“God Rules” Job 38.4–18 Pent 11A Aug. ‘26

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 11^th Sunday after Pentecost, is taken from Job 38:4-18, it’s entitled, “God Rules,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                There is a particular kind of confidence you only get from having survived something. Take for instance Joel’s father-in-law, Ralph, who used to fix cars for a living, Joel remembered asking him once how he could tell what was wrong with an engine just by listening to it idle. Ralph looked at Joel like he’d asked how he knew the sky was blue. “Forty years,” Ralph said. “I was there when it was built.” That’s more or less what God says to Job, except God wasn’t there for forty years. God was there before there was a “there” to be in.

3.                Job’s life had been through the wringer. He has lost his children, his health, his livelihood, and very nearly his sanity, and for thirty-seven chapters he has been demanding, quite understandably, that God explain Himself. And in chapter 38, God finally answers — not with an explanation, but with a question: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4). It is not a gentle question. It is, frankly, a little sarcastic. “Surely you know,” God says a few verses later (v. 5), the way you might say to a toddler who has just informed you how to drive, “Oh, surely you know how the transmission works.” God goes on for verse after verse — who shut in the sea with doors, who commanded the morning, who has entered the springs of the sea, who has seen the gates of deep darkness — and Job, who came looking for an argument, gets a tour of creation instead. He never gets his explanation. What he gets is something better: a reminder of who is actually running the universe. And that, friends, is our text today, because we are people who, like Job, sometimes need reminding.

4.                Job chapter 38 reminds us that God’s rule is total, and it is good. Notice what God does not say to Job. He does not say, “Let me walk you through my reasoning.” He says, in effect, “Let me show you my resume.” The sea has boundaries because God set them — “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed” (Job 38:11). The morning comes because God commands it. Even the wicked, who love the darkness because it hides their deeds, can’t outrun the dawn God sends every day to shake them out like dirt off a rug (v. 13). This is God’s total rule — nothing in creation operates outside of God’s rule, not the tides, not the sunrise, not the empire of Babylon, and not, dear saints, the circumstances of your life this week. And because God is not only powerful but perfectly wise and good, His rule isn’t merely total, it is trustworthy. He does not run the world the way a toddler runs a toy car — banging it into the furniture to see what happens. He runs it as a Father governs a household He loves.

5.                We also learn from Scripture that God’s total, good rule reaches even unbelievers. Here is where it gets uncomfortable, because we’d like to think God’s rule applies to “those people” and leaves us alone. It doesn’t work that way. God is patient with unbelief — sometimes maddeningly so, letting the wicked prosper for a season — but nothing escapes His notice, and in His time He acts. Even then, His purpose is not simple vengeance. Sometimes His judgment falls to harden a stubborn heart in its rebellion, a sober warning to us all. But sometimes — and this is the mercy hiding inside the discipline — that same pressure is what finally cracks a proud man open so the Gospel can get in. Either way, Scripture tells us God is working all of it, even the dealings of unbelievers, for the good of His Church (cf. Romans 8:28). The rise and fall of nations that seemed like chaos to Israel in exile was, in God’s hand, the very road that led to Jesus, God’s Son, our Savior being born in a manger in Bethlehem to save us.

6.                Let me unpack that a bit for you. The Book of Job says, “[God] makes nations great, and he destroys them” (Job 12:23). After the Israelites conquered Canaan and settled in the land, many began to practice the idolatry of their unbelieving neighbors. God let various Gentile nations and peoples conquer and rule over portions of Israel. These rulers treated the Israelites in a harsh manner. This made the Israelites cry out to the Lord for rescue, in sincere, proper repentance. God in his grace would then deliver his covenant people and end the rule of the pagan nation oppressing the Israelites.

7.                Later, in the time of the Southern Kingdom of Israel, God raised up the Babylonians and made them powerful so that they could conquer unfaithful Judah. Many from the Southern Kingdom were taken into exile, but as a result of this defeat, there emerged a purified remnant of true believers, zealous for the Lord. Then, when God ended the power of the Babylonians by means of the Medes and Persians, this remnant was able to come to the homeland, to Palestine, and from that group the Messiah would one day be born.

8.                Though God’s handling of history will often elude our understanding, as it did Job’s (Job 38:4–18)—especially when we suffer—we can be certain that he is always guiding it for our ultimate, eternal good.

