Sermon 2-22-2015 ‘God in Space’
Psalm 139
Pastor Ruthie Tippin; First Friends Meeting Indianapolis
http://www.pallottinesisters.org/prayerlife/Creating%20Inner%20Space.pdf
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia; http://fscaston.org/the-mysticism-of-pots-and-pans/
How does God fill the space of your life?
God in space… indescribable. God fills the most finite of places as well as the vast expanse of infinite time and space.
“The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew all things in God and God in all things,” says Mechtild of Magdeburg, a thirteenth century mystic.
Stand and stretch. Breathe. God in us, Around us. Through us. The life of God in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In a portion of Britain Yearly Meeting’s ‘Christian Faith and Practice’, titled ‘The nature of God’, we find this entry from Rufus Jones: ‘Spirit… is the best word there is to express the essential nature of God. It signifies that He is not to be confused with matter, nor to be found in a framework of space. He is like that highest, purest inner nature in ourselves which we call ‘spirit’. He is intelligent, He is purposeful. He is devoted to the realization of the good. He is what we are trying to be. And wherever in the universe the good is being achieved, wherever truth is triumphing, wherever holiness is making its power known – there is spirit, there is God.’ [Religious foundations, 1923, p.11]
Telephone post – cross
Images that become imago dei
Mundane that becomes mystical
Rose Mary Eve Holter, of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia led a workshop about the mysticism of Pots and Pans once; “We have a God who wants to be alive within our everyday experiences, an ordinary God who speaks to us in extraordinary ways each and every day. Our task simply is to stay present, to listen, and to experience this God in the ordinary life of pots and pans and all other ordinary things that speak to us of God. All is sacred because God created us good and lives within us and therefore there is a sacred space within each of us where God lives in great joy and speaks to our heart and listens as we speak to God.
How does God fill the space we’re in today? Look. See. Observe the space we’re in… the Meeting Room. A place where we meet with one another, but also with God. What do you see in this space?
What fills it? What inhabits the emptiness of it? The openness of it?
The Sound of My Soul Is Silence
As fish fed multitudes,
as bread gives life to the hungry,
so solitude fills the soul.
As night evokes a yearning for the light
and cold attracts us to the fire,
so silence beckons God.
As waterfalls veil rocks,
as clay conceals fossils,
so God hides within.
“What Happiness Required”,
Linda Caldwell Lee
How does God fill the space of your life? How does God fill you? What fills the emptiness of your life? What fills the empty space of this room with presence? What inhabits your life?