Saint Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Pentecost 14 series A Romans 11:33-36

August 22 and 25, 2002

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 him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

If you stand on the shore by San Francisco—on a clear day—you can look out into the bay—and see the Federal Prison of Alcatraz—the rock! Alcatraz was the prison where they put the worst of the worst—the most horrible hurtful prisoners—the most murderous—the most foul of prisoners were put in Alcatraz. People like—Al Capone—his mind rotting from terrible disease from sinful “hugs and kisses” was held prisoner in Alcatraz! If you were in prison there—and still didn’t get it! Still didn’t do what you were told and still didn’t obey the rules they would put you in solitary confinement—for days—months—even years! They had a small cluster of cells. Cells by the west wall—where the guards broke out all the windows—so the cold ocean breeze—the cold ocean winds would whistle through your cell. The solitary confinement cells didn’t have bars—just thick concrete walls—two sets of walls—two sets of doors—so the sunshine couldn’t get through. You were in the dark—the pitch black dark. What could you do in there—all alone—cold and all alone? One prisoner said—to pass the time he would tear a button off of his prisoner uniform. He’d turn around and around and around and toss the button. Then he would feel around in the dark until he’d find that button. Then he’d do it all over again. One man said he would cover his eyes in the thick darkness—and eventually he would see this little light—this twinkle of light and he’d imagine that in that light he could see whatever he wanted to see—his home town—his old house—his childhood bedroom—any place far far from the prison—far from the painful reality! I’m afraid some people think—sure Hell is bad—but maybe it isn’t that bad. It is horrible—beyond belief or description bad. Thanks be to God—we are rescued and forgiven. We are children of God who will go to Heaven for Jesus’ sake! Today God’s Word reminds us of the greatness and goodness of God.

You Can’t Figure Out God!

1. You can’t understand the things he does

2. But you can thank and praise him forever!

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on—is part of the apostle Paul’s letter to the believers in the city of Rome. For ___ weeks we have been working through the letter to the Romans. The next time you take your remote control and blink through all the stations on your TV and say with frustration, “All those channels and nothing on!” Grab your Bible and read the whole letter to the Romans. The next time you are going to watch a TV half hour program—and you say to yourself—“I’ve seen this one before!” Grab your Bible and read the whole letter to the Romans. Instead of squandering a half hour on something pointless and meaningless—read God’s Word! You know those commercials for those workout videos? You know those people they show with the stomachs so strong—the arms so strong—the backs that ripple with muscles? Imagine your faith and trust in Jesus that strong! Read Romans and your faith will be stronger! Paul preached law and gospel—law and gospel. Always, always, always the law first—to show us our sins. In the first chapter of Romans Paul could be writing about these United States when he writes about the painful bitter consequences of stubbornly refusing to acknowledge our Heavenly Father. God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion…They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents, they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who so such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Romans 1:26f Sound painfully familiar? There is no middle ground! Either we live in the warm light of Jesus’ forgiving love—or we drown in the toxic waste and sludge of self and soul destroying gross wickedness and murderous evil! There is forgiveness and hope in Jesus and Jesus alone!

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on today begins with appropriation. That means this is part of God’s Word where we just say, “Wow!” Where we just stand in awe and wonder at the greatness and goodness of God. Paul wrote, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” Sometimes—it seems—we are not easily impressed—we who have grown up in this age of computer generated special effects! We have soda commercials where people roll a Mustang convertible through the air—while the guy grabs and drinks a Mt. Dew upside down. Sometimes—I’m afraid—we can be pretty cynical. And yet—the other day—I met a little boy named Daniel--going into second grade. We were talking about Africa—and he said his favorite animal was an Okapi. Really? Not the lion or the elephant or the giraffe—an Okapi. Had I ever seen an Okapi? I didn’t think so. Now I’m sure I have not. An Okapi has the legs of a zebra, the body of a deer, the tongue of a giraffe and the tail of an elephant. And no—it isn’t pretend or make believe. It’s real and it’s in Africa. I will keep my eyes open for one. If you stop and think—really open your eyes—you will see the fingerprints of God all around you. When the lightning flashes again and again. When the thunder rumbles louder and louder until the whole building you are in trembles. When the rain drops fall so hard and so fast the water swirls in the streets—when you see the rain drops like diamonds sparkling between the needles of the evergreen in front of your house—you are reminded of the greatness of God. His ultimate greatness and goodness is in his showing mercy to me and to you. If you ever watch Court TV lately they have been showing these victim impact statements. That’s when the victim or the survivor of a terrible crime gets to say whatever they want to say—to the judge who is going to pass sentence—or to the convicted criminal—the person who caused them terrible suffering or terrible loss. Often times these victim impact statements are heart wrenching. I saw one the other day where the daughter of a sheriff who was murdered told her father’s killer, “I hope you suffer! I hope you suffer like we are suffering!” That was the end. She said those words—with dry eyes and a strong voice—overflowing with bitterness and anger and hatred! Our Heavenly Father—rightfully so—could have said—we deserve to suffer for all our sins. But he didn’t. The depth of his mercy and love said instead I will sacrifice my one and only Son so that instead of suffering forever—you can come home to heaven and be with me!

