Worship is so often about God, How we see God, experience God, understand the loving relationship we share with God and most importantly as Christians how God became incarnate in the life of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Each week as we read scripture we are hearing once again the wonderful and powerful way that God has intervened in the world to draw us closer to the divine.
This week while doing some journaling and reflecting I happened upon an interesting question. Reading an anonymous passage about who we are and whose we are. The author wrote, “It requires giving up one’s assumed identity and waiting, faceless, long enough to find the reflection of oneself in the face of God. When God alone is my power and source, I must reflect who I am as God sees me.” Reflect who I am as God sees me. That just stopped me in my tracks- How does God see me, more to the point how does God see you? That is an intriguing and inspiring question. One I think bears some pondering.
Our New Testament lesson declares, “Now, however, that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak, beggarly elemental spirits?” How can you turn back to the false Gods? What I am focusing on here is this idea that we are known by God. Our relationship with God is not just simply one directional with us worshiping and praising God. NO! We are known by God. Our loving Creator, the one who cares for us and watches over us, the one who hears and responds to our prayers and is the source of all that is, this amazing and holy God knows you. And this begs the question, “How does God see you?”
That is why if you turn over the announcement page you will find 3 simple questions. Rather than just listening, today I want you to write, to reflect, ponder how God sees you. List qualities, attributes, not physical but internal, personal, the person God sees when you are known to God.
Here you are sitting in God’s house, claimed as God’s precious child what better place to contemplate the way God sees you. Through the Psalm David reminds us, “I have looked upon God in the sanctuary.” Today you see the final day of the ordinary season, the green color, in our sanctuary. A color that mirrors God’s beauty and wonder shining through the windows, in the majesty of the redwoods. So I hope you will feel inspired to be in this sacred place and consider how the God we worship sees you personally. Now I hope that question is swimming in your head and I want to say one last thing before giving you silent time to be with God answering those questions for yourself.
So often in relationships, where we are truly known, be it best friends, husband and wife, parent and child how the other person sees us can shape our actions and personality. Take for example parent and child relationship. When a parent loves a child for who he or she is, amazing things can happen. The parent supports the child into becoming all that they are able to become, sees the wonderful qualities even when the child can’t (a true blessing to be sure). This bond creates, even motivates, real growth and deep understand. Well you and I are children of God. God sees us and all of our potential as well as all of the dreams God has for us, along with hopes to help us live into that inspired reality.
This exercise might grant you a glimpse into how you see both yourself and God, but I do hope it will help you to consider how God, your loving father, sees you and the wonderful things God knows to be true about you. Discover those, own them and then be nurtured by these thoughts. Draw closer to God as you explore the kind of person you are in God’s eyes.
I invite you to take a few minutes to reflect and write about how God sees you. When your loving heavenly father looks at you who does he see? Then ask yourself what God wants for you. Once you have the qualities and hopes God has for you I want you to ask yourself how can I best live into that for myself? Then believe all the wonderful things God knows about you!!!
You are in a sacred space, allow God to move, let your thoughts go and allow the spirit to lead your writing. After a few minutes of writing and reflection I will call us back together.
Thank you for having the courage to look at yourself, to think about how God might see you. We are all God’s children. God wants what is best for us individually and as a congregation. Now I want to conclude our time with how God might see this congregation. We have been together for seven years. I treasure all the ministries we have started. Some of them have thrived and others have faded. But each one is a reflection of this congregation. Three years supporting a youth program for 25 kids and showing them the light of Christ though fellowship and fun. Partnering with Santa Cruz al Salvador and taking trips to partner with people working hard to build a better life through education and clean water. Initiating a shower ministry partnering with local churches to shower the people in our community. We purchased and staff portable showers. A ministry I will highlight next week at the Presbytery meeting as us being the hands and feet of Christ in our community.
You are a generous congregation. Be it building an Ark for Heifer International, raising $5,000 worth of animals that sustain people in daily life. Walking for Water and funding latrines so that we can improve the hygiene and health of some 80 families in El Salvador. You are also generous in support of your church.
We are completing our stewardship campaign with over half of the people responding and have 76 % of our goal for the year. We are reaching out to several people and hope to have a very successful report to share soon. If we have not heard from you, I trust you will place your pledge card in the offering plate today or call the church office. Thank you to all who have participated and there is still time to join in our efforts for Christ.
We are starting self-reflection and reflecting on the life of the congregation. This is all part of the Vital Congregations initiative we are undertaking. We will be looking at ourselves as a church evaluating how we are doing in seven key areas. I will be leading a Bible study in January for us to explore these vital marks more fully. I ask you to seriously consider joining in this 7-week study during the 9:00 Adult Education time. We will be setting our path forward as a congregation.
Finally I want to say God sees us as a praying congregation- we bring our prayers each week, praying over the joys and concerns of our faith community and the world. We pray often and with purpose because we know that God’s steadfast love is better than life and we long to be connected to God for our soul thirsts for God. And together we share not only our prayer requests, but also our hopes and dreams, our joys and sorrows.
Today I hope you have seen yourself more in the way that God sees you and that you have had a mirror held up to you as a congregation to be reminded how God sees this group of God’s children, the ones who call this place home, the ones who serve Christ here. Amen.
