Aha!  Discovering the God Moments in Ourselves 

Isaiah 6:1-8 

April 10, 2016 

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Isaiah, son of Amoz, proclaimed his message of faith in the One God to royalty and the powerful during a disastrous period in the life of Israel (742-701 BCE, chapters 1-39).  The Northern Kingdom would be destroyed by the armies of Assyria.  The Southern Kingdom (Judah), with its capital in Jerusalem would become a vassal state.  Isaiah preached around the same period of Amos, Hosea and Micah.  He shared their common theme attacking social injustice not just as a moral failure but indicative of our relationship with God. (“Introduction”, The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, 1991, p. 866)

In our text this morning we hear of Isaiah’s call to prophecy by God as it occurred in the Temple of Jerusalem.  Scholars suggest that Isaiah had to have been a priest there since only the authorized could have access to “the throne of God” within the Holy of Holies of the sanctuary.  Isaiah protests the call saying, “I am lost…a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips…”  God sends a heavenly creature to purify Isaiah and then asks, “Whom shall I send?” to which Isaiah replies, “Here I am, send me!”

In the midst of calamity and injustice, this Isaiah will proclaim such visions of Israel’s future as in these beloved words: 

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined.

For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (9:2-5)

Not all of us are called to be prophets of God.  Many of us are reluctant believers.   Intellectually we struggle with the tenants of the faith.  We are mystified by the way others use religion to hurt and control.    For all too many of us “whose got the time?!” to pay attention to “godly” matters when our highest expectation is to just get through the day.  Our hectic, multi-tasking life style throws serious obstacles in our way to cultivate the mindfulness of the holy all around us.

This is the Easter season.  Christ has risen.  Are we paying attention to his spirit all around us?

When our son Daniel was in third grade, we went to a teacher evaluation at the beginning of the year.  The teacher expressed her concerns that Daniel was showing signs of burnout.  At the third grade!   He wasn’t playing at recess.  He was compulsively working on his homework.  Everything had to be perfect.  His tests had to be turned in first.  He just wasn’t showing any signs of joy while at school.   One of the things that was concerning us was that he wasn’t eating his lunch.    We know that Daniel takes after Bonnie’s side of the family; extremely intelligent, very bright, ambitious and driven. For a Bollwinkel to stop eating raises major concerns! 

So along with talking with a school counselor we took him to our family pediatrician.  The doctor gave him a complete once over, a full check up and some great advice.  He said, “Dan, if you are going to have the energy to succeed in school you have to eat your lunch.  You’ve got to take the time to take a break and enjoy lunch time.”   He went on to explain this metaphor to my third grader, “Daniel, it’s like putting gas in a gas tank.  If there isn’t any gas in the tank then the car isn’t going to get any where.  That is the same for our bodies.”  For Daniel, he got the point.

 The metaphor is true for us all as well.   We all know that the more we invest ourselves, whatever the endeavor, the more we will get out of it.  That’s true for our marriages, work, school and recreation.  The more we give the more we get in return.

Well, isn’t that true for our spiritual life as well? 

Yet somehow most of us think of our spirituality as some kind of organic, natural experience that we find in the midst of our busy, multi-tasking days.  We need to take the time to fill our spiritual tanks as well.

Along with filling up the gas tank when I go to the station, I love to wash my windows.  Not because they will stay clean for very long.  But because it just feels so good to look out that clean front or back window and see clearly the way before me or the way behind me.

You’ve heard me say it before; if we are not feeling close to God guess who moved?  It’s time for us to open our eyes and be aware of God all around us!

Church of the Wayfarer is committed to “Reaching Up, Reaching In and Reaching Out”   We believe such words are simply a modern version of Jesus’ greatest commandment to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40).    There are many of us who struggle with the call to faith, we want to be better people and make a difference in the world, we want to grow closer to God but don’t know how?    What does “Reaching Up, Reaching In and Reaching Out” look like?

