Knowing (About) God October 16th, 2022
One summer night in Scotland a young man decided to take a shortcut across the moors on his way to the town where he had a job. The countryside was noted for its limestone quarries and that night he knew he would be passing near one of them, even though he hoped to avoid it. So even though the night was starless and inky black he set out through the rock and heather.
Suddenly he heard a voice call out with great urgency, "Peter!"
A bit unnerved, he stopped and called back into the dark, "Yes, who is it? What do you want?" No response. Just a bit of wind over the deserted moorland.
The lad concluded he'd been mistaken and walked on a few more steps. He heard the voice again, more urgent than before: "Peter!" He stopped in his tracks, bent forward to peer through the dense black, and stumbled to his knees. Reaching out a hand to the ground before him, he clutched thin air. The quarry!
Sure enough, as Peter carefully felt around in a semicircle, he discovered he had stopped on the edge of the abandoned limestone quarry one step before a fatal plunge into the deep. Out there in the desolate moor he suddenly felt someone was watch out for him; someone who knew him – someone who cared for him.
From that moment on, Peter Marshall never forgot his experience. His faith was no dusty relic inherited from his parents. It was vibrant, intensely personal, and utterly compelling. Dedicating his life to the One who'd called him by name, he later became one of America's greatest ministers.
Peter Marshall discovered that he knew God. And he knew God knew him.
You see, friends, there is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God.
Many people know ABOUT God. God is the subject of many discussions about great power. God is the entire subject of the canon of holy scripture. God's name is used by devout and profane alike, even if only in a curse. Everybody knows about God.
There are statistics that tell us more than 75% of all Canadians believe in God. But as Jesus said, even the demons believe - and tremble (see the book of James).
But knowing God? That is something else.
Friends, there is even a difference between knowing God and living by God's law. Israel lived by God's law as they understood it and we value the Bible for all of its richness and completeness as it tells us about Jesus and Paul and the characters and times of the early church. There is no document on earth like it.
Can you imagine your spiritual life without the Ten Commandments or the Psalms, or the writings of the prophets or the magnificent stories Adam and Eve, Noah, Ruth, David or Solomon?
Israel lived by God's law. In fact, if there is any one criticism that may be leveled at the Jews, it is that they have, from time to time, focused too much attention on the Law. Jesus had no quarrel with any of that; after all, he was Jewish. His quarrel was with those scholars and leaders who would turn the Sacred Word into a suffocating legalism.
In his book, Inside, Outside, Jewish writer Herman Wouk tells a story about David Goodkind, a young Jewish boy whose thoroughly Orthodox parents immigrated from Russia. They did everything properly. Not only did the family not eat pork, but young David's mother never served meat and milk at the same meal because it was against the code of Leviticus. Everything they ate had to be kosher. Even drinking Coca-Cola was a very big deal. Not that there was something wrong with the drink itself, but "The pious few," David says, "pointed out that the glue in the corks of Coca-Cola bottles could have come from horses; hence with your Coke you might consume a trace of an unkosher animal."
One day a rabbi came over from Russia and watched David's mother preparing food. With great seriousness, he advised her to use different cooking utensils for cooking meat and warming soup made from milk. So David's mother bought another pot. Then another rabbi came over, the most reverent of them all. This rabbi told her that it was dangerous to dry the two pots with the same dish towel after you've cooked with them. So, she went out and bought two new dish towels, one with a red stripe and one with a blue stripe, so the pots could be dried separately!
A few years later when David went off to study at the Talmudical Academy of Yeshiva University, all these rules learned from childhood had such a strangle hold on his life that he wasn't free to really love and know God. To him, God was a legalistic tyrant, not a loving Father. Troubled by the dish towel issue, David raised it with another student: "Will God strike me dead if I use the wrong towel?"
The answer his friend gave him supported his system: "Once you start to compromise," he said, "The whole thing will break down. You have to stick to the rules."
But David was not satisfied. He met an older student from his neighborhood who also had been deeply influenced by the system but could not leave the school because his father was a trustee. The older student said to David, "Don't let it happen to you, Davey! Get out! Get away from this dish towel religion!"
Many Christians have similar rules about how they should behave, too. Care to make a list? Dancing, playing cards, listening to rock and roll music, wearing only the right clothes to church…
Just because you keep all the rules and the regulations of religion does not mean you know God. There are many people who live within the letter of the law who have hearts heavy with bitterness and hatred. Living by the law does not mean you know God.
