Service Sunday May 10, 2026
HIGHLAND HILLS UNITED CHURCH
Minden, Ontario
All are Welcome!
Worship Leaders: Rev. Max Ward
Music Director: Melissa Stephens
Watch a video recording of the whole service using YouTube below
Message: “Where Is God?”
Listen to an audio recording below or read it at the bottom of this page.
Due to illness, the remainder of the webpage will be left undone at this time.
Sermon 10 May 2026
“Where Is God?”
Acts 17:22-28 & John 14:15-21
Gracious God, be with us today in this place, in the Scriptures and in our words.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts praise your Holy name. Amen.
A pre-birth class was aimed at couples who already had at least one child.
The instructor raised the issue of breaking the news to the older child.
It went like this:
“Some parents,” she said, “tell the older child,
‘We love you so much we decided to bring another child into this family.’
But think about that.
Ladies, what if your husband came home one day and said,
‘Honey, I love you so much I decided to bring home another wife.’?”
One of the women in the back row spoke up immediately.
“Does she cook & clean?”
[forwarded by Gretchen Patti]
Much of life is a search, always looking for a God “out there”.
An older paradigm of Christianity saw God looking like an old man.
This old man would be seated on a throne in a heaven far away, somewhere in the sky, looking down on us from above the stars.
This is often still a common image, and not one without some beauty.
Yet this image of God is hardly believable, and not to be taken literally.
So then that leaves us to question, “Where is God?”
If not up in heaven, then where?
And why can’t we see this God?
In Acts, Paul meets with a group of men who have created this image of God.
This is a story that was not new to Christians, and still happens today.
Remember the story in the Old Testament of the golden calf in Exodus Chapter 32.
These people were searching for a God image to worship.
Or back in Genesis chapter 11, the people built a tower in order to reach their God, who lived up in the sky or heavens.
And now, people still search, often externally for our God to worship.
But what does Paul say?
Paul assures us that God is not far.
“In him we live and move and have our being.”
This is a totally new way to see God.
A new place to find our God.
But is it really that new?
What a revolutionary way of thinking about who God is and where God dwells.
I think that the Jews were on to something when they called God, “Ruach”.
Ruach is the Hebrew word sometimes translated as wind or breath.
This Ruach is a vital force in our lives.
We need our breath to live and this wind or breath exists within and without us.
Another term that the Greeks use in the New Testament is, “ta pneuma”, meaning, “the spirit”.
This term is like the Ruach but perhaps more personal.
Mainline Christians often define the Trinity as the father, son and Holy Spirit or God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
God and Jesus are easier concepts to imagine.
Yet Spirit is a little more difficult.
I like, “spirit” or pneuma, or Ruach.
This way God is here and there, everywhere within and without.
Like Paul, the writer of John also imagines God as the spirit.
In this case, the “spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him”.
How true!
We are all, many times ignorant to the “Spirit of Truth”.
We search everywhere for God.
We expect others to do the work of God, to provide hope, to love those who need it.
Sometimes, we re-discover God in a place that we least expect.
I found a little story by: Julie Manhan.
This story illustrates quite well where God is.
It is called, “An Afternoon in the Park.”
There once was a little boy who wanted to meet God.
He thought it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of Smile Cookies from Tim Horton’s and a few root beers and started his journey.
When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old woman.
She was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons.
The boy sat down next to her and opened his suitcase.
He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her a Smile Cookie.
She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.
Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a root beer too.
Once again she smiled at him.
The boy was delighted!
They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.
As it began to grow dark, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave.
He turned around, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug.
She gave him her biggest smile ever.
When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face.
She asked him, “What did you do today that made you so happy?”
He replied, “I had lunch with God.
You know what?
She’s got the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen!”
Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home.
Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked,
“Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?”
She replied, “I ate Smile Cookies in the park with God.
You know, he’s much younger than I expected.”
This gospel writer continues by assuring us that we,
“know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.”
Where is God?
God is here.
We can be reassured when we realize that God or Ruach or pneuma is this close.
That God is here within and around us.
The Creator, the Spirit of Truth, the Life and Love is here.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
