When God Seems Far Away

Hebrews 13:1-8

August 28, 2016

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            When you stand in the checkout line at the grocery store, do you, like me, enjoy reading the headlines of the weekly tabloids?  The National Enquirer, The Weekly World News, The Globe, The Sun, The Star contain such articles as “Montana Cannibal serves BBQ kid to his neighbors”, “Boy sneezes and his eyes pop out”, “Fire and Brimstone Preacher Spontaneously Combusts”, along with a headline article entitled, “Girl gives birth to a 32 Pound Baby!”

One of these tabloids ran a piece entitled, “Jesus Virus!” which explained how a mysterious computer virus was attaching itself to pornography programs, wiping them out and replacing them with scripture verses.  The author claimed this proved the existence of God.

            The existence of God has been the subject of theologians and philosophers for centuries.  And here we can buy Divine proof right in our own supermarkets!  What a country!

            This particular tabloid article on the “Jesus Virus” touches on a basic human need.  We want proof.  We want miracles. We want evidence that God is for real.

            Because God sometimes seems so far away.

            John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Movement, was an outstanding Christian leader, theologian and preacher.  But things didn’t always go so well for him.  He was a failure as a missionary to the colony of Georgia.  He returned to England in 1738 full of “discontent and self-reproach”.  In spite of the major contributions of Wesley to the faith, there were significant times when he doubted God.

            Albert Schweitzer was a brilliant theologian, organist and humanitarian.  He left fame and fortune in Europe to be a missionary doctor in West Africa.  He won the Nobel Prize for Peace.  But did you know Albert Schweitzer had a nervous breakdown during his imprisonment in Southern Germany as a World War I POW?  This man of peace could not reconcile the reality of a world at war with his ideals.  It took him four years to recover.  Even for Albert Schweitzer there came a time when God felt very far away.

            We might not want to admit that most of us are familiar with the sense of God’s absence.  We go to church on Sundays.  But few of us do not know the anger and sadness of unanswered prayer.  Few of us have not had to endure tragedy, dismay or disappointments in life.  Haven’t we at times felt all alone and abandoned by God? Don’t we also want proof of the Almighty’s existence?

            If God seems absent, I’d suggest it has more to do with us than God.

            I was a Little League coach for four years when my boys were younger.  To be honest with you, the hardest part of coaching a Little League team is the parents.  I once had a father yank his son off the field in the middle of an inning because the boy had missed a pop fly.  He had struck out the previous inning.  The father had been yelling at him from the stands.         Something about the little boy missing the pop fly motivated the Dad to march right out onto the field, grab his son by the arm, scold him in front of everyone and insist that he be benched.  This was an eight-year-old.  The kid was in tears.  The Mom was in tears.  I had to stop play while I asked the father to leave the field.  We had set up specific rules as a league for coaches and umpires to stop play if the parents were misbehaving and continue to suspend play until the adults left.

            The father was so caught up in “what other people would think”, as if his child were an extension of the father’s ego. So caught up in pride he could not even see the child’s need or ability.

            Any of us can fall into that place of tunnel vision when we block the reality of others with our own needs.  I can get so caught up in what I have to do that I don’t even see the people around me, like my wife or when my kids were little.

            I think we often do that with God.  We get so caught up in our busyness, our anxieties, and our own agendas that we pay little attention to the presence of God in our lives.  That may be one reason to explain those times when God seems far away.  They correspond to times when we are so full of ourselves that there is little room for God.

            I had the privilege of traveling to South Korea in 1978 to interview pastors involved in rural development.  I met one such pastor who had just been released from prison.  His efforts to organize a farmer’s rice cooperative were deemed subversive by the Korean government.  He spent a whole year in jail away from his wife, children and congregation.  He described his cell as a concrete square, 8 feet by 8 feet, with a small opening outside for ventilation but no window.  During the winter it would go below freezing.  He had only one thin blanket.  The pastor told me that his jailers allowed him a copy of the Bible for his personal use and that by reading it, he could literally warm up his body.