Neither does belonging to the church mean you know God.
Now folks, I know you will agree that we all love the church. We happily come to be with each other and to worship God in the unity of the Holy Spirit, and to gather between Sundays for meals, work parties, musical events and the many things that keep the church functioning. We love the church. Some of our best experiences and many of our friendships have been in church.
Bruce McIver, now a retired pastor with many distinguished years of Christian service under his belt tells in his book, Just As Long As I'm Riding Up Front, remembers vividly some of the mistakes and misunderstandings he suffered in the early years of his ministry. His first year in seminary, Bruce and some friends were invited to lead a revival service in a local, rural community. Bruce was gratified to know that the church members were excited about revival. One youth in particular, Vicki, bubbled over with enthusiasm for the revival, and told Bruce that she had already invited a friend. The friend's name was Juanita, and she was a gifted accordion player. Vicki had told Juanita that she could play her accordion for the opening night of the revival. Bruce took pride in Vicki's enthusiasm, and he assured her that her friend was welcome to play at the revival.
The night of the revival, Bruce shook hands with a noticeably nervous Juanita. The girl had never been in a Protestant church before, and she didn't know quite what was expected of her. Bruce tried to calm her a bit and asked her what she planned to play for the service. Juanita remarked that she would play "Ave Maria." Although Bruce loved the song "Ave Maria," he felt that it might be out of place at a Baptist revival. Most of the other music that night would be lively old salvation hymns with fiddles and guitars accompanying the old piano. But he didn't want Juanita to be uncomfortable, and he didn't want the congregation to fall asleep. So he suggested that she pick a more upbeat tune. Juanita gladly agreed.
When time came for her to play, all her nervousness vanished. She crashed her fingers down on that accordion and played a rollicking tune that kept the congregation wide awake. Bruce strained to identify the hymn. With a start, he realized Juanita was playing "La Cucaracha," a fun Spanish tune that translates into "The Cockroach." It was not exactly what Bruce had in mind for a revival.
Funny things happen in church. Beautiful things happen in church.
Did you know, though, that you can be active in the church and not know God?
In a segment of Jeremiah, the people took solace that they were descendants of Abraham just as many Christians today take solace in their membership in the church.
Jesus tells us it isn't enough.
Paul answers people who think they will be justified by their good works and their adherence to the Law. And Paul says, it isn't enough.
Jeremiah says to us, "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor . . . saying ‘Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me . . ." (RSV)
Folks, that alone is enough. We need to internalize the Law within our hearts. We need to open our hearts to a living knowledge of God. Like Peter Marshall we need a vibrant, real, and personally compelling faith.
Corrie Ten Boom, the author who wrote of her suffering in the Nazi concentration camps and her devout faith in God, told of trying to comfort concentration camp survivors during the war. One day long after their captivity ended, she came upon an elderly woman who seemed to lack any hope or will. Corrie sat down next to the woman, and asked her about herself. The woman revealed that she had taught music at the Dresden Conservatory, a proud and beautiful city now decimated by the war.
Fortunately, Corrie knew and loved much classical music, and she was able to converse knowledgeably with the former professor. A local minister had granted Corrie access to his piano, but it had been ravaged by bombings too. It was woefully worn down and out of tune, but still Corrie took the woman to it. The woman, unhesitating, asked Corrie to name a song for her to play. Without thinking, Corrie requested Bach's "Chromatic Phantasy." She immediately regretted her choice. Here was an emotionally wracked woman, who hadn't been able to practice her craft in so long, about to attempt an incredibly intricate and difficult piece on a battered, broken-down piano she had never played before. Corrie should have suggested something simpler.
But the woman's fact lit up as she deftly coaxed beautiful music from that lost cause of an instrument. When she finished, a ray of hope had been restored in her eyes. She was more open to talking too. She told Corrie of her prestigious career as a concert pianist, and later as a professor who inspired many prominent musicians. Her impressive career, her lovely home, and all she held dear had been lost to the war. She lamented the fact that in fleeing from the fighting, she could not take any of her precious possessions with her. But Corrie was quick to correct the woman, pointing out that she had taken something very precious with her.
"And what was that?" the woman asked, taken aback.
"Your music. For what is in your heart can never be taken from you." That is our message for the day: what is in your heart can never be taken away from you.
May God be praised! AMEN