02/25/01 - Experiencing God Your Own Way

Experiencing God Your Own Way
Luke 9:28-36
February 25, 2001
St. John United Methodist Church
David Beckett, D.Min.

Fred Craddock tells a wonderful story about a young minister, newly graduated from seminary, serving his very first church. He gets a call telling him that a church member, an elderly woman who has just given her life to the church, is in the hospital. She’s so weak she can’t even get up out of bed, and the doctors don’t hold much hope for her recovery. Would he go up and visit? Well, of course he will and he does.
All the way to the hospital he’s thinking about what he will say to this Christian lady, what words of comfort he can give her to prepare her for her imminent death. He arrives at the hospital, goes up to her room for the visit. He sits and talks with her a few minutes, just small talk really, nothing earth shattering. When he prepares to leave, he asks if she would like him to have prayer with her. She answers, "Yes, of course. That’s why I wanted you to come." He then asks politely, "And what exactly would you like me to pray for?" "Why, I want you to pray that God will heal me," she answers in a surprised tone of voice. Haltingly, fumbling over the words, he prays just as she wanted, that God will heal her, even though he’s not really sure that can happen. When he says the "Amen" at the end of the prayer, the woman says, "You know, I think it worked! I think I’m healed!" And she gets out of the bed and begins to run up and down the hallway of the hospital, shouting, "Praise God! I’m healed! Praise God! I’m healed!"

Meanwhile, the young minister, in a stupor, stumbles to the stairwell, walks down five flights of stairs, makes his way to the parking lot and somehow manages to find his car. As he fumbles to get his keys out of his pocket, he looks heavenward and prays, "God, don’t you ever do that to me again!" Here was a young man, a minister no less, who had a mountaintop moment, but didn’t know what to do with it!
Do you ever find yourself experiencing what you think may be a God-moment, but don’t know what to make of it? Have you read or heard of others’ mountaintop experiences and found yourself wondering, "Why doesn’t that ever happen to me?" This message is for all those who feel their spiritual life is lacking because it never seems to match with the mountain top experiences of others.

We can find some comfort in Peter’s response to the transfiguration event. Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a mountain to pray. While he was praying his face and clothing changed and became dazzling white. Then they saw Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. For Peter, James, and John it was an awesome sight to witness the glory of God on that mountain top. But how does Peter respond to this spiritual experience? What is his first impulse? He wants to build something! This guy was in the midst of perhaps the greatest glory of his life and his best response is to build three shelters! Doesn’t this remind you of Tim-the- Tool-Man-Taylor on the TV show, "Home Improvement?" I can see it now. Peter has his own TV show. The camera fades in as Peter welcomes his viewers. "Welcome to the show today. You know my assistants, James and John, the Sons of Thunder. My name is Peter, the Rock Guy. And today we’re on location on this mountain to demonstrate how to build three huts without electric power. So stay tuned for this exciting show."

There are people who relate to God in a similar way. Visions of God’s glory don’t happen very often. And when a big one happens some of us don’t know how to respond other than doing something.

This kind of thing happens at funerals. When a loved one dies there is usually one person in the family who assumes the role of doer. This person moves in and quickly takes charge of the arrangements. He wants to handle all the details for the sake of others. While this may be a helpful service to family members it also serves to insulate the individual from experiencing grief and grace for herself.

When Peter blurted to Jesus, "Master, let’s make three dwellings," Luke records that he did not know what he said. You’ve had those awkward moments when you said something, anything, simply because you were uncomfortable with what was happening. As a teenager I remember one of my greatest fears was being on a date and not having anything to say. Silence on a date was a huge turn off. And so I would actually plan ahead of time what I would talk about with my date.

It’s really about control, isn’t it? We like being in control of our lives and we like being in control of when and where we experience God. Some of us are so into planning with our jobs and our busy family schedules that we may find it difficult to experience God if it’s not listed in our Palm Pilot calendars!

