Installation Sermon - Part 3

Finishing up where I left off - God's unknowable love, the fuel for ministry:

If it is unknowable, then how could it be known? And this leaves us with two options. The first of which is to simply set it aside as some idea that we cannot fully comprehend, and so we will not really give it much thought. Personally, there are a lot of things in life that fall into this category for me. I don’t exactly know how it is that when I turn my key in my ignition, the engine starts. I never took autoshop in school, my dad was not very mechanically inclined, I’ve never really had the desire to understand the complex system that is the internal combustion engine (I figure Ford did it for me, right?) – and so I set it aside. I can’t really know it, and so I let others take care of it for me. They tell me what I need to do, and I do it. They tell me how much it costs to fix, and after I hum and haw and feel like I’m being ripped off, I pay it. And this is one possible attitude that we can take with Christ’s love. If it is truly unknowable – then we can simply admit to it, and not bother to deal with it. After all, there are other aspects of Christianity that can take up our time. We can be busy studying intricate details of Theology or serving the poor, and never have to talk about Christ’s love – and recognize how transformative it is. We can serve because it is the right thing to do – we can spend our time on theological questions such as – “how many angels can fit on the head of a pin” – and be fine without Christ’s love…

Or, we can take the second option. This option is the one that Paul advocates when he explains that we need to know the depths of Christ’s love so that we may be filled with the fullness of God. We can set Christ’s love aside as an unknowable entity, or instead we can plumb its depths, take time and energy to experience and ruminate on it and therefore – be filled with the fullness of God. How amazing is that? How amazing is it that we could have the fullness – not just a touch, not just a drop, not just a part – but the fullness of God? Sit and think about that – the fullness of God in us. If we wonder exactly how we are to stand up today amidst all the problems that surround us – all the pressures that distract us from our calling – the only answer that I can see is by the fullness of God in our lives – by knowing, by digging deep into the knowledge of Christ’s love for us. It is the only fuel source available to us that is sufficient...