August 20, 2023 “The Depth of God”

Readings: Psalm 13, Genesis 45:1-15 , Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28, Romans 11:33-12:8
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY on August 20, 2023

Way back in 1975 a French scholar of oriental and Christian traditions, Yves Raguin, published a book called ‘The Depth of God.’ I revisited the book recently and came to the conclusion that his insights were ahead of his time and certainly have a relevance to religious life in 2023.

 In the introduction he complains that Western Christianity has made God ‘Too obvious’. That theologians and church leaders have thought that by providing people with increasingly simplified definitions of what God is like they would bring God closer.

But the result had been, not to bring God closer, but make God seem smaller. The book suggests that the awesome, mystery, otherness, and holiness of God, often spoken of in other religious traditions, is in danger of being lost.

It is about the depth of God that I wish to speak today and take for a text Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways! (NAB).

To me these words of Paul speak about three things;
•    The Majesty of God
•    The Mastery of God’s Knowledge
•    The Mystery of God’s Ways.

The Depth of God…Majesty, Mastery and Mystery! Let’s look at the first of those.

The Majesty of God “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”

Twenty First Century humanity is held captive by the belief that everything we need can be provided by our own efforts. We put our faith in the miracles of science and technology and human progress for our salvation. Many believe that one day we are going to work it all out and that when we do, we won’t need God to fill in the gaps.

Such a world view elevates the place of humankind to that of being a deity. We are Lords of our own destiny, Kings of our own domains, Masters of our own Universe.  The problem is that we cannot enthrone humanity without dethroning God.  The price of inflating ourselves is that we make faith in God seem shallow.

Back when Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, he didn’t have that problem. As he thought about the majesty of God, his soul seemed to burst. The words flow out from him, “Oh… the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" Oh…The Depth.. the depth of God!

When I lived in Wales over in Great Britain, I used to regularly travel on a road that went from the place where I lived in Wales to my hometown of Moreton in England. It was called the A55 and it wasn’t the sort of road that you took your time on. It was the main four lane road that the big trucks took as they were headed to and from Ireland. It was the only road that led along the coast of North Wales. And it was usually extremely busy.

Summer travelers shared tales of lengthy traffic jams that had occurred when the annual road works created ten-mile-long hold ups. Accidents were regular. If you have ever driven in the British Isles, you’ll be aware that some folk, as in some places in the States, interpret speed limits as being minimums rather than maximums.

Once upon a time it was a wee winding road that wove its way through seaside towns, past castles, and churches. But as it had been straightened and widened and a bypass added here and there, it had become much like any other busy highway. You got on it, set your controls for the heart of the sun… and zoom… away you went.

But one time, I can’t recall quite why, I pulled off onto one of the roadside lay-bys, and was astonished to see the panoramic view that I had so often sped by. It was a clear day and spread out before me was the River Dee, the gentle rolling land of the Wirral peninsular where I grew up and a glimpse of Liverpool with its two grand cathedrals beyond.

As I looked at the view, I was suddenly awestruck at how much of my life had been shaped in that particular geographic area. That’s where I found faith. That’s where on numerous occasions God had broken through to my life with God’s love. That’s where I had felt a call to minister. That’s where I had served in the city of Liverpool.

As I stood in that lay-by with the traffic rushing by, for a while I was in another place. I was oblivious to the noise and busyness. All I could think of was how great were the riches of God, that God, the Great Creator King, should send a Son to die upon a cross for a person like me, that God, the Lord of all, should desire somebody like me to share in the work of the Kingdom.

I was completely overwhelmed, almost numb. If an angel had descended into view and said, “Hey, how’s it going” I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised. As one of our hymns declares; ‘The things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of God’s glory and grace.’

Or as Paul says...“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”  When we take time out to consider how awesome God is, it can profoundly affect our lives.  How little room we allow ourselves for focusing on the majesty of God. Then there is this;

The Mastery of God’s Knowledge.  “How inscrutable are His judgments.”

