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May my words be acceptable to God;
faithful to the teachings of Christ;
and inspired by the Holy Spirit;
that we may be blessed by the same Triune God.

Where do you find God? Where do you find yourself in the presence of God? Being in the presence of God is a common theme in today’s readings. And with our understanding of God being 3-in-1, we have the Israelites in the presence of YHWH, and the Woman at the Well in the presence of Jesus. YHWH and Jesus are 2 persons of the same 1 Godhead, the understanding of which we will save for Trinity Sunday.

When I ask you to think about where you find God, or where you find yourself in the presence of God, that could mean any manifestation of God: Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier; Father, Son, Holy Spirit; Jehovah, Prince of Peace, and so on. And I believe that being in the presence of God, or having God in your midst is an important part of the Christian experience. But it may not be part of every Christian’s experience, or it may be difficult to experience.

I want us all to do an exercise together this morning. I want us to find out where our favorite place is to be with God. So, please bear with me as we go through this.

  • Let’s all sit still for 30s. If that helps you feel the presence of God, that’s good. If it just helps you settle, that’s good, too.
  • Enjoy the silence.
  • Let go of any distractions.
  • Now close your eyes. If you don’t want to close your eyes, you can stare at your feet, or fix your gaze on the Good Shepherd Window.
  • Breathe in . . . Hold . . . Breathe out.
  • Breathe in . . . Hold . . . Breathe out.
  • Be still.
  • Silence
  • Breathe in . . . Hold . . . Breathe out.
  • And now . . . Imagine . . .
  • Imagine that you are with God – that God is with you.
  • Where are you? Are you in your favorite place?
  • Are you in a field? On a mountain? In a church? In a cathedral? On a cloud in heaven?
  • Where is it that you meet God?
  • In your living room? Driving down the freeway? In the backyard with your family?
  • Silence
  • In your mind, look around you and record this place in your mind. This is the place where you meet God and God meets you.
  • God who is with you may be the Creator . . . or Jesus . . . or the Holy Spirit.
  • With which part of the Trinity do you have a stronger relationship?
  • Silence
  • How do you know God’s presence?
  • Can you feel God physically? Can you feel God’s touch?
  • Turn toward God. Do you see a physical body? A face? A shape?
  • Know that God is with you in this special place that you are in.
  • Be with God: Creator, Son, Holy Spirit.
  • Take a moment to record this place in your mind.
  • Take a moment to record your experience of God’s presence.
  • It is time to reenter this space.
  • Give thanks to God for spending time with you.
  • Ask God to lead your way for the rest of the day.
  • Come back gently.
  • Open your eyes.
  • Remember your time with God.
  • Breathe in . . . Hold . . . Breathe out.
  • Breathe in . . . Hold . . . Breathe out.

Your experience in that guided meditation is your own. It may have been useful…or not. You may have experienced something new…or not. You may have experienced something familiar…or not. But it’s your experience. And if God was present with you in whatever place you were in, that is what we read in today’s scriptures.

In our story from Exodus, there is a yearning for God – there is a literal thirst for God. In the wilderness, the Israelites feel that they have been abandoned by God, and they need a sign. Moses was their mediator, but God was with them at every step in the wilderness for the 40yrs.

In the Gospel, the Woman at the Well doesn’t know that she is in the presence of God for some time. And when she realizes that Jesus is the Messiah, she is so excited that she runs to tell all her friends and neighbors.

So many people want some time with God; they want God to be in their presence, or they want to be in the presence of God. They want God to come into their life, or they want to take their life into God’s realm. That is what it means to be a follower of Jesus – to want to be in that relationship.

We come to church on Sundays and other days to be in the presence of Jesus. We know that Jesus is in this place, and Jesus is in the Sacrament. And Jesus is in that place that you just went to in the guided meditation.

When we feel that God is not present in our lives for an extended period of time, we do one or both of two things: we give up hope, or we start to make God in our own image. We have had the potential to create God in our own image since the beginning of Creation. It is human tendency. Moses was up on the mountain for too long, and when he came down, the people had melted down their jewelry to make a Golden Calf to worship. Right now, we have military leaders saying that the illegal invasion in Iran will bring about Armageddon. They have created God in their image, and an illegal war is the Golden Calf that they worship. Leading up to 2008 financial crisis, it was the pursuit of quick money through dodgy home loans. And in the lives of individuals, creating God in our own image is being “spiritual but not religious” or “putting my concerns out to the universe.” All of that is a thirst for God, and I believe that it’s a genuine thirst for God … but on the individual’s terms, not on God’s terms.

In the Psalm at v8, it suddenly switches from the voice of the Psalmist to God’s voice:

Harden not your hearts, as your forebears did in the wilderness,
at Meribah, and on that day at Massah, when they tempted me.
They put me to the test, though they had seen my works.
Forty years long I detested that generation and said,
“This people are wayward in their hearts; they do not know my ways.”

“Meribah” and “Massah”, placenames that mean “testing” and “quarreling” because, as we heard in our reading from Exodus, the Israelites tested and quarreled with God. They wanted God on their terms, on easy terms. They expected God to always be with them, which, to them, meant instant gratification. And that’s not what they got, so they tested and quarreled with God. But that testing and quarreling is part of our relationship with God, and God can withstand our testing and quarreling. God is capable of sustaining the connection with us through tough times, and so should we be.

So, we have those places we go to be with God. As individuals, we go to those places for our private prayer. But we are also called to be in community and to gather for public worship. In community, we can explore who and what God is together and to learn God’s ways and for your heart to be less wayward. We discover the many facets of God through bringing our experiences of God to a central place and sharing that. We discover that God is bigger than all of our experiences put together.

The SBNR does their own thing, and their “god” is limited to what they want their “god” to be in that moment, shifting with the ebb and flow of their life, not being the constant to whom we can always return and on whom we can always rely to be never-changing. That may be soothing for them, but is that really God, or is that truly an imaginary friend who will always tell them what they want to hear and always make them feel good? We need that place to go to be with God, but we also need to go to Meribah and Massah, not only to test and quarrel with God, but to be tested by God and for God to quarrel with us – in our private place, or here together.

Thank you for going to your place of being with God with me this morning. Today, many commentators want preachers to focus on Jesus as the Lifegiving Water. Well, we know that! The Woman at the Well was curious about Jesus as the Lifegiving Water, but what she ran to tell her friends was that she was in the presence of the Messiah! I want you to go away from the Eucharist today and know that you are in the presence of God, that God was with you in worship and Sacrament – that God is with you! I want you to know what it feels like, to have some idea of how to know that God is with you when you are not here.

Sometimes we are too much in our heads about encounters with the Living God. We need to know that Jesus is the Lifegiving Water. We need to learn Bible verses. Sure! But we need to experience more! When you are in relationship with someone, you don’t just get to know their likes and dislikes or their history. You experience life with them … and that’s how you get to know more about them.

In this place, we explore together the endless possibilities of God and God’s presence so that ‘out there’ you can know God when you feel abandoned. But also so you know to where you can return to be replenished – refreshed by the well of the Lifegiving Water.

Thank you for going to your place of being with God with me this morning. Sometimes, with everything going on in our lives, we just need to know that God is here.