“Into the Depths of God”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. David McMaster
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Text: 1 Corinthians 2:1-13
Author, Calvin Miller, tells of trip that he and his family took to the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland. Like all visitors to the reef he said that, at first, he was overwhelmed, standing ankle deep in water 70-90 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. He likened the experience to that which Peter must have felt when he walked on the Sea of Galilee.
But once that deep wonder had passed, I remembered why I had made the trip. I was with my wife and son. My son had come to scuba dive while my wife and I snorkelled. Snorkelling is a pastime more than a sport, for while my son plunged deeply beneath clear waters to bury himself in the wonder of the mysterious ocean depths, my wife and I, wearing masks floated on the surface facedown. In some ways what we were all seeing looked the same. But my wife and I sunburned our backs in our surface study of the reef, while our son plumbed its wonders.
Miller spoke of how his son had spent many years learning to go deep. Going deep cannot be achieved instantly, upon the first dive. The equalizing pressure in the head and facial sinuses must be developed gradually. Going deep can be dangerous, even fatal. But going deep enables his son to see incredible things. “Ask me if I've been there, and I will hastily answer yes. So will my son. However, the truth is that the content of our experience was greatly different. We will both spend the rest of our lives talking about that experience and our enthusiasm will always be exuberant. But only our son really knew the reef; only he understood the issue of depth.”
I thought of Miller's story this week as I was reading St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians. In chapter 2, I came across these words, “for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” It is in a chapter that sets forth a number of contrasts in which Paul distinguishes between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God but also between the more concrete gospel message that he had delivered to the Corinthian people and the depths of God that can be plumbed by those who move beyond mere spiritual milk to real, spiritual food (cf. 2:2; 3:1, 2). It is almost as if he says that there are different levels in the Christian life, different levels in which we can view God, we can snorkel around and look at God from the surface, or we can dive deep and plumb untold mysteries.
Calvin Miller extrapolated from that and said that it seemed to him that much of Christianity is a conversation between snorkellers talking to each other about scuba-type experiences. “If mere conversation or study groups were the path to depth experience, regardless of how beneficial those may be, the Church would be deep indeed.” But, he says, and this is important, “it is those who experience real devotion; not those who philosophize and chatter who arrive at lives of real power.” He is encouraging us to get away from the surface experience of God, the snorkelling, and begin to go deep, put on the scuba gear and dive in to the depths of God through devotion and prayer.
That is a difficult thing in our environment because we live in the midst of a Christianity that barely values those things. I have been a minister now for 30 years and have interacted with many Christians throughout that time and, I hate to say it, but I do not think that prayer and spirituality are highly valued. This is true even when it comes to ministers, if you were to take a group of Christians and ask them what sort of things they look for in a minister, spirituality would not be something frequently found among the answers. You would hear things such as I like a great preacher, or I like a great visionary, a great manager, ability to work with people and committees, a great fund raiser, things like that, but spirituality? In fact, sometimes, I have had the distinct impression that some consider a minister spending time in prayer as non-productive time. And yet, I have always wondered, when it comes to a time of needing counsel, when it comes to a time of great illness, when it comes to a time of lying on a death bed, what does a congregant want, a person who knows a little bit about God, or a person who knows and walks with God; a person who snorkels on the surface, or one who plumbs the depths, or do we want both practical and spiritual?
Then consider our own lives as a Christian, do we really value devotion and prayer in our lives? Or are those things we would like to do when we get a bit of time? Perhaps, when the children leave home or in retirement? “When I get time, we tell ourselves, then I'll work on those things, then I'll go and buy some scuba gear.”
I grew up spending significant parts of my summer at my grandmother's, or at my aunt's home in a fishing village in N.I. On sunny days, I can remember making the trek with a cousin and friend down the wee lane to the beach. We could spend hour upon hour investigating and playing at the rocks on the shore when the tide was out. We caught spricks, our name for small fish sometimes called Sticklebacks. In the rock pools we could also find sea urchins, wilks, limpets, crabs, eels, various forms of plant life, all sorts of things. There were countless things there to keep a young mind occupied.
But when one thinks of it, exploring the depths of a rock pool is nothing like exploring the depth of the ocean. And floating around the surface of the Christian life is nothing like exploring the depths of the ocean of God. And this is what Paul is pointing us to in 1 Cor. 2. He is pointing us to deep things, secret things, the mysteries of God, things of the Spirit. Apparently, there is a fuller experience of God available to the Christian, a great spiritual life, in which we can plumb what no worldly eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart comprehended.
But that kind of spiritual life requires diving deep. It requires a willingness to expand our horizons, to look past the rocks to the seas beyond. Sometimes, we don't want to do that because we fear the depths. Sometimes, we don't want to do that because we are so wrapped up in the life in the rock pools and birdbaths of life that we can't see any further. But beyond, there are vast, unexplored oceans where by his Spirit, we can encounter the power of God (vv.10-12).
It is not easy for just as Calvin Miller's son had to practice with his scuba gear over and over before he could dive deep, so Christians must practice devotion and prayer in order to go deep into God. We need to start off with shallow dives and gradually work up to the deeper levels.
I think that the difficulty was the same as that experienced by Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love. In that book, she details how after a personal crisis, she had to take time for herself, eating herself silly in Italy, praying and meditating in an Ashram in India, and then learning about love through a guru in Indonesia. It is not a Christian discipline that she engages in India, but she spoke of how difficult it was to quieten the mind down before god. She would enter into prayer or meditation and all she would think about was her own broken relationships and how screwed up her life was. In her own inimitable style, she writes, “It is getting embarrassing, to be quite honest, I mean - here I am in this sacred place of study in the middle of India, and all I can think about is my ex-boyfriend? What am I, in eighth grade?”
I know myself, how difficult it is to un-clutter one's mind. I recall a time that I was invited to a denominational prayer retreat. When I got there, someone set before us as a group what it was we should do. We were invited to find quiet place and go off and pray. I went and my life had been so busy that all I could do was unpack all the stuff that I had been doing. For two hours I sat there. Then went back to join the group. We were asked how prayer had gone, the closest that I got to prayer was the ten minute nap that I had while trying to un-clutter my mind.
Yet, Jesus knew and modelled the value of prayer and staying close to God. Throughout the Gospels, after busy days on the mission field, we read of him going off to a quiet place to meet with his Father. In solitude, he encountered the depths. Quiet is important. The psalmist writes, “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him (Ps.62:1; 5).” Another said, >B>“Be still, and know that I am God (Ps.46:10).” Being still before God is something that we need to cultivate if we are going to investigate the depths of God. It is not easy in the midst of cluttered and busy lives. We are not used to silence in today's world. It will take time to get used to finding that place and its benefits.
Brennan Manning writes of an executive who went to a desert father, a hermit, and complained about frustration in prayer, flawed virtue, and failed relationships. The hermit went into his cave and came out with a basin and a pitcher of water. As he poured the water into the container the water splashed around and was turbulent. Finally it began to settle and became smooth and placid. “That is the way it is when you live constantly in the midst of others,” said the hermit. “You do not see yourself as you really are because of all the confusion and disturbance of other stuff in your life.” It takes time for the water to settle. Coming to interior stillness requires waiting. Any attempt to hasten the process only stirs up the water anew.
Generally what that means is that plunging into the depths involve spending the precious commodity we know as time. In recent years we have heard a lot about spiritual programmes that emphasize how little time we can spend with God. There are programs that champion brevity, Seven Minutes with God. The Five Minute Devotional etc. etc. However, helpful these might be to some of us, those things are but helping us in the rock pools, and the birdbaths, and with floating around the surface of spiritual things. If we want to explore the depths, if we want to explore the depths of God, we need to take time. Some of you will say, “But Pastor I don't have time.” But we find it for hockey games, and movies, and theatre, and television, and reading, and … could some of that time possibly be given to God? For it is in the stillness that we begin to plumb the depths, to delve into what no earthly eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor mind conceived. It is only then that we will experience God at a new and deeper level. It is only then that we will find real, lasting joy in the midst of the storm, or see the mysteries of God and the beauties of the age to come. The apostle Paul is telling us that there is so much more to see.
In the film, Saving Private Ryan, a squad of GIs, led by actor Tom Hanks, undertakes a daring mission to find Private Ryan whose three brothers have already been killed in WWII. They were to take him home. The rescuers gripe about their assignment, insult the general who ordered it, and fight skirmishes with Nazis behind enemy lines. Several of them die on the quixotic mission. At the very end of the movie, Private Ryan, the main object of all their exploits, comes across the captain (Tom Hanks) lying mortally wounded. Looking around him at the devastation resulting from a battle fought on Private Ryan's behalf, the captains says these words, the final words of the film, “Earn this.”
Protestant churches generally do not have crucifixes. Our theological tradition celebrates the empty cross, the empty tomb, and the resurrection. But I like what the Roman Catholic crucifix says, the cross with the suffering and dying Christ still on it. I have one in my bedroom to remind me just how God actually loved us. And I wonder if the captain in Saving Private Ryan were present at the crucifixion, I wonder if he would look at us and say, “Earn this.” Maybe then we'd forego snorkelling and dive into the depths and mysteries of God.