- What is God Like?

Nehemiah 8:1-10; Psalm 19; Luke 4:14-21; I Corinthians 12:12-31

January 27, 2019

Larry Campbell

What is God Like?

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing to you, o Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

In order to have a relationship with anyone, we need to have some knowledge of that person. Like Phil Spector’s 1958 song says, “to know, know, know you, is to love, love, love you, and I do, yes I do, yes I do.”

Noelle knows me. For instance, if, on a Saturday morning she would say, “OK. Today we’re going to wash the windows, mow the lawn, and clean out the shed”, I would dig in my heels and not be a very happy camper for most of the day. But over the years, she’s learned something about me. If she says to me on, say, a Thursday, “On Saturday we’re going to wash the windows, mow the lawn, and clean out the shed”, i would say, “Alright!” Come Saturday, I’m good to go.

What I know about Noelle, and you may know this already; she’s an introvert. When she comes home from work, after engaging with people all day, she doesn’t need me to start yapping at her as soon as she walks through the door. If I start in with, “You wanna hear the song i wrote today?”, or, “I had a great conversation with Craig today. You wanna know all the weird things he thinks?”, or, “Wanna listen to the homily i prepared today?”, she would not be in any kind of space to hear it.

But if she takes the time to make herself some tea and go to sit in the silence of our living room for an hour, dinner time can be full of good conversation.

Each of us has learned what the other person is like, and what the other needs, for us to have a good, working relationship.

Let’s look at the readings for today. Usually, only 2 or 3 of the Sunday readings are found to be connected. But I always like to see if there may be some hidden connection. I think, for our readings today, the clue is... Epiphany.

Remember, Epiphany is the time of the church year that celebrates the revealing of the Christ as the gift of God to all the nations. This was declared first by Simeon and Anna in the temple, and then by the Magi, as representing the Gentiles. This is about God revealing God’s self to us.

So. What is God like?

That’s a simple question. Simple to say at any rate.

I’ve heard it said that God as ‘ineffable’... that it’s impossible to know God because the Creator of the universe is too great to be understood or expressed.

We’re going to look at today’s readings. We’re going to hear a list of things that may give a hint to the question, “What is God like?”

The book of Nehemiah is the story of what happened in Jerusalem when the Israelites returned from their exile in Babylon. There was much drama surrounding the rebuilding of Jerusalem. As the reconstruction was completed, the prophet Ezra, by his preaching, sparked a revival. This is the story of the first public reading of the Torah in Jerusalem since they returned from exile.

Now, look to see who was there. Nehemiah has written,

“Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly of men, women, and all who could listen with understanding.”

The phrase, ‘All who could listen with understanding’ was code for ‘all children over a certain age’. Normally, when those present would be counted, only the men would be numbered. Women and children were rarely mentioned, or even noticed. But Nehemiah wants us to know that there is an attitude of radical inclusion reflected in this event.