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Who Is God?
A sermon preached April 13, 2008, Youth Sunday, at University United
Methodist Church, East Lansing, by Hadley Couraud
How do you define God? As I was writing this message, I realized that I have
so many ideas of my own, and that’s not taking into consideration everyone
else’s views. God is different to every single person, and rightfully so.
In the movie “Bruce Almighty”, Morgan Freeman portrayed God as “A black man
in a white room with records of everything we’ve ever said, thought, or done.”
The main character of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale imagines that
God must look like an egg. The first image that my mom thought of was a house.
A person, an egg, a house. Each of these images holds different meanings, but
they all have one thing in common. They are physical representations of God.
My image of God is a thread.
This idea first came to me, almost two years ago during my first trip at Work
camp. All 400 participants were in the school’s gym, singing together. We were
between songs and I realized that despite the fact that I could only name about
30 of the kids, despite the fact we came from all over the country, and despite
our economic or ethnic diversity, we weren’t 400 individuals anymore. We were
ONE. One voice singing praise, one body offering prayer. 400 made
one. Not bad math. An infinitely strong connection and bond. An unbreakable
thread.
GOD.
God is that thread that connects us, the connection that makes it possible
for billions of individuals around the world to become one family.
In Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, a main character, Lucy, is
described perfectly. Her father describes her as the following: “She was the
golden thread that united him to a Past beyond his misery, and to a Present
beyond his misery.”
Similarly, as Lucy was her father’s golden thread, God is our golden thread.
God connects us to a past beyond our misery. I’m not talking about
time traveling, I’m talking about Heaven. Our loved ones are never lost to us;
we are eternally connected to them through God. A year ago, my family lost a
dear member, my great - Uncle Johnny. Even though we will never get to watch him
playing with his dogs, planting daffodils, or telling bad jokes, he is still
with us. This past week, my family and I visited his grave with my great-Aunt
Peggy, and the stories we shared while we were there brought him back to us. The
joy in my Aunt Peggy’s voice was enough evidence of that. We were all there
together, my Uncle Johnny included.
God connects us to a present beyond our misery. Think of our prayer
requests, the Stephen Ministry and our mission trips. Through all these
actions, we provide comfort to others, lend support in times of need, and
improve the lives and environment of strangers. Even the simple satisfaction
that we get by coming together at church every Sunday connects us and
strengthens the thread.
And God connects us to the future. If Heaven is our past, and if we
are each others “present”, then what is our future? Baptism -- God
connecting us to a future generation of our family. Each time we baptize a
child, we welcome them into the church, and pledge to keep them safe.
Now, I know drawing a parallel between God and a thread is a bit
unconventional. I’ve never read in the Bible, “God is a thread”, but the
connections we share are throughout the book. In today’s sermon text, we read
that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.” This bible verse tells us that God is the Word. The Bible can be found
in close to 400 different languages and dialects. But it says the same thing,
tells us the same stories, and shares the same messages. The Word is another way
that God connects us, like a thread, despite any geographic or cultural divides.
Everyone has their own view of God, what he or she looks like, what his or
her purpose is, what his or her role is in our lives. And everyone is entitled
to a different opinion. But whether you think of God literally as an egg or
figuratively as love, hope or truth, God will always be our connection.
God is the timeless thread that will forever unite us with the past
through Heaven, the present through each other, and our future through Baptism.
Think about it.
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