Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Back in 1952, J. B. Phillips published a book entitled Your God is too Small. The basic premise of the book is that so often the concept of God that many of us hold in our minds limits the work of the true God throughout the universe. Oh, we may not be able to truly limit His work, but because our concept of God and what He does and what we believe He can do is often so small in our minds, we don’t see, we don’t properly credit, we don’t properly praise God for what He’s done in our lives and in our universe.

Our theme this morning is a question: “Is Your God BIG Enough?” That’s a theme that weaves it’s way through our Scripture readings this morning.

In our First Reading [Acts 16:9-15], we heard about Paul’s vision to travel to Macedonia. In a dream, Paul saw a man begging him. Instead of limiting God, as many of us maybe would, crediting that vision instead like Ebenezer Scrooge to a bit of undigested meat from last night’s supper, Paul’s God was big enough. He concluded that vision was a call from God to preach the Gospel in another area of the world, so he packed up, traveled to Macedonia, and saved Lydia and her entire household. If Paul’s God wasn’t big enough, that wouldn’t have happened.

In our Second Reading today [Revelation 21:9-14, 21-27], St. John must have asked the question asked by many of us, that question being “What is Heaven like?” That’s not at all an unusual question, but what is unusual is that John’s God was big enough to actually show him that Holy City, that New Jerusalem, with its high wall and twelve gates and twelve angels guarding those gates, with its twelve foundations and with the glory and honor of all the nations within it. If John’s God wasn’t big enough, he wouldn’t have had anything to write home about.

In our Gospel [John 5:1-9], we see that same theme in an interesting interaction between Jesus and an invalid. In this interaction, Jesus asked the man who had been an invalid for 38 years if he wanted to get well. Notice that the invalid’s response was not “Yes” or “No.” His response instead could have well limited the power of Jesus in his life. His response was about agitated water in the Pool of Bethesda and not having anyone to get him into those waters.

The Pool of Bethesda was fed by an underground well or hot spring. Occasionally, like in Yellowstone National Park, the pool would bubble. The water was curative and healing. The legend was that angels would come down and stir the water and that those who were in the water or would get into the water would experience healing. Since he was an invalid, the man had to rely upon others to get him into the pool and, by the time he got someone’s attention, the agitated, healing water would stop. This would happen time and time again. It’s obviously what occupied a lot of his thoughts during his waking hours.

By answering Jesus’ question, “Do you want to get well?” with a response about the Pool of Bethesda, we see that the invalid’s God was not big enough. Healing to him was not seen as being possible simply from this man standing before him, asking him that question. Instead, healing to him was limited to being possible by being in the water of the Pool of Bethesda.

I wonder how often many of us do the same thing? I wonder how many of us have a God Who is not big enough? I wonder how many of us have God standing in front of us in our time of want or need, willing to make that happen in our lives, but we limit His ways of working to ways we understand, to ways we approve, to ways we anticipate, to ways with which we are comfortable. When we do that, we can sometimes miss out on what He does or what He wants to do.

You know, my friends, there is no such thing as having a God Who is too big. Our God, after all, brought into existence this entire world, everything we can see, feel and touch, as well as everything we can’t even dare to imagine. Our God personally created each of us, intricately knitting us together in the wombs of our mothers, so wonderfully creating us that the operation of the human body continues to amaze the experts operating in today’s advanced medical industry. Our God broke the boundary between Heaven and earth, stepping off His eternal Throne to clothe Himself in our flesh in order to challenge the perceptions of God held by us human beings. Our God broke the power of sin and death, by dying and then rising again. Our God broke the laws of nature by ascending from earth into Heaven. All of those are truly amazing, awe-inspiring events. I am unaware of anyone else in the entire world, throughout all time, who has ever done even one of these miraculous things, yet alone all of them.

So what I am saying to you is that there is no such thing as having a God Who is too big. Instead, our God can handle all our problems. Our God is not limited by our finite minds. Our God does not always work in ways we can understand.

Our God asks each of us today, “Do you want to get well?” – whatever that “wellness” might be. Maybe it’s literal health and healing issues. Maybe it’s a new job. Maybe it’s being able to pay the bills. Maybe it’s a crushing concern we have for someone else. Whatever that “wellness” might be, our God asks each of us today, “Do you want to get well?” How will you answer?

My hope and prayer is that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, your God is big enough for you to say “Yes, Lord, I want to get well” and that your God is big enough for you to receive His working in your life.

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena