“Again & Again: God Meets Us”
Preached Sunday, February 18, 2024
Where are you?
This may seem like a weird question for a preacher to ask a congregation. For the majority of you the answer is: sitting in the Boardman United Methodist sanctuary. For the couple dozen of you who are or will watch online - there may be some more varied answers - at home, visiting family, in the hospital, in the car.
But this morning I am not only talking about our physical locations but the question - where are you? Emotionally, mentally, spiritually.
While our physical locations do affect our inner state - just compare your inner thoughts and being at the BMV versus on the beach… We also know that it rarely tells the whole story.
I remember a time, I believe it was actually February 2021 where my phone sent me a notification, “See where you’ve been this month!” And did you know, my phone had the audacity to show me two locations: my home and my then church - two locations not even a quarter mile removed from each other. Apparently I hadn’t gone anywhere else that month. The church was still online and outside only in the wake of Covid-19. Most of my meetings were on Zoom. I had a 5 month old baby who was nursing and we we tied together and being extra precautious around the pandemic because she was so little.
You could look at the phone notification - why my phone even sent it to me, who knows, and think “Wow. I haven’t been ANYWHERE this month.”
But in my inner being, that couldn’t have been any less true. I was in the middle of figuring out how to be a mom and a pastor. A mom and a person. I was struggling to keep my own anxiety, fueled by post-partum and by a lack of sleep, in check even while I worked tirelessly to be a non-anxious presence for my parishioners also navigating a global pandemic, their own losses and fears, and illnesses. And in the midst of it all, there were these intense moments of joy and peace and relationship and connection - at home with my family and at church with my congregation. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed more to God - prayers of help, prayers of thanks, prayers of just “wow” - than during that time in my life - a time where I seemingly barely went anywhere, but where God and I traveled over vast distances together.
But this morning I am not only talking about our physical locations but the question - where are you? Emotionally, mentally, spiritually.
While our physical locations do affect our inner state - just compare your inner thoughts and being at the BMV versus on the beach… We also know that it rarely tells the whole story.
I remember a time, I believe it was actually February 2021 where my phone sent me a notification, “See where you’ve been this month!” And did you know, my phone had the audacity to show me two locations: my home and my then church - two locations not even a quarter mile removed from each other. Apparently I hadn’t gone anywhere else that month. The church was still online and outside only in the wake of Covid-19. Most of my meetings were on Zoom. I had a 5 month old baby who was nursing and we we tied together and being extra precautious around the pandemic because she was so little.
You could look at the phone notification - why my phone even sent it to me, who knows, and think “Wow. I haven’t been ANYWHERE this month.”
But in my inner being, that couldn’t have been any less true. I was in the middle of figuring out how to be a mom and a pastor. A mom and a person. I was struggling to keep my own anxiety, fueled by post-partum and by a lack of sleep, in check even while I worked tirelessly to be a non-anxious presence for my parishioners also navigating a global pandemic, their own losses and fears, and illnesses. And in the midst of it all, there were these intense moments of joy and peace and relationship and connection - at home with my family and at church with my congregation. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed more to God - prayers of help, prayers of thanks, prayers of just “wow” - than during that time in my life - a time where I seemingly barely went anywhere, but where God and I traveled over vast distances together.
So this morning when I ask: Where are you? I am talking about in your soul, in your relationship with God, with yourself, with the world.
Are you on a mountain top, marveling at God’s power and wonder - like last week when we read about Jesus’s transfiguration? Are you at a well - drinking deeply from the water of life? Are you being led beside still waters and made to lie in green pastures? Or, perhaps, are you in a wilderness - a desert, a place of temptation and trial, of self-reflection. Perhaps for you it feels like a place of denial, of fear, of lack and of want.
There is no shame being in the Wilderness. In fact, every year, our Lenten journey forces us to confront the wildernesses of our lives. Every year, we, with Jesus, are driven into the desert. We have to willingly step into the desert to know that even in seasons of sacrifice, of want, of hardship - God is there. Because there are so many times in our lives where we will find ourselves in the wilderness of our souls - driven there, not by choice, but by loss, by grief, by fear, by the pain of this world - and we will not be there by choice. It helps when we can say: I have been here before - and I know that God is here too. We can do this - again.
And that’s the theme for Lent this year, for our sermons and worship: Again & Again.
