When have you felt God’s close presence?

When has God been tangibly real to you?

I remember sitting in a lecture hall in a class in seminary, and out of the blue thinking of my friend Shaun McNay up here in Oregon. It was an urgent thought, a prodding from God to pray for him in a difficult time.

I remember praying for him, and trying to re-focus on the class, but it just didn’t work. When we had a 10 minute break, I left and found a pay phone and called Shaun. I told him my experience, told him I’d prayed for him. He was silent for a moment…then he said he was going through some very difficult experiences, and what’s more, he’d been walking moments before and had the thought: “I wonder if someone is praying for me?”

That may sound like a little thing, or something that might be chalked up to coincidence. But for me, it’s become a clear marker point in my life, a time that I can look back upon and feel convinced that God was close. God broke into my thoughts, and used me to make a difference in a friend’s life.

There is nothing more powerful or life changing than the reality that we can experience a connection with the Creator of the Universe.

It’s so central to who we are and what we believe as a Friends Church. The presence of God is what we truly long for, what gives us strength, even when everything else has failed us.

There is nothing greater we can do as a church than to speak and experience this life-changing truth: God is really here, and we can each experience God ourselves.

George Fox was the man most responsible for the beginnings of Quakers, of Friends. He wrote famously in his journal about the great turning point in his life. After seeking out priests and pastors and wise people, asking everyone to help him with his depression and his sense that life was futile, he was at the end of his rope. Listen to what changed the course of his life, written in the language of 350 years ago:

When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition”; and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy.

A voice, the voice of God, spoke to him, and pointed him to Jesus Christ.

That truth–the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives–is our center. It’s relevant to what we face, WHATEVER we face. That’s what it means that Christ can speak to our condition. Whatever condition we are in, Jesus is close to us and can speak wisdom that we need.

I remember coming to this church for the first time when I was in college, and after worshiping here for a few weeks, I remember calling home and saying to my parents, “These people take seriously what all Christians say we believe, that the Holy Spirit really is here.”

If I could stand on my head to say this, I would! God is not far away from us, but intimately close! Jesus is not removed and irrelevant to our lives, but is the true longing and desire of our hearts!

It doesn’t always feel that way. We have a tremendous ability to forget God and take God’s presence for granted. It can feel sometimes as if we are alone in a dark world, and that God is silent.

But our experience as a community says those feelings are not the reality.

The people we worship with each week are living reminders that God is “alive and notoriously active” in our world.

The experiences of the people of God throughout thousands of years say that those feelings of God being absent and uncaring are NOT the reality or the character of the God we serve.

The bible, which we believe to be God’s clear message to us, tells us that God cares so much for us, his creation, that he cannot stay far away. God must be intimately connected with our world and our relationships and our desires.

The supreme example of God’s coming close and connecting with his messy creation is summed up in one theological word: Incarnation.

Incarnation is what we celebrate and think about with amazement and wonder at Christmas. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.”

When God saw the pain and wickedness repeating itself over and over again, God put on human flesh, wrapped up the glory of God in skin and bones, and stepped into our experience to change it forever. That’s incarnation.

That ultimate expression of God’s care is what we celebrate in Christmas; it’s what we anticipate in these weeks before Christmas known as the advent season.

But the baby born in the stable was NOT the first time God came near.

No. The baby who was called “Emmanuel”, God with us, was the culmination of centuries of God’s concern for us, his people.

God has never been far away. God has never been unconcerned or left us on our own. And in Psalm 46, we have proof. Psalm 46 is one of the great expressions of the trust and confidence that comes because of God’s character.

It’s God’s character that gives us hope!

Not our things, or our abilities, or our mental toughness. Not our scheming, not our planning, not the mark we make on the world.

It is God’s character, God’s presence, God’s power that give us hope. No matter what we face, God is with us as a strong tower of protection. No matter who cheats us or hurts us, God never gives up on us.

No matter what wrong we do, no matter what is done to us, God’s love and care NEVER fail!

When this Psalm was written, there were two major places where chaos reigned, two places that were scary and out of control.

One was the natural world; the power of the ocean with its waves and unfathomable depths was unconquerable.

In the last century, perhaps, we came to believe that the chaos of the natural world could be conquered. We plumbed the depths, conquered the climate, even put a man on the moon.

But in the last couple of months, Hurricane Katrina and tsunamis and earthquakes have reminded us what the Psalmist knew really well: the world is not a safe place, and we will never completely control it.

The other area where chaos reigned in the ancient world was the world powers, governments, and kingdoms that plotted and warred against each other.

In our lifetime, the 20^th century was the bloodiest by far in human history with world wars and ethnic cleansing dominating the headlines. We know, just like the psalmist, that we are never safe from our ability together to do harm and spread evil in the world.

And Psalm 46 clearly and loudly says that God is a supreme tower of protection in the face of BOTH of these uncontrollable fears.

Even better, this is not blind hope. “God is our refuge, an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear!”

Now, listen for how the greatest fears are named: “Though the earth give way, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. Though its waters roar and foam, and the mountains quake with their surging.”

GOD is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help, even if the bottom falls out of the earth! Natural disasters don’t prove God’s absence or lack of care. In fact, what the bible and history and experience tell us, is that God is most powerfully present in times of great fear and stress.

This is who God is: a God who stays close to his creation and is a refuge and strength when our worst fears come.

Why this picture of God’s presence as a river in the middle of a city?

In the dry desert land of Palestine, a river in a city was the ultimate strength. Even if a city were under siege, a river in the city would mean that they could hold out with water for a long period of time.

Jerusalem didn’t have a river. But here, God is pictured as the river that continually blesses the people of God, keeping us from being conquered and defeated. [READ v. 4-5]

Think of the worst things, the psalmist says.

Think of the world exploding and flooding, think of being under siege by a mighty army, think of horrible kingdoms imposing their evil will on the rest of the world.

It is God who is in control. It is God who will make all wars stop. The greatest military powers in the history of the world cannot stand against the power of God. [READ v. 5-7]

“The Lord Almighty is with us.”

It is God’s presence that gives confidence and peace. God has always been close to his people, and God still is.

Do you know what that feels like? Have you said to God, “Yes, I will follow your Son, and I want you to speak to me and guide me?”

Do you make time to listen for God’s voice, his gentle voice that is so close to us? That’s what open worship is designed for, to give time and space to listen for God’s voice that we believe is so present.

It’s how we were made to live each day, making room to seek God.

[READ v. 10-11]

Our hope comes from knowing God.

And how desperately I need that right now. Here’s my confession: Life has been so busy and overwhelming, I haven’t felt the closeness of God. I haven’t made time to hear his voice. I feel unsure about direction for myself and for our community, because God doesn’t feel close.

But I believe, with all my heart, that our hope comes from listening to the voice of God. I need to take a few more minutes to be still, and KNOW God! Maybe you do, too.