This week I can't seem to get away from the fact that God is everywhere, all the time - maybe because He IS everywhere, all the time. I guess the thought process really began last week when an online friend blogged about breathing God. He talked about the Hebrew word for God, Yahweh, and how that really referred to breathing so that even just breathing you were actually saying the word Yahweh. If you have 2-3 minutes you can read his blog entry by clicking here. It is the post dated 6th November entitled Breathing. The point I'm making is that all life breathes all the time wherever it finds itself. In the beginning God breathed life into the universe, His breath, His presence into everything. No life exists without His living breath and presence within it.
Then this week another friend shared on Facebook the picture opposites saying in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson that wise people see miracles in ordinary things. It seems to me that we tend to go looking here, there and everywhere for some expression of the power of God when He's all around us in the ordinary, everyday life. I have often mentioned and will always be amazed at the cycle of nature and the seasons. The very variety and detail of creation is astounding and documentaries seem to come up with new things all the time. Some people have a tendency to imply that God can be found only in certain places or certain situations or certain times as though you need to go through some formula (usually involving special music, readings or prayers) of conjuring up His presence, even asking Him to come and be with us when God Himself clearly says that He is in all thing all the time. Jesus also told us that the Holy Spirit is within us.
A couple of days ago the thoughts on God being everywhere continued when I read the daily meditation of Richard Rohr. He is a Roman Catholic Franciscan priest whose daily meditations give much food for the soul. You can subscribe to receive his daily thoughts on the website here and enter your details at the right hand side to subscribe. He quotes Boniface when he says, 'By God's power, presence and essence, God is the one whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. God exists uncircumscribed in everything.' meaning that God is everywhere. Boniface goes on to say:
God is therefore all inclusive. God is the essence of everything. God is most perfect and immense within all things but not enclosed, outside all things but not excluded, above all things but not aloof, below all things but not debased. Finally therefore, this God is all in all ... ... Consequently from Him, through Him and in Him, all things exist.
He is so powerful, He is everywhere at all times. He is so spectacular, He makes so many miracles look like ordinary. His presence is alive in every breath of every life form. God is in everything and everything is in God. It's time to stop searching here, there and everywhere. Wherever I am, He is. Or as St. Francis said 'The whole world is our cloister'. As long as I breathe, He is within me. Or as the song says, 'This is the air I breathe, your holy presence living in me.' He is Yahweh, the I AM, the ever present breath of life, everywhere, all the time.
There is a cartoon that I follow on Facebook called 'Coffee with Jesus'. A few days ago they published the following cartoon and it set me thinking. What does 'Jesus people' really mean?
We consider Jesus People and Christians to be synonymous but I have come to the conclusion that there are many things about Christianity as people think of it today that are not in accord with the things that Jesus said and did. They don't follow his way of doing things and understanding as to what the gospel message is.
There are so many rules and regulations about what we should or shouldn't do, think or believe. Our thinking and standards are so often based on Old Testament law. Many times (I don't really know how many as I haven't actually counted but I'm sure someone, somewhere has) Jesus says about the law 'Moses said but I say to you ... ... ' He was known for breaking the law as written in their Scriptures - he healed on the Sabbath, he and the disciples walking in the fields and plucking and rubbing ears of corn to eat were actually working on the Sabbath, he spoke to a stranger, a woman and a Samaritan woman at that (sworn enemy of Jews), he even made a Samaritan the hero of one of his stories. Sticking to the letter of the law might have been very commendable to a Pharisee but Jesus didn't seem to have anything in common with the Pharisees and showed that people and how they felt were far more important.
The Old Testament shows how women have second place and on the whole Scripture is written from the male point of view. Jesus crossed that barrier and spoke to women treating them as equal to men. He accepted women among his followers and gave the first preaching assignment after his resurrection to a woman - 'Go tell the disciples and Peter ...' Many Christians today still do not accept the place of women as equal basing their ideas and thinking in the Old Testament saying that Scripture says that women shall serve men. Looking at it a bit closer we realise that this was as a result of the Fall and was not God's original intention or plan for women. He made man and woman to be equal partners. If the coming of Jesus was a means to put things right again between man and God, then women are not the lesser of the species , neither inferior nor subservient to the men. The Jesus way restores women to their rightful place as equals in all aspects of life - home, work, relationship as well as religion. All are equal in the eyes of God.
