SUNDAY, JULY 21 2024 - WHO ART IN HEAVEN OR IN WHOM IS HEAVEN
July 21, 2024
Deborah Laforet
Who Art in Heaven or In Whom Is Heaven
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen. Since the pandemic and doing our worship services exclusively online, those folks who lead us in the Prayers of the People have slowly changed over to a different way of sharing the Jesus prayer. We’ve basically kept the prayer the same except that we have changed and extended the first six words. Traditionally, we would say, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” As an affirming community, who finds it important to extend our understanding of God, we have taken a part of an adaptation of this prayer, written by Jim Cotter: Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, loving God in whom is heaven…” Recently someone talked to Carolyn and I and asked if she could hear a sermon about the difference between those last four words, “in whom is heaven” and the traditional four words, “who art in heaven.” So, we’re going to look at that today. We’re going to start with you folks. I’m hoping some of you might share where you experience God in your lives. Where do you find the sacred, where do you feel the Holy. It used to be that everyone believed that God was up above, that heaven is up above, in the skies, and is where we will find all things holy. Since landing on the moon and our deep exploration of space, up there looks a bit different. It’s still a mystery but a lot more is known. We’re aware, not just of planets and our own solar system, but of the vastness of this galaxy and others. We actually have pictures. We tend to talk more about finding extraterrestrial life in this cosmos rather than about finding a heaven with God and angels. What does it mean to pray to a god who art in heaven? This language tends to bring us to thoughts of heaven as a geographical space. Later in the prayer, we say, “Thy will be done on 2 of 6 earth as it is in heaven,” as if there is some other place in this universe where God resides that is filled with love and justice and that we want to imitate that place here on earth. Does God reside in some other space, reserved for the sacred, a place we go when we die? Since the early church, the belief in a heaven has dominated the Christian faith and other faiths but before that, people mostly believed in a place of the dead, where all souls went. There wasn’t a heaven and a hell, where one was a paradise and the other a place of punishment. The gods were in the heavens as well as among the people, and all the dead when to Sheol, or Hades, or the Underworld. Many people today don’t believe in a heaven, or at least a heaven in the clouds with angels and harps and the gates to paradise. As our society becomes more secular, more scientific and logical, with fewer people going to church and fewer believing in God, many don’t talk about heaven, and in fact, tend to avoid the topic of death, until it hits them straight in the face. It would be an interesting exercise to talk with the average person on the street to see what they think about a God who art in heaven and what that means to them? What if we also asked them what it means to a have a loving god in whom is heaven? It might take some moments to wrap their heads around this phrase, “a loving god in whom is heaven.” My understanding is that it’s about finding heaven within the god we experience. Earlier, some of you told us where you experienced god. Might these also be the places where you experience heaven. Let’s look at our scripture reading today that Marci and Rodrigo read for us. It’s a favourite for many who meditate, who go on silent retreat, who want to experience the Divine. We have a man, named Elijah, who is in distress. He has defied the queen of Israel and he is running for his life. Finally, he sits under a broom tree, and just tells God to take his life. He’s done. He is finished. We read that while he is sitting under a broom tree, probably to get out of the heat of the day, an angel comes twice to bring him nourishment. Now, whether this is a winged, heavenly creature, or just common folk traveling along the way, is up for interpretation; you could 3 of 6 probably interpret it either way. After being nourished with bread and water, he is then able to continue on his journey, for forty days and nights, a significant number in our bible, until he gets to Mount Horeb, the place where the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, and where God is known to be present. Elijah goes into a cave and he waits. The word of God then comes to Elijah and says, “What are you doing here?” Elijah then shares his woes with God, explaining that he is the only prophet left and that he is being hunted down. We can hear the terror and the exhaustion in his words. God then tells Elijah to, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of Yahweh, for Yahweh is about to pass by.” Now, this is big news. The Lord God, Yahweh, the almighty “I Am,” does not show up for just anyone. In fact, up to this point in our bibles, we know God wandered in the garden with Adam and Eve, and then, on this very mountain, Moses sees the backside of God. What will Elijah encounter? Well, first there is a great and powerful wind that tears the mountain apart and shatters the rocks. But Yahweh is not in the whirlwind. There is an earthquake. But Yahweh is not in the earthquake. Then there is fire. But Yahweh is not in the fire. Elijah encounters God, not in the powerful whirlwind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in, according to this scripture reading from the Inclusive Bible, a gentle whisper. In other translations, Elijah encounters God in a soft murmuring sound, or in the sound of sheer silence. Elijah then again hears the words from God, “What are you doing here?” God is often portrayed as all-powerful, all-knowing, and so magnificent and awesome as to be out of our reach and even something to be feared. It makes sense for God to be in the violent winds, the ground shaking earthquake, or in a blazing fire. But in this scripture reading, Elijah encounters God in the stillness, in the whisper, in the quiet, and in the words, “Why are you here?” 4 of 6 Loving God, in whom is heaven. Maybe heaven is that place of stillness and peace, that place outside of the noise and the chaos, away from the busyness and the fast pace of life. Maybe heaven is in the taste of a fresh strawberry, or in the scent of the earth after the rain, or in watching the sun dip just below the horizon. Maybe heaven is in the cradling of a small child, the touch of a loving embrace, the tears of sorrow, or the laughter that just won’t stop. Loving God, in whom is heaven. Where do we find the sacred in our lives and is that also where we find heaven? I’m not trying to convince you that heaven is not a place, a place of angels, and harps, and golden gates, a place where we might find our loved ones after we die. There might very well be such a place. My invitation to you is to also find heaven with and around you, in sacred moments in your lives. Where we find God in our lives, where we find those holy moments, we also might find heaven. Whether we pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven,” or “Loving God, in whom is heaven,” may we find those holy moments in our lives, those moments of peace, those moments of joy, those moments of letting go, those moments when we can stop, breathe, and just be in the moment. May we find those times when we can almost touch heaven, when we can hear the whispers of the divine, and when we can feel the sacredness surrounding us and all life on earth and beyond. May these moments inspire us, support us, and encourage us to create this heaven on earth for everyone. May it be so. Amen. 5 of 6 1 Kings 19:1-12 (Introduce yourself.) Our reading this morning, from the Hebrew Scriptures, is about Elijah, one of the major prophets in the Jewish faith. In our story, Elijah has reached a crisis point with the rulers of Israel. He is running for life, and has stopped to tell God that he is done. He is ready to die. Near the end of the passage, you will hear that God comes to Elijah as a gentle whisper. These Hebrew words are translated in several ways: sometimes as a still, small voice, a soft murmuring sound, or a sound of sheer silence. We are reading from the first book of Kings, the first twelve verses of chapter nineteen. Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah did, and how he killed all the prophets with the sword. 2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them!” 3 Full of fear, Elijah feared for his life. When he came to Beersheba, in Judah, he left his attendant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Yahweh,” he said. “Take away my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel of Yahweh touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there near his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate the cake and drank the water and then lay down again. 7 The angel of Yahweh came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” 8 So he got up and ate and drank some more. Strengthened by that food, he traveled for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb the mountain of God. 9 There he went into a cave and spent the night there. And the word of the Yahweh came to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 Elijah replied, “I have been very zealous for Yahweh Omnipotent. The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death by the sword. I am the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me too.” 11 God said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of Yahweh, for Yahweh is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountain apart and and shattered the rocks by Yahweh’s power - but Yahweh was not in the 6 of 6 whirlwind. After the wind there was an earthquake - but Yahweh was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake, came a fire - Yahweh was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” May the Spirit guide our understanding of this sacred scripture. Amen.