Isn’t that a great word? ‘Inscrutable’. When Yvonne was a youngster her mum used to sometimes exclaim “Inscrutable Indeed!” when faced with a situation that was perplexing her, meaning “I do not have a clue what is going on but it seems good!”

The dictionary definition of inscrutable is “Difficult to fathom or understand, impenetrable, mysterious. This verse tells us ‘How impossible to fathom, how mysterious, how inscrutable are the judgments of God, How deep are His wisdom and knowledge.”

To me God’s inscrutableness is like this. Nobody knows us as well as God does. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows exactly what is best for our life. God knows everything we are going through. God knows our temptations, our failures, our disappointments, our trials, our victories, our joys, our laughter, our thankfulness.

Sometimes when people are going through a hard time, you’ll hear them say, “God knows what I’m going to do now!” What they are actually saying is that they haven’t got a clue what they are going to do now because something bad has happened. That’s desperately sad. That the phrase ‘God knows’ has become equated with the fear that nobody can help! Say the phrase ‘God knows’ without faith in your heart and it is a cry of futility.

But proclaim 'God knows!’ with faith in your heart and it becomes a song of hope! God alone can truly judge the pros and cons of any situation. What looks to us to be a place of desperation, can be, through the eyes of faith, a great opportunity to encounter the grace of God.

In His life Christ demonstrated that 'God knows'. He was the healer. His touch bought peace. He was the One who forgave, even those who struggled to forgive themselves. He was the One who said to people, ‘Look for you this is right and for you this is wrong”.

He could do that because He knew people’s hearts and would sometimes speak a rebuke for their shallowness, at other times a great word of encouragement. The gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all point us to the God who knows.

The Acts of the Apostles, point us to the God who knows how to build a Church. The letters of Paul and Peter and John and all the others point us to how faith works out in given situations. The book of Revelation goes further and points us to the God who knows how it all turns out in the end!  

The New Testament witness to an egocentric world which seeks to dethrone God is that we are fools to think that our understanding of God is anything compared to the depth of God’s knowledge of us. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgments”… The Majesty of God, the Mastery of God’s inscrutable knowledge… and finally mystery…

The Mystery of God’s Ways “How unsearchable” proclaims Paul “are His ways!”

Sometimes theologians give Paul a hard time. Accuse him of being dogmatic or judgmental. But that’s not the Paul who comes across in this verse. In the book of Romans Paul writes on the great themes of the law of God and of the grace revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Then he reaches the eleventh chapter and it’s as though he must pause and take a breath, as though he is totally aware of the enormity of his task, as though he knows that his words are an imperfect vehicle to truly convey the depth of God’s love towards us.

I saw a picture in a National Geographic magazine of people walking around the rim of a large still active volcano. They looked small, like little ants on the edge, gazing down into this pool of molten rock and heat, shielding their eyes as they looked over. They had climbed so far, but now all they could do was gaze in wonder at an environment they could never penetrate.

So, Paul, having used all his impressive skills to penetrate the mystery of God and explain the glorious gospel of salvation, in chapter eleven pauses at the rim; “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways .“

The depth of God! If this be the God we are encountering during worship, if this be the God who claims the love of our lives, then how foolish we are to think that we can solve our problems without reference to God's presence.

 How foolish we are when we refuse to abandon ourselves to God's love. Such an awesome God can handle whatever we throw at Him. Such an awesome God is one we can trust to hold us. God has revealed God’s love through Jesus Christ. God sends love to be received in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. 

 I invite us today to trust in the depth of God’s love to meet the deepest needs of our lives. Amen!

