If we are people of faith, we believe and trust that God is everywhere - both the Creator of All AND the One Who dwells in All that God has created. There is nowhere that we can go that God is not already there!
But - how does that realization seep into our souls, our hearts, our lives? By being people of prayer.
The real question isn't "Where is God?" The real question is, "Where are we? - whose eyes do we see with; whose mind do we understand with; whose heart do we love with?"
If we are people of prayer, we know that our limited "take" on life is not enough. If we are people of prayer, we are opening our entire selves to God's Presence alive in us. We are beginning to see with God's eyes, understand with God's mind, love with God's heart, and so, deep within, we always have the seeds of hope. Hope that God is always at work among us, HELPING AND HEALING us in our personal lives. Hope that God is always saying to us "Do not fear, I WILL help you," NOW AND IN THE FUTURE. If we are people of faith and prayer, daily we can look up, look around, and find our hidden God in the people and events that surround us.
To live in Hope is to recognize that Our Christian Baptism anoints us as Priests, Prophets, and Kings. To begin to see with God's eyes, understand with God's mind, and love with God's heart is to gradually become more and more the priests, prophets, and kings who God calls us to be and to live in the hope that God is a Verb - God is always active in our unfolding Universe, and in our unfolding lives - WITH US ACTING WITH AND FOR GOD.
How do we become prophets? Prophets are consecrated to loving truth. A prophet does not follow unquestioningly or pledge allegiance unquestioningly, ignoring what is wrong. A prophet knows we are all broken, weak people, as individuals and as a country - and is not afraid to Name the Brokenness. A prophet calls us to Heal, as individuals and as countries, by reforming, recovering our ideals, working to grow, to become better, more loving of all, especially the least of these whom Jesus speaks of - in the Hope that, in God, nothing is impossible. In other words, when we are prophets, we can NAME our brokenness, and work to HEAL it, in God's strength.
Jim Wallis, editor of "Sojourners" magazine, which is an ecumenical (representing all Christians) and interfaith ( representing all faiths, including Judaism and Islam) magazine, is a prophet who regularly critiques both political parties. He says that he feels politically homeless at the start of 2018. Neither party, in his eyes, offers a viable "home" to a committed Christian. Wallis, AS PROPHET, NAMES the political brokenness of both the Republican and Democratic Parties, and tells us HOW we can HEAL, in God's strength.
"The president of the United States is now a very dangerous threat to American democracy and national security. While there are some Republican commentators and elected officials who have voiced opposition to the president’s behavior, the Republican Party has shown itself unable or unwilling to hold him accountable and has, in fact, become a captured party by an aspiring autocrat who is telling the world that he has the biggest nuclear button.
"The GOP has disregarded the best values of principled conservatism: fiscal integrity and responsibility, an allegiance to truth and honesty, genuine pro-family values, national security through global engagement, the commitment to opportunity for all, the value of empathy for those in need, and the worth and equality of every person under the law. The Republicans have substituted a moral relationship to the presidency for a transactional one, ignoring Trump’s consistent incompetence, immorality, and hateful divisiveness in exchange for economic and environmental regulations and tax cuts that support the greedy demands of their wealthiest donors. All this makes many conservatives with Christian and other moral values feel politically homeless....
"The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has lost its historic relationship to working class people around the country, and has indeed become dominated by cultural elites who have little connection to ordinary families and the many pressures on their lives....For many election cycles, Democratic consultants have replaced the word “poor” with the words “middle class,” and the party is no longer perceived as one that cares nearly enough about the needs of people on the margins of life in America....
“'It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.' Those words from Hubert H. Humphrey would likely not be described as the mission of Democrats today, many of whom are as connected to the Wall Street elites as the Republicans are.
"Despite being dependent on African-American voters, the Democratic Party has often taken them for granted instead of courageously addressing the realities of institutionalized racism, and instead of investing in organizers, mobilizers, and candidates in African-American and Latinx communities....
"Moral issues of intrinsic concern to the faith community are often disregarded or disrespected by Democratic Party orthodoxy, which often takes extreme or overly strident views on issues like abortion. Many of us in the faith community regard abortion as a moral issue and part of a consistent ethic of life and seamless garment of concern for the many threats to human life and dignity. While many of us pro-life Christians don’t support the criminalization of often desperate and tragic choices, we find the Democrats even reluctant to make a commitment to reducing abortion by supporting women with health care, nutrition, and social services....
"While a younger generation in the faith community is indeed more welcoming of LGBTQ people than their parents have been, they are not so welcoming of abortion as the Democratic elites seem to be, and the Democratic Party needs to figure that out.
