Is God really present in us?

By John Pearring

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012123.cfm
Hebrews 9:2-3, 11-14
Mark 3:20-21

Some folks wonder, "Where the dickens is God?" When is he going to interact with humans, and his creation? It seems to many that God is missing. Some even say they've looked and can't find him anywhere.

Religions like the Jewish faith offered sacrifices to God. When their Temple was destroyed, most Jews quit the practice. Muslims still have a modified sacrifice called Qurbani. The gist of animal sacrifice is to awaken God to our existence, appeal to his good nature, and appease sin. It's supposed to renew our errant selves to holiness. Why aren’t we offering sacrifices to God anymore? Is that why God appears to be absent? Or is it because such blood sacrifices are baseless, ancient rituals, and God never shows up to such things?

Those who wonder like this today, and speculate on methods to get God's attention search for a god who is distant, likely disappointed in us, and accessible only through some legalistic, formulaic, or magical means. That's a god not worth finding. A God already with us would have us adopt rituals that remind us he's here. Not expect a ritual to make him appear.

A loving God, one worthy of being God, would already intersect with us. He would know we're a difficult people, skeptical, bargaining, and focused upon preservation for our family and us. He’d know we're fatally worried about death. We would see that he loves us.

Such a God would have a historical record, remarkable levels of evidence, and current living revelatory proof that he’s real. Christians believe our God is that God.

And so, we can speak about God’s presence in a stunning display of places, routes, and activities. This knowledge, this reality, comes from knowing the gospel of Jesus Christ, the history of prophecies that preceded his coming, and the two eons of revelation in the Church he instituted when he ascended back to heaven and left us Spirit-filled at the Pentecost.

It's not a simplistic, formulaic, or even quick tale, but it is one that we can know. It’s a faith so deep we can study our God for eternity. Scriptures provide us with the Word to dive into God, and a Church which renews us with the lifestyle, service, mission, and Spirit-filled gathering of believers. Through all of it, God is not just accessible, he is present.

Our Hebrews reading today provides the explanation of how the ancients appeased God and how Jesus changed the reality of animal sacrifice into knowing and worshipping the "living God." Animal sacrifice was a legitimate practice for humans to remember God, ritually cleanse themselves, and start out fresh in their God relationship. God was always there. But then God came here in the flesh.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer’s ashes 
can sanctify those who are defiled 
so that their flesh is cleansed, 
how much more will the Blood of Christ, 
who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

The "dead works" of blood sacrifice are indeed over, but the actions of Jesus Christ, his blood, accomplished the task. Our ancestors' history in the book of Hebrews reveals a changed universe. God is now not just accessible. He's so intimate that we must go to great lengths not to see him. Jesus didn't wipe out a record of animal sacrifice. He transformed it into the Eucharist, a means to become him in us.

We're still rebellious people, skeptical beyond any time in history, and negotiators with highly trained skill sets. We are still encumbered by decay and death. Constantly distracted by the problems of the world, the attractions of temporary joys, and the constructs of layers upon layers of responsibilities and financial efforts, we are oblivious to his graces and restorations. We mistake his incredible presence for coincidence. God is not missing. We are.

The triune God of Father, Son, and Spirit are so available to us that we feel foolish when we awaken to him. When we realize the truth, we recognize that we insulted God, ignored and avoided him. 

Here’s what we know. All of us. Even if we struggle to accept it.

The Father put the law, the order of creation itself, into our hearts. He writes the way of truth on the tablets of our minds. You can’t get much closer to God than that, we might think. No, we can. When we agree to let God be God, we are soon asked to accept Jesus, our King and brother. We become family members of the Body of Christ. God ensures we are introduced to our brothers and sisters who share in the faith because he asks us to be temples that house the Holy Spirit. That Spirit prompts and comforts us. We become with God in a residence of love that supersedes all other relationships.

There’s more.

God, through his three persons, comes to us with three intimate methods, three avenues, and three locations where he interacts and joins us. It might be better to see him as coming “into” us. The Father reaches into our hearts and minds in conscience and behavior. Jesus enters our body as bread and wine, growing in us as we worship. The Holy Spirit indwells every corner and system we use, setting up a 24-by-7 spiritual workshop to our eternal benefit.

That’s just the beginning. God’s reach goes beyond that. 

His methods are innumerable. Word, sacrament, intercessions from Saints and believers, Church doctrines, and much more. Imagine every kind of social media, advertising program, and entertainment offering and expect that God exceeds all those schemes, inspiring and encouraging us from nature to the many beauties of our senses.

His avenues, portals into our living body, come in his breath, every blessing, and each physical partnership with us in the Eucharist. There’s no cell on or in our body, including the escaping hairs on our head, where he ignores us.

Is God missing? No. We’re just so poorly tuned in we scramble his messages and love with nonsense.

Do we have to believe that all of these intersections exist for God to be there? What if some of this is too hard to accept? Why is this such a high bar to reach? From our Church collaborations to our prayerful walk in the rest of the world, why doesn't God take over our lives, eradicate our skepticism and fears, and fix everything? 

The indwelling of God takes place only when we acknowledge God can live in us and only when we invite him in. Both into our Spirit and in the Eucharist, the presence of God is entirely allowed by us. We’re independent beings in willful control because God desires our love, not just our fealty. He can’t get that by force.

The Word and laws that fashion creation itself is there but only known to us when we seek them out. We can be familiar and educated, but we can’t be indwelled and gifted with faith unless we want it.

The reading from Hebrews described the Temple, which was finally destroyed between 70 and 72 AD, as a model for the temple of the Holy Spirit in us. The complexity of rooms and holy furniture is more than a metaphor for the human body and spirit. Those temple sanctums (outer and inner), the location of sacrifices, and the place for the Holy of Holies represent the breadth of God’s dealings with the creation that images him. That’s us. We're made of outer and inner temple sanctums and in glowing, supernatural glory when gathered as believers together. 

Many commentators have linked our housing of God to the pre-resurrected Christ Temple, the pre-Pentecost presence of God in a centralized location. One aspect of the old Temple, however, is clear. There’s no need to repeat the cleansing of sins with the sacrifice of animals.

how much more will the Blood of Christ, 
who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.