WHEN YOU FIND GOD YOU WILL CHANGE
PSALM 63: 1-8
LUKE 13: 1-9
MARCH 23, 2025 – Third Sunday in Lent
If you are like me … you often start to wonder about things. And, as you get older you start to reconsider things that were once part of your life. I frankly dream strange dreams that reconnect me with individuals, activities, and work experiences from my past that really make me wonder about what’s going on up here in my brain. Yes, I know that a Scripture passage that we read here in church a few weeks ago reads, “The Lord God declares, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.”
That was the Scripture that Peter chose to read to the crowd after God’s Holy Spirit descended on believers on Pentecost. If you remember that day when those strangers suddenly because closer with God and were changed. A day marking the start of the season of folks wearing RED CAPS with the letter P on them marking that great change.
Last night’s dream by the way had me back working at radio station WFPG and John Speeney who was my program director was telling me about a bonus I was going to receive. I am not quite sure if that dream is the dream that the prophet Joel was referring to and I seriously doubt if it was prophetic but truthfully being with all of you today is a bonus for me … connecting in church to push the world out of view is a gift of God … this is a place of God-connection for me … where people of faith have made a personal decision to prioritize places like our church … this is a place where you can actually find God and through the Word of God, through prayer, through the songs of praise and worship, and yes through the fellowship we share with one another … that essential bonus of life can be had if we are willing to take it on … a relationship with God rather than the world … a recovery of a personal connection and life saving relationship with Jesus Christ … and this is where we can again ask that the Holy Spirit of God begins to serve as our life’s guide directing us away from voices that run counter to God’s teaching.
But you may have heard … churches tend to be empty these days. Where once upon a time hundreds of neighbors were hurrying and scurrying to fill huge cathedrals, large churches, and even small country buildings labeled church on Sunday mornings … there are plenty of seats because folks have decided on other priorities … folks have disconnected with the value of worship … and perhaps in this technologically connected 21st century when we can always have our Bibles with us because they are actually available for free on our cell phones for ourselves and also for our children there are fewer amongst us are reading God’s Word … the global society of humans have lost God in their rush to align with the things of this world. Some blame COVID but one would think that living on the edge of life and death would bring folks closer to God … we experienced a resurgence of church attendance after 911 but that quickly dissipated into a society where loving our neighbors and caring for the poor are concepts loudly rejected by humans that many of our neighbors choose to worship more than Jesus.
Now, of course I am preaching to a crowd of folks both here at St. Paul’s and those of you online who have made church an essential part of our shared Sunday morning March 23, 2025. We have all chosen to be connected today with one another but in this season of Lent I want to nudge you to ensure that your daily life as we approach Easter is not merely one of Sunday church attendance that vaporizes until another Sunday arrives … I want you to consider the possibilities for you as an individual if God is your priority … if God is your God … if Jesus Christ is more than a name to you but is actually your Savior because you know that there is more than this world offers and if you are willing to be changed by your faith and to be different than those who clearly reject the Gospels in their words and actions then God’s salvation and peace is there for you … we are called, by Jesus, to pick up our crosses and follow Him not just merely acknowledging that ‘oh yea, the Bible talks about Jesus.’ So many value the idea that you need to make sure those around you beyond your time of worship know that you are on their side of the ledger even if it means rejecting all that Jesus taught and stands for.
My pastor growing up … my Baptist pastor Stan Lewis, repeated over and over again … that you aren’t a believer if you don’t change … believing is changing … he would share the words of James with us throughout the year, “You say you believe that there is one God even Satan believes that. You fool, faith without actions is useless. Faith without works is dead.” He pushed us to change … to experience God.
When we find God … when we realize God’s existence is more than a FELT BOARD cut out image of an old man with flowing white hair … when we find God up close and personal … we frankly will have no choice but to change because when we get close to the Holy we will understand that God is God … that Jesus is the Messiah … and that the Holy Spirit is God’s gift whom we should be acknowledging and welcoming.
