Moses had some amazing theophanies, or visible experiences of God. I had one, that kicked off my understanding of my call to the diaconate, or my understanding of God’s pursuit of me as a deacon. That was 15 years ago, and it remains a vivid experience. What, since then has happened? Have I had a visible experience of God? A burning bush, a transfigured face like Moses?
My thoughts and imaginings tend to be far more concrete than I suspect I need to recognize God the creator in my midst, unless it really was an unconsumed burning bush. That, I’d recognize.
When we are baptized we make a covenant with God. Several times a year, we reaffirm that covenant, to remember what we’ve promised. Will you seek and serve Christ in all people? I will with God’s help.
This, I believe, and this I experience. Christ – the holy – in all people. That, I believe happens because I also believe in the Holy Spirit, which Jesus left as a permanent advocate after Jesus returned to heaven, bringing our humanity with him. God, through the Holy Spirit is present in others.
When I’m attentive and faith-filled, I see God in others. In family members, in coworkers, in addicts and the homeless. Most recently, I was handing out gloves to people living on the streets in downtown Portland. One man was sad because he’d lost his housing, and his young daughter was living with her mother. He desperately wanted to see his daughter, but he did not want her to see him on the streets. Without talking to him, he would have been another shuffling disheveled man on the streets. But I could see God in his eyes, and hear God in his voice. I couldn’t do anything about his situation, but I could sit with him, and share his pain. Even for the overly concrete like me, it is possible to see God pass by, to experience God in a tangible form. I need to be aware, and believe it will happen. Otherwise, those experiences just shuffle by, unnoticed.
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