As the Deer

Spirituality for the Rest of Us
Isaiah 6.1-8
Sermon preached on February 7, 2010

King Uzziah died of leprosy in 742 BC. His kingdom, Judah, was in a time of stability. There were troubles on the horizon, but it was peace and prosperity now. The throne passed peacefully to his son Jotham. There was a coronation ceremony at the temple that Solomon had built centuries earlier. Crowds swelled Jerusalem for the event. There was a sense of excitement and hopefulness in the air, much like when we inaugurate a new president in Washington.

Among the dignitaries was a young man named Isaiah. He was from a noble family in Jerusalem – they had means and connections. He had a ticket to the coronation ceremony. We can imagine him standing there in the temple courts, wearing a white festive robe and his best sandals, standing on tiptoe to see the new king Jotham.

During the ceremony something happened to Isaiah. He had a mystical experience. He had a vision of God. He saw God seated on a throne, high and exalted. The train of God’s robe filled the temple. Angels were around God, and they called to one another, “Quadosh, quadosh, quadosh… holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah was stunned and silent. Others were watching the young king Jotham, but Isaiah saw the real king, the great king, God almighty. Once Isaiah recovered his ability to speak, he said simply, “Woe is me. Woe is me.” The presence of God overwhelmed him.

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Have you had an experience like this? You’re sitting in the stands during a graduation ceremony. The graduates go up to receive their diplomas. But for you suddenly the sky opens up, and you see the glory of God, brighter than a thousand suns, and it blinds you. Has that happened to you? If you’re like me, probably not. This is an experience for saints, mystics and prophets like Isaiah. Our ordinary experience is different.

Some of you have shared mystical experiences with me. You saw a vision or your heard a voice. I don’t doubt that happens. Sometimes the curtain parts, and we see beyond it. But for most of us, it’s not part of our ordinary experience. We need a faith that doesn’t depend on them… a spirituality for the rest of us who are not saints, mystics and prophets.

I’m going to say something now that makes me nervous. I actually laid awake at night this week wondering, “What will they think if I say this in a sermon?” It’s different… it’s the opposite of what we usually say in church. But here it is. I believe our ordinary experience is of the absence of God, not the presence of God. We live our lives in the absence of God. This is normal. This is how it should be.

Philosopher Robert Sokolowski said it this way, “God as God does not appear in the world or in human experience. God is not the kind of being who can appear as a thing in the world… we approach God as one who is always absent to us while we are in our current state.”

This is basic theology. God made the universe, and God is not the universe. The act of creation included a withdrawal on God’s part… God pulled back, so to speak, to allow the creation a space to be. What is immediately present to us is the universe itself – that tree, that rock, this brick, that person… and none of them are God. Compared to them, God is absent to us. This is normal. I’m not saying we are abandoned. It’s not the same. I’m only saying there is a distinction between the creation and the creator, and what is immediately present to us is the creation itself. God is behind and beyond it.

Now there are benefits to the absence of God in our lives. Actually, if we faced the presence of God in its full intensity, we’d be annihilated. The absence of God keeps us alive. Grasping God’s absence also relieves us of the pressure of having to force a certain experience… “If I try really hard, maybe God will be present to me like he is for so-and-so.” We don’t have to do that if we realize our ordinary experience is the absence of God. There’s nothing abnormal about it. Even more, a sense of God’s absence connects us to people who are not religious, who don’t get spirituality at all… they live in the absence of God each day, just as we do. So we have kinship with them.

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I’ll have more to say about this, but let’s go back now to Isaiah. We left him in a trance in the temple. He is staring at his vision. He is trembling. People were beginning to look at him and whisper among themselves.

As I read the scripture, three things happen to Isaiah as a result of his vision. First, he is confronted by the awesome majesty and holiness of God, which has the effect of instantly reordering his life and priorities, as it would for us. Second, he is cleansed from his sin and shortsightedness. God’s holiness reminds him of his sin, but then the angel takes a coal from the altar to remind Isaiah about the sacrifice that brings him forgiveness and cleanses him. Third, he is commissioned for a new work. The voice says, “Who will go for us.” And Isaiah says, “Here I am, send me.” He will become a prophet, the prophet in Israel. Isaiah will address idolatry and social injustice, and he will call people to a new faith in God.

After he dies, his words will be collected, and Isaiah’s writings will become the foundation of Hebrew literature. You can go to Jerusalem today and visit the Shrine of the Book, where the Dead Sea Scrolls are housed, and in the center there is a large display, the focal point of the exhibit, and it is Isaiah’s writings. He will become that important. But it all starts when he is a young man in the temple, and he has a vision of God, a mystical experience of God’s presence.

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Earlier I spoke about our normal experience of the absence of God. Now I want to qualify this and say that God is also present to us in certain ways. God is absent and present.

If I were in the pews listening, I’d be thinking now, “Wait… how can God be absent and present? How is this possible?” Well I know it’s possible… quantum physics tells me so. In quantum physics they study subatomic particles with funny names. They’ve done experiments that show that a particle can be there and not be there at the same instant… it can be present and absent simultaneously. This tells me that physical reality at its basic level is not simple… it’s complicated and paradoxical. How much more then is the reality of God in our lives complicated and paradoxical. God can be absent to us and present to us, the key is that it’s an indirect present. God is indirectly present.

Let’s move away now from quantum physics to something more everyday. Say you know a family in need. They’re going through a crisis. You decide to help out by fixing them dinner. You know they’d do the same for you. So you go to the store and buy the ingredients, and then you go home and fix your standard tuna noodle casserole for them. You’ve called ahead to make sure they’ll like it. You fix other dishes too, including something resembling a vegetable because you want the meal to be healthy. You take the meal to their house and ring the bell. You go inside and deliver the meal. You talk with them for a bit, and then you get back in your car and leave. So here’s the question… when that family sits down for dinner in a few minutes, are you absent or present? Well, you are absent to them… you’re not at the table. But you are also indirectly present through the meal your own hands have touched and prepared. The meal makes you present to them indirectly.

This is how I think about the indirect presence of God. And for this I am indebted to the French writer Simone Weil. In her essay on the Forms of the Implicit Love of God, she wrote about God’s ordinary absence from us, but she also said God is indirectly present to us in three ways: through the beauty of the universe, through acts of mercy and compassion, and through religious practices. When we pay attention to these things and give ourselves to them, we encounter God’s indirect presence and we are changed. Think of them as three dishes in the meal God has prepared for us… they make God indirectly present to us.

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So here is where a spirituality for the rest of us comes in. Most of us are not saints, mystics or prophets. We are not likely to have dramatic visions of God as Isaiah did. But if we pay attention to God’s indirect presence in the beauty of nature, in acts of mercy, and in religious practices like prayer and worship, then the same thing that happened to Isaiah will happen to us, only it will happen more slowly. We will be confronted by a reality beyond ourselves, which will reorder our life and priorities.  We will be cleansed of our sin and shortsightedness.  And we will be commissioned for a new work, a way of life set out for us by the creator of the universe. Amen.