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

August 13, 2023 "Burning Lamps"

Readings; Psalm 66:8-20, 1 Peter 3:13-22, John 14:15-21, Acts 20:7-12
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, August 13, 2023

Our Bible reading from the Acts of the Apostles spoke of Paul's last visit to Troas. Come with me and picture the scene on that day. It's late. We're in an upstairs room, gathered to here the words of a great man, a great preacher. We're all crammed together, like sardines, because he's going away tomorrow and we'll never have a chance to hear him again. As he speaks we are hanging on every word.

Sitting on the window sill is John Smiths son Jimmy.  The preachers been talking for a while. It's late. Jimmy is starting to nod off.  In fact he literally 'Falls asleep', falls out of the upstairs window onto the ground.  "Oh No!" shouts somebody "Jimmy just fell out the window!"

There is a great commotion as we all push and shove down a narrow flight of stairs out into the street of the town.  At this late hour lights start going on in the surrounding homes as people are awakened by our commotion. Mrs. Smith runs over to where Jimmy lies, picks up his head.. he's not breathing... there's no pulse. It can't be. He's dead?  A silence descends on us all as a couple of the guys try and offer help. We stand around like dummies in a shop window.

Then the preacher makes his way through the crowd.  He hadn't rushed down stairs like the rest of us.  He beckons the guys trying to revive Jimmy out of the way and throws himself down on the ground next to Jimmy's corpse and hugs him.  You don't know what to do.  It's embarrassing.  Visiting preachers don't usually embrace corpses. 'Don't worry', He smiles as he gets to his feet, 'He's still alive'.

The lad opens his eyes, sits up, looks around and gives the kind of look that says, "What am I doing down here, why are you all staring at me, and am I grounded for this?" We run back up stairs, some dumfounded, some talking... "He can't really have been dead". "He was y'know, I felt for a pulse..."

We share together in broken bread and then settle down to listen to what the speaker has to say.  This time nobody drops off to sleep, but everybody is encouraged and comforted and when we do finally leave it is with a great sense of peace, joy and wonderment.

Such is a similar scenario to what  took place when the apostle Paul visited Troas.  It's one of the few pictures in Scripture of what happened when Christians in the early church met for worship.  Apart from warning about the dangers of falling asleep during the sermon, it has a whole lot to teach us about what Christian worship could be like. One of the most illuminating verses in the passage comes at Acts 20, verse 8. "Many lamps were burning in the upstairs room."

I'm sure it was literally true, they would need lamps because it was dark.  But you can also interpret this verse in a spiritual sense.  In Troas many peoples hearts were burning with the desire to serve and follow Jesus Christ, catching fire under the influence of the Holy Spirit.  It is in that spiritual sense I'd like to think on those words today, "Many lamps were burning", for many hearts were hungry for God to speak.

The result of those burning lamps was worship that had a dynamic intensity.  Theologian, Karl Barth, a man of great depth and intellect, penned these challenging words. "Christian worship is the most momentous, the most urgent, the most glorious action that can take place in human life."  I'm not the only one who has been in services where the most momentous thing that has happened has been if the pastor has tripped on the steps or someone has dropped a hymnbook!

Christian worship is meant to be dynamic.  Whether or not it is depends on how brightly the light of Christ burns in our hearts.  Many lamps were burning in the upstairs room.   But what set those people alight? Their worship was focused on the great drama of crucifixion and resurrection. At the center of any Christian worship service must be a profound appreciation of the death of Jesus Christ and his subsequent resurrection to life. It is that experience of death being overcome by life that lies at the heart of the gospel message.

It was a message that was vividly demonstrated by Paul's revival of Eutychus, the young man who fell out of the window.  It is a message reinforced time and time again in the New Testament.  Think, for example, of the Fathers words over the prodigal son who returned home.  "He was dead, but now he's alive, Lost but now he's found".

Every year, till he passed away, I received a Christmas Card from Rev Eric Evans, a retired Welsh Presbyterian minister and ex-Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Wales, who, after he had retired, sometimes attended the church I was nurtured in, that of Moreton Presbyterian in Merseyside, England.  