The creator’s of our Lenten resources describe it like this: “In Lent, we’re reminded that, again and again, suffering and brokenness find us. We doubt again, we lament again, we mess up again. Again and again, the story of Jesus on the cross repeats—every time lives are taken unjustly, every time the powerful choose corruption and violence, every time individuals forget how to love. With exacerbation we exclaim, “Again?! How long, O God?” And yet, in the midst of the motion blur chaos of our lives, God offers a sacred refrain: “I choose you, I love you, I will lead you to repair.” Again and again, God breaks the cycle and offers us a new way forward.”
So, yes. We are here at Lent again, we are in the Wilderness again...but we are not here alone.
Just as my short Google Maps timeline doesn’t show the full story of where I’ve been, this short passage of Scripture, well, it can seem like not much. It’s short, quick, to the point - but a LOT of ground is covered in it.
We have Jesus at the river Jordan, being baptized.
We have Jesus in the wilderness, being tempted, being with wild beasts, being waited upon by angels.
We have John being arrested, an event that affected Jesus greatly, a lynchpin for his ministry.
We have Jesus coming to Galilee, proclaiming the good news that the Kingdom of God is near, calling for repentance.
In six sentences we have three locations...but a whole LOT happening in each of those places. It’s not just about where Jesus has been - it’s about WHERE he’s been. The journey of being proclaimed beloved, of wandering the wilderness, of starting his ministry - and all the high, lows, peaks, valleys, waters and deserts in between.
Now, a whole lot could be said about Jesus and the journey he undertook in these three places and how pivotal they were for his ministry. But what I want to say today is: Jesus. God, has experienced the full range of humanity. Jesus has been there. Wherever you are, God has been there.
And wherever you are, God is there.
In United Methodist theology we have what we call prevenient grace - the grace that goes before. The grace that is there before we know it. Wherever we are, wherever life takes us, physical locations and on our spiritual journeys, God is already there, waiting for us, with us.
So today let me ask: Where are you? Are you some place you’ve been before? Asking, how did I end up here, again? Are you at a high or a low? Are you in the Wilderness?
Wherever you are, even if it is a lonely place, a hard place, a barren place...know that you are not alone. God has been there. God is with you. Whether we know it or not - God’s grace surrounds. Again and again, no matter where we find ourselves, God will always be reaching out to us. Finding us. Offering us the grace to find God. God meets us where we are. Thanks be to God for that.
And that is one of the reasons that we will undertake the congregational wide discipline and joy of celebrating weekly Communion during Lent. Because we are entering the Wilderness together and in that Wilderness we need an oasis of blessing, a place of welcome, a constant reminder that God is with us in all places and all circumstances.
And so today, as a whole, we are in the Wilderness of Lent. Again.
But remember, before Jesus entered the wilderness - he was given a blessing by God. “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
God extends that same blessing to us today. God will, continually in our lives, offer that same blessing again and again and again. Because it comes with God’s presence. It’s part of God’s never-departing grace: You are my children. I love you. I take delight in you. I will never leave you.
Again and again, no matter where we find ourselves, may we find the grace that is always there and hear this blessing.
And so to close my sermon today, I would like to close with a poem, a blessing for the beginning of Lent, by Jan Richardson called “Beloved is Where We Begin.”
"If you would enter
into the wilderness,
do not begin
without a blessing.
Do not leave
without hearing
who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has traveled this path
before you.
Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find
it is hard
to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
That is what
this journey is for.
I cannot promise
this blessing will free you
from danger,
from fear,
from hunger
or thirst,
from the scorching
of sun
or the fall
of the night.
But I can tell you
that on this path
there will be help.
I can tell you
that on this way
there will be rest.
I can tell you
that you will know
the strange graces
that come to our aid
only on a road
such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort
and strength,
that come alongside us
for no other cause
than to lean themselves
toward our ear
and with their
curious insistence
whisper our name:
Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved."
Amen.
Are you on a mountain top, marveling at God’s power and wonder - like last week when we read about Jesus’s transfiguration? Are you at a well - drinking deeply from the water of life? Are you being led beside still waters and made to lie in green pastures? Or, perhaps, are you in a wilderness - a desert, a place of temptation and trial, of self-reflection. Perhaps for you it feels like a place of denial, of fear, of lack and of want.