John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, had plenty of moments of doubt and struggles.  He knew that living assured of God’s presence and purpose didn’t just happen for most.   He taught the early Methodists that by the practice of the “Means of Grace” we would find God in our lives.   He broke them up into two categories:

Works of Piety, such as:

Prayer

Fasting

Searching the Scriptures

Healthy Living

Attending to the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism

Christian Conferencing (or "community")

Works of Mercy, such as:

Doing Good

Visiting the Sick

Visiting the Imprisoned

Feeding & Clothing those in need

Earning, Saving, & Giving all one can

Service focused toward communal/societal needs--

Seeking of Justice; Opposition to Slavery

 These things ‘fill up the tank’ when it runs dry.  These things open our eyes to the God all around us a ready source of “aha moments”.   Practicing the Means of Grace can change our lives.

At one of the lowest points of his own life, John Wesley sought out the wisdom of a fellow Christian, Peter Boehler a Moravian Brethren.  They talked and prayed together, sharing their deepest hurts and hopes:

Immediately it stuck into my mind, "Leave off preaching. How can you preach to others, who have not faith yourself?" I asked Boehler, whether he thought I should leave it off or not. He answered "By no means." I asked, "But what can I preach?" He said, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith." (John Wesley, Journal, 4 Mar 1738)

John Wesley and his brother Charles would begin a movement that would change the Protestant world forever.

If we are down, doubtful or exhausted, do something for somebody else…take a moment to begin and end your day with a prayer, even a moment of holy silence…reach out to the community of those you trust and love and open up…and you will see God.  At the gas station, at the grocery store, at work or at home, God is with us.   All we need do is pay attention when given the opportunity of grace.  That’s true for preachers as well. 

Thirty some years ago in Reno, Nevada I was getting our station wagon ready for a long awaited, well deserved family camping vacation.  I am no mechanic but I figured I could save us some money by changing the oil in my own garage.   Some gorilla must have put the oil filter on during the previous change because no matter what I did I could not get it to budge.  I tried every tool in my box to no avail.  I ran over to the auto parts shop and bought a special tool just for such occasions.  It did not work.  Bonnie was about to come home from work.   I was supposed to have the car all loaded up and ready to go on our long awaited, well deserved family camping vacation.  

Time was running out. 

In desperation I figured that if I drove a large screw driver through the body of the filter itself, I could then torque it off the thread of the base to which it was fused.  So I drove the screwdriver through the filter and the body of the filter tore as I tried to turn it.  I succeeded in getting oil all over the engine and floor of the garage but failed to get it off.   Now I couldn’t even drive the car.

I was overwhelmed with frustration and shame.  Bonnie was going to blow her stack.  I was a failure as a man.  I felt as if I was about to break down and cry.   I didn’t know what to do. 

Just then my nine year old son Dan came into the garage and asked me what was going on.  I briefly explained the mess and my frustration, to which he replied, “Well, Dad, have you prayed about it?”

I was dumbfounded.  I hadn’t prayed about it at all.   I had been using God’s name quite vocally but I wouldn’t call it prayer.  That such a suggestion would come from my nine year old son stopped me cold.  After Dan left indeed I did pray for help.  As I did it came to me to call the mechanic who occasionally worked on the car.  I got off my knees, called my friend and he patiently explained how one can tap a stuck oil filter off an engine block with a hammer and chisel over against the rim of the filter in the opposite direction of the thread.  I thanked him, went out to the car and had it off in 30 seconds.

Sitting in a hospital as one’s beloved is in pain, waiting for solutions to the crisis is a perfect and essential time to call on God’s loving grace and presence.  We all know the aphorism to be true, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Even strangers to faith turn to God when there’s a crisis and they don’t know where else to turn.

I was amazed this week by the overwhelming number of positive affirmations and words of encouragement for Bonnie as she went through her hospital stay.   A number of our friends and family are agnostic or atheist and yet they had no hesitancy to say “We are praying for you!” which will make for interesting conversations at Thanksgiving!

Yet if God is God, then God is ever present and all-knowing in each and every moment, good or bad.   And as we learn from Jesus, if we cultivate the awareness that sense of spiritual connection can be with us anytime and anywhere. That is an essential message of Easter.  Not even death can separate us from the love of God.

If we don’t feel close to God, guess who moved?  If we are down, doubtful or exhausted, do something good for somebody else…take a moment to begin and end your day with a prayer, even a moment of holy silence…reach out to the community of those you trust and love and open up…and you will see God.  At the gas station, at the grocery store, at work or at home, God is with us.   All we need do is pay attention when given the opportunity of grace. 

Amen.