Rob Tennant, HillSong
Church, Chapel Hill, NC
Sunday, January 8,
2017
I began 2017 by inviting the
church to join me on a quest. We seek to
see God. Just as an iceberg looks
impressive, and yet we only see above the surface all the while knowing there
is much more beneath, so then, God is that much more amazing. Yet for all the wonders we know of God, there
is much more we do not know.
Together, we go into this year seeking to know
more of God. We are made to know
God. Each one of us was created by God
intentionally. God made us to be in
relationship with him. Our quest, this
morning, brings us to a man who got to know more of God than he bargained
for. In fact, he wasn’t even looking as
we are and yet he saw more of God than most ever do.
Turn with me to the book of Job.
Job
13:3
Job 23:3-7New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find
him,
that I might come even to his dwelling!
4 I would lay my case before him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn what he would answer me,
and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; but he would give heed to me.
7 There an upright person could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.
that I might come even to his dwelling!
4 I would lay my case before him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would learn what he would answer me,
and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; but he would give heed to me.
7 There an upright person could reason with him,
and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.
Job 38:4-7New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
4 “Where were you when I laid the
foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings[a] shouted for joy?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings[a] shouted for joy?
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the
clouds,
so that a flood of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,[a]
or given understanding to the mind?[b]
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38 when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods cling together?
so that a flood of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightnings, so that they may go
and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,[a]
or given understanding to the mind?[b]
37 Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38 when the dust runs into a mass
and the clods cling together?
39 “Can you hunt the prey for the
lion,
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens,
or lie in wait in their covert?
41 Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God,
and wander about for lack of food?
or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40 when they crouch in their dens,
or lie in wait in their covert?
41 Who provides for the raven its prey,
when its young ones cry to God,
and wander about for lack of food?
There is a gorilla named Koko who learned signed language.[i] She was able to communicate complicated
concepts. Think about how remarkable
this is: an animal, not human, having a real conversation with humans.
However, an earthquake hit scaring the poor
primate half to death. She had never
been taught the word for earthquake. All
she could say, that is ‘sign’, is “Floor.
Big bite.” I think Koko the
gorilla is to be appreciated and even admired.
Using what vocabulary and concepts she did have, she tried to say what
happened and how it made her feel; obviously terrified. She couldn’t possibly know things about
tectonic plates or seismographs. She
gets high marks for saying what she knew even though we know an earth quake is
more than the floor taking a bite out of us, however apt the metaphor may be.
We are like Koko when we try to describe
God. We lack the words and the
experience. Still, we try. With our insufficient vocabulary, we speak
about God and attempt to know God because God created us for relationship with
Him. From my reading of scripture to my
study of the history of Christian theology to my own logical conclusions to
longings deep within my soul, I am thoroughly convinced that God wants
relationship with us and wants us to reach to Him.
Even pronouns are insufficient. God is Him.
Some might be upset if I said God was “her,” but either pronoun fits and
at the same time falls short. For
tradition’s sake, when pronouns are necessary, I will use the male, but rest
assured. I don’t think God is male.
As I have talked to others about this launch
into 2017 – a quest to see more of God that we might be drawn closer to God and
also grow in our ability to speak about God and for God in the world – I appreciated
counsel I have received. More than one
person has reminded me – we only see of God what God chooses to reveal. One book in the Bible is called “Revelation,”
but the content of the entire Bible is what God chose to reveal. Jesus is God revealed in human flesh. In upcoming weeks, we’ll look at bits from
Jesus’ life and see what we can learn about God. We’ll probe, inch by inch, beneath the
iceberg’s surface. This morning we do
the same following what is revealed in the book of Job.
In the beginning of the book, Job’s life is
ideal. His 10 children – 7 sons and 3
daughters are young adults who all get along with each other. They dine in one another’s homes. And Job oversees it all. Chapter 1 verse 5 says Job makes a point of
sacrificing on behalf of his children in case they have sinned and cursed God
in their hearts.
I get a sense that from the outset, the book
of Job presents God as a distant, punishing deity Job appeases both for himself
(by not sinning) and for his children (by offering sacrifices on their behalf). God holds Job in high esteem, but I don’t get
the sense that Job has a prayer relationship with God. God is impersonal.
Then things fall apart. Satan and God talk and God allows Satan to
harm Job and wreck Job’s life in order to prove Job’s righteousness. After Satan kills Job’s children and afflict
Job’s health, chapters 3-37 are commentary.
Job talks about his plight with his three friends. The friends think Job’s problems are God’s
punishments for sins Job must have committed. Job insists he is innocent and repeatedly
demands an audience with God.
We see in the opening verses a comfortable Job
who is happy with life and happy with keeping God distant and appeased. That placid Job is contrasted with the
agitated Job who occupies the central portion of the book. The agitated Job is much more motivated to have
a personal encounter with God. The
agitated Job wants to have a face-to-face with God and to give God a piece of
mind.
Various theological perspectives led me to think
of Job in terms of contrast – placid, comfortable Job v. agitated, insistent
Job. First, the great reformer John
Calvin from whom we get the term ‘Calvinism.’
Calvin believed that God directs everything in life – even our
misery. In his most famous work, ‘Calvin’s
Institutes,’ he writes, “Whether poverty or exile or prison or insult or
disease or bereavement, or anything like [these things] torture us, we must
think that none of these things happen by the will and providence of God.”[ii] This view accord with the theology of
Job. Job would need to sacrifice to a
God like this because he would fear this God’s discipline upon his
children. Job’s friends appeal to this
retributive theology when they urge Job to confess his sin and thereby
alleviate, or at least understand his suffering.
