Psalm # Psalm 12: 1—4 & 7—8
Preached: 2010 Des Arc First UMC Nursing home 11 Apr 2010
It is quickly becoming a national obsession—there is NO GOD. However, this is nothing new.
I remember way back in collage there was a saying GOD IS DEAD.
Why, because we felt that with what was going on in Vietnam, then God must have left the picture.
Again, this is nothing new. Look back at the entirety of Human history and you will see repeatedly
feelings that either the god of the people or the God we know now was not around.
We are like Job who shouts to the wind in times of trial and wonder where can be our God in the whirlwind.
The people of Moses’ time wondered why their God had left them to be servants and oppressed in Egypt land.
That was until they looked up and saw God was with them in the cloud and in the pillar of flame.
The people to judge’s time wondered where their God was
until they saw the mighty acts He performed through Deborah, and Gideon, and Sampson.
The people of David and Solomon’s time wondered where their God was when they searched for him in the high places where idols were worshiped.
The people of the Northern Kingdoms wondered where God was as the Assyrians destroyed their kingdom and impaled their men and babies on spikes,
until they learned that God was not to be forgotten and came back to worship him on his mountain.
In addition, Jerusalem was able to stand against this mighty foe.
The people of the Babylonian temple destruction time wondered why their God had left them when they were drug away in chains.
Until they found understanding in and through their longing for God of old came home and they were able to return to Jerusalem and rebuild.
The people of the Maccabean time wondered where their God was
until he showed them through the oil of a Lamp that He was still there and was still to be worshiped.
The people of Jesus time wondered where God was when they were under the rule of the Romans,
until a radical socialist Jewish carpenter showed them the actual face of God and pointed toward his Kingdom.
The people of Nero’s time wondered where their new Lord and God was and when would he return as promised.
Until they remembered that, He was with them even to death in the coliseum.
The people of the dark ages wondered where their God was because of the plague and death all around them,
until they remembered their God was a God of love and forgiveness.
The people who died in the Holocaust and devastation of two world wars wondered how and why their God could allow such destruction and actions.
That was until they remembered, and heard him in their lives and in the trenches and foxholes calling out in a still quite voice for love.
Moreover, the people of my generation wondered why God was dead—when we thought, we did not need him any more—until we remembered that
He is the one in charge and not we ourselves. And the people of this post-modern age of terrorism and age;
—where anything seems to go and doing what we want rather than what we know is right is common; and feeling that there are many Gods
and none deserve our worship because there is so much hate and intolerance.
We all will need to once again learn as they have all learned over the ages;
That God is there and has never moved away from any of us, and that He is not a God of retribution and exclusion.
And that He is not some Mighty being who sits like a potentate sitting on a high throne
waiting to through all of the human race into the fiery pits of Hell, because we are so bad we are unredeemable.
What we must learn is that our God is a mighty God, yes, but a God of Forgiveness and compassion who created us not to be angles,
not to be fodder for eternal fires, but to be his companion and the caretakers of His Kingdom.
We humans with our self-important sense of being, who were given free choice to allow us to live lives that matter to each other and for each other.
We need to learn that not everything on this world was created for our creature comfort, but as a place where we are to come together to support each other,
yes even our enemies, and care for those who cannot take care of themselves and this includes not only those humans we like but all of God’s creation.
The Birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the animals of the earth, and yes even old grumpy Gus who cusses at us, yells,
and throws things at us. Our God, My God is a God of Love and peace.
He is always there beside me and there for me in the good times and in the bad times.
He helps me protect the oppressed, helping to preserve them forever if we let Him help us.
Sometimes, it is not God who does this, but it is He who uses us to do this work—for that is what He has called each of us to do in His name.