O God, thou bottomless abyss!

Harsh critics of this blog might point out that, although it's called 'Theologian on the move', there's a lot more travelogue than theolog about it. Perhaps it's time to remedy that. 

It was 5.15 am in the coffee bar of Nausori airport. Winston Halapua suddenly asked my why I thought John Wesley had a written a hymn beginning with the line, 'O God, thou bottomless abyss'. It was a typical Winston question - four years ago he quizzed me about the Cappadocian Fathers during 

our early morning walK around Suva. Winston has written about moana - a Polynesian word for the ocean - as a way of understanding how God, the world and humanity are connected. He likes to point out that for islanders the ocean isn't so much the barrier that seperates us from one another as the thing that connects us to each other. Remember my blog about John Hunt on Viwa? He was there because he could get quickly out to sea to visit mission stations on other islands. 

Three days later I'm very conscious of the ocean; the muted roar of its waves have become a reassuring background to the day. The Pacific stretches beyond the horizon, and on for thousands of miles. And, of course, it's deep. Not quite bottomless, perhaps, but  with trenches that could swallow Everest without any bother. 

It turns out that Wesley's hymn was actually a translation from the German (the original is by Ernst Lange, a pietist) and first published in 1737 as part of a collection in Georgia during Wesley's unsuccessful missionary service in America. I  wonder if it was introduced to Wesley by the Moravians he encountered on his rough crossing of the Atlantic. Famously, these pietist Christians sang and prayed with confidence while the rest of the ship's company was in panic,  so Wesley may have been picking up a (for him) new way of understanding God through the experience of a safely-completed voyage. Here's how it begins:

O God, thou bottomless abyss,

Thee to perfection who can know?

O height immense, what words suffice

Thy countless attributes to show?

Unfathomable depths thou art

I plunge me in thy mercy's sea

Void of true wisdom is my heart

With love embrace and cover me

(Full text: http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/hymnlyrics2/pdf/o_god,_thou_bottomless_abyss-ernst_lange.pdf)

The hymn goes on to use the metaphor of the ocean to explore the immensity, power and unknowability of God, as well as God's benevolent provision and all-encompassing love. 

It's an interesting contrast to the way the sea is often depicted in the Bible. The people of Israel were landlubbers, and tended to see the sea as a threatening, chaotic force always in danger of overwhelming the order of creation. Noah's flood, Jonah in the fish's belly and so on. But in a context - like the Pacific islands - where the ocean is the ever-present reality and the source of so much provision - the sea can be seen in a more positive light. I'm reminded that sometimes we can only do justice to the' big picture' message of the Bible by using different language, or using language differently. It's what we call contextual hermeneutics in the trade.

So 'Oh God, thou bottomless abyss' is a thought that keeps coming  to mind in my temporary home by the shore. But today there's a reminder that the ocean can't be taken for granted. It has forces beyond our control. A new cyclone (Amos - the alphabet has started again after Zena) is bearing down on us. Already the intense rain is pouring down (forcing the cancellation of the Women's fellowship BBQ) and there's a warning of strong winds and tidal surges to come. And that, too, gives theologians pause for thought.