“The Unimaginable God”

Ephesians 3:14 - 21

I want to change the title of today’s sermon from The Unimaginable God to something different. Both titles will get us to the same place eventually, but the new title will get us there faster. I hope. So the new title for today’s sermon is, “The Holy Shamoley Experience.”

Holy Shamoley is an expression of wonder – of awe. It’s what you say when you experience something so wonderful that you can’t even begin to find words to express it. So you say, “Holy Shamoley!” It’s what the Israelite people said when Moses led them out of their bondage in Egypt. They arrived at the shores of the Red Sea and they were at a dead end. The Egyptian army was closing in and things were looking grim. Then Moses raised his arms in faith and the sea was parted and the Israelites escaped, and all the people gasped in wonder and said “Holy Moses!” which is just another way of saying, “Holy Shamoley!”

And that’s the same thing the people of Galilee expressed on the occasion of today’s Gospel reading from John. After watching Jesus take five loaves of bread and two small fish and turn them into a succulent feast that fed five thousand people – mind you, with twelve basketfuls of leftovers – the folks looked at each other and said, “Surely this is the prophet who is to come into the world” – which is really just a fancy theological way of saying, “Holy Shamoley!” And they came to believe in Him!

Oh, one of God’s most beautiful ways of leading us deeper and deeper into relationship with Him is through the Holy Shamoley experience!

Trouble is, we’ve gotten away from both the holy and the shamoley.. The advent of scientific rationalism has blessed us in many ways through discoveries and advances that help us stay healthy and live longer. But scientific rationalism has its limitations, too. By its very nature, it does not take seriously enough the importance of mystery and wonder and awe.. Often we are led to believe that life can be reduced to mere facts, that there is no holy shamoley. Everything is just a chemical reaction of one kind or another. And so we find ourselves standing on an afternoon looking up at a breathtakingly beautiful rainbow. And we understand the science behind it…

…but we miss the meaning behind the science. That rainbow is a sign from God. And it was made for you!

I mean, that first rainbow described in the book of Genesis – remember that rainbow? – well, it wasn’t just a rainbow, was it? No! The Bible tells us that rainbow was a sign - the sign of a new covenant that God was making. And God wasn’t making this new covenant for himself. God was making it for Noah, to give him hope for the future. You see, rainbows don’t just happen because certain molecules get arranged in certain ways! Oh no! God is the Maker of rainbows! And God creates them to bring hope to people going through hard times and facing difficult challenges and trying to live lives of faithfulness!! It’s God’s way of saying, “Hang in there! I’m with you! This experience will NOT defeat you! I promise!” Do you know that the last rainbow you saw was made specifically for you?

Holy Shamoley! Isn’t God amazing and wonderful that He would do something like that?

Annie Dillard, in her Pulitzer Prize winning book Pilgrim At Tinker’s Creek, says we need to polish up on our ability to perceive the ways God’s love comes to us every day. She compares God in nature with a magician trying to please his audience, revealing one spectacle after another – now you see it, now you don’t. God gives us a beautiful golden sunrise, but then changes the color to purple, and then hides it all with a cloud that makes beams of light streak our way as the birds begin to sing. No moment in life is ever the same! God is constantly transforming it, re-drawing the canvas, trying to bring a smile to our faces. So Spring gives way to Summer, and Summer turns to Autumn, and then everything dies with the cold of Winter…and then…SURPRISE!!….new life!

Holy Shamoley! Isn’t God wonderful??????

So the Bible invites us to experience holy shamoliness - to see the beauty and wonder of God in the world all around us, and in people, too.

You know, a short while ago I was in Michigan for the first time in my life. Now I understand why you all moved here. Only kidding! Actually, I noticed there are almost as many cars with Michigan license plates up there in Michigan as there are here in East Tennessee! Imagine that? I was there in Michigan to be with Donn and Dreana Sheill whose son Keven passed away after a long battle with cancer. It was such a heartbreaking time. Parents are not supposed to outlive their children. Those of you who’ve lost kids of your own – no matter what their age – know what I’m talking about.

Well, there we were at the funeral home during the calling hours. The place was packed and the power of Keven’s 42 years of beautiful living was evident in all the people who were there. But even with all of Keven’s friends around, it seemed to me that Donn and Dreana were pretty alone, bearing the grief that only parents can bear. They looked so fragile. So alone. But then something truly wonderful happened. Through the doors of that funeral home stepped John and Kitt Brown and Elton and Mona Pierson who had driven all the way from Tellico Village to be there for Donn and Dreana. When Donn and Dreana saw them, they broke down and wept which is really just a non-verbal way of saying, “Holy Shamoley!”

Life is full of this, you know! All around us and into our lives every day streams a constant procession of people and experiences that bring us the love of this God who created us and loves us beyond measure. And the reason God provides us these signs is so that we will BELIEVE in Him.

Now the Bible is not talking here about believing in the existence of God. The Bible treats that as a given. Neither is the Bible speaking about believing in a particular brand of theology.

No, believing in God means simply this: coming to know without a doubt how fully and completely God loves you and the world, and how fully and completely God is committed to transforming our world and its people into a family that is more wonderful, and beautiful and full of life than we can even imagine!!

This is what it means to believe IN God!