            After living almost five years in former colonies of the tropical world, I have often wondered how God can seem so close to those who suffer injustice, poverty and oppression while so often for those of us in the comfortable and prosperous world God can seem far away?  If church membership is any indicator of spiritual commitment, we have to wonder.  The religious affiliation rate in Germany and England, birthplaces of the Protestant church, are now below 10% of the population.  Their cathedrals are empty, now simply museums to the past.  Over all church membership across the United States is declining, with fewer people finding religious organizations relevant for their lives.  Yet in Africa, South Asia and Latin America the churches are thriving.

            God may seem distant to us because of the indifference afforded by our comfort and affluence.  May be we don’t think we need God as much as others do.

            Let’s be honest, as much as we might long for God’s presence we also fear it.

            Religion is for Sunday.  Life is for Monday through Saturday.  What does God have to do with paying the mortgage or getting the kids to piano lessons on time?  People who take God too seriously end up giving their money away or running off to become missionaries or spending too much time at church volunteering.  Maybe we keep God at a distance because we fear it would change our lives?

            United Methodist Bishop William Willimon, and former Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, tells the story of a professor there who had close connections with atheists in Russia.  Over lunch one day Rev. Willimon asked his colleague what his Russian atheist friends were like as people.  “That’s just it”, he replied, “They aren’t any different.  They are no different in conversation, morality and outlook than your average American.  They make their decisions, spend their money and decide on what they will do tomorrow the same way that we Methodists do.  When it comes down to it, it is as if we are all atheists.  We all live as if God doesn’t matter.”

            The writer of the letter to the Hebrews lists some of the characteristics, which identify a person for whom God does matter. “Mutual love…hospitality…compassion for those suffering…honoring marriage…contentment…courage…”  They make for a unique way of life.

            My father, Cal Bollwinkel, grew up in a household in New York City and Northern New Jersey where faith mattered but not in a stuffy, rigid way.  Prayers before meals were expected, as was attendance at his Lutheran church.  Most importantly his own parents by word and deed expected him and his brother Hank to treat all with curiosity, to always be honest, to do what they could to help others along the way.

            My Dad fell in love with radio as a boy and made professional broadcasting his goal after he returned from World War II to finish college.  It was at Michigan State University that he met my Mom.  After their wedding it would be in Michigan and Indiana that he would begin his career.

            You may not be aware that radio and TV broadcasting is one of the toughest, most competitive businesses in the world.  Few people can succeed in it.  Fewer make an entire career of it, but my Dad did.  At his retirement we heard the accolades that were spoken of him throughout his career; “Cal Bollwinkel is the nicest man in this business…Cal helped me get my first break…I could always go to Cal whenever I got into trouble…”

            My Dad always had a commitment to community service and volunteered in a variety of ways, winning recognition for his work with the Cancer Society in Sacramento.  He was an active leader in his United Methodist church and wouldn’t miss a Holy Communion service if you paid him!

            As a kid, when it came to fishing and camping my Dad was useless.  His idea of roughing it was staying in a Motel Six.  Quiet and emotionally reserved by nature and upbringing, it was easiest for us to talk baseball.  Yet his commitment to family, my Mom and me, was unequivocal. 

We had some conflicts back in the 1960’s, which we overcame.  He would have been the first to tell you that he could have done some things better as a parent.  He would have been the last person to claim perfection.  Yet Cal Bollwinkel with real commitment and to the best of his ability lived as if God mattered.   “Mutual love …hospitality …compassion for those suffering…honoring marriage…contentment…courage…” defined his life. 

            There are many who haven’t been nurtured by the love of a father.  I grieve that the absence of parental love is all too common.  I rejoice in the survivors who have found their way none-the-less or who are still on the path of healing.  God is with you.

We all may be searching for proof of God, but Divine reality can be as close as a parent’s love.     For those of us who are parents, or grandparents, or who aspire to be adult role models for children, could our children stand up before the world and say that they have seen God at work in their lives because of you? 

That is our challenge and our opportunity.  Are we living in such a way that the young ones in our midst know that God is close at hand?

              Because in the end, if God seems far away, guess who moved?

            Amen.