9.                And, God’s total, good rule holds you, dear believer, especially. This is where Job’s story becomes your story. God blesses His people richly — but He also allows trials, and here is the hard, good news: those trials are not accidents slipping past a distracted God. They are, strange as it sounds, disguised blessings, put to use for your good. Sometimes the Lord uses suffering as fatherly discipline, the way He dealt with King David after his sin with Bathsheba — crushed under Nathan’s preaching until he cried, “Against you, you only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4), and was restored. Sometimes God uses it simply to refine a faith that, if we’re honest, has some rough edges — Job’s own protests of innocence reveal a man who still needed humbling, and by the end of the book he is a wiser, humbler believer for it. And here is the part I most want you to hear today: you will often not get the explanation. Job never learns about the conversation between God and Satan in chapter 1. He never finds out “why,” not fully, not this side of heaven. What he gets instead is God Himself, showing up. And when the “why” doesn’t come — and often it won’t, not until glory — you are not left with nothing. You are left with the one answer that never fails: the cross. If you find yourself asking, “Why should I trust a God who allows this?” the answer is always available: because of the cross. Because a God who was willing to hand over His own Son for you has already proven, in the most costly way possible, that He is for you and not against you.

10.             Romans 8:32 proclaims one of the most comforting expressions of the Gospel: "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" In these words, St. Paul points us to the love of God the Father, who did not spare His own Son but willingly gave Him over to suffering and death for the salvation of the world. Jesus took our place under God's judgment, bearing our sins on the cross so that we might receive forgiveness, life, and salvation. Paul argues from the greater to the lesser: if God has already given us His greatest gift—His own Son—then we can trust Him to graciously provide everything we need for our salvation and for our daily lives according to His good and gracious will. This verse also recalls God's provision in Genesis 22, where Abraham was spared from sacrificing Isaac because God provided a substitute. Unlike Abraham, however, God the Father did not spare His own Son, but Jesus became the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Therefore, when doubts and trials arise, we as Christians can look to the cross as the sure and certain proof that God is for us. Having given us Christ, He will never abandon His children but will continue to sustain us with His grace until the day He brings us safely into His eternal kingdom.

11.             That is what Jesus shows the disciples on the water in our Gospel today. The same God who shut in the sea with doors in Job 38 now walks on top of it in Matthew 14, and when the wind is against them and Peter starts to sink, Jesus doesn’t lecture him on hydrodynamics — He reaches out His hand and catches him (Matthew 14:31). That is the God who rules for you. Not a distant engineer who set the machine running and wandered off, but the Lord who walks into your storm, takes hold of you, and gets in the boat.

12.             So when the “why” of your life doesn’t add up — when the diagnosis comes back wrong, when the marriage is hard, when the bill is due and the account is empty — you may say to your own heart what Job finally learned to say: I don’t have the explanation. But I know who has the world in His hands, and I have seen what that same hand was willing to do for me on a cross. Somehow, this has its place in His good and wise governing of all things. I will keep on trusting the Lord — not because I can see the whole plan, but because I have seen the cross and empty tomb, and that is enough. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

“Cross Bearers- Faith and Works” Eph. 2.1–10, James 2.14–26 Pent. 10A Aug. ‘26

 

 

1.                Grace to you and peace, from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who comes to bring faith alive in us so that we are not hearers of the Word only, but also doers. Amen. The message from God’s Word is taken from Eph 2:1-10 and James 2:14-26. Today we conclude our summer sermon series on the catechism by focusing on the theme, “Cross Bearers-Faith & Works,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                The importance of the Six Chief Parts of Luther’s Small Catechism is that they help us understand how we are pleasing to the Father as we live out our lives of faith with one another. Very often we acquire knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself. Such knowledge can increase our faith, and that's excellent. But we also need to beware. We need knowledge that is tempered with wisdom and love, because, as the apostle Paul warns us in the context of food offered to idols, "'Knowledge' puffs up, but love builds up" (1 Corinthians 8:1). We have no desire to be puffed-up believers, so Luther in these Six Chief Parts shows us the more excellent way.

3.                We would be wise to deal with the faith-and-works challenge that confronts us as Christians. We know that we are saved by faith alone, but saving faith never travels alone. It is always found in the company of good works. Luther does not say these exact words but speaks of them in his commentary on Romans quoted in the Book of Concord. As he writes in the Preface to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: Faith . . . is a divine work in us that changes us and makes us to be born anew of God, John 1[:12–13]. It kills the old Adam and makes us altogether different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers; it brings with it the Holy Spirit. O, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them. Whoever does not do such works, however, is an unbeliever. He gropes and looks around for faith and good works, but knows neither what faith is nor what good works are. Yet he talks and talks, with many words, about faith and good works. Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times. This knowledge of and confidence in God's grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all creatures. And this is the work that the Holy Spirit performs in faith. Because of it, without compulsion, a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything, out of love and praise to God, who has shown him this grace. Thus it is impossible to separate works from faith, quite as impossible as to separate heat and light from fire. (AE 35:370–71, quoted in SD IV 10–12)

4.                We can’t separate faith from works, according to Luther. This truth aligns with the epistle of James. James would have us understand that our Heavenly Father has the expectation that we put what we've learned into practice. He says it this way: "Faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26). Jesus comes to save us from the death resulting from our disobedience to the Law of God, the "cross-bones" structure of our Christian life—disobedience that reflects our lack of faith. Believers are not to surrender again to death by refusing to ask the second of the catechism questions. "What does this mean?" is the first. "How is this done?" is the second. We are responsible to do what we've learned because of the virtues that cling to us through the "cross wind" of baptismal water: faith and love. Paul reminds us of the greatest virtue when he writes: "So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). We, because of our emphasis on justification, would be hard pressed not to say the greatest of these is faith. That is not the testimony of the Holy Bible. Love triumphs over every other virtue. Love for our heavenly Father and the sacrifice of his Son refuses to be disregarded and leads us to perform those good works prepared beforehand as we are empowered by the Holy Spirit's "cross fire," the Lord's Supper, to be God's workmanship on earth (Ephesians 2:10).

