Creekside Church Sermon of January 20, 2008 "When God Gets Personal" Isaiah 49:1-7 John 1:29-42	Rev. David Bibbee
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I don't encourage searching for Mr. or Ms. Right in the personal ads, but Michelle fared well. She met and married a professor at Notre Dame who is an internationally recognized mathematician. The problem with personal ads is the honesty issue. Assets are often inflated.

I found a list of frequently used "code words" used in personals with an interpretation of what the words really mean. For example, 40-ish means, "48." Artist means, "Unreliable." Educated translates, "College drop-out." Intuitive means, "Your opinion doesn't count." Outgoing means, "Loud." Passionate means, "Loud." Romantic translates, "Looks better by candle light." Self-employed means, "Jobless." Tan means, "Wrinkled." Reliable means, "Shows up on time -- give or take 3 hours." And spiritual means, "Once went to church with his grandmother on Easter Sunday."

One particular ad got national attention. It may have been an urban legend, but whether it is factual or not, it is a classic. This is the ad as it appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Single black female seeks male companionship. Age and ethnicity unimportant. I'm a young, svelte, good looking girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods; riding in your pickup truck; hunting, camping, and fishing trips. I love cozy winter nights spent lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I'll be at the front door every night when you get home from work. Kiss me and I'm yours. Ask for Daisy.

In two days, Daisy's number received 643 calls from potential suitors. Much to their chagrin, however, Daisy's number was the Atlanta Humane Society. The single black female was an eight-week-old Black Labrador Retriever.

The past two Sundays in Epiphany we have considered what happens "When God Brings Out Our Best," and "When God Gets Through." We said we have much in common with the first disciple, Joseph. He never spoke. He was always in the background and did what was asked of him. Without his loving protection of Mary and Jesus and his obedience to the angel's commands, Jesus' life may have ended shortly after it began. Last Sunday we recalled Jesus' baptism and talked about how we can open "the eyes of our hearts" and experience the presence of God.

Today, our "When God…" series continues by paying attention to the "up close and personal" component of our relationship to God. But what about the personals? I wonder what the response would be if God took out an ad?

Single Supreme Being, commonly called, Creator, Author of Life, Lord of All, I Am, Rock of Ages, the Unmoved Mover, the Lord Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, God Almighty, seeks committed, intimate, very long term relationship with everyone interested. Do you love the mountains, the beach, the water, breath-taking sunsets, changing seasons, gazing upon the star-spangled skies? I made it all.

Available 24/7 for emergencies, but desire contact when life is going fine. Excellent listener. Single parent with one son who's everybody's friend--an excellent guide, teacher, counselor, physician, spiritual advisor. Call anytime. No inquiries will be turned down.

What distinguishes Christianity from other religions is it's personal dimension. God is not confined within space and time, much less in temples or shrines. God is beyond reach, beyond our thoughts, beyond all limits. God is transcendent. But God is also immanent, close, near as your beating heart and your next breath. Psalm 139 says God knows when we sit down and get up. God knows when we we've been and where we're going. God knows what we will say before we say it. That's personal! God knows us completely and what God desires most is relationship. From a relationship comes a calling with our names on it. It is work that God needs done.

In Isaiah 49 the prophet said, "Listen up, people! God knew me before I was a gleam in my parent's eyes. As I was taking shape in my Mama's womb God gave me a name. He gave me a job. He made me his servant. God promised to give me the words and the wisdom to restore Israel and shine God's light from here to there and everywhere in between."

God's desire for relationship with humanity is a long, sometimes fruitful, often tortured story. The problem wasn't God's. When one attempt failed to bring the desired covenant between God and Israel, God tried another. God spoke through the patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through Moses, God gave the law to bring obedience and order Israel. God spoke through prophets like Jeremiah who said the law would be written on people's hearts and not stone tablets.

But people, being who they are, didn't abide, obey, or listen. They lost interest, or followed deals that seemed better at the time, even if it meant bowing before someone else's god. Yet out of God's deep love and desire for humanity, God provided another way.

In the letter to the Hebrews it says: "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son" (Hebrews 1: 1-2). The only way God could become personal was to become incarnate. The only way to our hearts was to become flesh and blood. God demoted himself. God got off the throne, climbed down the ladder from heaven to earth, humbled himself and subjected himself to all the tests, trails, and troubles we experience. It was God's most extreme way of saying, "Look! This is how much I love you!"