Who has known the mind of the Lord? You can’t figure out God—why He thinks the way He does. Why He does the things that He does! This world in its thinking is all concerned about the outside—about appearances. And so the other day before they took some pictures—some photographs of a very pretty lady named Jamie Lee—they had 13 people work on her for 3 hours to get her ready. They cut and shampooed and moussed her hair. They fixed her fingernails and her toe nails. They did her makeup. They put on a beautiful dress—adjusted the lights and background and lenses and camera filters—and took her picture. Then they did something very different. She had them take off the makeup and mousse and polish—put on running clothes. Then she asked them to snap her picture again. She wanted to show—she said—that her body—in spite of plastic surgeries and liposuction and Botox injections—is far far from perfect. The Lord has seen us on the inside—our heart of hearts! He knows the ugliness deep inside us—and he loves us still! He forgives us—cleanses us—makes us new through and through. So great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God—and that is what we are! We are children of God—adopted—forgiven—heirs of Heaven!

Who has ever given to God—that God should repay him? God does not owe us. We owe everything to God! They say in the good old days in England—when people lived in castles and mansions and huge estates—that it was customary to have a hermit live on the grounds. To have a strange little person live in a cave or in the forest nearby—but not too near by. To be a hermit—you live all alone—don’t shave—don’t bathe—don’t talk to or spend time with anyone. They say there’s a castle in England—looking for a resident hermit. And they are swamped with applications! Would you like to be a hermit—living in peace and quiet—all alone—not responsible for anyone but yourself? What if God left us all alone—all dirty on the inside? He didn’t! He couldn’t! He sent his Son Jesus into this sin-fouled world to rescue us! And Jesus will not be ignored! There are cemeteries—everywhere—on the way into town and on the way out of town. Out in the country—just around the corner—when you least expect it. There are those stone cold monuments to the simple profound truth—the wages of sin is death! There are churches—everywhere—their steeples lifting high the cross! There are Christian fish symbols on car trunks and fenders. Driving through Indiana the other day we saw a truck with the words of the prophet The just shall live by faith! There are little children praying out loud, “Come, Lord Jesus!” at McDonald’s. There are news stories night after night—of the gross hurtful and murderous evil that people are capable of. There was the pornography ring—people doing unspeakable things to their very own children. When the evil is so gross and so horrible you are on the brink of despair—where is there hope? Where is there rescue? Only in the nail marked hands of the Good Shepherd—the Carpenter from Nazareth—the eternal Son of God—the Savior of all people everywhere!

For from him and through him and to him are all things. Jesus made everything! We were reminded the other day that 70% of this planet is covered with water. People have carefully explored about 1% of all that water. In the ocean there are all kinds of creatures that we have never even seen. Every day they are sending out little submarines with lights and cameras to take pictures of creatures people have never even seen before. They discovered a new worm the other day that lives so deep in the water that no sunlight penetrates that deep. It is this new white worm with legs up and down each side. They gave this new worm the clever technical name new worm! Ask any child in school what is the biggest—the largest living creature and chances are they would say a blue whale. Blue whales are as big as 100 feet! But they have discovered a new kind of jelly fish—an encepholophod that is 140 feet long. It’s huge! There is a new kind of squid—about the size of a basketball that they have named the vampire squid from eternal destruction. It takes it’s tentacles and wraps them around itself—like it’s turning itself inside out! Every month on average oceanographers discover a new creatures like the fang fish—that look prehistoric—that look like Dr. Seuss invented them—swimming so deep in the dark their eyes have never ever seen light! Dr. Seuss didn’t invent them. Jesus did. Jesus designed and engineered and built them—and made them to swim around—where for thousands of years—nobody even knew they existed except him! For from him and through him and to him are all things!

We were on an airplane the other day when they showed this clip from The David Letterman Show—this thing called stupid people tricks! They had one lady who laid down on the floor on her stomach. They put an empty soda can between her shoulder blades—and with her shoulder blades she crushed the soda can—squashed it! They had a guy that could kick himself in the head. He’d do this little jump thing—and then he’d kick—as hard as he could—and his foot—wearing this sneaker—would come all the way up and he’d clock himself right on the forehead. He did it about three times! I don’t know why you’d want to do that! They had this one little scrawny guy that had a tennis racket—with no strings in it—just the handle—the racket frame and two oranges. This guy juggled those two oranges with one hand while he took the other hand and wriggled his whole body through that hole in the tennis racket—while they played this really intense music! I watched the instant replay and I don’t understand how he did that. I don’t understand how a whole plane full of people watched it—and nobody seemed to react. I don’t know why you would practice juggling oranges while squishing through a tennis racket. The older I get—the more things there are that I don’t understand. And that’s ok because Jesus loves me—this I know—for the Bible tells me so. My sins are forgiven and heaven is my home and yours. That’s all that matters. That’s all that counts. Amen!

To God alone all glory!