The Last Wednesday Before Holy Week

We had set up and tested a Laptop to ensure the audio was recording properly. It was! Then, the Computer restarted itself to install updates and wiped out the file.

Sorry Folks... but here are the sermon notes for you. I know reading notes can be tedious..but here goes.

Talk Five: God In Us, Revealed in Us

Sermon Notes

A Reflection on the Mystery of God, and the Connection of The Incarnation. We begin with a well Known Passage:
Romans 8:38-39  New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Look at you own EXPIERIENCE  now and...ask yourself "Am I fully persuaded?"

As Christians we proclaim that:
1. God  created us , and
 2.He lived within us and with  from the very beginning ,prior to our developing language, beliefs religions or sacraments.

  A simple definition of mystery is : that it is that which cannot be understood. Personally I have come to that see mystery is a gift ,a gift of God that is deep, elusive, and worth seeking.

 I know that it is too rich and beautiful to be understood, and yet:
 at the deepest level, and  through the Grace of Christ we do understand  the beauty and truth.

Mystery is only Visible through REVELATION

Revelation is  a  transcendental experience   through which our present limitedness, shortcomings and mortality  is illuminated by God's revealing of Himself

It is possible  to sense Revelation because we are wired to long for something deeper.

If God created us, and our purpose is found in Him,surely he has a right to have a say in the purpose for each life.

Without revelation we live the Inauthentic Life therefore

 He referred to the authentic life as- being transformed by the reality and purpose of God.

The  starting point for any persons spiritual journey comes from our own experiences. It is there that we have the basic experience of God that we can recognise, make choices  and begin the journey to where we are now.

The question .."Do I really believe?"  is made harder because today's scientific and secular climate is very effective at suppressing encounters between wonder and mystery.
For us  postmodern people,  believing that there is a supernatural presence in the universe is pretty tough. Our universe is not inherently magical, as it was for people of old.

1.Science tells us that we are alone, so we have to create that which is "Awesome" ourselves.
This leaves us  Feeling alone, confused, and doubtful.

2.Science tells us that our world is beautiful and interesting, but everything can be explained.  Spiritually speaking the world is inert and empty. We have to create all meaning by ourselves in such a world, and most of us do not seem to succeed very well.

 But here we are in 2013. We are caught in the tension of the modern world, and knowing the revealed truth about Gods Love God calls us  to have faith and courage, before knowledge. The world says otherwise.

Let me leave you with some Positive Incarnational Thinking

More  and more  we are discovering that physics, astrophysics, anthropology, and biology, are confirming many of the deep intuitions of religion.
1.The universe really is vibrant and in motion.
2.We have greater understandings of history, instinct, evolution, nuclear fusion, DNA, healing, growth....

 It is  an undisputed fact that nature clearly continues to renew itself and evolve from within.
 Creation is an ongoing process! God is "in it" and God is "With Us"

Personally I am more sure than ever in the reality of Creation, and that God has created things that  in turn , because of ( The mystery of the Incarnation ) continue to create and recreate themselves from the inside out.

Let me share a couple Images of that thought:

Ecclesiastes 3:11 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

God has created, and keeps creating.
    Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord.” (Jer. 23:24)

That is "Mysterious Incarnation"

Now on to Ephesians 1:23
 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.  

In my heart and in my life experience , I have knowledge that all of this is revealed through Jesus.
  We are created with an inner drive and necessity that sends all of us out looking for our True Self, whether we know it or not.  We need an awakening and light to find our way, because the Journey does get very dark.

We are not walking alone. Our  Lord walks side by side with us.

Because God created us with an inner restlessness and a call that urges us onward into risky places   , Jesus came and shows us that  darkness is never the whole story, and that we are never abandoned.  

I Pray that the the movement of your faith will bring you to a place where you will KNOW   that our Hope is something substantial, real, and eternal. 

You are called to Love Deeply.

You are Called to accompany people through the mysteries of Life and death 

You are called to receive and share the gift of genuine life-changing awe before The Gifts of God, which is His mystery, time, beauty.