Sermon Preached at Church of the Good Shepherd
Fort Lee, New Jersey
Sunday, June 2, 2024, at 8:00 and 10 a.m.
By the Rev. Stephen C. Galleher
The Hidden God
“Lord, you have searched me out and known me; * you know my sitting down and my rising up.” (Psalm 139:1)
“God hasn’t left our side.” (II Cor. 4:5-12)
This morning, I want to present my meditation in the form of a question. This is something that I believe most of us have asked at one time or another. And I will suggest four different answers. Each of these answers I believe to be partially true. The result will hopefully be that we are a bit clearer to the truth—either that or a bit more confused, which is always a risk when we talk about God at all.
So, the question is this: Why does God remain in large part hidden? The Psalmist pleads: “God, make known your purpose to me!” In brief, why doesn’t God show his or her or its face more clearly, or more often?
Answer #1
God’s face stays hidden because its face is too magnificent for us mere mortals to behold. Beyond the moon, beyond the stars, beyond our ability to understand or take in.
God is ineffable by definition, beyond our concepts altogether. And this incomprehensibility goes even deeper than this. God’s hugeness and mystery are such that, should it reveal itself fully, we question is that even possible. The mysterium tremendum, the holy, whose hand stretches across the universe and, in fact, upholds it—the light from this source is too bright. I have heard of black holes, but even after watching a documentary, I haven’t a very clear idea about them. God says to Moses in the Book of Exodus: “I will not let you see my face, because no one can see me and stay alive. When the dazzling light of my presence passes by, you will see my back, but not my face” (Exodus 33:20-23). And in Deuteronomy: “Tell them how the Lord spoke to you from the fire, how you heard him speaking but did not see him in any form at all.” (Deuteronomy 4:11).
While there are passages, to confuse the fundamentalist, that indicate that God did, in fact, vouchsafe to appear to Moses, Jacob, Aaron, a couple of others—and in another place to the seventy elders—the meaning here, I believe, is that God reveals himself primarily through the words that he conveys and through the salvation events, words, events, prophets as intermediaries. They bring God’s word, not God himself. [pause]
Again, Why does God hide his face?
Answer #2
God hides his face as a direct consequence of our disobedience. Again, from Deuteronomy: “I will become angry with them. (Deuteronomy 31:17).
Moral imperfection separates us from the presence of God. Hence, the furious answer of God to Job from the whirlwind. God pulls out all the stops of his transcendence and righteousness when Job dares question how a righteous God can allow evil and suffering in the world.
“Were you there,” asks God, “when I made the world? If you know so much, tell me about it. Do you know all the answers” (Job 38:4-5)? In other words, “Shut up, you fool!”
There is, it seems to me, profound psychological insight in this second answer as to why God hides himself, why she does not make herself plain. Anger, self-pity, pride, ego—they all keep us from seeing clearly: they separate us from clearly seeing either ourselves or the situations in which we wallow—and hence, we separate ourselves, or are separated, from the truth. Aberrant moral behavior places a barrier between us and reality, and hence God. John says that whoever says, “I love God” and hates his neighbor is a liar. John was a crackerjack psychologist.
Isn’t it the case that our stubbornness in a relationship prevents us from seeing clearly, seeing, for instance, just how much love our spouse has for us, except for his or her own fear and defensiveness?
So, God hides himself from us because of the veil between his righteousness and our unrighteousness. Purity of heart: blessed are those with it, for they shall see God!
Again: Why, though, does God choose to remain so hidden and aloof?
Answer #3:
Perhaps we need to peel away some skin of this onion and ask what is the nature of this God whom we believe to be not revealing itself. As Christians, we believe that the person of Jesus showed the face or heart of God as never before. The opening of the gospel of John says, “No one has ever seen God. The only son, who is the same as God and is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18).
You know, we can say we believe all we want that God does reveal himself; but until these things make a difference in our lives, until they stir our hearts to say “Ah, ha!” they are so much gobbledygook. Perhaps, and I personally am most intrigued by this possibility, our God keeps in the shadows, keeps a low profile, and doesn’t intrude himself in our lives he loves us just that much. God’s hiddenness is a function of the very depth of his love. He gives us freedom; he respects our freedom. He wants us to love him freely, as he loves us freely. Only a God who truly loves us lets us say no to his amorous overtures.
Only parents know that frightening moment when they must let go of parental protection and show their ultimate love by letting their bird fly free. Parents don’t go with their children to college. Love lets go and allows its space to the beloved. God’s absence—in part anyway, I believe—is proof of that in our lives.
I heard a riddle the other day that I think speaks to this cat and mouse of God with his people. If God were to play hide ‘n’ seek with the world, where do you think God would hide? Any ideas? YES: he would hide everywhere!
So, all right. We’ve gotten this far. But many of us are hard to persuade. Skepticism is built into us. Will God make good his purpose for me? God doesn’t show his face; but surely I can get inkling, some hint, some love letter with my name on it! Why is God so hidden from me?
Answer #4:
The fourth and final answer I suggest this morning is perhaps the most radical of all. Suppose, just suppose, that God does not hide himself in the way that really matters to us—that is, that his presence is not remote and hidden due to his transcendence, moral superiority, or diffidence—but that we have simply not opened our eyes and seen the God who has been there all along. It is our idea of God that suffers. Is this not possibly in part why Jesus instructs his disciples not to spread the news that he is the Messiah because the generally understood idea of the Messiah is not the idea that Jesus was aiming to convey. He didn’t want folk to get the wrong idea!
Isn’t it true that the most important insights that have received in our lives are about things that have been staring us in the face all along, perhaps for years? Suddenly, something happens, and we see a situation in a new light. The scales fall away. The penny drops.
We know, or think we know, this much. God is not an old man with a beard inhabiting a space far away. So then, who is God? What is God? I cannot say for you. Only you can discover this and say it for you. But surely this God is not so much about something else as about a way of seeing what is already before us. God is that which wakes us up, turns on the light, overcomes our death. As a friend said to me recently, God will show itself if we insist on it. Not so much, “Show yourself, darn it!” More like “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” And, as the Zen master wrote, perhaps the door has been open all along and we just didn’t notice!
And the revelations are usually so innocent, so simple. God, it is likely to turn out, when the haze lifts and our spiritual cobwebs are swept away, to be a lot closer than we have ever guessed.
But there is the imperative to get with it. Sleepers, wake up! The command is to let this God in, the God who is with us to love us, to bring us peace and delight. And perhaps if someone scoffs and says, “No one has ever seen God,” we can reply, “They will have after they’ve seen our lives, how we love one another!”
Amen.