That God Should Repay?

That God Should Repay?

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

October 21, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Romans 11: 33-36

Job 40: 6-14

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

As Pete said earlier in his own minute for Stewardship, over the next 3 weeks we will have these minutes for Stewardship, culminating in Stewardship Sunday on the 18th. . . it is traditional in churches as the year ends, before the Christmas Season begins, to take some time out and talk about our individual relationships to the church. Typically there is a fundraising push, there is a volunteerism push, and there is a call to self circumspection, to look in and at yourself and assess where you are in relationship to your church, to think about taking a new step in your commitment, whatever that new step might be. Though I won’t be talking specifically about Stewardship, at least not overtly, we have come to the point in Paul’s Letter to the Romans where he shifts, from talking about grace, and our new freedom in Christ, and his understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of his conversion and his restudying of what we call the Old Testament texts, what he would call the Law and the Prophets. . . he shifts from that conversation, the conversation about our new status, and our new relationship. . . to our reaction, to the what now, indeed to our Response. So it fits, and I hope you will see some parallels.

So this morning in that vein, Paul takes time out in his transition, to praise God. He writes a small prayer poem, that concludes chapter 11. . . it is subtitled in most NIV Bibles as Doxology which is a fancy word for saying, literally, words of glory. . logia. . .which we know especially from John 1 is word. . . and dox, coming from doxcen, which is a word that means glory. . . we on communion Sundays also sing what we call the Doxology. . .

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise him creatures here below

Praise him above the heavenly host

Praise father son and Holy Ghost. . . amen.

We sing it in response of the Offertory praising God for the gifts that he has given, blessing him, as the source of all. . .

Another famous doxology is Non nobis and te deum – not to us but to God. . . famously at the end of Shakespeare’s Henry the 5^th when the English have won the battle of Agincourt, King Henry says

Come, go we in procession to the village.
And be it death proclaimed through our host
To boast of this or take the praise from God 2825
Which is his only.

Do we all holy rites;
Let there be sung 'Non nobis' and 'Te Deum;' 

That song, is non nobis domine domine, non nobis dominie, sed nomine sed nominee, tuo gloriam

In English, not to us, not to us, Lord, but to your name be all the glory. . .

That battle has great significance to me, as I studied it and wrote my senior graduating thesis on it, as depicted in literatrure and history, the battle of Agincourt, where the British overcome odds like had never been known, never had an army of so few, those happy few, that band of brothers, as Shakespeare dubbed them. . . never had an army like that been victorious against armored knights. . . truly a miracle.

Which is that great mystery. . . Henry says. . .

but with this acknowledgement,
That God fought for us.

How ironic that such a battle would be won like that, but later battles in the same war would have the French winning, with Joan of Arc. . . another of God’s chosen messengers. . . would God switch sides? Or is there always more to God than we might ever know. . .

Let us look at Paul’s Doxology. . .because this “wonder” this blessed irony, runs through it as well.

Romans 11: 33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

And he starts with Oh, that poetic Oh, what does it signify? Usually with an Ode it would be just O, not the Oh. . . Oh usually implies a surprise, a shock. . .

The poet AR Ammons is big on those, in many of his early poems he uses that function. . . Oh

The sap is gone out of the trees
in the land of my birth
and the branches droop
    The rye is rusty in the fields
and the oatgrains are light in the wind
The combine sucks at the fields
    and coughs out dry mottled straw
The bags of grain are chaffy and light

The oatfields said Oh
in the land of my birth
and Oh said the wheatfields as the dusting
combine passed over
and long after the dust was gone
    Oh they said
and looked around at the stubble and straw
The sap is gone out of the hollow straws
and the marrow out of my bones

brittle and dry
    and painful in this land

The wind whipped at my carcass saying
How shall I
    coming from these fields
water the fields of earth
    and I said Oh
    and fell down in the dust 

Do you see that use of Oh. . . and wouldn’t you know it the poem collection that was published in is called “Doxology” hmmm

Another of my favorites of his that does this is called turning, I’ll just read a portion. . .

Turning from the waterhole I said Oh

To the lioness whose wrinkled forehead

Showed signs of wonder

O beautiful relaxed animal I said

Now look at this picture. . . you have just taken a drink from a waterhole you turn around and see your death in the shape of a lioness – the hunting kind. . . standing before you, there is the Oh – oh of surprise, followed closely by the O, the plain O, of ode, and praise. . .

Do we approach God with that same respect --- dag you got all of that from just that word Oh? Yes.

Oh, the depths. . . surprising, rather than the praising O. . . wonder at the depths. . .

And what do we make of depths. . . one might think first of value. . . I thought of Duck Tales. . . Scrooge McDuck, diving into his money bin. . . right that is depth, especially since he goes to riches from there. . . depth is vastness, size, volume, right literally volume. . .