"Elements of the Democrats’ richest donor base continue to enforce extreme positions on abortion, not allow serious moral discussions, and seem to want to close the party’s tent to pro-life Democrats. Similarly, the central importance of marriage, family, and parenting for the common good of society is not a central topic in Democratic Party language and policy. Many people of faith are turned away by Democrats’ perceived endorsement, whether intentional or by marked silence, of recreational sexuality over covenantal sexuality and an “anything goes” attitude when it comes to sex. Why is the discussion of family values — among every type of family — so absent from conversations on the left when we know it is a part of critical solutions to issues of poverty? Those voices on the left advocating for strengthening families are seldom heard.
"With part of the Christian community putting faith at risk by their idolatrous support of Donald Trump, and other Christians feeling alienated by the other party’s dismissal of faith and the moral questions it raises, our nation’s moral discourse is in serious trouble."
Prophet that he is, Wallis knows the solution to America's political polarization, which is a challenging and hope-filled one: a belief that God is at work in us; God is telling us not to fear; God can help us to change, to grow, to reform, to come together as two healthy political parties with one love of our country. But - we have to honestly name the brokenness in both parties first. Only then can God give us the grace to heal.
"Third parties have not been a successful way forward in the American system of politics. But perhaps a “third way” or better yet a “moral movement” to revive and renew American politics, on both sides of the aisle, is the way forward for people of faith who put the poor and vulnerable, the consistent dignity of human life, strong families and gender equality, and the priority of racial and economic justice and peace at the center of their political convictions."
Where is God? Another prophet, Fr. Richard Rohr, encourages us to recognize that God isn't "out there," but dwells in all human beings and all of creation - a message of astounding Hope. He says
"The belief that God is “out there” is the basic dualism that is tearing us all apart. Our view of God as separate and distant has harmed our relationships with sexuality, food, possessions, money, animals, nature, politics, and our own incarnate selves. This loss explains why we live such distraught and divided lives. Jesus came to put it all together for us and in us. He was saying, in effect, “To be human is good! The material and the physical can be trusted and enjoyed. This physical world is the hiding place of God and the revelation place of God!”
"Far too much of religion has been about defining where God is and where God isn’t, picking and choosing who and what has God’s image and who and what doesn’t. In reality, it’s not up to us. We have no choice in the matter. All are beloved. Everyone—Catholic and Protestant, Christian and Muslim, black and white, gay and straight, able-bodied and disabled, male and female, Republican and Democrat—all are children of God. We are all members of the Body of Christ, made in God’s image, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, whether or not we are aware of this gift.
"Can you see the image of Christ in the least of your brothers and sisters? This is Jesus’ only description of the final judgment (Matthew 25). But some say, “They smell. They’re a nuisance. They’re on welfare. They are a drain on our tax money.” Can we see Christ in all people, even the so-called “nobodies” who can’t or won’t play our game of success? When we can see the image of God where we don’t want to see the image of God, then we see with eyes not our own.
"Jesus says we have to love and recognize the divine image even in our enemies. Either we see the divine image in all created things, or we don’t see it at all.Once we see God’s image in one place, the circle keeps widening. It doesn’t stop with human beings and enemies and the least of our brothers and sisters. It moves to frogs and pansies and weeds. Everything becomes enchanting with true sight. We cannot not live in the presence of God. We are totally surrounded and infused by God. All we can do is allow, trust, and finally rest in it, which is indeed why we are “saved” by faith—faith that this could be true."
And so, dear reader, I challenge you. Where is God? When we see with the prophet's eyes, consecrated to and in truth, we can affirm: God is Everywhere. God is the pervasive Hope for Wholeness dwelling in every one of us broken people, in every part of creation groaning to be made whole in the midst of climate change. God dwells as pervasive Hope in broken you and me and in our broken, hurting families. God dwells as pervasive Hope in every Republican and Democrat, in President Trump and in Kim Jong-Un, in Pope Francis, the Dalai Lama, David Duke, and Vladimir Putin. HOW God is at work in any of us is not our concern. All that matters is our belief and hope that God IS at work, that every one of our lives matter to God, and that God, Love, is the most powerful Force in the Universe.
As 2018 begins, we can ask ourselves: Can we cast aside fear? Are we a prayerful people, seeking to see with God's eyes, understand with God's mind, love with God's heart? Can we be Prophets who paradoxically affirm that yes, we are all broken and in need of reform, yet yes, nothing is impossible with God, which includes healing us? Can we be Priests who believe that indeed God is Everywhere, in everyone and everything, and so pray the prayer of the priestly Christ our King on the cross, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they do?" Can we pray for our enemies and their salvation instead of praying that they rot in hellfire?
In 2018, let's affirm: God is everywhere. There is nothing to fear. We only need to welcome Love Home. We are, finally, Kings, reveling in the true wealth of our lives - the All-Encompassing, All-Faithful Presence of our God.
Indeed, how good is our Lord!
Eternal His merciful Love!
He is Faithful from age to age.