I
Corinthians 2:1-12
Last month the earth lost, and
heaven gained, a man of great gifts and insights, a tremendous pastor, eloquent
preacher, and faithful disciple of Jesus: Robert Watts Thornburg, who was Dean
of Marsh Chapel at Boston University for many years. When news of his death reached the people who
had been touched by his life, some of us wrote back and forth a little bit. One reflection came from a classmate of mine,
both in college and seminary. She wrote
this:
God
does ask to be loved with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. We are not to leave our brains in the parking
lot when we come to church. When Paul
speaks about not emphasizing human wisdom, he is not denying its importance,
but warning about its limitations, “that
your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” [I
Corinthians 2:5]
Human beings have tried, as long as
we have been around, to understand God.
There are some things about creation itself that point out some of God’s
attributes. Paul makes a lot of that in
his letter to the Romans, where he says that anyone who tries should be able to
figure out at least a few things.
“For what can be known about God is
plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world
his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been
understood and seen through the things he has made.” [Romans 1:19-20]
It’s
the same outlook that’s expressed in the familiar hymn:
“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed,
Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee,
‘How great thou art!
How great thou art!’
Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to thee,
‘How great thou art!
How great thou art!’”
In
traditional philosophy, it’s held that anyone should be able to identify these
three main points: God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent – everywhere,
all-knowing, and all-powerful.
That’s all well and good, to a
point. Think it over, though, and you’ll
realize that those three categories can be problematic. If God is everywhere, does that imply a
physical presence; or does it mean God and the world are alike in some
way? And if God knows everything, what
does that do to human freedom? If God
knows our choices even before we make them, do we really make those choices or
are they inevitable? So, then, how far are we responsible for the
consequences? (Two down, one to
go.) As far as being all-powerful, the
great theologian George Carlin used to do a routine about how when he was in
elementary school and the priest came to teach the weekly religion class, he
would ask questions like, “Hey, Father!
If God is all-powerful, can he make a rock so big that he himself cannot
lift it?”
Human reason is a precious gift from
God but it is human. It has its
limitations. I like to think of it in
terms of football. When I see the
Broncos or the Seahawks roll onto the field, there are some things I can easily
know about them. I can tell that they
are football players. I can see which
team they play for, and read their names and numbers on the backs of their
jerseys. I can see that they are
powerful and fast. If I am down on the
field or if a camera is aimed at them I can see by their eyes that their minds
are focused. I can put all of this
together and safely say that I don’t want to face off against any of them at
the line of scrimmage – I don’t care how much padding I may be wearing. All of that I know with my head, as would any
reasonable human being. To push the
analogy further, if I have some experience of the game, I will know what kind
of play I could probably expect when they go into action based on the way
they’re lined up; if it’s third and twenty and they send in their kicker, I
will look for a field goal attempt.
Notice, though, that I said, “Probably”. There is always some element of doubt, some
possibility that at the last second the quarterback will call a different
play. It may be unlikely. It may make no sense at all. But it could happen.
God is free to do anything. The Bible teaches that when Moses met God at
the burning bush, he tried to pin God down at least a little bit by getting a
name, and was rebuffed.
“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.’” [Exodus
3:13-14]
Just
to add another layer to that, the Hebrew can also be translated “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE”, so we don’t
even know for sure what the ambiguous answer really was. When Job tried to figure out the reason for
his suffering, and for all the pain of the world while he was at it, God showed
up and spoke to him from a whirlwind, and said,
“‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without
knowledge? Gird up your loins
like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.’
‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding. Who
determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who
laid its cornerstone when the
morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?’” [Job
38:2-3]
Then
for the next four chapters Job is reminded of everything he does not know and
cannot explain, until he pretty much gives up.
“I have uttered what I did not
understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will
question you, and you declare to me.’ I
had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.” [Job
42:3-5]
That
is where real wisdom began for him, and what it is for us.
God does not just want us to know about him. God wants us to know him. The goal of it all
is to be in relationship, a living and growing relationship between ourselves
and our Creator.
“As it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us
through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” [I Corinthians 2:9-10]
That
is the kind of deep communion that God came to us in Jesus to establish and to
secure, so that when we face all the questions that life puts in front of us,
and when we honestly say that they baffle us sometimes, it’s good to realize
that “faith might rest not on human
wisdom but on the power of God.” [I Corinthians 2:5] We are called to love God, as we are loved,
entirely: with heart and soul and mind and strength, so that when we even find
ourselves questioning God’s ways, then even our faith (which is the trust in
your heart, not the doctrines in your head) speaks out and says there’s more to
it all than we will ever know and for now it is enough to know that God is
love.
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