Understanding God
Romans 11:33-12:8

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The God with whom we deal, the One in whom we believe—the blessed Holy Trinity—not only surpasses understanding; He defies understanding. He fits into none of those pre-conceived notions we may have about who or what kind of God He is. We like to think that we are sophisticated people; we like to think that, with all of our technology and our ability to find and retrieve information almost instantaneously, there is nothing we cannot know, nothing we cannot do, nothing we cannot manipulate, if we just have the proper information and the right equipment. But how do you stop a massive earthquake or a terrible hurricane? How do you halt seemingly inevitable flood waters? And, more difficult still, how do you explain such things? For what precise reason do they happen? And why do they happen over and over again?

Think about the questions St. Paul asks the Romans. “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” Do you know it? Of course, you don’t. Sure, there is much you can know about God. This wonderful creation all around us reveals many things about Him. As David joyfully confessed in the Psalms: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Creation reveals a marvelous order, and the genius behind it, that tells us a good deal about God. But do you know the mind of God? Are you able to search into the deep recesses of the divine mind to see what is there and to evaluate not only what He thinks, but also the way He thinks?

Ask yourself this: “Who has been [God’s] counselor?” God has never talked things over with me. Does He consult you before He does what He does? But like me, there are times when you think He should, don’t you? Don’t you think that, given the things that have happened to you, He must not really understand what is going on with you? The Psalmist wrote: “He that keeps Israel neither slumbers not sleeps.” But don’t you wonder sometimes how true that is? There have been plenty of times when we think He must have been asleep—or, at least, He wasn’t paying attention. Things have happened to you that brought pain and suffering, sorrow and grief. Many have been the troubles that could have been avoided if God had only talked to you first.

What about this: “Who has given a gift to [God] that it might be repaid?” Have you ever tried to make a bargain with God? How did that work for you? But God who gives to all life and breath and all things, without Whom we can do nothing; we cannot place Him under obligation to us. There is no possibility for the human mind to search out the mind of God, to understand God’s ways and judgments. And so, we really are helpless; we are completely dependent on the goodness and the mercy of God. Left to our own devices, we will only make things worse than they were. But are we hopeless? That is another matter altogether. St. Paul’s words that close out this reading speak of the hope we have: “For from him and to him and through him are all things. To Him be glory forever.”

What about this one: “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” We certainly haven’t, but our Lord Jesus Christ came for that very purpose. Philip said to Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” And Jesus replied, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” All that we need to know of the mind of God has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ and in all that He has done for us. His willingness to suffer and die, to lay down His life for us that we might be redeemed from sin and death—these reveal the mind of God to be one of love and mercy and goodness toward us.

Here’s another one: “Who has been [God’s] Counselor?” God certainly has no need of our advice on how to take care of His world. What advice could we even give? What He has given us is the privilege of prayer, as well as His promise to hear and answer us when we pray. This is one of the great mysteries of our faith. Holy Scripture teaches us that, in His infallible foreknowledge, God knows all that will happen before it happens. But as the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah: “Before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” It is not for us to understand how these things can all be reconciled. That is in the mind of God! It is only for us to believe that, as irreconcilable as this may seem to us, it is true.

And one more question: “Who has given a gift to [God] that it might be repaid?” This is the way our world works, isn’t it? It’s called “reciprocity:” one good turn deserves another. But while we have God to thank for all that we are and have, He requires nothing from us! Instead, He has received the payment in blood by His own Son. The justice required by God was offered up by His Son through His suffering and death in our place. And now, in faith, out of love and gratitude, we return to the Lord praise and thanksgiving, together with all the gifts He has given us, that they might be used to serve Him.

And still, God remains the One who cannot be understood, who defies being understood. But we don’t need to understand how God works. In Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection for us, the Triune God revealed all that we need to know, and all we need to believe for life now and life forever with Him. Truly, as Paul said: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” That’s what we need to know about God. That’s what we need to understand. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.