You may not have the kind of mountaintop experience Peter had, but you can experience God in your own way. We ought not allow other Christians make us feel inferior if we do not experience God like they do. Corinne Ware has written a book titled, "Discovering Your Spiritual Type." I have been using it in several workshops here at St. John during the past year and a half. Ware believes there are basically four spiritual types….four ways we relate to God.

Type 1 people relate to God through their minds. They need to think about God. A type 1 person enjoys a worship service that gives them something to think about.

Type 2 people relate to God through their emotions. Music is very important to this type. They need stories and songs to help them feel God’s presence.

Type 3 people are the mystics. These folks need quiet and solitude to worship God. They love sitting in the mystery of God’s presence and often talk about their spiritual life in terms of a journey.

Type 4 people are the crusaders. People of this type do not separate their prayer from their work. They have a strong vision of the kingdom of God and work tirelessly to bring it among us.

If any of you are interested I would be happy to conduct another workshop so you can discover your spiritual type. The main point is: your way of experiencing God needs to be honored. We don’t have to feel badly if we don’t have the same spiritual experiences as others.

Joe Pennel taught a course in United Methodist Polity at Vanderbilt Divinity School. On the first day of class he asked the students to share a time in their lives when they were especially aware of God’s presence. He asked them to talk about a sacred moment in their faith journeys which had become for them a mountain-top experience. Joe was stunned when a majority of the students talked about the death of a significant person as a time when they knew God’s presence with great certainty. Some people have experienced a sign of divine presence while driving away from the hospital with a newborn baby cuddled in a soft blanket. Some have experienced God’s revelation while listening to a friend, caring for the poor, or watching a child play basketball. Have you experienced God’s closeness in the midst of a very normal, routine day?

Phyllis Tickle lives on a farm in West Tennessee. She is the mother of seven and lives with her physician husband and her three children who are still at home on a large spread near Lucy, Tennessee, just north of Memphis. Experiences on this farm provide the setting for many of her books and articles. In one of them she writes, "I have

learned more about what ‘Christian’ means in a day-to-day ‘let’s do the dishes again, or change the baby’ day than any other thing in the world." For her, those day-to-day experiences have become fog-clearing moments. Tickle, like the rest of us, is moving through the fog of life. We need to trust those moments when there is clarity.

While Peter was talking to fill up the sacred moment with words a cloud overshadowed them and they were terrified. Isn’t that how we experience life? We live in a fog. We live with fear, not knowing what will happen. We know God is near but we can’t see him. But suddenly God’s still, small voice penetrates our hearts and the fog lifts.

Most of the time, the fog-clearing moments do not come when we set out to look for them. Most of the time, the fog-clearing moments come when we are able to see the divine in the ordinary. Phyllis Tickle said that she never looks for special experiences with God. "I never look for it. Couldn’t find it if I did. It overwhelms me."

We’ve all had fog-clearing moments. A recent Gallup Poll reported that eighty-five percent of the people interviewed said that they had had a "mystical" experience with God. Your God-moment may have been filled with all the glory of a mountain top vision. More likely than not, your "mystical" experiences of God happen while you’re driving to work, or watching your child sleep, or saying goodbye to a loved one. It doesn’t matter where they happen. It doesn’t matter how profound they are. It does matter that we discover our own way of experiencing this wonderful God who loves and graces our lives each moment of every day. It does matter that we accept our unique way of knowing God.

A little boy was out in his backyard, throwing a ball up in the air. An elderly passerby, not accustomed to such youthful delights, asked the boy what he was doing. He replied, "I am playing a game of catch with God. I throw the ball up in the air and God throws it back."

I am in no position to comment on God’s ability to play ball, but I do know that whatever goes up must come down. The same process applies to our spiritual lives. It is a good thing to "go up" to a great experience with God, but we will become greatly disillusioned if we do not remember that eventually we have to "come down" again.

But coming down doesn’t mean we have to give up glory-filled God-moments. These moments are right before our eyes. So let the fog be cleared! May we look at life with soulful eyes. For we can experience God in our own way.

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