June 21, 2009 — Third Sunday after Pentecost
“God is God and We're Not” — Vicar Zickler
No audio available this week.
Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The sermon text for today is the Old Testament Lesson previously read especially verses 3 and 4 which read, “I will question you, and you make it known to me. Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.”
We live in a time that is increasingly non Christian. I’m sure I don’t have to tell any of you that, you all live in Seattle, a haven for such culture. You know all to well the effects of secular humanism, that philosophy that is permeating our society; the philosophy that rejects the supernatural and stresses self realization by reason. Yes, you know how the understanding of this culture is not one of trust in God, but in humanity. As the words of the Secular Humanist manifesto say, “They believe that men and women are free and are responsible for their own destinies and that they cannot look toward some transcendent Being for salvation.” So, this makes it about as clear as it can be made. Secular Humanism wants to make man His own God. Well, as we look at the lessons for today we see that this is not the case. No, God is God, and we are creature. Just like Chevy Chase used to begin the weekly news skit on Saturday Night Live by saying, “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not”, here God is saying, “I’m God and you’re not.” He especially does this in the Old Testament Lesson when He says to Job, “I will question you, and you make it known to me. Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.”
Here Job has been suffering all kinds of ills because the devil made a sort of a bet with God the he would fail them and curse God. Job never goes so far as to actually curse God, but he does do a lot of self justification, saying that God actually is wrong to have done this. So what does God say to Job? He calls Job into the principal’s office, sits him down and says, “Listen Job, I’m God and you’re not.”
Of course secular humanists aren’t the only ones who don’t like hearing these sorts of words, we don’t like them either: we cringe at them. We don’t like for God to remind us that we aren’t in control of everything. We don’t like this because if we aren’t in control of everything we aren’t free. But we are free right? No one can tell us what to do. We are free to do what we please, we are free do whatever job we want to do, we are free to marry who we want to marry, we are free to spend our money on whatever we would like to spend our money on, we are free to get up in the morning and do whatever we want. We are free, free, free. Now, in reality our freedom in these things is true. Because we are Americans and our government is set up the way it is, we are free to do all of these things, and the government can’t stop us. However, in God’s eyes we aren’t free, we are bound. We are bound to our sin. This is what we really don’t like to hear: this is why we don’t like to hear God say, “I’m God and you’re not.” We don’t like it because ever since the fall we have been making ourselves God. Ever since Adam and Eve and ate of the fruit from that tree every “intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Gen 8:21)
And why is it evil? Because ever since that fruit was eaten, everything man wanted to do related to making himself his own God. Ever since Adam and Eve were deceived into thinking God might be holding out on them something that would make their lives even better, all of us have been continuing in that mindset thinking that we know better than God; thinking that it would be best for us to be God. We think that God is surely hiding something behind door number two that would be better for us, and if we were God, we could, we surely would unlock that door number two for everyone and really do it right.
This is just how we are. We think that it would be best for us to have all of the wealth to be comfortable. That’s really what would be best for us after all, to be totally comfortable in this life, no matter how much that would mean for someone else to be uncomfortable. Or we think that we should have everything we see as good that everyone else has. We should have all of the authority and power over people; we should have all of the glory for ourselves. Or maybe we just try to justify ourselves and our actions instead of God like Job did. Maybe we try to say that we don’t deserve the hardships in our lives because of our own righteousness, our own goodness… that we shouldn’t have the illness that we have because we don’t deserve it, or we shouldn’t have to see other people suffering because it hurts us too much. Or, some of us who are even a tad more superficial and get just as angry when we can’t find what we want at the store or when we get caught in traffic when we’re in a hurry.