5.                This is where the Six Chief Parts go to work in my heart, hands, and my feet. I recall what I believe about my Lord Jesus and his sacrifice to save me from the wages of sin, hell, and death. I remember his suffering on the cross and his prayer for me even as the life flowed out of his body. I remember his resurrection from the dead and his ascension to the right hand of God the Father, and I am freed from the life of sin and set free to love Jesus and to honor him with my life and actions. I view all of this from the perspective of the cross, and I am empowered with these graces. I have the wisdom of the cross-bones structure of the Ten Commandments to teach me how to display love for my Father and my neighbor. I see through the "cross-eyes" revelation displayed in the confession of the Apostles' Creed so that I won't be misdirected by false teaching regarding my faith in Jesus. I am empowered and encouraged in "cross words" to be constant in my conversation with the Father through prayer, especially the Lord's Prayer. I am assured that nothing can separate me from the love of God, because I am endowed with the cross wind of the Spirit through the power and authority of the water and the Word of holy baptism. I’m renewed when I sin, missing the mark of holiness through the "cross way" of confession and forgiveness, where I announce my sin and hear the words of absolution, "In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven." I am filled to overflowing with the cross-fire power of my Father through the Lord's Supper in which I take and eat and drink the true body and blood of my Lord Jesus Christ. I am so full of grateful humility that in these Six Chief Parts the Father has taught me how he has showered his love on me! I am filled with thanksgiving and love that his life in me by faith moves me to action in love for my neighbor! I feed the hungry because I’m fed. I clothe the naked because I’m clothed. I love the unlovable because the Father loves me enough to cover my ugliness with the blood of his Son. With my sin taken away, laid on Jesus, and covered in his blood as my righteous raiment, I become lovely and lovable. I soothe the widow and the orphan because I have been soothed. I welcome the foreigner and stranger because Jesus was a traveler from glory clothed in human flesh and because I am a traveler on this earth even as I am a citizen of the Commonwealth of Paradise and heaven is my home.

6.                The place where we are most exposed is in our relationship with others in the Body of Christ. I hear Christians, even pastors, talk to and about, instead of respectfully with, one another. I see some Christians treat others in ways that reflect neither faith in God nor love for our brother or sister. For such things, the cross way of confession and forgiveness is the blessing we need. Stop and think about this for a moment: Jesus is caught speaking to and dining with tax collectors and sinners; the Bible says he is "reclining at table" (Mark 2:15). The scribes and Pharisees see Jesus eating with them and wonder why he would do such a thing. Jesus is a rabbi. He is holy. He is supposed to know better. God approves of him and does not approve of them. Jesus said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mark 2:17). That is what we all are according to our doctrine: simul justus et peccator, at once saint and sinner. When we begin calling ourselves righteous and casting others out on the basis of our own righteousness, we’re no longer practicing the cross way of confession and forgiveness, but rather condemnation. These are outside of our view as followers of Jesus. He encourages us with this: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). That is love, born of humility, that endures with faith enough to grant forgiveness of sins endured. Even on the cross, Jesus displays this grace, saying of those who betrayed him, lied of him, and had him crucified, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).

7.                The Father grants me strength not to stop, falter, or fail, not to become distracted by the world, but to continue to advance the kingdom of God with every step I take. This is the outcome of faithful, humble love and obedience to the Father through the Six Chief Parts. Lord, help us. Bless and us with hearts of faith, love, and obedience, so that these words that Jesus said to others never apply to us: "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you" (Matthew 21:31). All of this, loving of God and neighbor, is entirely contrary to our selfish and sinful natures. Living as the Six Chief Parts teach and enable us means sacrificing self, giving up so many things we might desire. It's what Jesus means when he says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24). We surrender to the grace, power, and authority of faith and works that bless us to be "cross bearers." By bearing our own crosses, we participate with our Lord Jesus in the salvation of humankind, and so the Six Chief Parts are gracious means that encourage and strengthen us to be cross bearers.

8.                We go forth from this series in wisdom, not puffed up, but in faith and love that says we have all we need to be the cross-fire presence of Jesus to those who are waiting to know that grace of God made available through him, our Lord. This is our Perspective of the Cross. Make it so, Lord, in your name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.