A God Near By
Jeremiah 23:23-29
God's word is like fire
23:23 Am I a God near by, says the LORD, and not a God far off?
23:24 Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.
23:25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed! I have dreamed!"
23:26 How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back--those who prophesy lies and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart?
23:27 They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal.
23:28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the LORD.
23:29 Is not my word like fire, says the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
One of my “bucket list” things in retirement was reconnecting with my childhood love of astronomy and “star-gazing.” As a youth, I loved using the various telescopes my parents afforded me to look at the Moon, the Sun, and the few (or two?) other planets it could resolve, and simply wonder about them. Occasionally, when on a backyard “campout” with one of my rural friends, I could ponder the evening sky from the perspective of “real black,” away from the city lights, enjoying a panoramic view of the Milky Way, and often witnessing meteorites bursting like fireworks into the Earth’s atmosphere. These activities made feel closer to my understanding of God than farther away. I could never comprehend why some “science minded” folk felt that their growing knowledge of the cosmos brought more doubt than faith, as this was not my experience at all. There was a severe, necessary “interconnectedness” of the universe that seemed to me to be a Polaroid photo of who God was, and God’s essential role in what existed. Gazing at the starry heavens most often “blurred the lines” for me between what I had always been taught was “real” and what was spiritual or ethereal. In the glittering cosmos, it ALL became so profoundly real, as did the idea that God was “all and in all, and that which held all things together” (my paraphrase of Paul’s thoughts in Colossians).
When I retired, the first thing I did was buy a better telescope than my parents could have ever afforded, especially while raising three boys. It is a Meade Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope with a computerized mount that, once calibrated, allows the operator to tell it to point to various celestial objects, and it will obey. With it I was able to have my grandchildren gawk through the tiny eyepiece to see the deepest craters of the moon, and behold the rings of Saturn. My aging eyes (and especially in the months before cataract surgery) were continuing to struggle with the diminutive optics of even this decent scope. I was able to boost its usefulness by purchasing a small, digital camera that replaced the eyepiece and broadcasted the telescope’s image to my phone or iPad, but getting the thing set up and calibrated could take half a night, in itself. Then, a quantum leap in amateur astronomy occurred—the “smart telescope.”
I first read about them when a company called “Unistellar” began offering one of those “Internet venture capital” deals, whereby you could invest in their goal of marketing a new telescope design that combined optics with a computer and a built-in, high resolution imaging sensor. It was to be called the “Equinox,” and would cost about $4,000—a BIT too rich for my blood. Fast forward to 2024, and a Chinese company, ZWO, which had been building telescope cameras for astrophotography for many years, debuted something called the “SeeStar,” their version of a “smart telescope,” but one with a $500 price point! Having read about how they worked, Yours Truly put myself on the waiting list for the SeeStar S50. In May of last year, I took delivery of my SeeStar, and on the first clear night, it basically gave me my own private star ship! Any given clear night will find it set up in my driveway or on our back deck, scanning the heavens for galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, or comets! (Smart scopes work by using their internal computers and GPS to track targeted objects, and then using their high-resolution, digital imaging sensors to take multiple exposures, then stacking them to provide brightness and clarity. What they do, prior to this new technology, could only be accomplished by expensive “rigs” owned by well-healed individuals or universities! The opening photo for this week’s retirement sermon is of M21, the Andromeda Galaxy, taken off my back deck by the SeeStar S50.)
Why all the astronomy in a sermon? Because this passage invokes a thought-provoking idea that God is NOT just a “God nearby,” but a God “far off” who is capable of both “micro” and “macro” involvement in my personal life and the affairs of both the wider world AND the cosmos! Our God IS a God nearby, especially when we most need this embracing proximity, just as Jesus demonstrated via his foray into our world. I am reminded of the little boy who is afraid of the dark, as his father is putting him to bed. His dad tells him that God will protect him and watch over him. The little boy responds, “I know God is with me, Daddy, but I want someone with SKIN ON to stay with me!” We all have those times in life when we need “someone with skin on” to comfort us, don’t we? In Jesus Christ, we have experience this, and through the Body of Christ, we have access to all the “skin on” people we need, especially if we are part of a loving assembly, and not a militant one that sees itself as “defenders of the faith.” (As I write this, a former colleague now with the Global Methodists, posted an article decrying what it cites as the “continued failings” of the United Methodist Church because it chooses to accept persons formerly excluded by our doctrines. This “holier than thou” article got my goat, as they say.)
