Oct 21, 2018                  The Greatness of God                                           

         How does one conceive the Greatness of God?

         In his book, “Your God is too Small”, JB Phillips, looks at a number of ways in which people use cultural myths, legends, and stereotypes to conceive of God’s greatness. God is like a Great Policeman, God is like a Great Parent, God is like a Great Director of our lives, and of course, my favorite, God is like a Superhero. In one of my favorite passages from the book, he equates God with Superman.

Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's God!

Yes, it's God - strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. God - who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands, and who, disguised as Jesus Christ, a mild mannered prophet, wandering about the wilderness of Galilee, fighting the never ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way. 

Sometimes I wonder, just who the disciples thought Jesus was. For weeks, Jesus has taught the disciples about God’s love as a means to change people’s lives, rather than the violence of the Roman state. Three times, he has told them that he will be crucified, die and be buried. And yet, somehow, his disciples don’t seem to get it – somehow they think that despite all this, their Super hero Jesus will rise up, slaughter his enemies, and establish a new kingdom on earth. And of course, James and John, want to be first in line for their appointments in the new administration.

Sometimes, I wonder if we get it. In our society, I regularly see people on tv and hear them on the radio talking about how they believe that being a good Christian means being a good American, or how being a good Christians means belonging to one political party or the other, Or how being a good Christian means vanquishing our foes and exercising our military dominion over all the earth. Or how being a good Christian means ravaging our planet’s natural resources. The problem with this is, that that most often these images of God – like our Superhero image above, isn’t an image of God’s greatness, but instead is an image of our own greatness – human greatness. 

The good news is, that despite these distorted images of God, most of us want God’s presence and greatness in our lives, but it doesn’t come from ruling over one another, it doesn’t come from conquest and control, it doesn’t come from insisting on our own way, it comes from a greatness of love that God has revealed to us in Jesus Christ. As Rev. Maney pointed out in his meditation yesterday, greatness comes in the quality of our relationships with others, and from Rev. Gottwald’s letter yesterday, it comes from the somebody’s who get things done. In short it means being servants, not Lords.

So if we want friends and partners who work with us, we have to work with them. We have to value them even as we value ourselves. We have to listen to them, without trying to fit them into our plans. We have to help them realize some of their dreams, in order for them to help us realize some of ours.

         If we want families that are close, we will need to make time for one another. We will need to lay aside the things, that divide us from our families, the sibling rivalries, needs for attention, the haggling over money. We will have to learn that careers and money are of secondary importance to spending time with our children, and caring for our parents as they grow old, of being there for friends, neighbors, and our church family.    

         If we want a church that is alive, we need to make it a priority in our lives.  We need to suffer ourselves to be there for worship, and listen to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to be willing, to join in it’s fellowships and serve on it’s boards. We need to assess our lives and ask, where prayer and faith enter into our relationships, our decisions, our stewardship of God’s gifts to us, and of our talents.

         If we want to be free of our fears about wealth, we need to trust in the abundance of God’s love. That the things we buy cannot make us whole, or complete or even happy. That giving of ourselves freely in relationships of friendship, love, and service in our community makes all the difference in life. Bringing us face to face with our neighbors in need, and therefore face to face with God.

         If we want to know God’s peace, we need to trust in God through our hardships. To ask God’s help in the midst of our trials, and to remember the way of God’s love for us in Lord Jesus Christ, to seek guidance from our Christian brothers and sisters. We need to let go of those things we cannot control, and seek to put Christian principals in to action in those things we can. Only then will we find true Greatness of God, that has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. And that greatness does not take the form of a king, but of a servant.

         As Jesus notes in our gospel lesson this morning, it is the Gentiles, who lord it over one another, but not his followers – they must be servants of one another, so that a new world, a world of God’s greatness can be found. They must follow in the way of that example which Jesus has given us – the way in which he died in our place for our sins, so that our lives might be transformed from lives of human power, authority and greed, into lives of spiritual peace, life, and blessing. And that is the good news of Jesus Christ!