The God who Speaks
Sermon preached in St. Salvator's Chapel, St Andrews on the 5th November, 2006 by Dr. Charles Warren
Readings:1 Kings 19: 9 - 13 & Revelation 1: 10 - 18
Sermon: Please Note - This is partly in note form
This morning I want to speak about a simple but profound truth: that God is a communicator, a Personality who speaks to ordinary mortals like you & me. Hardly original, but unfashionable today, esp. in the corridors of academia where scepticism is often prized above belief. In a post-modern world we increasingly define ourselves by what we don't believe rather than what we do, by what we are not rather than by what we are. => `Post-it Generation' piece
This outbreak of 'post' words suggests that, linguistically at least, we are reversing into the future, defining ourselves by what we've left behind. But what are we? What are we 'pre'? When the intellectual fashion is sceptical disbelief, what foundations do we build our lives on? I believe that the Bible offers us truths about the human condition and about spiritual reality that are not pre- or post- anything but are timeless, and, as such, are solid rocks to build on.
One such truth is my subject today, that God is not distant & silent but close & communicative. This should come as no surprise because the Bible shows God to be profoundly & essentially relational. Since communication is the foundation of relationship, a relational God is bound to be a communicating God.
That certainly seems to have been the experience of men & women in Biblical times, down through history, and today. I want to look briefly at each of those periods, and then discuss two objections.
1. The normal experience of God's people, as recorded throughout the Bible, was that He communicated with them, using innumerable different creative & surprising media. We heard two tones of God's voice in the readings - the quiet whisper and the voice like the sound of a thundering waterfall. But He also spoke through wind, fire, words, dreams, friends, enemies, signs, circumstances and miracles. He was constantly communicating. In fact, as I see it, the whole epic narrative of the Bible is the story of God stretching out the hand of friendship to wilful, wayward people like us; it's the story of God going to enormous, sacrificial lengths to make it possible for us to develop soul-ties with the Soul of the Universe. Christianity is not the story of humanity in search of God but of God in search of humanity. In this context, sin - 'our destructive self' - is significant not because it involves breaking the rules of some divine autocrat but because it amounts to a unilateral declaration of radio silence, cutting off the golden thread of relationship, and thereby cutting ourselves off from the ultimate source of love, life & wholeness.
2. Secondly, there are a wealth of historical accounts that show that God didn't fall silent after the 1st century. Last year I heard Jack Deere speak in St Andrews and I subsequently read his book 'Surprised by the Voice of God' - packed with numerous well attested historical examples of people hearing God, including some remarkable accounts from the time of the Scottish Reformation. He tells the story, for example, of George Wishart who died a martyr's death in St Andrews. (Then as now it was not always a good career move to claim to have heard God's voice!) These were people who believed in prayer as two-way communication - just as it was modelled for us by Jesus in the Gospels - and people for whom God¿s insights made a vital, practical difference in their everyday lives.
3. To bring things up to date, the same is true for millions of Christians around the world today. Many examples to choose from, but here¿s one from the horse's mouth - a cross-roads moment in my own life.
Just after finishing my PhD I was heading off to Patagonia to work as a science leader with Raleigh International. I had applied for a post-doctoral research fellowship at Edinburgh and been told that the interviews were in April, so I'd booked a flight that got me back in late March. In the last few days before departure, things started going wrong, and I had this nagging feeling that God was trying to tell me something. I became acutely aware that I had never submitted the plans for this trip to Him, but I chose to block my ears in case He was telling me not to go. However, when a vital piece of science gear was stolen, I decided that it was time to listen. So I prayed, and I asked a number of friends & family to pray too.
The first thing I heard was a Bible reference Isaiah 30: 'Woe to the obstinate children', declares the Lord, 'to those who carry out plans that are not mine, who go down to Egypt without consulting me'! So I surrendered my plans and waited on God.
When I rang round my praying friends, all of us had sensed the same thing - that I should, in fact, go, but that I should leave a bit later and return earlier. So I changed my flights and set off. While I was in the field, the date for the post-doc interviews was brought forward. It turned out that my flight into Heathrow allowed me to get into London for the last available interview slot. They couldn't have reconvened the committee, so if I hadn't changed my flight, I'd have put myself out of contention. Later I heard that I'd got the Fellowship, and on the back of that I got my current job here, so it was a watershed decision. There is no doubt in my mind that that was God, lovingly intervening in my life and breaking through my wilful deafness for my own good.
But the claim that God speaks personally to human beings does not go unchallenged:
Two objections
1. God doesn't exist so He can't speak. Can't address atheism today! But atheists must have a hard time explaining away the personal experience of so many people over so many centuries in so many different cultures. Is it all really just coincidence and wishful thinking? As Archbishop Temple famously said, 'when I pray, coincidences happen; when I don't, they don't.'
2. It's threatening. A v. honest objection. There is no doubt that if there is a God who speaks then it directly threatens our independence and our desire to be masters of our own fates. Bowing the knee sticks in the gullet. But if the Bible is to be believed, who are we bowing the knee to? To a loving Father who desires our highest good and deepest fulfilment. He speaks to encourage, to comfort, to save us from ourselves, to guide, to give wisdom. It's not the voice of an interfering, autocratic spoilsport but of a true friend and father. I often wonder how much good stuff we miss out on because we don't take time to listen - and equally how much needless pain we suffer. How desperately frustrated I'd have been to get back from Patagonia and discover that I'd missed the interview.
A final question in closing: if God is in the business of communication, why don¿t we all hear Him, often? The answer, I think, is the same today as in the time of Jesus, who said 'my sheep hear my voice.' Most of us, however, like to imagine that we're not sheep (hardly flattering!), and, consequently, that we don't need a shepherd. God doesn't make a habit of invading our personal space uninvited. He speaks to those who choose to bow the knee & listen, to those who have ears to ear. As it says in the Book of Job (33:14), 'For God does speak - now one way, now another - though we may not perceive it.'
Here's an analogy to finish with. Right now, here in this chapel, there is a riot of sound - music of all kinds, discussion, debate, news, weather forecasts, comedy - all coursing through this space. Such a claim would be preposterous to someone who knew nothing of radio. But similarly, right now, here in this chapel, God's healing harmonies are live on air if we are willing to tune our hearts to His frequencies, if we chose to have ears to ear.