In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
This
is a full day here at St. Luke’s: we’re continuing our sermon series on Job, we’re
launching our financial stewardship efforts, and we’re celebrating our church
community as we commemorate our patron, Saint Luke. There is a theme though
that will run through all of these topics: gratitude. Gratitude is something that
I’d like you to keep in your mind, well, always, but especially so over these
next several weeks.
You’ll
recall that Job’s faithfulness is being put to the test. Though Job has gone
through tragedies, none of these events were the result of his actions. As
wisdom literature, the book of Job helps us to see God in new ways. Last week,
we heard Job speaking to his friends, claiming that he wanted a chance to plead
his case before God. Our reading this morning is God’s response to Job.
Chapters 38-41 record God’s speech to Job, and I’d highly recommend reading the
full speech when you get home this afternoon. God’s response to Job is yet
another example of us needing to readjust our expectations of God.
Job
is questioning God’s sense of justice. And how does God respond? It isn’t with
a legal or logical defense of God’s actions. No, instead of answering Job, God
takes Job on a safari. God shows Job the power of storms, the depths of the
oceans, the dimensions of outer space, the beauty of stars, the loveliness of
goats and deer, the strength of an ox, the speed of an ostrich, the soaring
wonder of eagles’ wings. Instead of answering Job’s question, God replies with
a question to Job, and us – “Did you make these things? Do you sustain these
things? Are you more powerful than they?” God reminds Job of his place in
Creation.
The
universe is unfathomably old and large. The universe is roughly 13.8 billion
years old, and humans have existed for about 200,000 years. If you condensed
the time of the universe into a clock, our existence wouldn’t even take up one
second. On size, it’s really difficult to put it into terms that have any real
meaning. If the earth were shrunk to be the size of a grape, the sun would
still be 163 yards away and the nearest galaxy would be a trillion miles away.
And that nearest galaxy is just one of roughly 100 billion galaxies that are
out there. Given the factors of time and space, we aren’t even a blip on the
radar.
That’s not quite the
response we might have expected from God. I would have preferred that God
explain things in terms of love and free-will. Even a statement like “I have my
reasons, but you can’t understand them” would have been expected. Instead, we
have a puzzling and frustrating response. St. Teresa once said to God “If this
is how you treat your friends, it’s no wonder you have so few of them.”
But we would misread God’s
response to think that God is saying “You don’t matter in the scheme of things,
so get over it.” There are two things to take from God’s response to Job. The
first is that God is God, and we are not. We only have our perspective. Mine
are the only eyes through which I will ever see this world. Sure, I can talk to
others, I can study biology or read literature to understand people and the
natural world better, but I will never fully see things from their perspective.
You will never know what it like to be a starfish or an asteroid. Ignorance is
a part of the human condition, and when we make it all about us, we commit
idolatry. God’s speech to Job reminds us that we don’t have all the facts, so a
bit of humility will be helpful.
The more powerful thing to
glean from God’s speech though is that God is with us. Yes, the size of
Creation is beyond comprehension and God is grander than our intellects will
ever grasp, and yet God still talks to Job. God knows that Job is suffering and
is with him in that. God still heard the cries of the Hebrew people in Egypt.
God spoke to the prophets. God came to us in Jesus. God hears your prayers,
cries with you, loves you. One of the things that I find most problematic with
the way we approach science and philosophy is to assume that there is a separation
between us and God; that somehow God is outside of the universe and we are
inside of it. As the Psalm today proclaims, light is God’s cloak and God rides
the wind. It has been said that “God is closer than your jugular vein.” God is
present in every moment. Every atom was created out of God’s love. God’s answer
to Job is the wonderful proclamation that God is always with us, and for that,
I am grateful
So with those themes of
humility and gratitude in mind, I’d like to pivot to stewardship. The theme for
our stewardship efforts this year is gratitude. Gratitude is born out of
humility. Without an acknowledgement that we are not self-sufficient, we can
never truly be thankful. As God reminds Job, we are not our own masters. We did
not choose to be born, nor did we create ourselves or the world in which we
entered. We are created, we are loved, we are redeemed. These are things not
that we asked for or earned, but rather have been given by God.
