Experiencing God: The Chink In God's Armor

"Experiencing God:  The Chink In God's Armor"
Hosea 11:1-9

Has anybody been watching the movie series, "The Hobbit"?  It's based on J.R.R. Tolkein's book by the same name, so maybe some of you have read it.  It's a fantasy story about a little dwarf like man--a Hobbit--named Bilbo Baggins.  Bilbo, against his better judgement, agrees to go on a perilous journey by the wizard, Gandalf.  At one point in the story, Bilbo helped a village get rid of the dragon, Smaug.  Smaug lived inside a dark mountain and slept on a pile of jewels and gold that it had stolen from surrounding villages over a period of many years.  And dragons live a long time.

Because Bilbo had found a magic ring that made him invisible when he wore it, he was chosen to sneak into Smaug's cave and see if the dragon had a weakness.  Bilbo discovered one of the dragon's thick scales had broken off.  The gap in the scales was in the middle of its chest, directly over its heart.  The next time the dragon attacked the village, the archers were ready.  They aimed for the thin spot in the dragon's chest, that one small spot of vulnerability.

Or, there's the Greek myth from Homer's Illiad, about the hero, Achilles.  As a child, Achilles had been dipped in the magical river.  Since that point, Achilles was protected against all foes.  He was dipped all the way in the river, except where he was being held by his heals.  So his heals were not protected from the river's enchantment.

Achilles became a great warrior and the leader in the Trojan Wars.  But he was killed by Paris when Paris shot an arrow that struck Achilles in the heel.  It was his only vulnerable spot.  So the term "Achilles heel" has come to mean those parts of us that are susceptible to attack.  They are our weak spots.  They are the chinks in our armor.  No matter how well we try to protect ourselves, there are those vulnerable spots where our defenses are weakest.  Where there are no dragon scales to protect us.

We believe God is omnipotent.  That is, God is all powerful.  We believe that there is no power or force that is greater than God.  God can do anything.  God can resist all attacks.  God has no unprotected spot.  God has no chink in the armor.  God has no achilles heal.  God has no weaknesses.  We have believed that is true.

I'm not sure I believe that anymore.  I believe I have discovered a weakness in God.  I think I have found a place where God has chosen to be left unprotected.  It is an achilles heal on God.  It is a place where God has chosen to remain vulnerable.  The verses read earlier from Hosea is one of the more poignant places in scripture where God's soft spot is described.

This is how God's chink in the armor came to be.  God fell in love with people.  The way that happened, as described here in Hosea, is through an adoptive process.  God's love is an adoptive love.  It is a love that comes out of choosing rather than obligation.  God adopted--that is, God fell in love in a lovingly, parental way--with people.  It is a conscious choice.  Apparently, if I'm reading these verses correctly, God didn't have to make that choice.  But God did.  God chose us, adopted us, out of a tender love.

God didn't leave it at that.  God could have merely said, "OK, I adopt you; I name you my children."  And then left it at that.  Instead, God took time to be the kind of adoptive parent who takes his choices seriously.  God spent great amounts of time and energy pursuing and adopting us as children.  God uses tender, parental imagery here:  "I was the one who taught Israel how to walk..."  God's love for us has been, and continues to be a pursuing, hands on love.  God is not absentee parent.

Some children were asked what the difference was between plain old love and true love.  One little girl answered, "Love is when my mommy reads me a bedtime story.  True love is when she doesn't skip any pages."

God's pursuing love for us is that kind of not-skipping-any-pages kind of love.  God wants to make sure we know that He is involved with us every step of the way.  And that God will not skip anything along the way to get to us.

God's pursuing love is full of touch and affection.  As it says in these verses in Hosea:  "I took my people up in my arms...I picked them up and held them to my cheek...I drew them to me with affection and love."  God's loving arms are ready for us.

The problem is that we often don't see that.  We don't realize how often or how much God tenderly cares for us.  Touches our spirits in affectionate ways.  "I took my people up in my arms," says God.  But then God follows that statement up with, "...but they did not acknowledge that I took care of them."  God said, "...I called to them, but the more I called, the more they turned away from me."

In the middle of this love poem from God to God's people is an interlude of frustrated love.  Of love spurned.  God's love pursues us; we run away.  We turn to others who promise us much less than what God has offered, and we run toward that, and leave God behind.

