Message January 19 2025

What does it mean when we speak about the indescribable expansiveness of God? What does it mean when we talk about God being everywhere and anywhere, and yet, also right here within us? When I was first starting to begin this journey of ministry, I had a very narrow view of what those concepts meant. When I began my path to ministry, I thought the only path that was available to me was parish ministry. I had entered seminary without even the notion of different paths of ministry and what they looked like. Working and serving in a church, like the church I grew up in, was all I knew. And yet, through my exploration of God’s calling, I found chaplaincy and the wonders that it brought to my life and those outside of the church. When I began on this path, the Congregational church was all that I knew. I didn’t grow up in the UCC but in a congregational church all the same. Yet through my exploration of God’s presence, I was able to discover the pearls of the Episcopal Church, the vastness of the Unitarian Universalist Church, and the beauty of the all-welcoming, inclusive United Church of Christ. A church that started as 4 different denominations but came together to be the center point of all faith and all believers.

When I began this path, Christianity was all that I really knew. I didn’t grow up in a region that represented multiple faith groups. They became something of the unknown, they became the “other”. I thought Christianity was the only place that one would be able to find anything Holy. Yet through my exploration of the Divine, I discovered the pure Spirit of God in people of all faith. (pause) At almost every step in my life, as I allowed myself to branch out from what I thought I knew and allowed God to transform and guide me, I found that even in the places I never imagined I would find God, there God was. The indescribable, unbelievably expansive God started to become a reality for me.

The Psalm for today, Psalm 36, describes this idea of the Divine. Verses 6-7 state, “Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains; your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” How often are you all able to see this and experience this aspect of our God? How often have you stumbled like I have to see just how wide and far God’s shadow covers?

od calls us to feast and dance, God calls us to find joy in this life even when the situations around us seem bleak and without. The joy in our journey will be what balances out all the world has to throw at us. Sometimes we just need to set out off the path we’ve known too well in order to find it. We need to search the wide expanse of God’s shadow in order to find that calling and mission that brings us deep joy as we serve.

It will be different for many of us, it may even change for many of us as we journey this life. When I think of what this looks like, when I try to create a mental image of each of us going on our own journeys, working towards God’s plan, shining our lights bright and proud, I always picture a mosaic. When you look closely at each individual piece, sometimes it feels as though there’s no way they are connected. There’s no way each piece is working in concert in order to bring about the Realm of God. Yet when we broaden our scope just a little bit the image starts to appear. Each shining tile, each joy filled life, becoming a part of something more. All of us, all of the diversity and difference in this small room, all of the diversity and difference we see across the world, coming together to make a whole.

As we leave here this morning, that is what I would like each of you to reflect on throughout the week. Where do you fit into this mosaic? Look at your current piece of the image and look back across your life, how much has changed? Do you still find joy in your current path? Then I want you to broaden your scope. Where does joy reside to the left and right of you? How often do you explore these other spaces? How often do we expand our concept of God’s love and God’s plan in this life. God is big enough. God is big enough to encapsulate all of us in this world. God is big enough to allow us to take a step off pathways that no longer give us joy, pathways that no longer provide balance for us in this life. God is big enough, so where, under the great shadow of God’s wings, will you reside? Amen

I believe this imagery and understanding of God is something we are in desperate need of in our current climate. The world and our ability to access the world is expanding more rapidly than we can keep up with. We are required to hold more and more in our arms. Required to balance the perils of this world with the joys in our lives, balance the immense need for justice among the marginalized with how we help keep that oppressive society in place, balance where we are in our own life’s journey with the dreams of what our lives could be. Our arms seem to be stretched so far and wide, how else could we survive without a God whose wings stretch far enough to cover us all? A God that is able to direct and assist with the balance in these various aspects of our lives. A God that is able to see us, in all of the turmoil, in the midst of all of the people in this world, see us and call to us directly.

The Apostle Paul describes this understanding of God to the church at Corinth in his first letter to the community. Paul states there are a variety of gifts, of services, and activities under the umbrella that is God. “To each,” he says, “is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Whether that be the utterance of wisdom, of knowledge, the gift of healing or prophecy, the gift of tongues or the interpretation of tongues. God has seen the needs in this world and has sent forth these gifts unto us to aid in our balance of this life.

However, just as I once struggled to see the limitless possibilities that is God, I believe we also struggle to dive into the possibilities of God’s gifts to us. Often I find we, as a society and as people of faith, believe that we must serve or operate in prescribed, “acceptable” ways. We believe we can’t push the boundaries that society places on us, or that religion places upon us. We believe that since we’ve been behaving and acting in certain manners for so long, we can’t deviate from those paths. We know what we know and that’s that. But, does that really sound like the God who is described as mighty mountains or the great deep of the oceans?

No, I don’t believe so. I believe our God is big enough to handle and uplift all of the various ways in which we can serve. Our God knows that what works for the majority may not work for us. What has worked our entire lives, may no longer serve our needs, may no longer help us balance out our lives. (pause) What if, in the course of our lives, as we grow and change and transform through the Spirit, what if God bestows upon us a new gift, a new way in which we are called? What if, along the journey of our lives, God has planted seeds of gifts, waiting for us to stumble upon them, or search them out rather, and help them to bloom? I believe the God who has blessed us with life, with the promise of new life in Christ, with the power of the Holy Spirit, the God who has given us gifts to better serve in this life, can see when we are becoming too overwhelmed, can see when the balance in our lives has been tilted because of the hardships in this world. And in this seeing, God opens another path for us. God changes the trajectory of our lives to keep our spirits high, to keep our resolve solid and firm. God shows us another way, a new calling, a new gift, so we may serve not only fervently and in earnest, but we may serve with joy and passion.

Now is that important in our lives? I know some have been brought up to think that if our calling in life is able to put food on our tables and provide for our families, then that is enough. And trust me, now that I have a family, I completely understand that sentiment. However, when talking about the God who created the wide array of beauty across our world from deep red sunsets, to fields of wildflowers, and the expanse of stars on a clear night sky, does it really seem as though God wants us to go through this life without joy?

It's easy to fall into this trap. To put our heads down and push through this difficult world doing what is right and continuing on in our mission. If we allow it, the struggles of this world will dictate this for us. However, I believe God knows our hearts enough, cares for us enough, that our calling in life will also bring us joy as we serve. I believe this is why we see one of Jesus’ first miracles occur at the wedding in Cana. I’ve always wondered, why is this an important part of our scripture? We’ve all heard the story. Jesus is at a wedding with family and friends, they run out of wine (which to me says they are all having a pretty good time), and after Mary tells Jesus they are out, he has the servants fill jars with water to which Jesus turns into wine. And not just any wine but good wine! Good enough to impress a bunch of people who are clearly a little tipsy by now! What a curious story to tell in order to just reveal his glory. Especially considering how the consumption of alcohol has been historically seen as unacceptable by Christians.

Why would this be the example of Jesus’ glory? The first of his signs? He goes on to do many, arguably, more important signs and miracles, however, this was chosen to be his first. Why? I believe we are told this story so early on in the Gospel and in the story of Jesus because just as God calls us to mission, to work to bring about the Realm of God into the here and now, God also calls us to feast and to dance. To have joy along this journey. As I said earlier, it’s easy to fall into the trap of grinding away, of putting our heads down and keep scraping our way towards a better world. But is eternal glory even possible if we don’t pick our heads up and see God’s wonders all around us? To see the joy God provides?