God is not Everywhere – God is Anywhere

I want to tell you about a lie.  A mistruth so pervasive that I have little doubt some in this room believe it to be a truth.  Now this lie is not malicious.  It was not told out of spite or in a conscious effort to deceive.   But it is a lie none the less.  Fueling its transmission is a genuine desire for this lie to be a truth.  A truth we so badly want to believe that reasonable and rational people have ignored life experience in order NOT to have to question it.  To tell you what the lie is, I have to take you back many years, to the point, at least in my life, that I first heard and began to believe it.

Imagine, if you will, little 7 year old Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal, eager but cautiously entering into Ms Elcott’s 2nd grade Hebrew School classroom for the first day of school.   Ms Elcott, being one of the premier teachers at Valley Beth Shalom Hebrew School, does not shy away from any topic, regardless of its complexity.  Therefore, the topic for that day was … GOD!  Half-way into the session, little Rabbi Laurence Rosenthal raises his hand and asks THE Question, “Where is God?”  Ms Elcott, without blinking, without a moment’s hesitation, responds: “God is …”  (Wait for response)

This display of confidence, this response that came at me with a veracity which could only come from a place of true knowing seemed to quench my thirst, and satisfied my curiosity – at least for the moment.  But then something happened, a little thing we call – life.  I began to see the world that often behaved contrary to a place overflowing with God.  I was left in a quandary; how could something be said with so much conviction, with so much certainty, be false? I am reminded of the 16 century French writer, Michal de Montaigne who said, “Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.” 

God is everywhere!?!?

How could I hold on to this belief when a lifetime of experience casts doubt on this claim?  

Of course, I could have done what many others in my position have done.  I could twist and turn my understanding of God to accommodate the idea of His Omnipresence.   When struggling with the question of why bad things happen, I could hold firmly onto an idea like…suffering is brought about by sin.  People suffer because they are sinful.  They are being punished by God.  
Such a belief, as repugnant and accusatory as it might sound, does allow me to hold on to my 2nd grade theological concept – God is everywhere.

Or I could swing the other way.  So jaded by the fisher in-between this theological norm and the reality I see with my own eyes I adopt a new theology; coined by Fredrich Nietzsche, I could pronounce, “God is dead.”

Are these really my options?  Either I blame the victim or I cease to believe in a living God?!

I am here today to offer a different answer to my 2nd grade question, an answer that is not new at all; rather one that I believe is supported by our Jewish tradition.  My answer to the question, “Where is God” is that God is not everywhere. We see an implication of this answer in our liturgy.  
Thirty days ago, we added Psalm 27 to our list of daily liturgy.  This psalm, found on page 95 of the New Machzor, is recited every morning and evening and expresses God’s fidelity; a life under the protection of God.  Within its words of comfort, the psalmist makes a request:

לְךָ ׀ אָמַר לִבִּי בַּקְּשׁוּ פָנָי אֶת־פָּנֶיךָ יְהֹוָה אֲבַקֵּשׁ: ט אַל־תַּסְתֵּר פָּנֶיךָ ׀ מִמֶּנִּי

The psalmist pleads: O Lord, I truly seek You.  Do not hide Yourself from me.

If I am to retain my “God is everywhere” theology, I must look at this psalm in confusion. How am I to seek a god that is everywhere? My search will be over before it begins.  In addition, Al Tister Panekha Mi’meni – “Don’t hide yourself from me?!”  Were is this God going to hide?   Being everywhere means that there is nowhere good to hide.  If God is everywhere, psalm 27 must be wrong.

But it is not just this Psalm that we reject in order to affirm God’s omnipresence.  There are stories within our biblical narrative that speak of God’s absence. 

Take for instance the story of the Garden of Eden.  God places man and woman together in a perfect world; a world completely open to them with only one, simple rule.  They must not eat from the Tree of Good and Evil. 

We know the direction that this tragic tale takes.  Adam and Eve disobey God’s simple instruction and begin a series of events which lead to their banishment from the Garden.   Adam and Eve, after eating from the tree, become embarrassed and ashamed; they hide themselves from each other and then from God.

