\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I am
\nhonored to take my place in this pulpit.
\nIt has a reputation for allowing free expression, and I am sure that I
\nam not the only one who might have expressed views and opinions regarded as
\noutside the current dogmas of the Church.
\nThis is not the first time I am asked to give a sermon in a Methodist
\nChurch. \u00a0I grew up in a Primitive
\nMethodist Church and my Father was a Lay Preacher for 50 years. \u00a0You see in England in the 1940\u2019s, the
\nMethodists did not have sufficient full-time ministers for one at every church
\nand chapel. \u00a0The churches were organized
\ninto 5 to 10 in a circuit with perhaps half the number of full-time ministers,
\nhence the need for Lay preachers to fill the vacant spots. \u00a0So in my youth I was in training to be a Lay
\npreacher and occasionally was asked to conduct the services at small chapels in
\nthe countryside of North-West England.
\nThe one piece of advice I was given by an old gentleman at one of the
\nChapels was \u201cBe sure to include the Lord Jesus in every one of your sermons\u201d. \u00a0So here goes:<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0We each
\none of us is aware that we have been endowed with both Reason and Heart. At
\ntimes we can be rational and at other times we act and behave
\nirrationally. \u00a0We have been given such
\namazing characteristics such as imagination, daring, patience, fortitude and
\npeace that we can envisage such spectacular feats as landing humans on the
\nPlanet Mars; yet we also have within us characteristics such as jealousy, hate,
\nidleness and often a desire for War. \u00a0So
\nthis exploration of the Mystery of God is my attempt to try to understand the
\nconcept of God as expressed in the Bible and use my personal rationality as far
\nas possible, recognizing that somewhere along, Faith and Belief are heavily
\ninvolved.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019m
\nstarting with three assumptions as a basis for my discourse:<\/p>\n
First: That since we are here in this place at this time,
\nthat we all believe in God, and we are here to worship him, or her, or it.<\/p>\n
Second: That we can all agree in the concept of God the
\nCreator of all things, Omnipotent, God only Wise.<\/p>\n
Third: \u00a0That we are
\neach of us made in the Image of God.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Now,
\neach of us has a personal view of other characteristics that we may project and
\nI propose to relate some of my questions, truths and speculations that that I
\nhave recently had pause to consider. Living in a Retirement Community with many
\nessential services provided, leaves time to remember the past and assess one\u2019s
\nlife journey.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The
\nBible, particularly the Old Testament, cites many stories of a person\u2019s,
\nusually a man\u2019s, encounter with God, although God never shows himself. \u00a0For instance in the Garden of Eden, Adam and
\nEve were created with Free Will, the ability to choose, and they ate of the
\nTree of Good and Evil; they encounter God who knows they have disobeyed his
\ncommandment to eat only the Tree of Life, and for that they must leave the
\nGarden and henceforth their lives will involve toil and pain. \u00a0In our first lesson, we are given the story
\nof Moses and his encounter with God and the burning bush on Mt. Horeb. \u00a0Moses wants to be given a name so he can tell
\nthe people in slavery who it was that sent him there. \u00a0And God\u2019s answer is \u201cI AM that I AM\u201d or an
\nalternative translation of the Hebrew is \u201cI AM that I AM or What or Will BE\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I
\nbelieve we can all agree in the belief of God the Creator of THE Universe,
\nthough to me it seems there may not be one, but in fact, many parallel
\nuniverses that exist but which we are unable to see or experience. \u00a0If you want an easy metaphor of such parallel
\nuniverses, just surf your cable TV and witness the separate existences that
\noccur that you only are aware of when you tune in to that particular channel.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0If you
\nbelieve with me that each of us is made in the image of God, then the inverse
\nof that is that HE, SHE, or IT (or as modern theologians would call God \u2013 \u201cThe
\nGround of our Being\u201d) must possess all our characteristics in Spades & much
\nmore. \u00a0Since I was trained as a
\nPhysicist, I must assume God is the Supreme Physicist, the most capable
\nExperimenter & the All-knowing Theoretician. \u00a0So what if our Universe is a Grand
\nExperiment? \u00a0As a physicist we are not
\nuncomfortable with parallel universes or with the concept of a Universe of