Our stewardship efforts
are rooted in a passage from 2 Corinthians that says “Each of you must give as
you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves
a cheerful giver.” Let’s start with the first part of that sentence: Each of
you must give as you have made up your mind. Giving is something that we need
to actually think about, as it doesn’t always come naturally. You should have
received a stewardship packet in the mail this week, and if you didn’t, there
are pledge cards near your seat. But before you fill that pledge card out, the
Stewardship Committee asks that you give it some thought and prayer. And in
addition to the pledge card, we hope that you’ll fill out a gratitude card. No
need to put your name on those cards, but think about a recent moment of
gratitude. Think about a recent example of God’s grace and love that you’ve
noticed. Then consider your pledge to church – remembering that everything
comes from God and is in God.
There is a reason why we
don’t do “donation drives” in the church, instead we do Stewardship. A steward
is a person who holds a gift in trust for someone else. Your life, your skills,
your income, those all belong to God. Yes, many of us have worked hard to get
to places we are today. But just as God reminded Job, we did not create the
world, nor did we create ourselves. Today, as we celebrate St. Luke and our
parish, think about the ways in which we are stewards of God’s mission. As
Jesus proclaimed the Good News in today’s reading, God brings good news to the
poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed. And
this work happens at St. Luke’s. Here, God’s love is proclaimed, Habitat houses
are built, children and youth learn about God, community is formed, Sacraments
are celebrated, the Word is proclaimed, forgiveness and reconciliation happen,
peace and healing are prayed for, and the Gospel is made known. That work
excites me, and I hope it does you, too. You are a steward of God’s mission,
and this stewardship effort is your invitation to join more fully into this
good work.
The passage then says
that we should give without being reluctant or under compulsion. I don’t do
guilt. I don’t do shame. And I don’t do pandering. And I’m truly sorry if any
of you have ever experienced stewardship as anything other than a wonderful
opportunity to join in God’s work at the church. Giving isn’t about “shoulds.” I
want you to give, and to give generously, because you have experienced the grace
of God and want to respond faithfully. I want you to give because you want St.
Luke’s to grow in the area of Christian Formation for our young people. I want
you to give to St. Luke’s because you think that St. Luke’s is doing the work
of God and you want to be a part of that. I want you to give so that you have
control over your money instead of your money having control over you. But I
don’t want you to give because you feel guilty, or because you want to buy your
seat in the Kingdom, or because someone shamed you into it.
The passage then says
that “God loves a cheerful giver.” Desmond Tutu once said that “Without us, God
will not; Without God, we cannot; But with God, together we will.” When you
give, you join the work of God in this world. And there is great joy and cheer
in this work. When Job seems to be lost in his pain and grief, God comes to him
and reminds him that he is not alone or forgotten. There’s a call and response that
is often used in some churches – “God is good all the time; and all the time
God is good.” And how true that is. There is so much goodness, and hope, and
joy in God. Now, Job helps us to redefine this goodness not as being a divine
version of Batman, but rather as being with us in our suffering and redeeming
us through love. There is great joy in finding the love out of which we were
created. There is a reason to be cheerful when we align our mission with the
mission of God. When you give out of a sense of gratitude and with a prayer for
God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven, there is indeed much to be
cheerful about.
As we celebrate this
feast day of St. Luke’s, let us pray for our parish: Almighty and everliving
God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish
family. We give you thanks for the legacy and future of this holy community,
and pray for grace and wisdom to be faithful stewards of this place and in this
time. Strengthen the faithful, O Lord, arouse the careless, and restore the
penitent. Make us aware of your gracious and loving presence with us. Help us
to remember with humility our place in the cosmos and with gratitude our place
in your heart. Bless us in our stewardship efforts, that your will might be
done at St. Luke’s for the glory of your name and to the benefit of our community.
Be with us as we consider our giving, and make us cheerful givers. Grant us all
things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and
mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
