How Deep the Father’s Love

As you read this, our students and staff are returning from what will no doubt have been a deeply refreshing time of Bible study, worship, and quality relaxation together on the Redneck Riviera: Panama City Beach. I’m actually writing this, however, in the midst of VBS week, holed up at Starbucks while the church property is overrun with elementary-aged blessings who happen to believe that I am a pirate. There’s a shipwreck and a waterfall in the sanctuary, drawing the imagination to a mysterious tropical paradise as the context for our leaders to make a compelling case for God’s saving love. I’m incredibly grateful for the staff and 70+ volunteers who have worked like sea dogs to bring our children to God. It’s actually good that I can get away from the typical rhythms a bit this week and get ahead before the summer gets out of hand. Since I will be at the beach with our youth next week, I’m writing this sermon a week ahead, and it’s proved a weird contrast. While I’m romanticizing over a week of sand and sun, I’m also preparing a sermon on Christ’s suffering, crucifixion, and death. It’s hard to reconcile those vibes. Yet that stark contrast between relaxation and execution actually mirrors what’s going on in the Apostles’ Creed at this point, in a way. Up until now, everything has been idyllic – God the Father is Almighty, making Heaven and Earth; Jesus Christ, His only Son and our Lord, born such a sweet baby to such a precious young girl and all that incarnational goodness. Then suddenly, Pontius Pilate enters, as Karl Barth laments, “Like a dog into a nice room.” And immediately we get the inconceivable suffering and fatal humiliation of the world’s most beautiful man, followed by his decent into… Hell? It’s a jarring shift, or at least it ought to be. But one jarring shift leads to another. If his ideal existence doesn’t descend to the very depths of our own brokenness, and in such sublime fashion, there’s no way we, in our brokenness, could have ascended with him to join in the rest of his glorious story. This truly is the crux of the creed: what comes down must go up. I’m honored to share it with you this Sunday as we celebrate the love of a perfect Father, who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. - Josh