“Encountering the Divine”
Rev. Alison Longstaff, June 21,
2015
Bath Church of the New
Jerusalem
Exodus 3: 1-7, 10, 13-14; Matthew 17:1-8; AR 56
Many pastors across this country are
preaching about racism today as the United States reels from yet another violent
slaughter. Here I am, a white pastor in
front of a white congregation in a very white town in one of the top four
whitest states in this country. It is
easy to feel removed from the racism and violence, as if it is somehow someone
else’s problem somewhere else.
But if we could imagine such a
thing happening here, perhaps it might help us to pause and to walk beside the Emanuel
African Methodist Episcopal Church in sorrow and empathy. The black populations of this country live
with the daily possibility of such violence in a way most of us (all of us?) here
simply cannot imagine. So sit for a
minute and be with the possibility.
Imagine a visitor coming to worship with us, and we welcome him, and he spends
time with us. Then this visitor pulls out a gun and shoots nine of us dead right
there in front of our eyes. Go ahead. Look around. Pick a random nine. One
would be me, because the pastor was killed.
Which other eight? These loved people can’t be dead just as a concept, imagine
their bodies slumped where they were sitting, their blood splattered on the
walls. I’m sorry. But there’s no polite way to go there.
Please, just sit with that for a
moment. How enraged and vengeful would you feel? Could you forgive the shooter within
days? Whatever your emotions, let us all
take a moment to surround the whole Charleston, South Carolina community with
love and empathy.
I will now continue with the
sermon I did write, and pray that the miracle of God’s encompassing love can
bring some insight and healing to the
helplessness and pain of that event.
“He put His hand on me saying, ‘Do not be afraid.’” This symbolizes
spiritual encouragement, and then, because of deep humility, profound
adoration. Genuine holy fear comes over us when the Lords life encompasses
us, pushing aside our feelings of being in charge. Such an experience can cause
an inner trembling and even our hair to stand on end. When we are full of our
own sense of life (being in charge), we look at the Lord from our own
perspective. But when we are filled with the Lord’s life, we see all things
from the Lord’s perspective, (yet somehow retaining a sense of separateness).
When we are so encompassed by the Lord’s life, we realize that we are nothing,
and that the Lord is everything. (Emanuel Swedenborg, Apocalypse
Revealed #56)
“The (false) suspicion that we can somehow be
separated from God is the root of every form of anxiety in the universe, and
the cure for it … is the knowledge that nothing can tear us from God, ever.”
(Eben Alexander, “Proof of Heaven” p 76)
Would you say you have ever had
an encounter with the Divine?
If you have, how did it affect
you?
My very first class in seminary was
“Christian Doctrine.” It was required
for my degree so I had to take it despite being sure, as a (young and arrogant)
Swedenborgian, I had a thing or two to teach the professor but very little to
learn from him. I was wrong.
We had to write a four page paper
every other week for Professor Kelly.
The course was two semesters long, so we ended up with twelve papers, the
final one being, “Why Am I Christian?”
After we handed in each paper, we divided into groups to read and
discuss our papers with each other. I
learned and learned and learned.
When discussing, “Why Christian?”
it turned out that all three of us in our group were Christian because we had
experienced what I can only call a “Divine Encounter.” Each one of us not only was Christian but was in seminary because we had had a
transcendent experience that left us changed, and left us longing for more.
When our small groups returned to
the main classroom I began a quick survey of how many other classmates were in
seminary for the same reason. Of over twenty-five students in the class, about
ninety percent named some sort of Divine encounter as their main reason for
being there. It was an epiphany. I
realized that I was not alone.
When I was thirteen something
profound and life altering happened to me, but I rarely speak of it. It is a sacred memory still, and feels
private. I share the story rarely, and
only when it feels safe and worthwhile.
I was going through some very
hard and lonely things. It was the
middle of the night and I was weeping and praying, when suddenly I was in the
presence of something wise and loving and powerful beyond imagining.
I knew without doubt that I was utterly loved, completely understood, and that every
single thing would be okay. I could see
in some unimaginable way how everything would work out, and it all made sense.
I felt “the peace that surpasses all understanding.” And ever since that moment forty years ago I
have longed to encounter that Presence again. I also felt completely clear that
there was nothing more important than to serve that Presence and help others
find it too.
Many people who have had such
experiences have tried to describe it, and they all end up saying that our
earthly language is utterly inadequate. And yet we cannot but try to put words
on these experiences anyway. My heart shouts with joy and recognition whenever
I find these attempts. I recognize the experience, and it is like
hearing a deeply familiar description of a beloved but long-lost friend.
Neurosurgeon Eben Alexander
writes about his encounter with the Divine in his memoir, “Proof of
Heaven.”
