reinbeck umc - the view out my window

Have you ever seen the clip on America’s Funniest Home Videos where a little boy opens his Christmas present and screams and shouts and dances?  The he looks at the present again and asks “What is it?”

 What if we would live like that?  I don’t mean in puzzlement . . . for some of us that is an all too present reality.  I mean in AWE.

o       We see God in our spouse or children and shout for joy.

o       We see God in a renewed friendship and jump for thanksgiving.

o       We see God in an otherwise unexplainable set of circumstances and give thanks.

o       We see God in a time of trouble and find ourselves shedding tears of ecstasy.

As I said last Sunday, I think we have to a large extent lost our sense of AWE.  We can look at pictures of the unimaginably distant reaches of the universe and yawn.  We have become so accustomed to harnessing invisible radiation rays to cook our food the thought of living without a microwave makes us nervous.  Calling my daughter who lives 150 miles away is routine and sometimes we talk 2-3 times a day.  Right now I sit at my computer and when I finish these thoughts one click of the mouse will send these thoughts to be published for all the world to see on the RUMC blog.

Is there anything that awes us anymore? 

The Bible often commands us to fear the Lord “The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.” (Deuteronomy 6: 24)

I was taught that this really means to respect the Lord.  But I really think to be in “awe” would be a better rendering.  There are three reasons;

First, awe requires a sense of otherness.  There is a tension in theology between God with us (immanence - Emmanuel) and God as other (transcendence -greater, different).  Today much of our theology, many of our songs, and much of our preaching flows from the immanent understanding of God.  There is nothing wrong with that- we just finished celebrating God's immanence in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  But if we don’t have a strong sense of God's otherness, God's greatness, God's transcendence we risk making God into merely a very good person.

Second, awe puts us in our place.  Martin Buber wrote a book entitled Ich und Du, when translated to English it was rendered I and Thou. The German could have been translated I and You, but would it mean the same thing?  “Thou” is more than an old fashioned “you.”  It carries with it the same sense of otherness, apartness, difference that “you” does; but it also has a sense of respect, esteem, reverence, admiration, appreciation and . . .  yes even awe.  I am not God.  Never have been; never will be.  I’m sorry if this is a surprise, but you are not God either; never have been, never will be.  We need to regain the awe of the creature in the presence of the almighty, the awe of disciple at the feet of the master, the awe of created in the company of the creator and the awe of hopelessly lost in the presence of the savior.

Finally, much of life is awful. Would some of that “awfulness” be healed with a greater sense of life’s “awefulness?”  If we stopped acting as though our world, our lives, our salvation, and even God's love is an entitlement wouldn’t that change things?  If we started acting (more honestly) like the world, life itself and God's love are totally undeserved and unexpected gifts from a totally graceful and loving creator, wouldn’t life be different?  I think so.  Suddenly life would have less awfulness and more awefulness; less desperation and more joy.  I’d like that how about you.  I think God would too.

Try it. 

Have an Awefull week

Terry