There is no shame being in the Wilderness. In fact, every year, our Lenten journey forces us to confront the wildernesses of our lives. Every year, we, with Jesus, are driven into the desert. We have to willingly step into the desert to know that even in seasons of sacrifice, of want, of hardship - God is there. Because there are so many times in our lives where we will find ourselves in the wilderness of our souls - driven there, not by choice, but by loss, by grief, by fear, by the pain of this world - and we will not be there by choice. It helps when we can say: I have been here before - and I know that God is here too. We can do this - again.
And that’s the theme for Lent this year, for our sermons and worship: Again & Again.
The creator’s of our Lenten resources describe it like this: “In Lent, we’re reminded that, again and again, suffering and brokenness find us. We doubt again, we lament again, we mess up again. Again and again, the story of Jesus on the cross repeats—every time lives are taken unjustly, every time the powerful choose corruption and violence, every time individuals forget how to love. With exacerbation we exclaim, “Again?! How long, O God?” And yet, in the midst of the motion blur chaos of our lives, God offers a sacred refrain: “I choose you, I love you, I will lead you to repair.” Again and again, God breaks the cycle and offers us a new way forward.”
So, yes. We are here at Lent again, we are in the Wilderness again...but we are not here alone.
Just as my short Google Maps timeline doesn’t show the full story of where I’ve been, this short passage of Scripture, well, it can seem like not much. It’s short, quick, to the point - but a LOT of ground is covered in it.
We have Jesus at the river Jordan, being baptized.
We have Jesus in the wilderness, being tempted, being with wild beasts, being waited upon by angels.
We have John being arrested, an event that affected Jesus greatly, a lynchpin for his ministry.
We have Jesus coming to Galilee, proclaiming the good news that the Kingdom of God is near, calling for repentance.
In six sentences we have three locations...but a whole LOT happening in each of those places. It’s not just about where Jesus has been - it’s about WHERE he’s been. The journey of being proclaimed beloved, of wandering the wilderness, of starting his ministry - and all the high, lows, peaks, valleys, waters and deserts in between.
Now, a whole lot could be said about Jesus and the journey he undertook in these three places and how pivotal they were for his ministry. But what I want to say today is: Jesus. God, has experienced the full range of humanity. Jesus has been there. Wherever you are, God has been there.
And wherever you are, God is there.
In United Methodist theology we have what we call prevenient grace - the grace that goes before. The grace that is there before we know it. Wherever we are, wherever life takes us, physical locations and on our spiritual journeys, God is already there, waiting for us, with us.
So today let me ask: Where are you? Are you some place you’ve been before? Asking, how did I end up here, again? Are you at a high or a low? Are you in the Wilderness?
Wherever you are, even if it is a lonely place, a hard place, a barren place...know that you are not alone. God has been there. God is with you. Whether we know it or not - God’s grace surrounds. Again and again, no matter where we find ourselves, God will always be reaching out to us. Finding us. Offering us the grace to find God. God meets us where we are. Thanks be to God for that.
And that is one of the reasons that we will undertake the congregational wide discipline and joy of celebrating weekly Communion during Lent. Because we are entering the Wilderness together and in that Wilderness we need an oasis of blessing, a place of welcome, a constant reminder that God is with us in all places and all circumstances.
And so today, as a whole, we are in the Wilderness of Lent. Again.
But remember, before Jesus entered the wilderness - he was given a blessing by God. “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
God extends that same blessing to us today. God will, continually in our lives, offer that same blessing again and again and again. Because it comes with God’s presence. It’s part of God’s never-departing grace: You are my children. I love you. I take delight in you. I will never leave you.
Again and again, no matter where we find ourselves, may we find the grace that is always there and hear this blessing.
And so to close my sermon today, I would like to close with a poem, a blessing for the beginning of Lent, by Jan Richardson called “Beloved is Where We Begin.”
"If you would enter
into the wilderness,
do not begin
without a blessing.
Do not leave
without hearing
who you are:
Beloved,
named by the One
who has traveled this path
before you.
Do not go
without letting it echo
in your ears,
and if you find
it is hard
to let it into your heart,
do not despair.
That is what
this journey is for.
I cannot promise
this blessing will free you
from danger,
from fear,
from hunger
or thirst,
from the scorching
of sun
or the fall
of the night.
But I can tell you
that on this path
there will be help.
I can tell you
that on this way
there will be rest.
I can tell you
that you will know
the strange graces
that come to our aid
only on a road
such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort
and strength,
that come alongside us
for no other cause
than to lean themselves
toward our ear
and with their
curious insistence
whisper our name:
Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved."
Amen.
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