Remember I said that God's pursuing love is like an adoptive love.  There are adoptees who search for their biological parents.  I have walked with some parishioners over the years who went through that process, and wish they wouldn't have. Sometimes it breaks the adoptive parents hearts when a child wants to look for his "real" parents.  I try to explain what it means to be a "real" parent.  That it doesn't take much effort to get pregnant and have a child.  Just giving birth doesn't make you  a parent.  It's what you do after the birth that makes you a parent.  That's what real parenting is all about.  To adoptive parents, the adoptee isn't just an adopted child.  He or she is their son or daughter.  Period.

I have a feeling that that is what this interlude of frustrated love in Hosea's love poem is all about.  People said to God, "I'm going to find my 'real' God.  You aren't my real God.  You say you are, but you really aren't."  But even then, God's love doesn't give up the pursuit.

John Henry Jowett once said, "Love doesn't come from doing something; it comes from being with Somebody."

Maybe you've read the book, The Little Prince.  It's just a small book, but packed with insight about love.  It is a fable or parable about the Little Prince who has a special rose.  At one point in the story, the Little Prince is frustrated because of all the time he thinks he has wasted caring for his rose.  The rose, in turn, doesn't seem to appreciate the Little Prince.  The Little Prince tells his woes to the fox.  The fox thinks for a minute and then said, "It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes it so important."

That's what God is saying, I think.  "I've been with you since you were a tiny child.  I have never faltered from being with you.  I have never strayed from pursuing you, or been absent from you.  I have dried your tears when you cried.  I have cheered you on.  I have swelled with pride, just to be with you.  I have wasted time on you, never thinking it a waste.  It was just something I wanted to do.  You can turn away from me all you want.  But I will always be with you, pursuing you with my love, no matter what."

And there lies God's vulnerable spot.  There is God's achilles heal.  There is the chink in God's armor.  God may have to say with Forest Gump, "I may not be a very smart man, but I know what love is."  That's the way God chooses to appear: maybe not very smart in continuing the pursuit (just like Forest Gump did with Jenny in the movie), but God is very loving.  Very forgiving.  Very accepting.  Very unvengeful.  Very faithful and loyal.  No matter what.

Sir Thomas More was an Irish poet.  He got married early in life to a beautiful Irish lass with flaming red hair and green eyes.  Her beauty surpassed them all.

Sir Thomas was called away to teach for a time at a distant university.  During his absence, his beautiful wife contracted smallpox.  The dreaded disease left pock marks and scars all over her body, especially her face.  She couldn't even look at herself, and forbade others to look at her as well.  She was so fearful that Sir Thomas would reject her that she resolved her face would never agains see the light of day.  She kept herself in her room, and had heavy drapes fitted to block out all sunlight.

When Sir Thomas returned, he was informed about his once lovely wife.  He went immediately up to their bedroom.  She recognized his footsteps in the darkness and said, "No, Thomas, come no nearer.  I have resolved that you will never see me again by the light of day."  Sir Thomas quietly, without saying a word, turned and left the room.

He went downstairs and went into the music room where he sat at the piano working on the words of a poem.  The next morning he returned to the upstairs bedroom.  He came to the door of the bedroom, pushed it open, and there in the half light of the hallway, he took the poem and read it to her:

Believe me,
if all those endearing young charms,
which I look on so fondly today,
were to pass in a moment,
and flee from my arms
like fairy dreams fading away,
thou would'st still be adored,
as this moment thou art.
Let thy loveliness fade as it will;
and around that dear visage
each throb of my heart
would entwine itself
verdantly still.

Sir Thomas placed the paper in his vest pocket, moved to one of the large windows, and threw open the heavy drapes.  As the first rays of the early morning's dawn flooded into the room, he turned just in time to receive his wife into his arms.

God's love poem here in Hosea carries the same message:
How can I give you up?
How can I abandon you?
My heart will not let me do it!
My love for you is too strong.

In those words lay the soft spot that leads to God's own heart.  It is a spot that God has chosen not to protect.  It is the place God leaves open, hoping we will see it and take advantage of it, not to wound God, but to embrace God and allow ourselves to be embraced by God--right next to God's exposed and ever pursuing heart.