Exodus 40:34–35

³⁴Then the cloud overshadowed the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. ³⁵And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

The cloud overshadowed the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. God was there in that tabernacle! Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. God was there! Today, we receive the risen body and blood of Jesus Christ into our mouths. God is here! Emmanuel, God with us!

Many people ask where is God? That question comes to mind, especially in time of crisis, or illness, or disaster. Where is God when I really need him? Where is God in all the world's mess? Where is God when severe illness strikes? When my son or daughter is killed in a car accident? When I lose my job? When I am in despair? Where is God in those times I need him the most and he feels so far away?

That is what we will be talking about the next six weeks in our sermon series and Bible studies on the subject of Holy Communion. Where is God? Where can we find him? Where can we connect with him? Where does he touch our lives and bring us help and salvation? Where is love?

God's is not to be found just anywhere. He was not in the rivers of Egypt. He was not in the Ziggurats of Babylon. God was not found anywhere else except on Mt. Sinai. There God met Moses in a burning bush. There God spoke to him, instructed him, and empowered him to be his servant. Sometime later, again on Mt. Sinai, he established his covenant with Israel and called them out from among all other nations to be his children. There is where Moses and the people of Israel met him. That is where he called them to be his people. That is where he promised to be their God and live with them, among them, in their midst. That is where God legally bound himself to them and swore a solemn oath to always bless them, protect them, and take care of them. That is where God gave them the Ten Commandments which separated them from all other nations as the people of God.

Then God said, "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may live in their midst," (Ex 25:8) there "I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God...I am the Lord, their God." (Ex 29:45-6) So they built a tabernacle to be his place of dwelling. They took him with them wherever they went and never set foot anywhere unless God was with them.

So, back to our original question, where is God? There are certain, specific places where he is present in his grace. He is not just anywhere as he is in his omnipresence. We must carefully distinguish between God's omnipresence and his presence "for us" in grace and mercy. Grace and forgiveness are found only in specific places which He himself has chosen: places, times, and events. His gracious, loving presence is localized in specific places, times and people; in certain offices and institutions in and through which he offers us his gifts of grace. Jesus told his disciples that after his resurrection they were to meet him at a certain mountain in Galilee, "the place he had chosen." (Matt 28:16). He has ordained where and when he comes to be present with us and work in our lives. "Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near," says Isaiah in our Old Testament reading. (Isaiah 55:6)

Is he not everywhere? Didn't I learn in confirmation that he is omnipresent? Doesn't that big word mean, everywhere, in all places? Yes, it does. But God's omnipresence is not the same as his loving presence; his presence "for us". Luther instructs us to distinguish between the two. He says, "It is one thing if God is present, and another if he is present 'for you.' He is there 'for you' when he adds his Word and binds himself, saying 'Here you are to find me.'"

He is everywhere in his power, in his holiness, in his judgment, and in his anger against sin. He is everywhere working through the laws of nature and the vocation of others to provide for our physical needs. He is everywhere working through authorities, parents, government and the like to discipline us, punish evildoers, and keep us from killing each other.

But his love, his grace, his mercy, are found only in specific places he has chosen. They are found in Christ Jesus. His grace and forgiveness are only where Jesus says he is to be found. Apart from Christ God is an angry God, full of punishment and wrath. Apart from Christ we are his enemies and he is against us.

But, In Christ, he is a loving, gracious God who is "for us." Who saves us, helps us, protects us, and provides for us. This is what we Lutherans mean when we talk about the means of grace. God is everywhere present in power and holiness, but the means of grace are the places where he is present in grace and love to save us. The means of grace are where he connects with us to forgive us, save us from God's punishment, to give us life out of death, to touch us with his love, to comfort us in our sorrow. And what are these means of Grace? They are his Word and the Sacraments.

So where is Christ? He is found in Word and Sacrament. He was incarnate in the Virgin Mary, that means, he took on a human nature. He was born with a body and blood, just as we have. He became our brother in every respect. He assumed our humanity, and even took into his body our sins and carried them to the cross. On that cross he sacrificed his body and poured out his blood, all "for us." In that sacrifice on the cross God is present "for us." Not on the ocean blue, or the mountains majestic. Not in the trees, the wind, or the sun, or the moon, but in that body and blood sacrificed for us on that cross, there God is present.

As Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, he said, "This is my body shed 'for you.' This is my blood, shed 'for you' for the forgiveness of sins." In the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus is present, not in power or wrath, not against you, but "for you." He is present in love, in grace, in mercy and compassion. He is present in the flesh. His very body and blood which was born and laid in a manger are here. His very body and blood which he sacrificed on a cross "for you" are what you eat and drink. Joining you to that cross so that his death becomes your death, and his resurrection becomes your resurrection. Where the body and blood of Jesus are, there is Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. Eating that body and blood of Jesus, you eat and drink the very body and blood of God. He enters into you. He becomes part of you. He joins himself to you and he joins you to himself.

Where is God to be found? Where can you connect to God? Where is he when you are in sorrow, pain, or distress? Not in the air, or the water, or the fire, or the earth. In his not found inside you, in your heart, or in your feelings, or emotions. He is found in the bread and wine of Holy Communion. That is where God connects with mankind. That is where he meets you and is at work in you. Here he works in you all the benefits of his conception, birth, life, suffering, teaching, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension. Here he comforts you and sustains you. "This is my body given for you. This is my blood, shed for you." This is the bodily, physical presence of Jesus Christ, Son of God. This is where you commune with God and are joined to him. This is where he dwells in you, and you in him. Jesus says, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." (John 15:4). This takes place here, at the altar, in Holy Communion.

And that is the reason the church gathers each week on the Lord's Day, because he comes to serve you. In his Word proclaimed and the Sacrament given, He is here, "for you." He is here, Emmanuel, with his gifts of grace and love and life. All that he earned on the cross is given to you here as you gather around his Word and Sacrament. The Supper is not something we do. Rather, it is something the risen Christ does "for you" as he comes into the midst of his gathered people.

The liturgy of the church God can only be understood as God serving us. The liturgy is God's work as he operates on you and "for you." Without understanding that, the liturgy will seem irrelevant and out of place in our world. It may seem stiff and formal. Without this understanding worship will be viewed as an experiential thing that we must make lively, rather than that by which Jesus comes to give us life. Without this understanding we may miss the hidden presence of the King. The Divine Service would be forever an irrelevant and abstruse mystery. If worship were anything other than God at work in us, the idea of "going to church" for any other reason would lead us to find other things to do on a Sunday morning. The comfort of bed, the cult of nature lovers on the golf course, the mouth-watering dreams of a delectable Sunday dinner would be far more tempting.

But there is only one place to find God at work in our lives, offering healing at the core of life, and that is in the liturgy of the Divine Service.

So where is God when I am burdened with temptation and sin? Where is God when my faith wavers; when I am afraid and uncertain? Where is God in the dark moments of sorrow and pain? Where does God forgive, heal, comfort, and restore our lives? He is in Jesus Christ hanging on a cross and rising from the dead. And that Jesus Christ who hung on the cross and rose from the dead is poured into me at the banquet table which He himself has prepared for me this morning.

Amen.