Within this story, we learn of the first question ever spoken by the divine to humanity; a question so simple and pure in it’s asking, yet profound and complicated in its answering.    God calls out to them saying,

אַיֶּכָּה:

Where are you?

For a God that is everywhere, this question is silly.  Where are you?  In fact, God doesn’t know where Adam is hiding because God ….is not ….. everywhere. 

We also see God’s distance from humanity in the early history of our own people.  In Egypt, when the Israelites suffered under the ruthless hand of the Pharaoh, our Torah recalls:

“The Israelites were groaning under the bondage and cried out; and their cry for help from the bondage rose up to God…God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them” (Exodus 2:25).

After years of oppression, the people’s tears finally make their way to God.   God then, and only then, takes notice of them.   I am finding it more and more difficult to support God’s omnipresence when the very words of our Torah speak of a God that is distant.

When faced with the conflict between such a commonly held belief like God is Everywhere, against the words of our biblical tradition which describe a God that is anything but everywhere, I must search for a new answer. So I propose a very simple one – God is NOT everywhere.

Of course, this can’t be all.  By understanding God’s presence or lack thereof in the way I am proposing, we are left with a bad taste in our mouths: a God that is delinquent, a dead-beat, asleep on the job.  But that isn’t the case at all.  Because God MAY NOT be everywhere, but God IS… ANYWHERE.

It is God, and only God who can enter into our loneliness.  God is the only one who can help the truly helpless. God is able to reach us in places where no other soul can enter.  God IS ANYWHERE.

On Yom Kippur afternoon, we will read the classic story of Jonah and the Whale.  This tale of Jonah’s desperate attempt to escape from God’s service leads him into the belly of a whale.  Of the many lessons we can learn from this fanciful story, one is that God, and only God, can be with Jonah in the whale’s belly.  God may not be everywhere, but God is anywhere. 

Our story turns when Jonah cries out to God from the intestines of the ocean beast, a sentiment expressed in psalm 145, the Ashrei:

קָרוֹב יְהוָה לְכָל־קרְאָיו לְכל אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָאֻהוּ בֶאֱמֶת:

God is close to all who call out to Him, to all who call out to Him in truth.

God is anywhere we are when we call out to Him.

But remember the Garden of Eden.  Before we can ask, “Where is God,” we must first be ready to answer God’s question

אַיֶּכָּה:

Where are you?

God is not everywhere, God is anywhere we invite God to be, anywhere that we feel God is needed, any place that we decide is finished being Godless.  It is our responsibility to bring God into the world.

As was said beautifully by my classmate, friend, and the chief and only Rabbi of Uganda, Africa:  When asked about his food relief program for local Ugandan villagers facing famine, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu declared:

“God is not going to stretch out His hand physically, we are extensions of God’s arm.”

It is not simply our honor to be God’s emissaries on earth, it is our responsibility.  We must show the people in our community who are suffering, the people who are in need, the people who live in a ruthless, Godless world, that God is, in fact, with them. 

Your synagogue, Ahavath Achim, is providing you with three opportunities within the next 30 days; three opportunities to bring God into our world. 

When you return in a week for Kol Nidrei, bring cans of food and fill those bins located in the Cohen Pavilion for Project Isaiah.  There are people in Atlanta who are starving.  You can bring God into their lives by bringing cans of food.  That’s number one.

Number 2 - On Yom Kippur day, as you leave the building, you will be handed a large paper shopping bag.   Take the bag home and fill it with gently used clothing.  As we enter into the Fall season, the temperature will drop and people without proper clothing are going to freeze.  Help them feel God’s warm embrace by giving to our Sukkot program, “Sukkot: Sharing our AAbundance.”  Fill the bags with clothing and bring them back during the holiday of Sukkot. 

After food and clothing, we must provide shelter.  Join your AA community as we take the lead in October by building for Habitat for Humanity.  Information on all three of these opportunities and much more can be found all over this building.  Look for it or just ask.
God is not everywhere but God is anywhere.  Since the beginning of time, God has been asking you a question:

אַיֶּכָּה:

Where are you?

Don’t let these days of awe end without being able to answer:
Hineni.
Shana Tova.