Sermon: "The God Who Cares"

1st in the "The God to Whom We Pray" series.
Delivered November 5, 2006 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

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Video clip from "The Teacher" (used by permission of the Franklin Covey Institute)

Helen Keller: "I was a phantom; robbed as an infant of my sight and hearing. I lived like a creature of the deepest ocean waters, feeling my way through a world without light or sound and only vaguely aware of the concept of light or even of my own existence. Until I was seven years old I was like a ship at sea in a dense fog groping my way to shore. Only I was a ship without a compass or sounding line and I had no way of knowing how near the harbor was. Light, give me light was the wordless cry of my soul. Then one day the most important day that I can remember in all my life, the woman who would guide me to shore, my teacher, who would reveal all things to me, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrast between the two lives this important day connected.

"Brother and sister?" "That's right." "Anne Sullivan, is that your name missy?" "It stinks in here." "Yes, I know that missy. I am asking if Anne Sullivan is your real name?" "My brother is sick. How will he get better in this stinking hole? Can you tell me that?" "James and Anne Sullivan are their names. Both parents are Irish. The mother is dead and the father is missing. The boy is lame and she is almost blind." "It says here that they have an aunt and uncle, why aren't they with them?" "They don't want them."

Helen Keller: "The conditions of teacher's life at the old house were almost beyond description."

end of video clip

It would be about eight more years before Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller would meet and at the end of this sermon we'll show a little bit more about that encounter, but it might be safe to say that there has rarely been a more caring relationship. It lasted 49 years. Helen Keller was Anne Sullivan's first and only student, but there was a time during that relationship that Helen was completely resistant to the care that Anne was trying to provide and communicate. It took a while before Helen Keller really understood the depth of her teacher's care and concern.

This past month Pastor John has been teaching us about the importance and power of prayer. This month I want to focus on the God to whom we pray, because when we know the depth and the care of the one that we are dealing with, we will be more inclined to spend time with God.

I know that when I became acquainted with my wife Ellen before she was my wife there was no trouble finding motivation to spend time together. However, even though we can confess that God cares and I think most of us would affirm that today, sometimes we wonder about the extent of that care. Sometimes we don't know why it doesn't feel that way in our lives and that's why this Psalm series, because there are few places in scripture that more honestly share the soul's struggle in relating to God and its amazing that what started as the prayers of humans; I mean think about it, these are prayers of King David and Asaph and all of these other fellows, what started out as prayers to God have in turn come back to become God's word to us. It's an amazing exchange. See the Psalms are a poetic and honest glimpse of every type of human emotion directed heavenward. There are expressions of love, of faith, of joy, or gladness, of agony, of fear and grief and much more. All of them are in the Psalms; all those feelings. It's as though we get to open somebody's diary or journal and share their experiences and learn from them and are comforted.

Psalm 139 may be the most intimate of all. I guess you could get a debate on that. But I want us to listen to King David's expression of his relationship with the Lord. If you will turn to page 444 and 445 you can find it there or you can just follow on the screen, but let's pray just before we read.

Lord, we give you thanks for your word, open it up, open our minds up so that we might understand more the depth of your care and concern and follow you and love you in return. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

What doesn't fit in this Psalm? Remember in early elementary school they would hand you a piece of paper and there would be four cows and one kitten and they would say, "What doesn't fit?" In the 10 o'clock service we are going to sing a hymn right out of the hymnbook that essentially is word for word, almost Psalm 139 except there is no verse for what does not fit in the hymnbook. It's important to see that all of this communication about God's care also takes into account the pains of living in a world that does not acknowledge God. One commentator explained that Psalm 139 is patterned after the language of the courtroom in which the speaker extols the greatness of the judge and asks for justice on the part of all of those who hunger for righteousness. Now add to that that fact that this Psalm is penned by the political ruler of the land, the king and it becomes an utterance of zeal for God, much like Jesus turning over the tables in the temple or Paul proclaiming a curse on those who pervert the Gospel. So as we look at God's care and character in this Psalm, be reminded that difficulty and distress in our life does not negate it; it doesn't mean that God's care is not present.

