| GODISNOWHERE - article by Joel Hempel
Many years ago, at the Laclede Groves Retirement Community Chapel, when I preached a sermon by the same title as this devotional article, there was a woman in the congregation who was completely deaf. But she faithfully worshiped with us by feeling the vibrations of the organ music and reading the bulletin. Then, every Sunday, she would come out of worship and greet me with a big smile and a loud “Thank you, Chaplain.” But on the occasion of this sermon, as she came out of the chapel, I could see she was upset. With a frown and an emphatic voice, she declared, “That is wrong!” pointing at the sermon’s title in the bulletin. She was reading the title as some of you have read it; GOD IS NOWHERE. Then I took her bulletin and, with my pen, marked the title with slashes: GOD/IS/NOW/HERE. And with that slight change in seeing the truth of the sermon title, her frown turned to a broad smile, and her displeasure shifted to a resounding: Yes! Whether or not we recognize and trust that God is with us and caring for us – in good times and bad – makes all the difference in the world. Holy Week is the perfect time to remember the tension embedded in GODISNOWHERE. I know Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are high holy days. And I dearly love the Gospel associated with each of these remembrances. But the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter is especially poignant because it symbolizes what we can easily feel when we look around during troubling times and can’t find or experience God anywhere. I doubt that any of us would let the words come out of our mouth – or even into our heart – that Jesus is defeated, useless, and dead! But that was the feeling of those first disciples on the Saturday following the crucifixion of Christ. Imagine the depth of their despair. Thank God we never have to experience their agony. But, at those times in our life when it seems God or Jesus is nowhere, go ahead and feel the angst. Let your cries be known to God. Because the joy of the resurrection will be that much sweeter when his Spirit leads you back to the truth on which we rely: God is now here! | 
