Is God Big Enough?

A Sermon Preached at

Zephyr United Methodist Church

Early First United Methodist Church

June 10, 2007

by

Rev. Eddie Smart

Luke 7:1-10 (NRSV)

After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. ²A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. ³When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. ⁴When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, ⁵for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." ⁶And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; ⁷therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. ⁸For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this,' and the slave does it." ⁹When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." ¹⁰When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

      Many of you are aware that earlier this week Abilene police officer Jeff McCoy was killed in a tragic auto accident. His police cruiser was hit on the driver’s door by an out-of-control, speeding vehicle. His funeral was on Friday, and it was televised on KTAB. I saw the broadcast begin and found myself watching it, partly because of the descriptions of Officer McCoy’s Christian beliefs and behaviors and partly because of his Pastor, David McQueen. I was impressed by his message that came verbally and visually.

      Pastor McQueen began his message confessing that he was searching for answers to the questions that the people would have. He was looking for the answer to the Why question. He was thinking that knowing the why would relieve the pain and help the hurt in our hearts. The Why’s just don’t exist. Pastor McQueen expressed the understanding that even if he had just the right words, words are woefully inadequate. The pain would still be there because there is not a lack of understanding, but the hurt of the temporary loss of a friend. He then quoted Psalm 57 sharing that we can take refuge in the shadow of God’s wings.

      McQueen told us that Jeff McCoy just a few years ago was a very hardened, skeptical man. Didn’t have a lot of hope for the things of life. That changed. He became a man of great compassion and love full of hope. He knew he had been changed by the grace of God. He came to believe that the power of God could change anything or anyone.

      As a result of watching that service, I was interested in Jeff’s church. He was a member of the Beltway Park Baptist Church. I went to their website. I found the video of last week’s sermon by Pastor McQueen. It began with a video of “on the street interviews with people.” They were asked to “Describe God.”

      There were answers such as:

            formless

            Not a man or woman, not anything, just something out there

            He’s the creator–the one you answer to when you leave this realm

            Sunshine

            God could look like what you want the being to be

            An all knowing, omniscience being

            I have not thought of God so..never been in church except for my wedding, so I don’t think about Him.

            Strong, very unique

            kind, forgiving

            judgmental

            gentle ‘til you cross him

            stern

            far off - distant

            cruel sense of humor

      They were also asked, “Who is God to you?”

            Sometimes he is good, sometimes she is bad

            everything to me

            someone you can always talk to

            A name in a book and people say it a lot

            Big question for me

      Who is God to you? Describe God. How big is your God? Jeff Atwood wrote and Renee Graef illustrated a children’s book entitled, Our Big, Big God. In the book each page give us something else that God has done for us. With each new revelation of God there is another big added to God’s description. By the end of the book God is Our big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big God. Just how big is your God? Just how big is my God?

      Luke begins this seventh chapter with this story of a Roman centurion in Capernaum, Jewish territory. He has a slave that is near death. He has heard about Jesus. He has never seen him, but he has heard. The centurion asks the elders of the synagogue to go the Jesus and ask Jesus to heal his slave. The elders find Jesus and tell Jesus what a wonderful man this centurion is. They tell Jesus how he love their people and how he has built their synagogue for them. They tell Jesus that he is worthy of having his slave healed.

      Before Jesus can get to his home, the centurion sends friends to Jesus. They are to tell him not to come to his home. They are to ask Jesus to speak a word, and he knows that his slave will be healed. They are to tell Jesus that he is unworthy. That Jesus need not come into his home. He knows about authority, and Jesus is a man with authority.

      And then Jesus says, “Not even in Israel have I found such faith.” This is a Gentile with more faith than anyone in Israel, any of the chosen people. WHAT FAITH! For this centurion, Jesus is no ordinary man. Jesus is God. Jesus is a big, big God. When the friends return to the centurion’s home the slave is well.

      According to the New Interpreter’s Bible, this is not a story about a slave being healed. This is not a story about Jesus’ amazing power to heal. This is a story about a Gentile’s amazing faith. This is a story about a man who had a big, big God.

      Dr. James Moore tells a wonderful story in his book, Some Folks Feel the Rain.

One night, a happily married couple were on a much anticipated trip to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, when their car slammed into a semi-trailer truck rig parked along the shoulder of the highway. They were both killed instantly in the grinding crash. Their three sons (ages twenty, seventeen, and sixteen) were left, in their grief, to open both anniversary cards and sympathy cards on the same day; to turn roses sent for a celebration into memorial flowers for a funeral; to take giant steps into adulthood by selecting caskets and burial spaces for their parents; and to cope with all the other details and decisions that are part of such a trauma.

The middle son, who handled most of the arrangements, testified how, in the wilderness of his confusion and grief, he had experienced more than once the powerful presence of God. He told his pastor that presently he saw God as his shelf, and although everything on that shelf' had been moved around, changed or broken, the shelf had remained the same. He was discovering that the things he rests on the shelf will always change, but the shelf will not. Like the shelf, God is always the same.

God is always the same. We can count on that. And we can count on God! That son, though only seventeen, had already learned from his parents and his church how to trust God. Can you trust God like that? For this son, God is a big, big God. How big is your God?

      Frederick Buechner wrote in The Magnificent Defeat:

      “For what we need to know, of course is not just that God exists,...but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-by-day lives who may not be writing messages about himself in the stars but who in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around down here knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery...of the world.”

      Have you ever been knee-deep in the fragrant muck and misery of this world? We all have. The existence of God is not enough. We need to know that God is present–that God is slugging through the muck and misery with us. A big God does not necessarily lift us above the muck, but always walks with us.

      When I was with Will Willimon this past January, he shared with the group, almost in passing, that we should never experience burn-out. A few weeks ago, the retreat that Diana and I attended had a closing session on burn-out. In 1988, I attended an Alban Institute workshop lead by Roy Oswald. He sent time talking about burn-out. He talked about laity as well as clergy experiencing burn-out and how to avoid it. Every where you turn you find people talking about the reality of burn-out, and yet Bishop Willimon told us we should not experience burn-out. Should we or shouldn’t we?

      I believe that Dr. Willimon was making the assumption that we would remain deeply immersed in the grace of God, deeply committed to an intimate relationship with our savior, and absolutely obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

      Dr. Moore also shared in Some Folks Feel the Rain, a story told by Kara Newell. She says: “My mother is a potter and I’ve spent many happy hours watching her prepare the wet clay, plop a soggy lump of it on the wheel, start the wheel, and slowly draw the clay up into whatever from she has chosen. But, I’ve also watched her stop and start the process over and over when she’s been unable to center the clay properly. [She knows that] whatever come from uncentered clay will not be usable.

      How big is your God? Is our God big enough that we are willing to become clay in the potter’s hands, centering ourselves in him? Is our God big enough that we are willing to devote our very lives to be in ministry with him? Is our God big enough to heal our hurts? Is our God big enough that burn-out can’t happen? Is our God big enough that we can say like Jeff McCoy, “our God is powerful enough to change anything or anyone.”