There are three powerful expressions of God's care that comes through this written prayer. That is what they are really written prayers and here is the first thing. The first seven verses essentially say that God knows us. The opening verses declare with wonder the extent of God's knowledge of the Psalmist. It's past and present. He says, "Lord, you have searched me. You have known me and you know me." All along, past and present. "You know every move I make, you know every word I speak, every thought I think--you know it." You notice how David uses extremity of thought and language to emphasize the nature of God as one beloved and caring versus cold and distant. Look at the extremes of the metaphysical. He talks about heaven and sheol. In his mind, his world that was the metaphysical; heaven and sheol, the underworld. Then there is the extreme of the physical world. If I go on the wings of the dawn, if I went on the far side of the sea, the horizon, as well as the extremes of light and darkness, he talks about the physical extremes of our world. Then there are the extremes of time. Conception was known to you when you knit me in the womb and you will know the last day that I spend on this earth. You know the minute that I will breathe my last is essentially what he is saying. He says, "This is too much?" If we were to write the Psalm in 21st century language we might be using words like chromosomes and genes and quarks and atoms. It would be interesting to rewrite the Psalm with our understanding of nature and physiology. It wouldn't sound very poetic like David's does, but you get the point. In David's world he is trying to use the limits of his understanding to say how much God knew us and knows us.

You know the word "know" you heard this before probably, speaks another context of sexual relationship. This word speaks of the very personal kind of relating. The knowledge of God is not simply intellectual. It's not just writing notes about our life in a cold sense. God is involved and committed to us and desires that we know him intimately. What is intimacy? It's the state of being close. It involves sharing with one another. It involves a breadth of sharing. It takes time to share a broad level of things, but in real intimacy you not only share a broad level of things, you share a deep level of things. To the people that you are most intimate with you can talk about things at a deep level, as well as a broad level. In fact, when intimacy is missing we say things like, "I don't know who you are anymore." And we sing songs like, "If you don't know me by now, you will never ever know me." See we do things. That is the way we think of the word "know." Do you think of your relationship with God on intimate terms? When you think of yourself, do you like you? Another reason to use Helen Keller as an example is that it's hard to think of a worse hand that could be dealt and look what God did in her life.

When we know that we are known and cared for God it affects everything we do and are. The story is told that in 1939 as the Nazi's were moving into the Netherlands that Henry Cramer, a Dutch theologian, was asked by a group of Christian lay people, "Our Jewish neighbors are missing from their homes. What must we do?" Cramer answered,

"I cannot tell you what to do. I can tell you who you are. If you know who you are then you will know what to do."

These persons became part of the Dutch resistance movement. If we remember who our God is and that we are God's people and that we are known by God intimately, it will determine and define our conduct, our decisions and our relationships. That's number one. God knows us deeply. That's an expression of his care.

Number two; God holds us. Look at the next verses and in Verse 7 there is a rhetorical question. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? There is no place that God is not, the farthest stretch of the universe, the belly of the earth, the place of undeparted souls or departed souls. There is no place that your hand will not hold my hand. Even the deepest darkness cannot block your sight and nearness. Think of all of the believers both past and present who have had to huddle in darkness out of fear, due to threats. They were not alone. Neither are you, even if you feel that way figuratively. The Apostle Paul would write a millennium later, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our lord." Whatever may happen God is with us.

Listen to the words of Paul Summerville who writes a reflection of his father's funeral.

"Six years earlier the family had learned of Dad's prostrate cancer that would not respond to treatment. His death was imminent. Our son Adam who was 13 at the time worried about how he would or if he could handle going to his grandfather's funeral. If I go to the funeral Adam said, I will just want to lift grandpa up and hold him and never let him go. I want to do the same for that man who lifted me up, help me and never let me go. I could not bear the thought of life without my father if he had not equipped me with what I heard him speak so often. In these words exactly as I was growing up. The sure hope of the resurrection. Adam gave me the prayer, which I pray in one form or other every day. Dear God, lift me up, hold me, never let me go."

