“Sinners in the Hands of an Amazing God”--Dr. Thomas Boone
Hosea 11:1-9, John 14:23-29
Central Presbyterian Church, May 13, 2007

I’ve got some great news for ya’ll today. We serve an absolutely amazing God! Think about it: God created everything out of nothing. Amazing! Jesus was born from a virgin. Amazing! God raised Jesus from the dead after three days. Amazing! God separated a red sea to let His people pass. Amazing! What has God done that’s amazing in your life? That’s what I want to talk about today.

Have you ever had an experience that has left you with more emotion than you have words to describe it? That’s what’s like to be amazed. Amazement occurs whenever something or someone overwhelms our senses. Amazement describes the birth of a first child as you ponder how it all happens. Amazement happens when parents look at their teenagers who one day perform on a stage far beyond themselves, and on the next day make us bury our heavy heads in weary hands.

Have you ever experienced amazement in nature, where sheer majesty makes even a GRE vocabulary ineffectual? When I think of the signature of our amazing God in nature I think of Gerald Manley Hopkins words, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” (“God’s Grandeur”, 1918). It’s amazing to sit on a snow-covered dome at 14,000 feet and look across the horizon at God’s creation. It’s amazing to stand in a place that’s devoid of all noise and feel a silence so heavy that even a soft spoken “Hello” from one hundred feet away would crease the stillness. It’s amazing to witness the back of a fin whale break through the surface of a still sea only twenty feet from you.

Maybe you’ve been amazed at a person. Amazing is the story of anyone who turns temporal tragedy into eternal triumph. I think of one of my friends whose faith during hardship has triumphed inspiring me during my times of trial. Divorce, a child decaying on the inside from turmoil, financial hardship, loss of his parents by his mid-forties, constant battles with depression. None of this has been enough to erode his faith in a God Who, he believes, makes only one promise: to be with him no matter what. I stand amazed by him, humbled whenever I’m tempted to complain over relatively trivial matters. I’ve told him of my amazement at him, and of course he only ever responds “It’s God who’s amazing, not me.” We do have an amazing God.

Amazing often finds its way into our vocabulary about God. How He mysteriously weaves glory out of trauma; this amazes me. How He shows favor and grace when I know for myself that I deserve much less; this amazes me. How the Lord brings peace in the midst of situations where anger would otherwise drown us amazes me. How He’s able to restore our hope when we think all has been lost; this amazes me. Amazement was the inspiration behind the hymn “Amazing Grace,” and it’s one we sing often, but, are you really amazed by God? While you ponder that one for a bit, let me get back to scripture.

The passage from Hosea paints a picture of a God who amazed His people. Whereas God provided opportunity and redemption, the Israelites used that freedom to chase after other gods. Whereas God empowered them to achieve victories against all odds, they gave themselves the credit. Whereas God provided for them in their times of need, they returned thanks to Ba’al in order to gain favor from surrounding nations. As Hosea presents the tale of God and His people, it is a story of an unfaithful response to complete faithfulness. So Hosea asks, what will God, the Almighty Sovereign of the universe, do to the people of Israel?

Neither because they deserved it nor because they earned it God amazes them. “How can I give you up? How can I destroy you? How can I withhold my hand from you? How can I do anything but love you? I am angry yet my heart is filled with compassion for you so that I’ll be tender even though you’ve been unfaithful.”

How very different from a sermon that was preached long ago by Jonathon Edwards titled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He said, “And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to others...If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had died and gone to hell before you had seen it.”

I’m not arguing that God does not have anger against sin, or that He covets our faithfulness and could punish our disobedience. Yet, I do argue against the notion that God’s Spirit is a weapon against people who are not in Jesus Christ. God is grace. It’s not simply that God performs grace. It defines Him. If you’ve been made to feel the belittlement of judgment, the base sting of misguided correction, then you’ve been attacked from one who may have spoken as if from God, but was in fact not speaking for Him. Each of us strays from God, and not one of us can say that we’ve lived dependent upon our ability more than by His grace.

The passage in John exemplifies this point. To those who would abandon Jesus, he promised them comfort. To those who would choose self-service over Christ-service, he promised them the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them understand how to choose God’s ways over their own ways. To those who doubted Jesus time and again, he promised them peace. To us all Jesus promised the Holy Spirit: comforter, continual nurturer of faith, reliable instructor, steadfast presence of God in our lives even when we wandered far away.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Trouble and fear: two powerful allies against faith. Sometimes its from things outside us that we experience trouble and fear. A family member suddenly has a stroke. Parents bring in an unsuspecting child with news of their divorce. You go to work one day only to discover that the next day you’ll no longer be working. A drunk driver invades your physical universe without your permission. Trouble and fear will dash our hope because their reality brings a power that can blind us from God if we let it.

And that’s the goal of the Evil One: to blind us from God. If enough barriers rise up we’ll lose sight of our amazing God. And the Evil One is a master of erecting barriers. He doesn’t care about you, or your children. The Evil One doesn’t concern himself with your need for security, home, and health, he only wants to destroy them, especially if you’re one of God’s children. The less we believe that our God is amazing, the more our faith in today’s world will falter. People won’t give their lives to something that isn’t amazing.

So, I have a question for you. How long has it been since you’ve been amazed by God? I’ve been spending the Sundays after Easter talking about resurrection and hope. Today, with the communion we’re about to partake, I’m asking you to look inward a bit. I’m convinced that God wants to make much of you. He has a purpose for you and that’s more than to occupy a building in mid-town. He intends for you to be on the front lines of a ministry to people in mid-town who’ve lost touch with God, for one reason or another.

But, for you to taste even a small portion of what God has in store for Central means that you’re going to have to get in touch with how amazing God is. That’s a story that’ll preach. Give me ten people who’ve been reignited in their faith and in time I’ll give you sixty new members. Give me sixty who can tell a story of their amazing God, and I’ll give you four hundred in time. Do you understand what I’m saying? It’s not about what I can do, it’s about the effect you can have on a person’s life. When people are amazed they become contagious. When people rekindle their amazement in God they become magnets of hope because people need hope.

The south is filled with churches that are occupied by people who think of church as a social club, a means of getting ahead because the right person in the company attends, or a smorgasbord of community opportunities. We know of many just like that in this city. It may have been that Central, at one time, was like that.

But I’m not preaching about what may have been. I’m telling the story like it is right now. And right now I see people who want to provide hope, yet still struggle with some barriers. I see people who know in their hearts that God wants to do something through Central, yet haven’t mourned the losses and let go of what will never return. I see people who are praying for God to do a new thing here, yet struggle to move forward in unity. So, let me tell you what I’m praying for here.

I’m praying that each of you will be able to tell the story of your God who has amazed you. Where there has been a pit, there has also been resurrection. Tell the story. Where there has been sorrow, there has been renewed hope. Tell the story. Where there has been loss, God has shown you gain. Tell the story. Each of us are but sinners in the hands of an amazing God. Let’s tell the story, and give the hope that God yearns for people to have through us. That will be your new shadow, and you will be amazed at how God achieves this. Hallelujah. Amen.