Sermon for 7th Sunday after Easter
Father Kevin Moroney
THE NATURE OF GOD'S PRESENCE
I'd like to begin by posing a question that is both theological and spiritual: What is the nature of God's presence in the world?
What prompts me to ask is where we stand at this time in the Church's Year relative to the Bible's narrative. On Thursday we celebrated the Ascension when the Disciples saw Christ ascend back to the Father. So the unique presence of God that began with the Incarnation at Christmas is completed.
Next sunday we celebrate Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out as a unique manifestation of God's presence. Today however is in-between time in the story. Christ is gone but the Spirit has not arrived. Surely God is not entirely absent at these times, thus the question: what is the nature of God's presence?
Let me also make a confession - the Ascension is one of those events in the life of Christ with which I am least comfortable. I believe that Christ returned to the Father but the description is based on the aincient world view that Heaven is UP and Hell is DOWN, thus Christ went up.
But you might well ask "to Where"? Our world view today is quite different. THe Universe is up and the Earth's core is down. We believe different things about the order of creation and the residence of God. So again What is the nature of God's presence?
As I pondered my own question an analogy for Nature came to mind and I am mindful of the old Celtic saying that to know the Creator you must watch the Creation.
The analogy is with water. The rain comes down, feeds the earth in places, in others floods develop, the sun returns, the water evapourates returning upwards recollecting in the clouds and the cycle begins again. The natural cycle of rain and evapouration strikes me as being very simillar to that of incarnation and ascension - suggesting an answer to my question. If the analogy is valid then the nature of God's presence in the world is permeation.
Consider how much of the world is water. Even we are about 80% water. So if the world is permeated with water, how much more so with God? Thus the queation turns itself upside down and we must stop asking where God is, and begin asking where God is not. The answer is nowhere.
Thus dramatic manifestations, such as incarnation, resurrection and ascension are in a sense catchment basins for the constant recycling of God's presence among us. The waters gather in a unique and visible fashion before returning to the clouds.
But there is a difficulty here. To be everything is to appear as nothing for lack of contrast. God can become like white sound - we stop hearing because of its consistency, unless there are moments when God's permeating presence becomes tangible in its movement through incarnation, resurrection and ascension.
There are monastics, mystics and contemplatives who have developed in themselves the ability to locate the still small voice within them. For most of us this remains an elusive skill but I believe the gift begins by recognising the reality of God's permeation. There is no place where we go that God is not - work, a party, a hospital room, sitting alone with our thoughts.
The epiphanies we experience in our lives can be seen as an extension of the biblical events - the waters suddenly come down and gather before us and we see something new about God, or life, or ourselves. Then back to the clouds they goand we carry on somewhat changed.
I would hope that this analogy helps us to see a truth - that God's presence is not so much about going up and down as it is about constancy,accumulation and discernability
Constancy - because God is more present than any element in nature
Accumulation - because as limited creatures we need opoportunities to see what is around and in us.
And Discernability - because we need to learn to recognise both the moments of epiphany and the constant and varying level of God's presence.