Exodus 3:13-16a:
But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them 'the God of your ancestors has sent me to you, and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.' God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The Lord, the God of your
anc estors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you ' :This is my name forever, and this is my title for all generations. Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, "The Lord, the God of your ancestors, has appeared to me.

ACTS 17
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he argues in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and also in the marketplace everyday with those who happened to be there. Also some Epicureans and Stoic philosophers debated with him. Some said, "what does this babbler want to say?" Others said, "he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign divinities." (This was because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) So they took him and brought him to the Areopagus and asked him, "may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means." Now all the Athenians and the foreigners living there would spend their time in nothing but telling or hearing something new. Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'to an unknown god' . What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, the One who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is God served by human hands, as though God needed anything, since God gives to all mortals life and breath and all things."

Greetings from Sun Cathedral MCC Venice, Florida.

In the same way, we try to contain God! Yes, we have own ideas about God, so we take them all and put then all in a neat little container; neat 'n nice; have life all figured out because we have our God in a container!
I have done this; others certainly have; the church always has. Early Hebrews did; Ark of the Covenant was carried in a scroll within a container and taken with them; thus, God was always with them. And to this day we still try to contain God, to bottle God up–to keep God within–nice and quiet and contained. But God CANNOT be contained–and must not be!
Our attempts to contain God are many; how do we contain God?
First, through our living and acting.
Many Christians feel that they have God all figured out and contained; they are comfortable in the fact that they are saved and secure in t heir faith. After all, Christianity is the only true way. This was shown in the church website over the past weeks as some writers contended that their faith was the best, the truest–that other faiths were not. Ah–trying to put God into a container again! Or that Jesus is the only way. Remember that Jesus himself always pointed to his Creator–his Heavenly Father–and said that he had other sheep which were not of this fold!
2. The Church has tried to contain God.
The church? Yes, the church! The first problem was between Peter & Paul. Peter contended that in order to become a Christian you had to become a Jew first. Paul said NO–that all one had to do was believe in Jesus. So I often wonder that if Peter was the first pope, why was he defeated on this issue? Peter could not contain God, and neither could Paul! Later, Paul gives a marvelous account in Acts 17, contending that God did not reside in human temples, or idols, but was present throughout all the universe.

Centuries ago, some churches in America tried to contain God on the issue of slavery. They justified it by contending that it was sanctioned by the Bible! Cited story of Ham seeing his father Joseph naked, and thus was banished to a far region. They said that Ham was black–the father of the black race banished to live in Africa. How in the world they came up with that is a mystery! Later, segregation was justified by similar interpretation. Blacks were looked upon as inferior, as property. And the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision decreed that slaves were property and thus had no rights as persons. Women also had few rights, and could not even vote until the 1920's. Cultures and religions still try to subjugate women. Gays have few rights, with the struggle for equality and justice still being fought!

So how can we open our containers and let God's Spirit out?
1, By our deeds, How we live, what we do, how we speak are clear messages about what we believe. For instance, take language. Boy, how we have attempted to keep God contained by our language! Young: ch. spoke of God using the terms Thou, Thee, Thine. Gradually these were replaced by You and Yours, sort of a chummier feeling. How we try to anthropomorphicize God!! =GREAT word! We try to contain God by using terms like He, His, Her, Father; never liked these. After all, God is GOD, and should be addressed as such–like Moses learned in our scripture from Exodus; God is the great I AM, which means Yahweh–or words like Creator, Adonai, Lord, Sovereign, Parent. Let's stop trying to anthropomorphicize God!

Yes, the church must open its God containers often.
This church is unique! It IS open and diverse and inclusive–but not completely! Practice the Priesthood of all believers. But we can be more careful and intentional in our language!
And yes, each of us must open our God containers often, We need to update our conceptions of God. Often we have old, worn out Sunday school views of God.
We don't read our Bibles or study God's word enough!
What a great privilege has been given to us to learn more about our Creator! And yet so few Xns read or study God's word!

So let us open our God containers, so that the real presence of God can infiltrate our minds and hearts and lives, that we may grow in the knowledge and power of Almighty God–the I AM, the Alpha and Omega–the beginning and the end!
WILL YOU?
AMEN