July 29, 2012 "The God Particle"

2nd Samuel 11:1-5 John 6: 1-21 On the 4th of July this year, after almost 50 years of research, Particle Physicists discovered what they had known existed but could not find. The Higgs Boson Particle, as I understand it, is a sub-atomic particle by which things have mass, matter and being. 30 years after Peter Higgs published his theory of the reality of this particle, Leon Lederman wrote about it in his book: The God Particle. Ever since there has been debate because at least on the surface, physicists were attributing the creation of matter, mass and being: to God, even that discovery of this God Particle might prove the existence of God. Except, the Particle Physicist Peter Higgs never identified his theory as “The God Particle,” instead, after searching for decade after decade for proof he could not find, Higgs had named the missing particle as That Gosh-Darned Particle, quite literally the God ________ Particle. Rather than proving the existence of God, his euphemism identified that which gave him the greatest vexation and tormented his life, as the thing that was missing. More than attributing that anything we cannot explain must belong to God, the point of our scriptures this day are that when we chose to act as if there is no God, or God is unknown to us, we get into trouble, and yet when we attempt to live our lives in faith miracles are possible, and nothing, not a single particle of matter will ever be lost from God. When we think of King David, some of us recall the Shepherd Boy battling Goliath with a slingshot, some recall the beloved King of Israel author of the Psalms, while others jump to Bathsheba. We hear this story and know that the sin of David was adultery. But that is not what this passage is about. Others of us, pay attention to the introductory words, and note that “In the Spring of the year, when other kings went off to war, David stayed home...” and we interpret that David was having a Mid-life Crisis, or Burned out, and rather than getting a sports car or an earring or tattoo, King David had an affair. But that is not the point of this story. In the Chapter prior, Israel had gone to war, while King David stayed safe at home. Israel was being soundly beaten, when God told David to get up, and he went, and seeing their King leading them, the army of Israel rallied and Israel won. A long winter has taken place and again in the Spring it was the time in which armies and kings went to war, but David stayed home. This is a passage like Jonah to the Ninevities and Elijah in the Cave, a Calling where God instructed David to go, and instead he preoccupied himself with other things. From which came the affair with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband Uriah, and the division of the monarchy with Absalom. All because David chose to not listen to God, to not trust to go where God directed in faith, but practically, reasonably, King David stayed at home. Turning to the Gospel of John, imagine with me if you will, what would happen if suddenly on this morning in late July quite unexpectedly 5000 people came to worship? The Deacons would probably break the copy machine by trying to making additional bulletins. The Music staff would be concerned how we could get hymnals and Bibles for each person to be able to read the words. The Property Committee would be going nuts because at the end of one of the worst droughts in recent history, when the grass is brown and crunchy, thousands of people are trampling and sitting down breaking the blades of grass. The preacher would be grinning from ear to ear looking out upon the masses, concerned whether his words could possibly be worthy. While the Women's Association and the Membership and Outreach Committee wonder how they could provide enough Presbyterian punch for Coffee Hour. The difficulty with appropriating this passage is not identifying with the disciples, but that rationally in the 21st Century we do not believe 5000 people would ever turn out to worship God! I went to Seminary in a skeptical age, where when confronted with a passage like this, we were taught to reason out the most human of interpretations. Like the Children's Story of Stone Soup, it must be, that when the child offered all he had 5 loaves and 2 fish, the adults were shamed into each offering what they had hoarded away, and in the end there was a multiplication more, than at the first. But to follow this interpretation makes God some great Social Worker, who manipulates peoples sense of generosity. Jesus becomes one who preys upon peoples' sense of shame and guilt, and that is not the Savior whom we know and love. NO, the power of this story is not in rationally reasoning out human behavior, but instead believing in the power of God that all who are hungry should be fed. John Calvin's explanation was that the five loaves represented the 5 Books of Moses, the Pentateuch or Torah, the Books of Law, which when given to the people and distributed returned in the ministry of the 12 disciples, and what was most important to Calvin that not one particle of matter was lost, for nothing could ever be lost from God. The problem of those of us who received our education from the time of the Great Enlightenment through the 20th Century, was that in what was called The Modern Era, we believed Knowledge was Power, that ultimately everything in the universe could be known, and knowing we could master our world. Ironically, with the discovery of the micro-processing chip, computerization and telecommunication, we shifted from the Modern Era to the Information Age. In this time, we are constantly plugged in and bombarded with knowledge. We channel surf between Reality Shows and Sit-Coms, Game Shows, Talk Shows and News Shows, as if all were equal, all were for our entertainment, and as if this were not enough at the bottom of the screen teletype scrolled by with highlights of other stories to distract our focus. Tragically, we have replaced the era of Knowledge, with a Time of being Passive, Isolated and Alone, where we do not know what to do with all the information available to us. In recent years, we have responded to Tsunamis, Flesh-eating Viruses, Mine Cave-ins, Shark Attacks, North Korean Rocket launches, the killing of Osama bi Laden, European Debt, Chimpanzees ripping the face off of a woman, Job Loss Numbers, and the Olympics. I would admit that within the church, we are no better, as sometimes it seems we go from crisis to crisis, the list of concerns is an overwhelming multitude. At times I feel as though our prayers are like plate spinners on old Variety shows, where we are focused on spinning concern for this woman recovering from unending surgeries for cancer, then for this man with depression, then this child, when suddenly we learn of a neighbor falling from a roof. How do we respond and minister to 5000 concerns and in our shock everything begins to crash around us like shattering plates. To treat any of our stories as miracles enables our faith to become a consumerism of magic incantation, if only I pray harder I can save my sister from Cancer. If only we believed more, our child would not have died. If I had been a better parent... And if not me, then it must be “the Will of God” and what a merciless God to cause such suffering! The POINT of Miracles is not to FIX broken things, Prayer is not purchase of the Missing God Particle that will explain the universe, or even the Gosh-darned particle, but redeeming the Lost. Prayer, Faith, Reading the Scriptures, all require that we stop, we re-orient ourselves, to listening for God, watching what God may do, believing all things are possible with God. We need to sit down on the grass, as Moses did with the people in the wilderness when giving to them the Law, and as Jesus did here with the loaves and fishes. The point is not to make any one of these circumstances of our neighbors a testimony to our faith, our latest miracle story, but instead to know that nothing has ever been lost to God, there is a superabundance of grace that can suffice. In 1946 a young woman named Agnes took her vows to become a nun. In the ministry, there is not always choice of where and how you serve, and she was sent to Calcutta to work with those with Leprosy, the untouchables, whose own families had shunned them. Agnes was a young woman of 18 who along with 16 other nuns were given responsibility of ministering to thousands of people with a disease that at the time was incurable. Overwhelming odds, daunting, but the experience made Agnes into Mother Theresa. How easy it is for our fears of what is missing to take possession of us and to toss us in a sea of chaos, instead of listening to God, welcoming Jesus in, and discovering we are already on the other side.