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Some friends of ours came back from holiday with a story. Whilst abroad they had been invited by a local friend to meet some of her friends. My friend was introduced to an Englishman with a German sounding name. He described himself as a musician. ‘Performing or composing?’ asked my friend. ‘A little of each’ he said. ‘Have you done any recording?’ ‘Not so much recently but more in the past’. His name was Manfred, and my friend was rather slow to pick up on that; it was Manfred of Manfred Mann, the well-known pop group from the 1960’s. You never know who you’re going to meet or who strangers might turn out to be. Encounters are often routine but they can be surprising. Here is a question for this morning…
Where do we expect to encounter God? Presumably we are here this am because at some time in our lives, God has met us, i.e. in some way we have encountered God. Or if you can’t be that certain maybe you are looking to encounter God. For those of us who had a v real encounter with God in the past we may wonder where He’s gone! We may long for a ‘top-up’; we may even wonder why God seems so distant now or the things which used to make God real don’t seem to nowadays. And for those who search for encounter with God may wonder where He is to be found, if at all...
The trouble is, as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Colossians, that God is invisible. And it’s quite hard to know if you have met a Being who cannot be seen! So back to that question: Where do we expect (or hope) to encounter God? We may say: ‘In our worship – the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. Indeed so. Or we may say: ‘In Scripture, for His Word reveals his character and purpose, Also true.’ Or we may say we encounter God in Jesus: As Paul says ‘He is the image of the invisible God, so His words and deeds make known to us something of the mystery of God. That’s true, and the Gospels bring that alive for us. But Jesus himself is now invisible too. So where do we expect to encounter God?
Our readings today (including the Psalm) offer something of a clue. Do have them open in front of you if you can.
As I have read and reflected on these passages, what has emerged is that some of the characters DO encounter God and others miss out, even though they are part of the same story. So if we can identify what makes the difference between the 2 it may help us. Why do some people meet God and come away changed and others who might have met Him, miss the encounter and get stuck? What the accounts show us, I believe, is that it comes down to 3 key factors: open minds, open hearts and open hands. It sounds simple and none of us are likely to think of ourselves as having closed minds, hearts and hands. But if there are any ways in which we say ‘I know what I believe about that, maybe we’re NOT as open as we claim to be! So firstly, what might it mean to have an open mind when encountering God? ‘Your wife Sarah will have a son.’ At 90? And me 100? Reason, logic and experience say ‘I don’t think so.’ And that’s what Sarah said. Her mind was made up. But Abraham was open to strange possibilities: ‘Well if you say so, Lord.’ And Abraham also had an open mind in receiving these strangers. Their arrival was unreasonable. It was midday – the hottest part of the day when people rested in the shade…But such was Abraham’s openness that he RAN to meet them and then went out of his way to feed them. Yes, hospitality in Bedouin culture was a top priority, but Abraham went way beyond what might have been required, providing a full Sunday roast for his 3 mystery guests, then standing nearby whilst they ate to show readiness to serve further. Maybe the writer of Hebrews had this story in mind when he wrote: ‘Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.’ Were these 3 visitors angels? Or the LORD (Yahweh) with 2 accomplices? Or Yahweh in 3 persons? Scholars offer differing interpretations, but all agree that Abraham had a divine encounter here. And he was rewarded with confirmation of the promise that had been made before, that Sarah would have a son. He believed it. Not because it made sense, but because of the encounter. This is how it works. Strong arguments may fail to change our thinking but personal encounters can. Most Christians who have changed their thinking on, say, woman priests, or gay partnerships, have done so through encounter not clever reason.
So let’s keep an open mind when we encounter others and hear their story and tell ours. Maybe we should be open to meet God when we meet another, even if it’s not how expected to meet Him. Abraham did so because he was open-minded. He was also open-hearted. He was warm and respectful to his guests; he was open to hearing what God might bring to him through them.
And so was Mary, when her sister Martha welcomed Jesus into their home. Martha showed open-heartedness too but then her concern to provide fitting hospitality closed her off from hearing the truth Jesus was bringing. Martha was certainly open-handed, wanting to host Jesus generously, but she was in danger of not receiving from Jesus what he had brought her. She needed to be open-minded as well.
A cluttered or critical heart is not one that God can reach. Look again at Psalm 15: ‘Who may rest on your holy hill? Whoever leads an uncorrupt life, and does the thing that is right, who speaks the truth from their heart; and bears no deceit on the tongue.’ Those who need to cover their dishonesty with deceit will not be open-hearted to God. Of course, this is where we depend on the grace of Christ to be transformed for we cannot change on our own. Back to Colossians again: ‘And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him.’ Who may dwell in God’s presence? Those who have allowed Christ to change their thinking (i.e. transforming their minds), to cleanse their hearts and to prise open their hands, so that they let go of idols. Even good things can become idols. E.g. for Martha getting hospitality right had distracted her from an extraordinary opportunity to listen to the One through whom all things in heaven and earth were created. I recognize this danger. Doing a good thing is not always the same as doing the right thing at a certain time and place. If I fail to sit at Jesus’ feet because my hands are too busy doing church things/religious things, I have not chosen the better part, but the worse. And that danger is there for us as a cathedral community. Good ideas are not necessarily God’s ideas.
So back to our opening question: Where do expect to encounter God? The answer now comes back: in encountering one another and the stranger. It is ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ Christ IN you.
May God help us to expect to meet Him in the other. May He keep our minds open so that we may see Him working in ways we had never thought of. May He keep our hearts open to welcome Him in people who were never strangers to Him. And may He keep our hands open so that we let go of all that He has first given to us, so that He may give us more, the riches of his glory beyond measure. Amen.
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