\nOpposites. \u00a0Pythagorus (who you all know
\nfrom his famous Geometric Theorem) was also a philosopher & religious
\nteacher who lived some 500 years before the Christian Era, and he drew up a
\nTable of Ten Opposites describing our universe: (in those days the number 10
\nwas a special number)<\/p>\n
\nLimited \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Unlimited \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
Odd \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Even
Unity \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Plurality
Right \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Left
Male \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Female
at
\nRest \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0in Motion
Straight \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Curved
Light \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Darkness
Good \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Evil
Square \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Oblong<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nWe can add many more \u2013 Physicists now know there is Matter
\nand Anti-matter, \u00a0an electron & a
\npositron, while there is a neutrino, a friend of mine who heads a Govt. Lab in
\nVirginia has recently had an appeal before Congress to spend several hundred
\nmillion dollars of public\u2019s money to fund an experiment to attempt to discover
\nthe anti-neutrino. There is also Joy and Pain!
\nSo I believe that God must in fact be a Duality \u2013 A God of both Positives
\nand Negatives, a God of both Good and Evil.
\nAnd that presents for me a Major Dilemma. \u00a0How to understand the occurrence of Pain and
\nSuffering that appears to be inflicted on both good and bad people?<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0So, from
\nwhat I have said, might we infer What God\u2019s Strategy for Mankind might be?<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0If you
\nfollow me, I am suggesting that our Universe is an experiment in Free Will, and
\nGod wants to see how humankind handles it, and the Bible indicates that God
\nwants us to walk this balance between Good and Evil and over time God has tried
\nseveral different techniques to send messages to attempt to make it clear as to
\nhow humankind should conduct itself. \u00a0The
\nearly books of the Bible suggest to me that God chose \u201cJudgement\u201d initially to
\nlet people know his ways; through Moses he attempted to send a list of
\nCommandments, still later he chose to send messages through the Prophets. \u00a0In the case of David, he first called Samuel
\nto be his messenger who then much later used him to anoint David to be King. However
\nit was many years before David was actually installed as King of Israel. \u00a0You can probably think of many other ways the
\nbooks of the Old Testament describe God\u2019s action to convince his chosen people
\nto walk the straight path. \u00a0Finally, as
\nJohn describes in his account of the coming of Jesus \u2013 God sent his only
\nbegotten Son that we could be saved and St. Paul said that not only Jews, but
\nall people could be part of the Kingdom of Heaven.<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Back of
\nall this is a personal awareness of God\u2019s identity. \u00a0The early Jews called God \u201cJaweh\u201d, and later
\nDavid used the term \u201cAdonai\u201d and these have come down to us using the vowels of
\none and the consonants of the other as \u201cJehovah\u201d. \u00a0We in First Methodist recently heard Gendis
\nKhan, a Moslem and the Iman from the Schenectady Mosque, describe God\u2019s identity
\nas Justice. \u00a0Pope Francis has recently
\nauthored a book entitled \u201cThe name of God is Mercy\u201d. \u00a0I personally believe that \u201cGod is Love\u201d, and
\nGod expressed that Love in sending his only begotten Son to earth in order to
\nshow us how to walk the balance between Good and Evil.<\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0It is
\nmy belief that God has a purpose for each of us. For sure, we can only do our
\nbest in the present. \u00a0As illustrated by
\nthe story of Samuel and David, God\u2019s timetable is completely different from our
\nown. \u00a0As the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard
\nwrote \u2013 Life must be lived forward but can only be understood backward.<\/p>\n\nTherefore, go forward with courage and hope and obey Jesus\u2019s Commandment
\n\u2013 Thou shall Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
\nand with all thy mind and Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. AMEN. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Sermon March 6, 2016<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ufffd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"