Surely the Lord is in This Place - Genesis 28:10-17
Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church, February 8, 2015
Do you ever have times when your worlds collide? And when they do, what does that generally feel
like? Last week, about 5:30 in the morning I was sound asleep when suddenly Sam yelled out because
he was having a bad dream. Now I'm one of those people who cannot remember my dreams. But last
week at 5:30AM was an exception because when Sam yelled, I snapped awake and remembered what I
was dreaming. I was having a very serious conversation with Oscar the Grouch and Elmo about the
importance of Living Waters for the World. Now I imagine that if the dream had been allowed to
continue I would have been angling for a spot on Sesame Street. Talk about worlds colliding!
Well, that got me to thinking about the separate worlds each of us live in; the little compartments we
put our lives into, taking care to make sure that they don't touch each other. And that got me to
wondering why is it that we human beings do that? Kind of like many that I know who don't like food on
their plates to touch. Is Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church one of those compartments? Or perhaps is
even God relegated to one of those compartments?
What I have concluded it is that perhaps we keep our worlds separate as a “life management tool” so
that we don't feel overwhelmed as we work through and experience daily life. And that's not
necessarily a bad thing. However, at least for me, I've noticed keeping my worlds separate is a very
effective way to put blinders on and never ask the overarching “why” questions. Why do I do the things
that I do? Love the people who I love? Make the choices that I make? Ultimately, Why am I here?
Yes, keeping my worlds separated helps me to conveniently avoid having to answers those “why”
questions and all they imply. Questions like, if I have my church life and even God conveniently located
in a little world over here - a little compartment over here - does God really have a role in my other
worlds?
Or could we dare to believe that God is that spiritual glue that binds all of those worlds together and
gives our lives purpose? And could it be possible that what we experience in this place called Historic
Franklin Presbyterian Church is our own personal Elmers glue bottle?
Many of you know that I am the director of the Living Waters for the World ministry, a Presbyterian
mission project that trains church teams to partner with community leaders throughout the world to
install and operate and maintain water treatment systems. As you might imagine, it is very rewarding
work and I am proud that Historic Franklin Presbyterian is one of our partners in that effort. And those
of you who know me well would understand that insights from God usually only get through to me like
at 2x4 between the eyes, and Living Waters for the World has provided an abundance of knots on my
head over the years. I'd like to share one of those experiences with you.
I want to tell you a story about a committee. Those of us Presbyterians know a thing or two about such
things – we’ve served on them, led them – perhaps got drafted by them. But this committee is a special
committee – this committee has dreams. This committee has hopes. And now, this committee has joy.
Deep joy. Really? A committee?
I want to tell you a story about a community. A beautiful little place, high in the mountains, lush, green.
Great families, beautiful kids. A place where everyone knows everyone, looks out for each other – and
for each other’s animals – and big news travels fast.
And let me tell you, this past August, some BIG NEWS was traveling FAST.
You see, the committee is a water committee. And that community is San Isidro, Honduras. San Isidro’s
water is contaminated. So is the water of every town in their county, including the county seat. And the
leaders of San Isidro had long wanted to do something about it. Word came of an opportunity from an
organization called Living Waters for the World – an opportunity for partnership that would lead to
clean water flowing. So San Isidro’s leaders formed a water committee and started dreaming. And
hoping. And making plans for how to install, operate and maintain a water treatment system. And
teach their children about why drinking clean water matters.
The community was buzzing with excitement on Monday, August 4 – the day clean water was to flow for
the first time in San Isidro. All 500 residents came. School children and teachers decorated the grounds
outside their new water building. The team providing the water system was there – and they were all
Hondurans. The water operators were standing at the ready to serve clean water. The water
committee beamed. LWW Honduras Director Melvin Flores spoke. I spoke. And then the mayor of the
county spoke. And she told the crowd that San Isidro was now the first town in the county to have clean
water – to have health and hope – to have a future. As I looked into all of those cheering faces – happy
faces, tear-streaked faces – the familiar phrase came, “Surely the Lord is in this place”.
Later, I looked up the passage where the phrase lives - the passage that [lay reader] read this morning
from Genesis 28 - "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to
this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Then Jacob awoke from
his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."
What amazing promise! What a reassurance! Yet, even then I still had not fully understood the
implications of this promise. You see I still had a sense that the promise “surely the Lord is in this “place”
had to do with the actual little town of San Isidro – the ground, the dirt, the dust. But that wasn't the
place at all. The place was between the world of my new friends’ experience and my own, now joined
together – glued together - through the mutual love we now share provided by none other than the
Holy Spirit. That is the place where the Lord resides, and we call it “community”. And in community, we
have the opportunity to grow and to learn.
Listen to the words of Benedictine nun, author and speaker, Sister Joan Chittister about why
“community” matters:
"In community we work out our connectedness to God, to one another, and to ourselves. It is in
community where we find out who we really are. It is life with another that shows my impatience and
life with another that demonstrates my possessiveness and life with another that gives notice to my
nagging devotion to the self. Life with others, in other words, doesn’t show me nearly as much about
their shortcomings as it does about my own…. In human relationships I learn that theory is no substitute
for love. It is easy to talk about the love of God; it is another thing to practice it."
So to map that onto our experience of life and ministry here at HFPC, the Lord is surely in this place not
because we gather together in a beautiful building in a beautiful part of town, but because of the
experience of our relationship with one another and with those we are called to serve. So, contrary to
what we might think, God is not in a box over here, our work over here, our families over here. No, to
the contrary, this community of faith is that bottle of spiritual glue that holds us and our worlds all
together, and equips us to follow where God leads. Amen