Against is a 20th century theology
that has appeared at various times in church history. The 20th century version,
represented by Clark Pinnock is called open theism.[iii] Open theists believe that God, as an act of
supreme love, has created beings – humans – who are capable of choosing to love
God. God is affected, we might even say
changed, by the way his created being act toward him. Open theists believe that God knows all that
can be known. However, since the future
hasn’t happened yet, it cannot yet be known.
Thus God doesn’t know the future.
Calvin severely limited human free will. What happens is predetermined by a sovereign
God. Pinnock and other open theists limit
God’s sovereignty. I don’t believe
either position can be defended with certainty.
I don’t know all that God knows.
I don’t know if it is possible that there are things God doesn’t
know. I find both positions
uncomfortable. I am uneasy about the
thought that my very words and ideas were predetermined by a sovereign God who
micromanages the universe. And I am
equally unsettled by the thought that there are limits on God’s power and
knowledge.
Job dealt with the tension between a distant
punishing God and the frustrated desire to get up close and personal with that
God. Calvin presented an all-knowing,
all-controlling God and open theists respond with a God who is in process and
experiences new things. A third contrast
I found comes between a wholly other God v. a familiar and close God.
In the book Reaching for the invisible God, Philip Yancey shares his experience
in Russia shortly after communism fell in the early 90’s. He went with a Russian Orthodox priest to
visit prisoners.[iv] One of the others in their party requested
that the Orthodox priest have prayer with the inmates. The priest brought out an icon. He donned an elaborate prayer outfit
involving gold crosses and other vestments.
He went through a complex ritual.
I have visited people in prison.
When it’s time for prayer, I and the inmate each bowed our heads and
prayed. That’s too simple and too cozy
for the Orthodox priest Yancey described.
For that priest, God is ‘wholly other.’
Conversation with God is not like conversation with another person and
it should not be approached that way.
Contrast this with the way many popular
American praise songs approach God.
Yancey quotes from Chris Tomlin’s song “In the Secret.” “I want to know you more/I want to touch
you/I want to see your face.” It is a
very intimate reaching for God. Yancey
observes and I have observed this too, that some praise songs are
indistinguishable from teen-aged romance songs. Just insert God’s name for the name of the
intended lover.[v] One of my seminary friends often joked that
these are “Jesus-is-my-boyfriend” songs.
Yancey goes on to remark, “Nowhere in the Bible do I find a promise that
we will touch God or see his face.”[vi]
Which is true?
Is God so removed that like Job the best we can do is offer sacrifices? Or find a priest who will don gold crosses
and kiss them in elaborate rituals as he prays on our behalf because God is
unapproachable? Or is the relationship
to which God invites us so intimate, we dare to liken it to romance?
What has been your own experience? How have you experienced God as all-knowing,
all-powerful ‘wholly other’ who inspires and awe and fear? How have you
experienced God as close, personal relation?
What would the word be?
Father? Friend? Disembodied Spirit that dwells within?
“Oh that I might find him,” Job lamented in
chapter 23. “That I might even come to
his dwelling.” He knew the theology that
ran through the Old Testament beginning with Moses. Anyone who sees God will die. Job knew this. His wife, as a wrought with grief as him,
told him to “curse God and die” (2:9).
She spoke out of her pain, not out of malice. But Job wouldn’t take that easy route. He would accept death, but he wanted a word
with God first. Though he lived in an
era dominated by the Calvinist-type of Sovereignty of God theology which the
Orthodox priest would also appreciate, Job broke the paradigm by demanding an
appointment with God. Only the select
few – Abraham, Moses, the real heavyweights – came that close to God. Job did not care. He would not rest until he had his audience.
God gave Job what he asked for but it didn’t
happen as Job thought it might. Remember
his self-assurance? He said, “An upright
person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.”
When God came to Job, it says God spoke out of
a whirlwind. Have you ever been in a
tornado? I haven’t and don’t want to
be. And yet, I propose that we do what
Job tried to do – see God and speak directly to God. I don’t know if we are like the Orthodox
priest or like one of today’s praise song writers. God came to Job in the whirlwind, but never
ever answered a single one of Job’s questions.
Remember, as hard as we look, we only get to see what God chooses to
reveal.
“Where were you, when I laid the foundation of
the earth?” God asks Job, and us. Yes, God is wholly other. No, we weren’t there when God, with tender
care, formed every creature, made the earth in a way that it truly is
good. But in the end, Job was found to
be righteous. It wasn’t because of his
sacrifices. He was, I believe, because
he sought God.
If out of our brokenness, out of our
confusion, out of our pain, out of our curiosity we seek God, here is what we
will find. We will find that God will
not give us everything we ask for. God
will not fix everything the way we think it ought to be fixed. God will give us what God gave Job; not in
the way it was given to Job. Each
person’s encounter with God is unique.
But God will do for each person who seeks Him, what He did for Job. God will give us God’s very self.
“Would God contend with me in the greatness of
his power? No. But God would listen to me.”
When we explore beneath the surface and begin
to see a bit more of God we discover that God created us to be in relationship
with Him. And when we call out Him, God
hears us.
AMEN
[i]
Student’s Life Application Bible (1997), Tyndale House Publishers, p.984.
[ii]
John Calvin, Institutes, Book 3,
Chapter VIII, section II.
[iii]
C. Pinnock (2003), chapter 6 in the book Alister
E. McGrath & Evangelical Theology, edited by Sung Wook Chung,
Paternoster Press (UK), p.147-164.
[iv]
P. Yancey (2000), Reaching for the
Invisible God, Zondervan books (Grand Rapids), p.26.
[v]
Ibid, p.31.
[vi]
Ibid, p.32.
No comments:
Post a Comment