Grace, mercy, and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; grace,
mercy and peace is God’s gift for you, from our crucified and risen Lord. So why are many folk like the tribe of Judah Northern Israel by the
Assyrians, and still they didn’t return. When their turn came, dragged off to
exile, chained together like a string of fish, Judah asks, why is my way hidden from the Lord, and my right is
disregarded by my God?(Oh their blindness!) Might you at times feel that
way even without an exile? Might you cry out, “Does God know or care? Why is He
silent, why doesn’t he speedily answer my plea?” (Oh our blindness!)
To Judah God replies do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not
been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations
of the earth? Judah Judah Richmond
We don’t have to in that test without
help. We have the answer key. The answer is revealed partly in the creation and
explicitly in Holy Scripture. It is the revelation is that God is God, and that
God is good. That revelation answers all
our questions, if we will receive it. If there is any counter-cultural message
for the church to proclaim in this post-modern age, it is that God is God and
that God is good. We live in a society that denies there is a God, except of
human making. And we live in a society whose gods cannot deliver what is good,
eternal life. But there is an answer,
revealed in part in the creation and explicitly announced in Holy Scripture.
The first part of the answer is that
God is God. This is largely a message of law. It is the message of our being
creatures, not gods. It is the message of who is in charge, whether we like it
or not. It is the message of human accountability to divine decrees. And this
message is known. God revealed it in the created order, in our consciences and
unmistakably in the 10 commandments. Do
you not know, says the Living God? Will a little child really excuse himself
from stealing cookies from mom’s cookie jar? And now that you’re grown up, will
you in big and little ways justify what offends God? For example, will we
really escape God’s judgment for the thousands of ways lying, cheating, lusting, and hurting others is
institutionalized in society? The politicians are presently saying “ban guns,”
but what about banning evil in the human heart? What about turning away from
values that glorify violence, turning away from violence in the movies, in
music, and in the ideologies that deny absolute values? Did Mario’s shooters
believe the Richmond
Yet thank God, He remains God. He …sits
above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; (it
is He) who brings princes to nothing, and
makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. The LORD by His silence, by
hardships and troubles, even by allowing injustice, reveals our alienation from
truth, life, and light. His law reveals God is God. For another example, in a
small close-knit town, a pastor friend of mine approached his head elder about
his fifth marriage and ongoing sexual immorality. The elder replied where did you get this 10 commandment stuff? It wasn’t long and you can guess who was
exiled from the congregation. It wasn’t
only the pastor who suffered. The congregation did too. They suffered from
being led by a man living in open rebellion against God. How many of that
congregation’s children followed the man’s example? How many then cried “Lord,
do you not know?” He feeds us a bitter diet, calling us to eat the meal of
repentance. The Lord holds all accountable to His word, both the word of law
written on our hearts and the word of Moses written on stone. So are we hidden
from the Lord? Or when such things happen, should we know this: He brings princes to nothing. He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord
holds them in derision (Ps 2:4) So Lamentations 3:29 says let him put his mouth in the dust, there may
yet be hope. Because God is God,
there is hope. Since God is God, there is hope. First, He is able to do all
things.
And second the God who is God has
revealed Himself as good. Therefore the church takes comfort in repentance,
confessing our sins and calling upon Him who hears. (Is not the Lutheran church
the church of courage because she is the church of repentance?) For the Son of
God bore the iniquity of our sins, He suffered them all, the one righteous man,
bearing in his body the stripes due all. He cried out to a God that was truly
silent, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And He was heard. After three days He rose
from the dead. He overcame… therefore so shall we. That resurrection victory is
God shouting “I see, I know, I hear!” Thank God, He feeds us His sweet banquet
of Holy Communion in Resurrection hope, declaring His infinite goodness. That message teaches us to trust in God as
God because we know He is good. He shouts out His goodness by the revelation of
the cross, for our joy. That message transforms our hearts and minds, even if
it causes us trouble in this world. Yet it remains our joy and future. To put
it in Jesus’ words: When a woman is
giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has
delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human
being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see
you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
Or as the prophet Isaiah said: why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel Jerusalem Israel
Behold the glory of the cross. Behold
the glory of imputed righteousness. Behold not what you have done or claim for
yourself. Behold what the Living God has done and gives to you. He gloriously
washes our ignorance away, and we see He is good. He washes away sin, creating and sustaining
new life. Behold Baptism’s comfort, the peace, the absolution, the wisdom of
God. The Lord is the everlasting God, the
Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his
understanding is unsearchable. God spoke and all was created. God spoke and
a virgin conceived and the Christ was born to recreate all flesh. The Christ
did not stop short of the atonement, He conquered all our foes. Therefore, when He rose He sent the church
into the world as His own body. The Lord shall not cease to proclaim the law
and incarnate grace any more than cease to bless the church in sharing the
sufferings of Christ.
The
reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we
are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know
that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is
(I Jn 3). This promise answers the
question if God knows by the promise of eternal life. This promise sustains the church, we who
believe the resurrection and know what awaits us. Although we will be wearied
as Christians living in the world, how glad the promise: He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He
gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but
they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not
faint.
He knows, He knows our weakness, He
knows our sins, He knows our need, He knows our faith, He knows and loves us
and gives to us what we need. So the church goes into all the world because she
knows God is God, and God is good.
The church goes, sustained by His mighty Word and means of grace. Through the
church, the world hears of Jesus the sin-bearer, the reconciler, the deliverer,
the redeemer, the Saviour who knows and answers. Our way is not hidden from the
Lord, our right is not disregarded. He has forgiven our sins and given us the
righteousness of Christ. We have hope because God is the God who revealed
Himself as good in Christ Jesus. We are
sustained because He drank the stupidity of our sins and feeds us His body,
renewing us with His blood. We mount up on eagles’ wings; we shall run and not
be weary. Therefore, call upon Him in your every need. Jesus promised, I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take
your joy from you. This promise of joy is not only for all He has done; it
is also for what He is doing, and shall do. We shall see Him as He is, and we
shall be like Him. What a revelation that shall be! We shall sing out, “O Lord,
you do know!”
The peace of God,
which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
(Amen)
No comments:
Post a Comment