But our need for a “God nearby” should not allow us to “box” God into nice, economy-sized portions. God IS also a “God far off,” able to manage the creative, life-giving and sustaining affairs of the universe. If God is a God of touch, compassion, forgiveness, and redeeming, God—to be God—must also be a God of physics, quantum science, orbital mechanics, and the infamous “space/time” that governs how the universe operates. If one reads the Bible with an open mind, and not scouring it for doctrines with an aim to control and confine, we read of a God who is lovingly BOTH a universe weaver and a cheek-stroking comforter, of a God who loves the limitless cosmos AND who walked the sands of the Road to Jericho with a goofy band of ne’er-do-wells he chose as his friends. When I look to the starry skies with my smart scope, I see not just the handiwork of our God, but I believe I am seeing the LIVING God actually “playing” in his backyard.
Incidentally, I have to say something that the reader may not like. Do I HAVE to believe that our understanding of Yahweh includes a God big enough to be “master” of all the universe we see in the heavens, not to mention the other universes science says may exist? I just can’t conceive of this. So, while I would NEVER say that Yahweh CAN’T be that all mastering, all creating, and all powerful over everything we see kind of God, I just don’t need that “mighty” of a view of God to believe in and worship the Father of Jesus Christ and the Yahweh of the Bible. In the old film “O God,” late comedian George Burns plays a “version” of God I can live with, never eschewing divine power, but more interested in encouraging a vibrant, compassionate, and sustainable community on Planet Earth. THIS is a “god image” I can live with, and what I believe the storytellers and chroniclers of the Bible are offering to us. Again, I’m not saying that Yahweh ISN’T the one keeping M31 spiraling its billions and billions of stars around its magnificent arms, and balancing the energies of supernovas and dark matter to ward off annihilation of our home Milky Way, but I just don’t NEED a God that “universal” to feel secure in my faith. In fact, that whole “space/time” understanding of the fabric of the universe may just BE the foundation of heaven, about which our “life energy” will discover someday after our earthly demise! I’m kind of counting on this.
I Just finished reading “I and Thou,” written by Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher, in the earlier part of the 20th century. In it, Buber states that the most “real” things about life are relational, in nature, and of those, we do best to eschew “I-It” relationships and nurture our precious “I-Thou” ones, especially with the “Eternal Thou.” I can relate to both the “high aim” of Yahweh to enculture relationships, AND to nurture more intimate “I-Thou” relationships with God’s people. Maybe the problem with our nation is that we have allowed our politics and other differences to degrade us to “I-It” relationships? These are the kind that become so impersonal that we can conceive of ignoring or even doing some kind of violence to those with whom we vehemently disagree. I confess that this Trump stuff has got me to the edge of that, of which I constantly need to repent.
Years ago, the Apple computer company put out a TV ad that made an impression on me. The ad appeared when debate was occurring over which computer was the “best,” in an era when the full efficacy of “personal” computers was in its infancy. In the ad, several supervisors and their boss were eavesdropping through a large window on a group of company employees in an adjacent “computer” room. As most of the vacant desks were home to what were meant to be IBM’s “personal” computer at that time, the employees were gathered around and were using an Apple MacIntosh desktop computer, famous for its “gooey” (G.U.I., for “Graphical User Interface”) technology, controlled by a “mouse.” The boss executive asks his supervisors, “What do you think makes the best computer?” One of the supervisors, answers in technobabble: “The one with the most bytes and mbps, the fastest processor?” “No,” the executive responds, “I think it is the one people will USE.” And while I think it was an extremely successful ad, I also believe it tells us something about which “view” of God is the most effective: The best understanding of God is the one people will “use,” or can relate to, especially in their time of personal crisis or need. THIS is the God Jeremiah is describing in today’s passage! A God who can be BOTH a “God who is near” and a “God far off,” keeping the universe on balance!
Which God do you need to show up today? Woody Allen once said that two-thirds of success is just showing up. God DOES show up, however we need God to be present. We Christians celebrate the loving incursion God made into our realm through Jesus Christ. We continue to celebrate our “God who is near” as the church experiences a fresh set of “growing pains,” too. And when all is right with the world for a few hours, I will celebrate the God of space/time as I gaze into the wonderment that is the cosmos with my trust SeeStar! Shalom, Yinz! Amen.