerful than you know. What will you do with your God given power?
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