Yesterday, as I was playing with Dax an out of the blue thought came to me. Where is WALDO. You remember WALDO, right? By the year 2007 MORE THAN 73 MILLION WHERE’s WALDO books had been sold around the world. A cartoon character created in 1987 and translated into 26 languages in 50 countries was an absolute phenomenon. There was even a WHERE’s WALDO TV show … he was everywhere … well you had to find him first, but he might even be on some folks’ ties … And, then poof WALDO became irrelevant … and I doubt that we will ever see more than 1000 college students dressed as Waldo at Rutgers University like we did in 2009 when they captured the Guinness Book of World records for the largest gathering of people dressed as Waldo. That record was broken in Japan in 2017 when more than 4600 people decided to dress as Waldo … and then nothing. Dax has never heard of WALDO.
I know far too many individuals who have lost God in that same way. They spot God through a church service. They may have gone to Michael W. Smith concerts or travelled to be with large groups of men praying together in stadiums, but they have put aside those time investments as mere memories. As kids they went to youth groups where God and Christ were essential and they also had fun but the last thing that their kids will ever do is to be part of a youth group because youth groups don’t get you college scholarships only potentially salvation one day and therefore youth groups have vanished … Sunday School classes and Bible studies for adults are almost as elusive as Waldo is in 2025 … and we only need to step outside this church to listen and we will discover that with rare exceptions God’s truths … God’s realities … God has been disassociated with … disconnected from … and the change we have seen is more in the direction of evil’s intent.
Maria Shriver wrote in her blog, ‘Sunday Paper,’ “”You[1] can’t truly change the world until you get your own world right. Healing yourself is the best way to change the world. In healing your pain, you heal others’ pain. It’s spiritual work… it’s soulful work and it requires vulnerability. It is triumphant work.” I believe that her words are a reflection of what David Edwards writes in his book, ‘Encountering God.” Edwards suggests that we have to come back to a tender heart … “[2]God does not reveal His secrets to those who are full of themselves or who think they have all the answers. God reveals Himself to those who pour themselves out to Him and sincerely say, “Lord give me a tender heart. We will never get anywhere with God until we learn to humble ourselves before Him. Worship Him and not people. When we confess our sins, repent, forgive others, and get down on our knees to admit that we cannot do it ourselves and that we must have His help in our lives …” then we can have God’s grace, which is free to all humans because God loves all of us equally and we are all created in God’s image. And, then we can be renewed by being changed individuals.
Dion Dawkins referenced his concept of living in this world by saying that “We accept people for their true form.” That’s God too … the change God is calling us to make is not to change our essence but to change how we use what we have for God. Our souls … our minds … our actions. I cannot change the person I was born to be … I cannot change my parents … I cannot change the route I took to be here on this Sunday … there are some who demand people somehow magically change their essence, but God wants us to put aside our worldly priorities to follow Jesus. In the Psalm we read together this morning we declared … “God’s faithful love towards us is strong … God’s faithful love lasts forever! PRAISE THE LORD!”
So are you ready for change … to change … in need of change? I truly believe that Lent is the season for each of us to change by getting closer to God than we have ever been in our life. Forty days … if you want God God is ready for you and me to get closer.
The Psalm of the day is my favorite Psalm but it was read because it is the same Lectionary Psalm that is being read in churches around the world today. But to me it is a call … a reminder … to do my best and for you to do your best to connect with God in new and special ways. To do what the Lord God requires of each of us … to DO JUSTICE, LOVE ALL of our neighbors with merciful love, and to walk HUMBLY with GOD.
So, my suggestion … read those eight verses from Psalm 63 again and again. SEARCH for GOD with the psalmist THIRST FOR GOD and DESIRE GOD even though you have sensed or seen God here in church … PRAISE GOD because GOD’s faithful love as demonstrated through Jesus is better than life itself. BLESS THE LORD GOD as long as you live. SPEAK WITH JOY and PRAISE when you reference God, Jesus and your faith. SHOUT FOR JOY knowing God is there to protect you. AND CLING TO GOD …. Encounter God … no longer lost in the crowd of God-rejectors changed for the better because you will be picking up your cross and all that might be scattered upon it … and lifting it up to follow Jesus into he light of God … changed and ready for another day to show the world all that God can do. AMEN