The God I Need
A friend of mine went to a local men’s store to buy some dress shirts. And the salesperson came up to him.
Now, you need to know this about my friend. If there’s anybody who would embody the fizz of a champagne glass, he’s it. He is effervescent, he is bubbly, he is fun to be with, he has never met a stranger. He’s always effusive and happy to talk to anybody. And so, he’s chatting it up with all the various people in the store.
So You Believe in God?
And one of the workers came up and said to him, “You seem fun. What do you do for a living?”
“Well, I’m a hospital chaplain.”
“Oh wow. So you believe in God and things like that?”
“Yeah, I actually do happen to believe in God.”
“Oh well, I—I don’t.”
“Well, that’s OK for now.”
“Wait. Really? Is it? Isn’t this where you should be telling me I should believe in God?”
“No, at least for now, it’s enough to think that, perhaps, God believes in you, where you are, right now,” my friend said. “And that, at least for now, that’s enough.”
“Now, that’s a thought,” the man responded. “I thought you all had to be serious to believe in God.”
“Well, perhaps you’re right. But belief in God is really about the joy of knowing God loves you, a love so serious that you can’t help but be joyful about it.
“Hmmm. I’ll have to think about that.”
“Well I’m glad, but be careful,” said my friend. “Believing in God might be more fun than you’re prepared to have.”
What Kind of God?
End of conversation. I thought it was pitch-perfect. I don’t know what kind of God the salesperson doesn’t believe in, but young adults in particular often say they don’t believe in the God they’ve heard about from rather grumpy church people. And they say, probably with some integrity, “I don’t believe in that god.”
And it might be a shock for someone from the church to say, “Well, if that’s the God you believe in, I don’t believe in that god, either.”
And then you begin to talk about Jesus.
Show Us the Father
You see, the glory of Jesus is that he is, in fact, both who he says he is and who we declare him to be, for example, in the creed: “God from God, light from light, true God from true God.”
Jesus put it this way. Because he kept talking about the Father, Phillip, one of the disciples, came to him and said, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied” (John 14:8).
And Jesus shook his head, smiled and said, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” (John 14:9b-10a).
That’s a full stop. A shocking statement. But what we see demonstrated in Jesus again and again and again is behavior that is both what we would call out of the box, surprising, and yet at the same time, utterly and deeply satisfying. The God that Jesus demonstrates, quite honestly, is precisely the God I need.
Is he the God you need? Does your life – your casual conversations, your interaction with friends, coworkers, and people you meet on the street (or in the clothing store) – reflect that God?
Don’t be the grumpy one responsible for telling others about a god no one wants to believe in. And if you’re one of those who still has some questions about God, that’s OK.
At least for now, it’s enough to know that God believes in you.
Who do you know whose life reflects the God you need? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.
(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on September 11, 2016, at St. James Episcopal Church, Ormond Beach, Florida.)
Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
PHOTO CREDIT: © Jill Shepherd