Psalm 139 says this is the sure bet for the believer in this life and in the life to come. So God knows us. God holds us and then the Psalmist says God leads us. The Psalm ends as it begins. He says, "Lord you have searched me and you know me: and then at the end he says, "Search me O' God and know me even more. Test my anxious thoughts." The prayer intensifies. In other words he is saying, "God since you know me so well, since you hold me so much, then lead me in the way that you want me to go. Don't just lead me into happy places, that's nice, but lead me because you are transforming me from within." See David is expressing one of the healthiest spiritual thoughts that any human being could ever express. On the heels of being angry about other people and about how they curse God and how easy it would be to compare himself to all of these horrible people out there, he says, "Lord search me, examine my heart." He is inviting correction. He is inviting an openness to change. You see, intimacy grows through integrity. Did you know that most marital affairs are not based on physical or emotional intimacy with another person outside of your main relationship, your committed relationship? They are based on dishonesty with the one that you are supposed to be intimate with.

I am so troubled by the news of Ted Haggard's alleged infidelity. Ted Haggard is a pastor of a mega-church and president of The National Association of Evangelicals. He talks to the president probably every week and he was accused of a homosexual relationship and he is married with children. The church that he runs has asked him to step down. I hope, I mean if there seems to be any element of truth to it; but if it is true it started with dishonesty; not just with those around him, but with himself. So David prays, "God please search me and let me see myself for what I really am. Keep me from kidding myself about who I am." This is a bold and scary prayer, but it's based on the belief that God's adjustments will be for his good. It's a word that Jeremiah preached to people that didn't listen. Look at Jeremiah 16, 6A. This is what the Lord says; it will come up in a minute. This is what the Lord says, "Stand at the cross roads and look for the ancient paths. Ask where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls." What's the everlasting way? It says, lead me in the everlasting way, what is it? It's a confessing lifestyle. It's not a physical path. It's a way of being inside of ourselves. It's a healthy distrust of our own deceptive hearts. The opposite is the response of Adam and Eve in God's garden when they tried to hide from the presence of God. It's not a good idea then and not a good idea now.

God cares so much that it is safe to be real and not be afraid. Let's look at the end of the teacher clip and see what happened through the incredible care and commitment of Anne Sullivan.

Video clip from "The Teacher" (used by permission of the Franklin Covey Institute)

"Will you let me talk to you, Mr. Sandborn. My name's Anne Sullivan and I want to go to school. Please Mr. Sandborn, please help me. I want to go to school." "You can barely see. You will have to excuse us a few minutes."

Anne went to school. In just six years having had no other formal education she graduated valedictorian of her class from the Perkins Institute for the Blind. Her desire to assault the effects of blindness and deafness were born of the Institute. When the time finally came for her teach she was assigned to me. I was her first and last student. In my life, my body had a birthday. I didn't know it on that day when I first touched the teacher, but that was my soul's birthday. All through that year of 1887, I did nothing but explore with my hands and learn the name of every object I touched and all through that first year, as in the 50 years that followed, my teacher was at my side using the right moments to impart knowledge to me. Anyone can take children to a classroom, but only a teacher can lead them to learn. They must feel that liberty is their's. They must feel the flush of victory and they must also feel the heart-sinking of disappointment. They must feel these things. With the passing of time came the passing away of my teacher. In her separation from me, I have often remembered and taken comfort in her saying that real independence is obtained through your mind and spirit. This was the very center of Teacher's work with me, to lessen my physical dependence on her and make it possible for me to some day continue my work without her. Teacher believed in me and I have resolved not to betray her faith. Conscious of her always, I have sought for new ways to give life and get more life to men and women whom darkness, silence, sickness and sorrow are wearing away and at times it seems my teacher who touched my night to flame is still about her work using me to kindle other fires for good."

End of Video clip

That last quote said that "I am gripped by the might of the destiny that she has laid out for me." As beautiful as that relationship was and still continues to be an example, it pales in comparison to the love and destiny that God has for us in Jesus Christ that's taught around this table.

© 2006, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org