Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Exodus 17:1-7, John 14:15-24

Preached by Rev. Robert Matlack
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Something's different today. Those of you who were here last Sunday, or any of the Sundays during the summer know what I mean. Today our sanctuary is much fuller. There are children all around. Today this is a much livelier place, a much more exciting place. The difference of course is the presence of many individuals and families who were not here last week or perhaps at all over the summer.

You see, our presence makes a difference. In a very real sense this Sunday is like no other here at St. James. Oh yes, there are many things that are the same. We've had church school opening days on many Sundays in the past. The sanctuary has often been this full before. Our order of worship is very similar to that which we've used many times before. In fact, people have gathered here to worship in much the same way for generations. But there has never been a Sunday just like this one before! The difference of course is that the congregation has never been exactly the same as it is today. Each of you brings something special and unique with your presence here today, and so this day is like no other.

Think about what I've been saying. It sure makes a difference when we have 120 or more people here instead of 50 or so. It makes a big difference when we have many children with their openness, their energy, and their enthusiasm. In that sense we can see the difference that our presence, our collective presence makes, but we need to probe still deeper.

Most of you have had the experience of going to a funeral home when a friend or acquaintance has died. Often at times like that we experience a sense of helplessness. We'd like to reach out to the family in some way, to lighten their load of grief, and we struggle to know what we can do or say that will really make a difference. You walk into that funeral home, and there are a lot of people there almost all of them wondering, what should I say?

Yet when you talk with someone who's been through that experience as the wife or husband, the son or daughter of the person who died, I expect that what you'll hear from them is that they don't remember most of the words that were said, what they do remember is who came. The words that were spoken or left unspoken were not nearly as important and did not have anywhere near the same impact as the fact that their friends were present in their time of grief and loss. Their friends were there when they needed them.

Our presence in times like that communicates a powerful message of love. I care, and so I came to share this difficult moment with you. There is probably no other message that means as much. Our presence makes a real difference!

That's the same reality that is reflected in our text from Exodus. The Israelite people have had many signs of God's power. God sent all of the plagues which scared the Egyptians into releasing the Israelites from bondage. Through Moses, God parted the waters of the Red Sea, letting the Israelites walk to safety and drowning the army that followed them. God had caused manna to appear on the ground each morning, and a flock of quail to appear each evening so that they had plenty to eat.

Now they were thirsty, and that's never a fun experience. Yet, when I read this passage from Exodus, my first thought is - why couldn't they trust in God after all that they had been through, after all that God had done for them? What was wrong with those people?

What was wrong with them is found in verse 7 when the people ask, "Is the Lord with us or not?" They're scared - not just that they're going to die of thirst in the wilderness. What really has them scared is the fear that God has abandoned them. They're persistent in their complaints to Moses, because they need to know that God is with them, for inside they know that when God is with them, everything is all right. God's presence makes all the difference in the world to them - and also to us. The knowledge that God is present with us - that's the key.

When Jesus is preparing His disciples for His own coming death, the assurance that He offers them is that God will be with them. Don't worry when I die, everything will be all right, because the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit will come to be with you, but not just to be with you, to be in you. In the midst of our fears about what might happen, in the midst of sorrow and pain and loneliness, there is nothing which gives us greater strength and greater comfort, than to know that God is with us.

God's presence is vitally important in our lives, just like it was in the lives of the Israelite people. When we face trauma or heartache, we too need to know that God is there with us.

But Jesus said something else that was equally important. God is with us, but God is also in us. That means that God isn't just out there nearby in some vaguely defined way. God is in here (point to heart). In the midst of my innermost feelings, God is there. In the midst of all of my private thoughts and concerns, God is there. God is present with each of us in the most intimate of ways.

And there's still more, for since God is present in each one of us, that also means that when we go to the funeral home to be with a friend who has lost a loved one, we bring God's presence with us. When we reach out to hug a friend who is sad, God is present in that hug. When we get excited about the good fortune of a friend who has just had something special happen, God is there in our excitement. When we gather here today to worship, to come together as God's people, part of what is so special is that each one of us brings God's presence with ours, so that when we make the commitment to be present somewhere, that is an extremely important commitment.

Many of you remember visit of the Amistad ship to Buffalo some 5 years ago. It was a neat ship to walk through, but it was also much more than just another large sailing ship from years gone by. The 53 black Mendi captives who in 1839 took over the original Amistad ship rather than be forced into slavery, were put on trial. All that they wanted was to be freed and returned back home to Africa and their families.

Here they were in a strange land where they didn't even speak the language, literally on trial for their lives. It was Congregationalists - our ancestors in faith, who came and stood with them. They supported them. They raised money for their legal defense and eventually their journey back to Africa.

By their presence with them, these Congregationalists stood for justice and freedom. It was their faith that called them to be present with these captives who had been literally been torn away from their families and their communities to be taken to a life of slavery. These captives would have been all alone, except for these Christians who stood with them, and by their presence reminded everyone of God's presence and God's call for justice.

Presence. A commitment to be present is one of the most important commitments that we can make. Today each of us is here, we have made that commitment, and I hope that all of us will renew that commitment each Sunday - gathering to worship and to offer God our thanks and our praise. Our children and youth need to be present as well, to worship, and to learn in their Sunday School classes about what it means to be God's people. But we too need to be here, for we need to offer God our thanks and our praise.

As we think back over our lives, each of us can identify times when our presence has been of great importance to someone else, and other times when the presence of someone else has been of great importance to us. In all of those cases God has been present through us, and through the other person involved. We are the bearers of God's presence as we walk through life. If we are truly thankful that God is with us, then we can do no less than to respond by making a commitment to be present to worship and to give God our thanks. The gift of our presence is the greatest gift that we have to offer to God and to one another.

Amen.