Then, there are those of us who really are not as self-centered. We really get more upset with the injustices of the world. When something happens that’s bad we question why it should happen. When children die, when shootings occur, when loved ones suffer, we say “How could a loving God do this?” We think to ourselves that if we were God this wouldn’t happen. If we were God there wouldn’t be suffering. If we were God we would make sure that things happened in a way that was a lot better, without all the pain. We even say that if we were God we would make sure that everyone would be saved and go to Heaven. Obviously by all of this we know that we love people more than God does… right? We know what’s best don’t we? Really we don’t. This is the point where God comes to us and He says, “I will question you, and you make it known to me. Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.” Because you see in all of this we really just reveal all the more that bondage that we have to sin; that bondage that we have to the desire to be our own God, because this lack of freedom that we have isn’t a lack of ability to do what we want, it is that we are bound to do exactly what we want: to continually make ourselves God.
I was watching a cartoon on TV that epitomizes exactly how we are. In this cartoon there is a recurring joke where one of the characters, a talking dog, will be in a position where he is talking and disagreeing with his owners, but his owners, in order to get him to do what they want, will take out a bone to throw it. Before they throw it, though, the dog will see it, and will say, “Oh no, don’t do it, no, no that’s not…” and before he can argue through it, the bone has been thrown and he can’t resist the urge to run after the bone excitedly barking mindlessly. This is us, and our bone is the idea that we should be God, and we chase after it mindlessly excitedly chasing it every chance we get. We are bound to the desire to make ourselves God, to justify ourselves, just like Job.
Oh I could go on and on about this because the possibilities are endless. But, of course the wonder to all of this is that God, who really is God, still cares for us, He still loves us in this state, and He still provides for us. This God has not just left us bound in our desire to serve ourselves. He has not left us trapped in our prison of service to self, sin, death and the devil. No this God who rebuked Job and who rebukes us and our desire to be God is the same God who “in Christ… was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” (2 Cor 5:19) In Christ He comes to actively live the life we cannot; the life of love for God and neighbor, the perfect life, and by dying the death we deserve; the death on the cross as the atonement for our sins, then giving us freedom in His resurrection.
We can only wonder about why this God, who is God; this God who controls all things, why He, to paraphrase Paul’s statement in Romans 8, would work all things to the good of those undeserving people who love Him. Why would the all-powerful, all-majestic, all-knowing God, who deserves all glory, all laud and all honor, be made flesh in the man Jesus? Why would this person Jesus, who had that same authority, allow Himself to be crucified?
We saw in the Gospel lesson how Jesus had power. He had the power to control the elements of the earth, to speak the mere words “Peace, Be Still” and in them make the winds cease, to bring peace in the storm. Why does this Jesus, with all of this power, set aside this power, humbling that human nature, changing it eternally, by being obedient to the point of death, even the horrid lowly criminal’s death of crucifixion, suffering Hell for us in the process? And why does He now bring what He has done to us by the power of the Word preached and attached to the waters of Baptism and the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper? Well we all know the answer already: most simply, love. God is love. God has loved us eternally, He has loved us completely and He has loved us undeservedly. This is the incredible thing of this whole discussion. God has loved us, freeing us to worship Him as our God, instead of ourselves. Freeing us to no longer be bound to our own self absorption and self worship, no He has given us freedom from this; freedom to love Him and serve our neighbor. Yes, He has loved us. And He has loved us even when we were His enemies. He has loved us with a love that we can’t comprehend.
With this love in mind, with the death of Christ in our thoughts, our meditations, and with the glory of God revealed in this, we ultimately see that we really don’t know best. We see that there is a good reason for God to be God and for us not to, that God really has not hidden His best behind door number two. If He had, then we wouldn’t have the suffering and sin we have as the result of the fall, and we wouldn’t have the continued suffering we have of six billion people desiring to be God adding to that sin. We wouldn’t have death, sickness, illness, strife and suffering. We wouldn’t have any of this, and we rejoice that because of Christ, a time will come when there will be none of this once again, when we will not have to worry about wanting to make ourselves God, because we will be eternally standing before the crucified and risen Son, the Son who will rule over us perfectly. And at that time, instead of cringing, we will rejoice every time it is clearly proclaimed, “I am God and you’re not.”
Amen
Now may the Peace which transcends all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
