PROVERBS 25.2-10 AN EXPOSITION FOR
THE 14th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Year C Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from Almighty God – the Father, the Son @and the Holy Spirit. The reading we will look at more closely this morning is from Proverbs 25, where we read that *“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out”*** * * When my grandmother died on a cold February day in 1939, four children were left without a mother and a young Lutheran pastor was left without the beloved Caribbean islander wife who had helped him raise those children over the past fourteen years. At her funeral, the Bible verse printed out was from Isaiah 45 (15) *“Verily, thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour”.* Can you think of a time when you felt as though God had hidden things from you, or hidden Himself from you? Have you ever asked, with the Psalmist, *‘How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever?’ (Psalm 89.46). *Or asked God, as in Psalm 44:* ‘Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?’* For as long as most people have known God, His way of concealing things from us has been one of the most prominent and perplexing things about Him. Unlike other gods, the biblical God allows no “graven images” - no idols of Himself. His temples, in contrast to those of other gods, were empty places that served to highlight His invisibility. As St. Paul describes Him, He is the *“King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God…”* (1 Tim. 1.17). Yet, it was not always thus. When God first created us, and before we disobeyed Him, hearing God coming to meet His people in the garden of Eden was a familiar sound (Genesis 3.8). But not after we contaminated ourselves with sin. Thereafter, any approach to us from God, any touch from God that we humans could survive, was an act of great condescension and mercy. Furthermore, God would keep His distance from us, preferring to have us trust in His Word rather than be confronted with His presence and overwhelmed. In fact, so careful was God not to overwhelm us, that when He did appear in the flesh and walk among us, it was in the form of a man that we human beings despised, rejected and crucified. But this God-in-the-flesh – Jesus Christ's identity as God was visible during an earthly ministry when His divine nature was revealed by signs, wonders and miracles. The Bible tells us poignantly that,* **‘He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God’* (John 1.11-12). As St. John describes this, *‘No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known’* (1 John 1.18). Once God’s Son had finished His work by dying to pay for human sin, rising from and dead and visibly ascending into heaven in front of many eye-witnesses, the face of God was again hidden from human eyes and His ways again became known only through inspired writings that recorded God’s word in which we were to put our trust. So God and His ways were once more “hidden” – so to speak. But that fact was never intended to prevent us from having a relationship with God. There is no reason for us not to have a relationship with God, just because He hides some things from us. For, as Jesus said after He rose from His grave alive, *“Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe”* (John 20.29). We are blessed when we trust in God through the divine power that is behind the written revelation about Him – the very power of His Holy Spirit who inspired those words. And beyond faith we can even have joy in God and love for God through Christ and because of what He has done. St. Peter wrote like this about God. ‘*Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,*** * 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls’. (1 Peter 1.8-9).*** The fact that some things about God are hidden us may challenge faith, but it should not make faith impossible. Nor does it in many cases. For example, the Bible Studies that I have led for Pittsburgh’s blind community come to mind. These are people who don’t have a problem with things about God being hidden! They don't have a problem with angels being invisible, Heaven being invisible, all evidence of God's existence being invisible to them – because, as visually handicapped people, everything is invisible to them. Their faith always reminds me of how foolish atheists are to claim that we believers should be ashamed of our God because He is normally not visible. They say “they don't see the evidence of God” and the burden of proof is with us to show that God is real. Jesus said, *“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” *(John 3.8). Invisibility is part of the realm of faith, but, having said that, faith must “take a number”, because it is but one of countless invisible realities that we live with every day and believe in, at times staking our lives upon, despite not being visible to our eyes. How many natural (and man-made) phenomena are invisible to you, yet you don't doubt their existence? We use wireless internet – and that signal, like other man-made television, radio and other waves, criss-crossing all over us all the time is invisible. Add to that all natural cosmic radiation and waves and you have a huge amount of reality that is invisible. Now, what about all those things that are too small to see the electrons and protons of atomic physics without which our life would be impossible? Their nature, in addition to being invisible, is largely theoretical! And how many historical realities are invisible to you? Did you see the local water authority test your drinking water for safety before you poured yourself a glass? How do you know it's safe? And, looking further back, do you see Alexander the Great conquering his vast empire. Do you see America's founding father planning to build a new nation? Were you there to “see” anything that took place before the invention of the photograph? Are you sure the great-great Aunt you had really existed, since you have never seen her? Yes - it is absurd to doubt facts of history that are “invisible”. By the same token, it is absurd to waste one nano-second doubting the realities of God, let alone jeopardize your eternal salvation, just because God hides things from us at the moment. Instead of doubting God, because of some temporary invisibility on His part, or because He has hidden some things from us, we should be thanking God that He sent His Son to be our Redeemer and Savior. For ‘*He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” *(Colossians 1.15-16). Proverbs 25, tells us that *“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out”.* You don’t have to be a king to do it, but it would be a glorious thing for you and I to search out what Moses meant when he wrote: *‘what does the LORD** your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,*** * 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?*** * 14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.*** * 15 Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day’ *Deut 10.12-15). – in Christ – Amen. and the peace from God that surpasses human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, unto everlasting life – Amen.** -- The Revd Dr Jonathan Naumann, Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church & School 1261 Pennsylvania Avenue, Oakmont, PA 15139-1195 Internet site: redeemer-oakmont.org e-mail: [email protected] Tel. (412) 828-9323 Ext. 10 Cell. (412) 983-9922 The Manse 782 15th Street Oakmont, PA 15139 Informal blog: engelein.blogspot.com