As a young person in that church, we always loved it when Eric preached.  He was a fiery preacher.  He'd shout when he was excited. He'd bang on the bible and wake up the little old ladies who had fallen asleep on the back rows.  He had a few phrases that always let you know when a good story was coming, usually something along the lines of, "I remember a time when I was driving my car to Cardiff".

When I received a call to the ministry Eric was delighted.  He  used to write me encouraging letters at college.  In one of them, after I'd preached at Hoylake, (the church where he ministered for a number of years)  he wrote;

"Adrian, if I had one word of advice for you it would be this. Preach often on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  There are many things you can talk about, all sorts of interesting subjects you can preach about, but only the message of the crucifixion and the resurrection can bring a person from death to life and out of darkness into the light.  Your calling is not to entertain people with fine words but to set them on fire with the Holy Spirit."

One thing that can set our worship alive is to have that individual appreciation of what Jesus Christ has done for us.  He died for us and was raised for us and because of God's grace we may experience salvation.
 
I find it fascinating to attend events where people get really excited about their salvation in Christ.  Because, after all, remember I am British. And we're bred not to be excited about anything except for football matches and cricket games. The 'stiff upper lip' and keeping your feelings to yourself, they're one of the few things the British could beat the world at if only they'd make it an Olympic Sport.

But; unless you have a bit of the Lord's fire in your life, it is nigh on impossible to really worship Him. What are we going to sing about if all those hymns about salvation are outside our experience? How can we be excited about prayer if we've decided we are not the praying type?  How can we draw near to God if we have intellectually distanced our self from the personal, Parent God of Scripture who reveals God's love to us in Jesus Christ?

There were many lamps burning in the upstairs room. Many hearts were excited about their faith and coming to worship in expectancy. What is burning in our heart this day? What are the burning concerns that we have brought to this time of worship? What burns in us?

Could be fear. "What is the world coming to. How can I cope with this?" Could be complacency. "I'm all right. I don't need a Savior. "Could be unbelief. "Don't care what any preacher says.  I'm going to do my own thing." Could be desire. "I want this, I want that and unless I get it I will never be satisfied"

What burns within us? We have an idea what we should be thinking about in church. We know, maybe, why we should come to church. But what really burns in us? What do we really want? The answer we give will determine how dynamic and momentous our worship is!

Eutychus, in our bible reading, wasn't burning with much desire, except to go to sleep.  He couldn't stay awake.  He fell out of the window.  He was dead when they got downstairs. I know people fall asleep sometimes in church.  I can see you all from the pulpit. So, listen, if your feeling sleepy, get out of the pew and sit in the window ledge.  Then think about what happened to Eutychus and I guarantee you won't find it so easy to snooze.

Ephesians 5:15 has these words, which maybe Paul spoke to Eutychus. "Awake sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you."  Eutychus woke up. Eutychus rose from death. Eutychus knew that Christ's light shone on him, and that night many lamps were burning in the upstairs room.

Jesus said, "You are like light for the whole world. Your light must shine before people so that they will see the good things you do and Praise your Father in heaven." There is a way to be light in a dark world.  God says so.  The light is rekindled through worship.  As the Westminster Catechism puts it, "The chief end of people is to glorify God and enjoy God for ever.

There were many lamps burning in the upstairs room, because there had been many lamps burning throughout the past week.  At times maybe they flickered.  Some may even have gone out altogether.  Some were still waiting to be lit. But when the people of God came together with their minds set on worship, hearts were set on fire to serve the Lord.

Praise God we have been granted another opportunity to rekindle our faith.  Let us pray that God's Spirit may renew our lives and that His Presence may be our guide throughout the days that lie ahead. May we leave this place with a desire to serve others in Jesus name. May the light of Christ burn in us today!

Recall what happened that day in Troas.
Death was turned to life.
Darkness to light.
Why?
Because…

"There were many lamps burning in the upstairs room."

AMEN

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.