… the “voice” of
this Being was warm and—odd as I know this may sound—personal. It understood
humans, and it possessed the qualities we possess, only in infinitely greater
measure. It knew me deeply and overflowed with qualities that all my life I’ve
always associated with human beings, and human beings alone: warmth,
compassion, pathos . . . even irony and humor.” (p 47)
I absolutely know and absolutely
love that God has a great sense of
humor.
Renowned life coach and frequent
Oprah contributor, Martha Beck, writes with her own humor and candor about her
several profound spiritual experiences:
If there were a drug
that could reproduce the same effect, I would be on that drug right now, and
damn the side effects. Imagine a blend of all your favorite things…. Picture
these … combined, boiled down into their most concentrated elements of pure
joy, then multiplied by trillions and injected into every one of your cells.
That might begin to help you imagine what I felt when the sense of Something
Bigger emerged in the hurricane’s eye of my life…. The peace and joy were so
dazzling, so potent, that I thought they would never fade.” (Leaving the
Saints, p 26)
Is it any wonder prophets and
angels fall prostrate before this Being?
It isn’t fear that throws one down, it is adoration and genuine humility. One is swept away by love, encompassed by
peace, and able to comprehend the answer to every single “why” ever asked. Remember this the next time you hear an
account of someone falling on their face in “fear” before an angel of the
Lord. Perhaps they are actually afraid.
But just maybe it is an entirely sensible response to finding oneself in
the presence of the Source of all Love and Wisdom. The overwhelming sense of great
love and care tends to result in worshipful adoration.
There are more marvelous
descriptions of these spiritual encounters.
Here is another from Eben Alexander:
Communicating with
God is the most extraordinary experience imaginable, yet at the same time it’s
the most natural one of all, because God is present in us at all times. Omniscient,
omnipotent, personal—and loving us without conditions. (p 161)
Alexander sums up the Divine
One’s message to every one of us this way: “You are loved and cherished. You
have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong.” (p 71)
The first time I read this, I
found myself abruptly sobbing. I think it was the sense of recognition, and the
deep homesickness for that Presence. But
it was also relief. Though I have known this truth; though I have experienced this truth; I continue to find
myself unable to believe it.
This message of unconditional
love is available to each one of us at every moment. It is we who are unable to hear it—we who are
unable to believe it. I am not even sure
this inability is our fault. It is as if
the nature of these bodies dulls our spiritual senses—the density of this
physical plane produces heavy static on our spiritual tuners. But for whatever reason, probably connected
with Providence and our freedom, most of us miss the message most of the
time. If I could find the frequency of
that Divine Being again, I would do everything in my power to stay tuned in as
long as possible. There is a deep longing
to feel that Presence again that has never gone away. This residual longing
seems to be a universal legacy of a Divine Encounter.
Accounts of an encounter with God
are everywhere, if one is open to finding them.
This is another description from Eben Alexander:
… the answer came
instantly in an explosion of light, color, love, and beauty that blew through
me like a crashing wave. Thoughts entered me directly. But it wasn’t thought
like we experience on earth. It wasn’t vague, immaterial, or abstract. These
thoughts were solid and immediate—hotter than fire and wetter than water—and as
I received them I was able to instantly and effortlessly understand concepts
that would have taken me years to fully grasp in my earthly life. (p 46)
A sense of being deeply
loved. A sense of being completely
safe. Every horrific injustice is made
right and everything ever lost is restored for all time. “No more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
nor any more pain.” (Revelation 21:4)
“You are loved and cherished. You
have nothing to fear. There is nothing you can do wrong.”
Have you had a Divine Encounter? How did it leave you changed?
Amen
The Readings
Exodus 3: 1-7, 10, 13-14
Now Moses was tending the flock
of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the
back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel
of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a
bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the
bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside
and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
So when the Lord saw
that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and
said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
Then He said, “Do not draw near
this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you
stand is holy ground.” 6 Moreover He said,
“I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon
God.
And the Lord said: “I
have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and
have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their
sorrows. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may
bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Then Moses said to God,
“Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The
God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me,
‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
And God said to Moses, “I AM the
I AM.”
Matthew 17:1-8
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his
brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was
transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became
as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to
them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus,
“Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three
tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is
My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” And when the
disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly
afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and
do not be afraid.” When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but
Jesus only.
Apocalypse Revealed 56
“He put His hand on me saying,
‘Do not be afraid.’” This symbolizes spiritual encouragement, and a resultant
profound adoration from deep humility. Genuine holy fear comes over us
when the Lords life encompasses us, pushing aside our feelings of being in
charge. Such an experience can cause an inner trembling and even our hair to stand
on end. When we are full of our own sense of life (being in charge), we look at
the Lord from our own perspective. But when we are filled with the Lord’s life,
we see all things from the Lord’s perspective, (yet somehow retaining a sense
of separateness). When we are so encompassed by the Lord’s life, we realize
that we are nothing, and that the Lord is everything.