This is how St. Paul puts it in Ephesians 3. Of all the prayers that he could pray for us, this is the prayer he offers:

“…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how WIDE and LONG and HIGH and DEEP is the love of Christ, and to know this love that is beyond comprehension…”

St. Paul is praying that we will discover in Christ a living love so amazing that we will be left with nothing to say but,“Holy Shamoley!”

So how can you experience this unimaginable love of God?

First, Paul says to anchor your faith in love. You’ve got to make a commitment to love as the highest expression of faith. It is the number one thing that Christians are called to do. You know, Jesus said so. The new commandment he gave us is that we should love one another as He loved us. And in First Corinthians 13, God says, when you bring it all down to the basics, this Christianity business boils down to three human responses – faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these, God says, is…what? LOVE!

You see, faith without love produces suicide bombers, and parents who neglect children in the name of religion, and people who think it’s okay to judge and exclude others. Faith, without love, doesn’t work.

And hope without love produces people who are certain of going to heaven someday to the extent that they don’t live responsibly in this world. The very same people who walk down the aisle to accept Christ sometimes go home and beat their wives, quoting Scripture as they do. A hope for heaven, without love on earth, is meaningless!

But faith and hope anchored in love is powerful and life-changing!

I’ll always remember the day Sandy’s mother was laying in the hospital, critically ill after experiencing another stroke. Doctors and nurses were scurrying around, trying to save her life. Family members were huddled in the hallway, feeling very lost and filled with grief and fear. Then, all at once there were footsteps coming down the corridor. The hulking figure of our pastor George Seale came toward us. Without saying a word, he opened his arms, and we all fell into his embrace. And then he began to pray – for Eva, and for us. And we were gathered in the power of God’s love. You know, George was one of those theologically liberal pastors who take a lot of criticism from fundamentalists. Some might say he wasn’t really a Christian. But I’ll tell you what. No pastor I have ever known has ever made me say, “Holy Shamoley!” like George Seale did! He made me want to believe in the God he represented through the love that streamed out of his life.

Our faith begins and ends in love. So anchor your faith there and learn how to practice the art of Christian love!

A second way to experience the unimaginable love of God is by stretching. St. Paul prays that we will grasp – a better term would be reach for – how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God.

Sounds like how I hit a golf ball! Long, but wide! And do you know what? I don’t care. I don’t care if that little ball goes into the lake, or into the woods, or into somebody’s back window. So long as it goes long….! My guys will say to me, “Marty, I don’t think we’ll find that one.” I say, “I don’t care, did you see how long it went? I knocked the snot out of that ball!”

And in a strange sort of way, Christian love is supposed to be like that! We’re called to always be trying to hit that baby further than ever before!

Now I don’t know how it is with you, but I’m much better at loving people who love me than I am at loving people who don’t. And I find it much easier to love those for whom I sense a degree of understanding and pity than those who don’t deserve my understanding and pity.

But God says I have to learn to hit the ball that far! And beyond! Unlike golf, faith is a sport where you can hit the ball further with age!!

Christian love is not simply loving the people who love you. It is loving the Central American tribe that killed your husband as Betty Elliot did among the Auca Indians. It is loving ruthless gang members and drug addicts in New York City as David Wilkerson did. It is eating with tax collectors, and prostitutes, and all manner of sinners as Jesus did. Christian love is ALWAYS stretching itself further.

Do you know that in the Bible there are no stories about God’s judgment falling upon people for loving too much? Not one! But there are plenty of stories about God’s judgment falling upon people who love too little.

So learn to risk extending your love to people and places beyond where you’re able to love now. As you do, you’ll discover the holy shamoley power of God! And so will the people you love!

Now the third thing St. Paul teaches is that you need to learn to know God’s love – to see it and experience it every day. Experiencing love is the fuel that drives our love! So Annie Dillard tells us to appreciate the love of God found in nature every day. Don and Dreana would tell us to look for the love of God in people. And our church would say, look for the love of God in the Bible. It is the world’s greatest love story! And when you immerse yourself in it and read about lost people found, enslaved people set free, broken people made whole, rejected people accepted, fallen people redeemed, you can’t help but say, “Holy Shamoley!”

And then one last thing. According to Paul in Ephesians 3, the standard of Christian love is God’s own love. He prays that we may be filled to the full measure of all the fullness of God.

Who taught you how to love? Your parents? Teachers? Pastors? Sunday School teachers? Friends? Other people? TV shows? Well, all those are good, but limited by sinful humanity. So perhaps one of the most basic steps in Christian discipleship is to forget about what the world has taught you about love, and to ask God to teach you anew. This is what happens on page after page of the Bible – Jesus forgives – Jesus heals – Jesus reconciles – Jesus redeems – Jesus feeds – Jesus lifts. And as the people of His day experienced that love, they said, “Holy Shamoley, we’ve never seen anything like this before!”

And they came to believe in Him.

I hope you will believe in Him, too – that you will know without a doubt how fully and completely God loves you and the world and is committed to transforming this broken planet and all its people into a family more wonderful, and beautiful and full of life than anything we can imagine!

My prayer is that each day this week, God will come to you in love.

And that you will then go and bring that same love to others – that they may BELIEVE in God!!