Glen Avon Presbyterian Church

“Moved Movers”

by Rev. Lon Weaver

The Bible gives testimony to the dynamism of God. While elements of Greek philosophy speak of the source of the universe as an “unmoved mover”, we in Christianity attest to faith in a “moved” and perpetually moving God. If God were One who was static and inactive, this universe would not exist: because God chose to create, the world and we within it are here. If God had chosen inactivity, salvation would not be an option for us: because of God's desire to save us―literally, to heal the rift caused by sin―the Christ came into our midst. If God had been happy to sit back and permit creation to spin along its way, chaos would have overwhelmed us: look at the photograph of planet earth taken from the moon, and you see the consequence of an engaged God, working perpetually to sustain earth invisibly amidst the seemingly endless space of the cosmos. Creating, saving, and sustaining: we can take assurance in the fact that our God is an active God.

It's when we are rooted in that assurance that we can step forward in creative, healing, and supporting action. Each one of those paths powerfully changes life around us in a positive way. Recently, I heard the radio broadcast of a speech by Rabbi Harold Kushner (best-known for his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People). As he proceeds through the final third of his life, he has been struck by how frequently people are flummoxed by the search for life's meaning in those years. Quoting a research study he spoke of three paths to fulfillment in those years. When I heard them, they struck me as important and meaningful for all stages of life: (1) expand your relationships―be on the look-out to make new friends; (2) practice gratitude; and (3) practice forgiveness.

One of the most interesting things about life is to be in a regular, befriending state of mind. It isn't that we're dissatisfied with existing relationships. Rather, in practicing the art of befriending, we perpetually open ourselves up to real and surprising enrichment, oftentimes experiencing new revelations from surprising places. God has endless gifts to offer us through encounter upon encounter. The alternative can become dangerous, world-shrinking insularity.

Kushner noted that we sometimes treat life like the person who received a birthday present at a birthday party. Having opened the package, he declared, “Is this all you got me?!” God grants us the privilege of walking amidst creation, and we repeatedly act as if it isn't enough. What swine we can be! Instead, the privilege of being here should move us to gratitude.

Finally, we must be liberated from the acidic, crippling, and insidious impact of resentment and grudges. In response to a spouses who cannot seem to get beyond their former partners' infidelities, Kushner declares, “They have no more right to live inside your brain than they have the right to live inside your homes. Stop giving them that place!” Forgiveness is the path of self-liberation from past hurts.

God is dynamically alive in existence through creative, healing and sustaining forces. Friendship, gratitude, and forgiveness are the dynamic paths on which we can thrive through God's loving and merciful strength. Remember this brief verse from I John: “We love, because he first loved us.” (4:19) We move the world through dynamic faith, because God dynamically moves us to do so. Amen.