Good morning Sunrise! I hope everyone has had a good week. Friday evening, my family did something a little bit outside the norm. Karen, Emily and I went with a couple of friends of ours, one being another Methodist pastor, on a Ghost Walk of downtown Salisbury. If it wasn’t odd enough for three Methodist pastors to be doing this, then let me let you know that our tour guide was a retired Lutheran pastor. Maybe it’s because as pastors, we often encounter the dead (at least in some worship services) or that it just that time of year to get our “spooky fix” for the year, but we had a really good time! It turns out that Salisbury, as with any old historic town, is filled with stories about people encountering the presence of something that isn’t natural. Their tales range from hearing unexplained sounds, to visually witnessing some type of apparition or movement of some object that spans beyond human comprehension. While I remain a skeptic of the presence of ghosts, I remain fervent in my belief in this term Presence.
Last week we began this new series, which serves as part of our stewardship campaign, called Holy ConneXions. The idea for this came about as I have been trying different methods and appliances to improve our cell phone connection at home. It seems that no matter where we live, our house is also situated in a technological black hole. Communications signals are either non-existent or weak at best. As I began attempting to find a remedy to this incessant problem, I began to discern that this is a spiritual problem for many as well. For whatever reason, sometimes we find ourselves in places where our communication and relationship with God is either absent or weak at best. So, I began looking at the different disciplines to help improve our spiritual connexions – these are: Prayer, Presense, Gifts, Service, and Witness. Now some of you might recognize that these are the elements that are part of the membership vows that one takes when they decide to be a part of a United Methodist community of faith. Unfortunately though, they often seem to be relegated as just about church membership, but in fact, they are devices that can make a dramatic impact on one’s own spiritual life.
This first aspect we considered was Prayer. Building on what we learned last week, I would like to ask for someone to pray for this our time together.
[Allow someone to pray]
As we look at these five methods of connexion, we can see that four of them are asking for a commitment to time. Time spent in prayer; time spent in some type of service, time spent in spreading the Gospel, and the one that we will be looking at today, time dedicated to Presence.
A few years ago, my wife and I were at a school awards program. As the principal was giving a speech about the importance of attendance, she said, “I cannot tell you how many times I sit in my office and look at children who are not there.” Of course, as soon as I heard her utter those words, all that came to mind was that infamous line from the movie, The Sixth Sense, “I see dead people.” Now, I know she didn’t mean what she said in that way. Actually, she was just trying to reiterate the point that attendance is directly related to how well students perform. I understand that and I whole-heartedly agree, but it just struck me as funny and to a certain degree, ironic. Presence is a good indicator of the maturity and health of a relationship.
Now, let me ask you a question, have you ever known a person who has been present in body, but that’ s it? You can be talking to them and then you realize that they haven’t heard a word you were saying? There are probably a lot of wives who would be nodding in agreement. The problem with this lack of attention, this absence of emotional presence can become habitual – and when it does, it begins to strain the relationship.
In the movie in which I mentioned a few moments ago, Bruce Willis’ character has become so caught up with his work and current situation, that he is late to a special dinner. Watch what happens.
(Clip from The Sixth Sense where the couple meets for their anniversary dinner)
Now, there is a big twist to this story, the premise holds true – his lack of presence with his wife has strained the relationship.
Friends, our inept attitude about our being in God’s presence can be just as devastating. I invite you to look at a particular passage of scripture with me this morning: it’s Exodus 33:7-11.
Exodus 33:7-11
7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp; he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise and stand, each of them, at the entrance of their tents and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down, all of them, at the entrance of their tent. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then he would return to the camp; but his young assistant, Joshua son of Nun, would not leave the tent.
I want to go back to the beginning of the passage and read a small part of it again, alright, let’s read this together:
Exodus 33:7
Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp.
Stop.
When did Moses do this? In the past. See, it says he “used’ to take the tent. Now, I know that the whole Bible is pretty much written in past tense, but this part implies that this section is removed from the rest, which is true – I want you to later read for yourself chapter 33 in its entirety and you’ll understand.
The section just before this passage and that right after it in this chapter is describing how God is no longer allowing such an intimacy to take place. Why, because the people no longer had the right attitude about being in the presence of God. In verse 3, God says this:
Exodus 33:3
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, or I would consume you on the way,
Now why would God be that harsh, saying that basically if He stays with his chosen people, He will destroy them? What has angered Him so much? It was the people’s attitude of presence. If we look back up to verse 10, we see it says:
Exodus 33:10
When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and bow down, all of them, at the entrance of their tent.
But not now. Their attitude has turned them away from God and turned it on themselves, and we know this because of what God finishes up saying about them in verse 3,
Exodus 33:3
"for you are a stiff-necked people."
Stiff-necked people. Have you ever met someone like that? They are people who think so highly of themselves that they consider all others are beneath them. The people described in this passage won’t even acknowledge the omnipotence of God. So, they have severed their intimate connection with God.
There is another consequence of their stiff necks. Moses had had a relationship with God where he could go speak with God face-to-face, but because of the self-serving attitude of the people rather than a God-seeking attitude, the best he could do is see the back-side of God as He passed by…the back-side!
Think for a moment folks, when we pull out a picture of our loved ones out of our wallets, what is the picture of? Their back-side? No, it’s a picture of their face – am I right? Because it is their face that we fall in love with; it is their face that we can see the depth of their love for us; our eyes meeting their eyes; filling that longing of our souls to be in communion with one another. If you get a picture of someone’s back-side, they are probably expressing some resentment of you.
I am afraid that far too many Christians have fallen into this same rut that these early people of God. They have forgotten what it means to be truly present in worship – that it is not about their taste and preferences or what they can get out of it, but it is a time to bow down before God and recognize Him for who He is, LORD, Creator, the Almighty.
For many though, they don’t come to seek God’s face, but God’s hands. In other words, they come looking for what they can get from God. They look at what they have – what else can God give. Now, God does have much to give, but the problem is many start focusing on the gift rather than the Giver. So they become stiff-necked as they just come to expect without ever acknowledging the Giver.
But friends, it doesn’t have to be that way. Our God is one how yearns to reconnect with those who have severed their relations with Him. So, the more we engage in these Holy Connexions, deliberately and intentionally engaging in strengthening our relationship with God, the more our heads bow and God is honored. Soon, we began to recognize God’s presence is another way of God saying to us “I love you.” Likewise, we also begin to realize that our presence in worship is another way of saying to God, “I long to be in your presence LORD. It is here that I feel your grace, your mercy, your power, and your majesty. It is here LORD, the world makes sense.”
This morning, as we begin to close out this time of worship, I want to invite you to begin the discipline of raising Jesus up and we humble ourselves before him. I invite you to kneel down at your seat, bow your head in humility as we enter into a time of prayer and Holy Connexion.
[PRAYER]
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