When Jesus began his ministry, he read from the book of Isaiah saying that his ministry was in order to preach good news to the poor, set the prisoners free, help the blind to see and release the oppressed. (Isaiah 61:1,2) In other words his gospel was not about comfortable middle class resting and enjoying life. It was about helping those living in the margins of life, struggling to survive and bringing hope to those who seemed to have none. Many Christians today rest on their laurels if they go to a place of worship regularly, give in the offering and generally try to live a good life, (especially if they don't swear, drink or smoke). It's not about keeping spiritually comfortable and safe while waiting for pie in the sky when we die. The gospel message Jesus told us to declare is not about 'in-house' mutual backslapping and a Sunday morning feel-good factor of (sometimes quite smug) self satisfaction. It's for those who don't fit in, those 'untouchables' that Jesus had time and compassion for, the mixed-up and lonely, the poor and hungry, to bring back hope where it has been lost, to lift up those who don't see a way out of their despair, to hug the unlovable.
I won't make this post too long so I'll mention just a couple more very quickly and leave readers to ponder more about them. There are those who take pride in religious buildings - for some the bigger and more ornate the better it would seem. Jesus walked the countryside considering the lilies of the field that God had made so beautiful, praising God for knowing when even the most inconspicuous bird fell out of the sky. God's first idea after Eden was a tent that travels wherever people travel - it/He is always with us. His stories were taken from everyday life that everyone could relate to. Another consideration is that no-one paid Jesus or his disciples for doing what they did. Even Paul on his long missionary journeys worked at making tents to help pay his way. And I say this as one who has in the past received payment for leadership within the religious set-up. I wonder how many missionary journeys would happen if everyone paid their own way and were not paid to be a special speaker at some event!?
Just a few rambling thoughts on being what I would call Old Testament Christians or Jesus People. I'll leave you to decide where you are. But be honest with yourself and God! Me? - I like and relate to the words of Jim Palmer:
People, in general and even some Christians, seem to have confusing ideas about where God is. Children are often told that God is in Heaven (wherever that is). 'Heaven' is often thought to be somewhere 'up there'. It's as though God is thought to be someone (or something, depending on whether you have a faith or not) who is much bigger than we mere mortals and so dwells somewhere else other than earth, which is too small to contain Him. And so comes the dual thinking of God as being 'other' and not part of our world. It has been asked 'Is God up there, out there, in deep space or beyond?' Someone once said that God is the beyond in the midst. I rather like that thought. It reminds me of the Psalmist who said 'I often think of the heavens your hands have made and of the moon and the stars you put in place. Then I ask, "Why do you care about us humans? Why are you concerned about us weaklings?"' (Psalm 8:3,4 The Promise Bible) And so we have built up confusing theories about where God exists.
People are invited to 'accept God into your heart'. What that really means is to follow the way of Jesus and accept that He is Lord and Saviour of your life. But we seem to think of it as having some God space within our very busy lives where we allow God to reside and take His place as Lord. But we still keep things separate, well ordered and everything in it's place - even God. We go to the building we call God's House where presumably God lives and spend time with Him on a Sunday morning, in the endeavour to absorb as much as we can to get us through the following week when we are unable to get to His House because of our very busy schedules of daily living. Scientists have concluded that the part of us that we call our soul is actually in the brain. So if God lives in our soul then really He is part of our brain. Maybe that part of our brain controls our religious feelings and tendencies?!
The Bible clearly tells us right from the beginning 'In the beginning God ' - God spoke and all things came into being. Creation is a result of what and who God is; His DNA is in all things; He is everywhere; we are created in His image; as part of His creation we have His DNA running through us too. So in a very real sense He is 'the beyond in the midst', not just among us but in us. We really don't need to sing and pray for Him to 'come down' and be with us - He already is Emmanuel - God with us. When Jesus said that we are the temples of the living God and that the Spirit dwells in us He was telling us that God is not distant and afar off but as the Psalmist says, He is interested in us and cares about us. What we do and how we spend our lives does actually matter to Him. Another Psalm asks 'Where can I go from your presence?' He is everywhere.
A rabbi once said that Jews did not speak God's name but breathed it - Yahweh. He said that as you take in breath you say Yah and as you exhale you say Weh. In that way every part of your life is lived with God and even with your last breath you are with Him. You are living God's presence in the simplicity and persistence of breathing. Breathing is not something we do consciously, at least most of the time. We are alive so we breathe. It reminds me of the beautiful song, 'This is the air I breathe, God's holy presence living in me'. Thinking of God in this way makes the last lines so true 'I'm desperate for you, I'm lost without you'. You can hear that song here. So where is God? Where in the world is He? He is all around us; He is in us; He is the beyond in the midst; He is in every breath we take; He is the very air we breathe. Yahweh. Breathing God.