And this depth is of the riches of wisdom and knowledge, of God. . . but not of us of God, not our knowledge, but instead the wisdom and knowledge, our knowledge barely scratches the surface. . . which brings us back to depths, maybe there is more to depths than vastness and size, maybe it is the depths of the ocean, maybe it is the depths of mystery, maybe it is those depths, like Gandalf says of the Dwarves in Lord of the Rings, that they dug too deep and released evils they never had dreamed of. . . maybe the Oh, the awe of the Oh, continues into the depths as well. . .

For look at his next statement. . . how unsearchable his judgments?

Wait what, why would you search a judgment? Is that what you do to a judgment? Listen, yes, Heed, yes, you might even appeal, but search? What does he mean by this, does he mean. . . you can search for a reason and can’t find one. . . it is unsearchable. . . not just not understandable, but unsearchable, there is no starting place to begin?

His paths beyond tracing out? What does this mean? Does it mean that two roads diverge in a yellow wood. . . two paths, and you can’t trace them both out to see where they both lead to determine which one you can take? Like you can’t see the future?  Is that how you trace out a path? Or is it that you can’t follow the logic, the path doesn’t make sense enough to us to trace it out?

Who has known the mind of the Lord? Many of us right! We all know exactly what God wants of us. . . right, but every disciple following Jesus is completely lost. . . but we’ve got it figured out. . .Paul comes out to say right here, nope, you don’t, neither to I, and it is unknowable, unsearchable, to deep. . .

Look at the next question. . . who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? Does God owe you? Remember the Grasshopper and the Ants. . . the ants are busy working while the Grasshopper fiddles. . . The world owes me a living. . . owes? But yet sometimes we feel that way, we think we deserve. . . isn’t that the same thing as repay. . . I deserve this or that, because I. . . again nope.

And here comes the Doxology line that fits so well with the others. . .

For from him. . . from

And through him . . . through

And for him. . . for

Are all things. . . . our existence is from God, through God, and for God. . .

Therefore. . .

To him be the glory for ever!

But where does this come from? How would you characterize, summarize and take this. . . what does he mean from the Oh to the amen here?

I want to do one thing that may just provide a little context. . . this doxology begins at verse 33, lets take a peak at 32

For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Whoa do what? Everyone has been bound to disobedience, so that he may have mercy on them all? This is pretty wild stuff, even stronger than God using envy to pull people to salvation. . . how do you feel about that, God made people disobedient, so that he could be merciful. . .

How about that for a sovereignty of God moment? Does that make you want to rethink the whole shooting match, from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, all the way to now? Disobedience for mercy. . . whoa maybe the reaction to our own sin isn’t to hide in the bushes in shame of our nakedness afterall, but to. . . what? What would that purpose be. . .

Oh. . . so much is revealed in that simple word. . .

Surprise, wonder, mystery, revelation. . . oh I don’t have it all figured out. . .

It is awe!

Knock your socks off, rethink it all awe. Makes sense coming from Paul based on his experience on the road to Damascus right. Awe. . .

depths. . . where do we go from the depths. . . Wonder

unsearchable, beyond tracing out  . . Mystery

Who has ever known the mind? Been his counselor. . . surely not me --- Humility

Who has ever given to God that God should repay – God is free, unshackled, unboxed, completely free, unbeholden -- reassess

For from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever – Praise

Look at pattern – response to God, is Awe, Wonder, Mystery, Humility, Reassess, Praise

It doesn’t need to make sense. . . if it did you’d be way off.

Remember earlier Paul evoked the Job argument. . . let’s go back there again, because it is just glorious to read

Job 40: 6-14

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷ “Brace yourself like a man;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.

⁸ “Would you discredit my justice?
    Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
⁹ Do you have an arm like God’s,
    and can your voice thunder like his?
¹⁰ Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
    and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
¹¹ Unleash the fury of your wrath,
    look at all who are proud and bring them low,
¹² look at all who are proud and humble them,
    crush the wicked where they stand.
¹³ Bury them all in the dust together;
    shroud their faces in the grave.
¹⁴ Then I myself will admit to you
    that your own right hand can save you.

You can see it all there too, Awe, wonder, mystery, humility, reassess, Praise. . . Job cries out, I know my redeemer liveth. . .

You can hear God saying:

Look at Behemoth,
    which I made along with you
 Oh

Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
    or tie down its tongue with a rope?

Oh

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
    Tell me, if you understand.
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
    Who stretched a measuring line across it?

OH

Who shut up the sea behind doors
    when it burst forth from the womb,

Oh

ave you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place,
¹³ that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it?

Oh

What a mighty amazing, wondrous God we serve!

Our response to God’s grace, must begin with Awe, Wonder, Mystery, Humility, Reassesment, and finally Praise!