Last Sunday we heard Matthew's version of Jesus' baptism. It was a confirmation of his identity and mission when Jesus heard God's voice say, "You are my beloved son." Our text from John picks up the story two days later when John the Baptist and two of his disciples see Jesus coming their way. John said, "Behold, the Lamb of God." He kept his distance, but John's disciples wanted to learn more. They followed Jesus. When he turned and saw them he asked, "Is there something I can do for you?"

What would you have said if Jesus asked you that question? When I visited the Taizé Community in France, I entered the church where the brothers and thousands of guests come to worship three times a day. As I approached the chancel, I saw words etched into the altar table. I figured that it said, "Do This In Remembrance of Me" in French. What it said instead was, "Friend, Why Are You Here?" This is a question that should be painted on the wall above the doors going into the worship center. "Friends, why are you here?"

John's disciples didn't ask Jesus, "Who are you?" They didn't ask what God was like. They seemed more interested in his accommodations. "Teacher… where are you staying?" What kind of question was that? Jesus said, "Why don't you come and see?" They did. They spent the remainder of the day with him. We don't know what they did or learned from Jesus. It doesn't matter. What we see is an invitation from Jesus to follow, spend time with him, learn to know him and in so doing learn to know God.

This is something to cherish about Jesus. We live in such an impersonal world. People are slotted into groups and labeled liberal, neo-con, tax-and-spend Democrats, war-mongering, bedfellows with-the-rich and to-hell-with-the-poor Republicans, straight or gay, patriotic or un-American. Before we're asked our names we have to give our Social Security number. We're zip-coded, bar-coded, sorted by age, education, blood type, insured or uninsured.

Jesus ministered to the multitudes, but never lost sight of a face in the crowd. We see the heart of Jesus as he ministers one-on-one. "What do you want me to do for you? Go and sin no more. Sell all you've got and give it to the poor. Take up your cross. Get up on your feet and follow me." He told us that every person matters to God. He said God knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows when a sparrow falls from a tree. He feeds the birds and clothes the flowers of the field. If God cares for bluebirds and blue asters, think how much more God cares for you."

I'm not an abstract thinker. Speculation doesn't appeal to me. Discussing things for the sake of discussing them is time that could be better spent fishing. I understand what I can visualize, draw on paper, or tell in a story. This is the reason philosophy wasn't my cup of tea in college. The greatest insight I gained came from the first day in Philosophy 101. It was a Chinese proverb that said, "Philosophy bakes no bread." At the end of the day, the issue under speculation doesn't matter unless it can be buttered or be expressed in the laboratory of life.

Someone observed that in typical discussions that go on in most church school programs, Christians talk a lot more about God than Jesus. Will Willimon says, "The more vague, indistinct, mushy, and impersonal we can make God, the better for us! Then we can make God just about anything we want, and we will never have to grow, change, or be born again."

In Tennessee Williams' novel, Sweet Bird of Youth, there is a character called, "the heckler." Wherever a certain "religious" politician showed up to make a speech, the heckler appeared and tried to help people see that things were not as they appeared with this corrupt politician. He got beat up again and again by the goons of the politician. There is a scene where the politician begins his speech, saying, "When I was fifteen I came down barefoot out of the red clay hills as the voice of God was calling me."

The heckler didn't believe it was really the voice of God that called the way the man said it did. He shouted, "I don't believe it! I believe in the silence of God, the absolute speechlessness of him is a long, long and awful thing that the whole world is lost because of. I think it is yet to be spoken to any man living or yet lived on earth, no exceptions."

He wasn't saying God didn't exist. He was questioning whether God had either the means or desire to speak and be personal with us. The heckler speaks for everyone who wonders, "IF God is real -- IF God cares, then why not settle it once and for all and lay down the evidence like a linoleum floor? Why doesn't God just speak up?"

God has spoken -- through the Bible written by people inspired by the Spirit, and most of all, through the life, the teachings, and the personal relationship we can enjoy with Jesus.

We can't love idols. We can't love sunsets, or beauty, or nature, or traditions, or church buildings. The only loving relationships we can enjoy are personal -- with Someone who loves in return. Someone we can follow. Someone we can serve. Someone who is God incarnate. Someone named Jesus.

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