From the Pastor

“The Inescapability

of God” 

A few years ago, I was at a Middle School Summer Retreat, and the theme for the week was, “Inside Out.” The point was, we are known by God through and through, because God’s love is high, long, deep, and wide. And when I think of the width of God’s love, I can’t help but think of Psalm 139. Psalm 139 begins with, “Oh Lord, you have searched me, and you know me.” You say, “Well of course, God knows us. God knows everything. God is omniscient.” God is all-knowing. 

In verses 7-12, it’s almost as if David, the author of Psalm 139, is playing this whimsical game of “Hide and Go Seek” with God. “Where can I go from your Spirit?” In other words, “God, how can I play hide and seek from you? If I go over here, you’re there. If I go over there, you’re there too. If I go into the heavens, or into the depths, you are there.” It’s almost as if David is thinking, “God, your way too good at this game.” And that’s because God is not only omniscient (all-knowing), but David tells us that God is omnipresent (God is everywhere), and everywhere -- all the time. “If I go into the heavens, you are there.” You might think of it as, “The Inescapability of God.” There is no place where God is not. It reminds me of that old African-American spiritual which goes: “He’s so high, you can’t get over him. He’s so low, you can’t get under him. He’s so wide, you can’t get around him.” We just can’t away from the presence of God.

The prophet Jonah is someone who tried to do those things by running away from God. God said, “Jonah, I need for you to go to the city of Nineveh and preach to those people.” And Jonah goes to the seaport city of Joppa, runs to the ticket booth and says, “I want a ticket to the furthest place I can think of, – how about Tarshish?” Tarshish was a little fishing village on the Atlantic coast of southern Spain. If we were to look at a historical map, we would find it pretty amusing, because Nineveh is on one end, and Tarshish is way over on the other side. It would be like God saying to us to go and preach to those crazy Californians, and instead, we hopped in our cars, got on 95 south, and headed for the Florida Keys. Jonah hopped aboard a boat and headed in the exact opposite direction that God was calling him. 

What’s amazing is that Jonah actually believed that he could run away from the presence of the Lord. Jonah figured once he was outside of Israel, and out to sea, he would be away from the clutches of God. But God said, “Not so fast, Jonah. It’s about time you learned just how WIDE my love span really is.” Because Jonah launches out on that ship and God goes, “Whoosh! Whoosh!” Jonah is thrown against the railing of that boat like a rag doll, and he’s hanging on for dear life, as waves are washing across the deck, drenching him from head to toe. Suddenly, the lightbulb goes on over Jonah’s head. He thinks, “Wow! God is out here too!” You see, there is just no way that Jonah is going to get away from God. He can’t run. He can’t hide. He can’t even die, because even after he's thrown overboard by the sailors, a great fish comes along to swallow and rescue Jonah. One way or another, God is going to get Jonah over to Nineveh to preach the gospel to those people. Don’t you just love the persistent nature of God? The fact that God does not give up on us. The truth that God’s love is wider then we can ever comprehend. When you think you can escape God, think again, because you can’t. There is nowhere you can go, where God is not already there.

Please join us in person for worship at either 8:00 am or 10:30 am this Sunday, January 31. Or, you can watch from home at 10:30, through our remote broadcast offerings as I finish my sermon series on “Dimensions,” and we look more closely at the “width” of God’s love.     

Pastor John