Pentecost 18 (5)

Several months ago the major news story for several days was about a massive search that was going in in the North Atlantic (Research details).

The U.S. Coast Guard was racing against time today to find a deep-diving submersible with five people on board two days after it went missing in the North Atlantic.

The submersible, the Titan, had been in the area to explore the wreck of the Titanic when it lost contact on Sunday morning with a chartered research ship at the dive site.

The challenges facing the search effort are immense: The submersible went missing in a remote patch of ocean, where the seafloor lies more than two miles below the choppy surface. At those depths, the crushing water pressure is too much for divers and many other underwater vehicles.

“There are so many things that can go wrong,” said my colleague William Broad, who has explored the ocean in a similar submersible. “Communications can go out, as is clearly the case with the Titan submersible. The scarier, worse things are the nonelectrical, mechanical breakdowns. For instance, when the propellers that move the submersible stop working.”

The Titan is thought to be equipped with only a few days’ worth of oxygen, and, as of 1 p.m. Eastern time today, there were probably about 40 hours of breathable air left, Capt. Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard said. The authorities said that an area “about the size of Connecticut” had been searched without any results.

The submersible is operated by OceanGate Expeditions, a company that has provided tours of the Titanic wreck since 2021 — for a price of up to $250,000 per person — as part of a booming high-risk-travel industry. Dozens of experts wrote a letter in 2018 warning OceanGate of possible “catastrophic” problems with their Titanic missions.

Hamish Harding, a British businessman and explorer aboard the Titan, said in a 2021 interview that he had taken on deep-sea missions in the past knowing that rescue would not be an option. “If something goes wrong, you are not coming back,” he said.

This small group of people had voyaged to the bottom of the sea to see in person something that had been lost but now was found. They went down to observe the wreck of the Titanic — perhaps one of the most famous ship disasters in history. But they did not need to search for the wreck. That had been discovered . . . (research)

Seventy-three years after it sank to the North Atlantic ocean floor, a joint U.S.-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic. The sunken liner was about 400 miles east of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic, some 13,000 feet below the surface.

Efforts to locate and salvage the Titanic began almost immediately after it sank. But technical limitations—as well as the sheer vastness of the North Atlantic search area—made it extremely difficult. American oceanographer and former Navy officer Robert D. Ballard, who was based out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, led his first search expedition in 1977, which was unsuccessful.

In 1985, along with French oceanographer Jean-Louis Michel, Ballard again set out to locate the wreck, this time with an experimental, unmanned submersible called the Argo, developed by the U.S. Navy. The Argo traveled just above the ocean floor, sending photographs up to the research vessel Knorr. In the early morning of September 1, Argo was investigating debris on the ocean floor when it suddenly passed over one of the Titanic‘s massive boilers, lying at a depth of about 13,000 feet.

The next day, the body of the ship was discovered nearby. It had split in two, but many of its features and interiors were remarkably well-preserved. Hundreds of thousands of bits of debris were scattered in a 2-square-mile radius around the ship. The wreck was subsequently explored by manned and unmanned submersibles, which shed new light on the details of its 1912 sinking.

The Titanic is now routinely explored, and several thousand artifacts have been recovered. Ballard—who was celebrated as a hero after the discovery—has led several more high-profile search expeditions, including of the RMS Lusitania and the USS Yorktown.

Doesn’t it seem ironic that searches had looked in such a wide area only to find that what they were seeking were literally right under their noses?

I believe the same is true when it comes to seeking the Lord (He is not in heaven so you have to ascend to him?) Find passage.

Our God is the only God and unique from so many so called “gods”. Some of those other “gods” were in belief limited to certain areas or realms of control. Our God is omnipresent and all powerful. His desire is that people seek him out. See Paul’s sermon on Mar’s Hill.

Psalm 145:14–20 (NIV)

14 The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. 15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does. 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them. 20 The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.

Acts 17:24–28 (NIV)

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Explain the context of why Isaiah was commanding the people to seek out the Lord and what they were to do.

Isaiah 53 is perhaps the best known chapter in Isaiah for its stark prophecy of the suffering of Jesus on the cross. Isaiah 54 unveils the salvation that Jesus has won for us and how God provides it to all who come to him. Isaiah 55 is the invitation to come to the Lord to received that salvation. Jesus picks up on this imagery in his parable of the wedding feast and the great banquet. Our text emphasizes how important it is to respond to that invitation by seeking the Lord and coming to him in faith.

People today are still commanded to seek out the Lord and his will for our lives and commended when they do.

2 Chronicles 19:1–3 (NIV)

1 When Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned safely to his palace in Jerusalem, 2 Jehu the seer, the son of Hanani, went out to meet him and said to the king, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the Lord? Because of this, the wrath of the Lord is on you. 3 There is, however, some good in you, for you have rid the land of the Asherah poles and have set your heart on seeking God.”

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Proverbs 8:17 (NIV)

17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.

This is not just an appeal to those who do not know God or believe in him. It is an appeal to the people of Israel to return to him after they had broken the covenant and God has punished them.

Isaiah 54:4–10 (NIV84)

4 “Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. 5 For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. 6 The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit— a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God. 7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. 8 In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer. 9 “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. 10 Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Application. We believe that we have a relationship with God because God is the one who sought us out. “I believe that I cannot by my own thinking or choosing believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, nor come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and keeps me in the one true faith.” Amazing Grace lyric: “I once was lost, but now am found.”

Why, then, the appeal to seek the Lord? It is a call to repentance trusting that God forgives his wayward children and reassures them of the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for them on the cross. Seeking the Lord is an encouragement not to hide from God as Adam and Eve did or as David did after the murder of Uriah the Hittite, but to come clean and openly confess to God our sins and plead for forgiveness.

We don’t know what thoughts Adam and Eve had after the Fall into sin. We do know what their actions were — they were hiding.

We do have insight into what David was thinking after his sins. (Read Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 excerpts)

Psalm 32:1–11 (NIV)

1 Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. 3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin. 6 Therefore let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found; surely the rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. 7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. 11 Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!

This penitential psalms are an instructive tool for us to use when we are impacted by the guilt of our sins. They also offer us hope and reassurance of forgiveness.