October 18, 2015 God Has Questions Job 38 Mark 10:35-45 One day James and John hustle up to Jesus and ask him for the two most powerful and privileged seats in the kingdom. It feels like a question: Jesus, can we be your two top staff members? This is what can happen when we ask questions. Self-interest, arrogance, and lack of concern for others slip into the mix. James and John represent what can happen when we are always badgering God with questions. Our questions may define us more than our answers. We have chewed on these dead bones for so long it s like Ground Hog Day for the church. One day all our pitiful little questions, the misleading, prejudiced itsy bity little questions that we have been slinging at God, will all pile up in the Dead Sea (not the Red Sea) but in the Dead Sea and like Pharaoh s chariots, horses, and soldiers, drown. Enough. Silence. No more questions from us. God has a few questions. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? God opens by saying that our answers are hot air and our knowledge darkens our minds. What does God say to us? God says, Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. In the ancient world, gird up your loins meant pulling up your lower garments and tucking them in the waist so you were free to move, run, or fight. St. Peter reached for this ancient saying in his first epistle: Therefore gird up the loins of your mind. I know you don t want to think about this, but think about it. And of all things, there s an edge to the divine questions, a hint of divine sarcasm and impatience: Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! Who determined its measurements surely you know! Since we are masters of sarcasm we know that this means the opposite of what it says. God says, You know, but means You don t know. You don t know Jack! This is no polite God at work. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? By the way, these are all creation questions. God goes on like this for four chapters in Job. God s questions are meant to show us that God is God and we are not.
When the last question falls to the floor, Job finally speaks: 2 I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. I 45 had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. There is a place at the throne of grace where all our sniveling questions must be replaced with My Lord and my God, Have mercy on me a sinner, How great thou art! We are not always as receptive to God and God s questions as Job. In the story of Jonah I came across a question from God that I think has the power to stand for all of God s questions. Remember the story? God loved Nineveh so he told his prophet to speak to them. God said, Jonah, shall we gather at the river, atthe river Euphrates? The Euphrates one of the four branches of the river flowing from the Garden of Eden. 11 God always intended to be the water of life for all the nations of the world. But Jonah refused to go. Jonah didn t love foreigners. Instead he went to Joppa. You know that Jonah preached and Nineveh repented and God saved the city. And Jonah was angry. And God s question to Jonah: Is it right for you to be angry? Jonah talks like a deranged man. Lord, I knew you would save this city of infidels. That s why I didn t want to come here in the first place. I knew you were a God of tremendous mercy, abounding love, and steadfast grace. I knew you would do this. Jonah knew who was in and who was out. He knew who was for God and against God, who was under grace and who was under judgment. Jonah could preach up a storm in favor of his nation and against Assyria. Jonah could ask his congregation to join God in cursing Assyria and get a standing ovation. There is nothing more powerful if you love applause than to play on the hatreds and prejudices of people. Draw them out, say their hatreds for them, wave your Bible around, throw in the name of God, and then receive the applause. In some places this kind of hate-filled preaching is called conviction. But thank God Jonah had another sermon, even if he didn t want to preach it. His God was also the God of creation, all creation. God loves and cares for all creation. That s what Jonah has in common with Job 38. It is theology of creation. In the story of Jonah we get a strong storm, a great fish, and a plant that God caused to grow over Jonah and give him shade in his anger. God even cares for angry preachers. And then it says that God appointed a worm to cut down the plant. The King James Version reads, God ordained a worm. God ordained a worm. And then God appointed an east wind to blister the preacher. Jonah was concerned about
the bush and the wind and God reminded him that there were more than 120,000 babies in Nineveh who didn t know their right hand from their left, and also many animals. It is not enough to care about creation. God loves all people. Jonah didn t want to think about it. Jonah wanted to preach a sermon of historical selection and particularism. Jonah wanted to brag on his people and make out all the others to be liars, thieves, rapists, and murderers. Jonah had a clash between his theology of my people, my country, my place a theology of historical selection and particularism and a theology of creation God loves and cares for all creation. And the pain made him angry. Who are all those people sitting under the Jonah bush? Well, one day soon God will ordain some worm to cut down your shade tree where you don t want to think but just be angry. Surely you have noticed that when people don t want to think they get angry? Cue the synagogue at Nazareth when Jesus tried to tell them that God loved the widow of Sidon and the leper of Syria. Do you remember a man named Simon? God appointed him to preach to a foreigner. And where was Simon bar-jonah? He was in Joppa where Jonah booked a ticket. Joppa is where people go who don t want to gird up their loins, and think about it. Joppa is that place everyone goes who wants to get away from God s mercies that are new every morning and surprising every day. Joppa is that place people go in their minds when they don t want to be bothered by the truth or by the call of God or by the need to give up old prejudices that no longer make any sense in the light of God s mercy. Simon, in his dream, which seemed more like a nightmare, had all these unclean things come down on a sheet and a voice said, Get up, Peter and eat it. No, Lord, I don t eat that stuff. Get up and eat it. I don t eat that, it s unclean. And God said, Simon, gird up your loins and go preach to Cornelius. If I say it s clean, it s clean. Well, Simon preached to Cornelius. The man and his family were converted. Simon bar-jonah said, Well, I was wrong, looks like God accepts these people. And then Simon says, Can anybody here hinder these people being baptized? And there was silence and they were baptized. Luke loves that word, hinder. And they baptized these foreigners at Caesarea. Maybe the best we can do in the face of new truth is to keep our mouths shut and say nothing. Silence. That s what God is up to in Job rendering us silent, mute. Like Isaiah puts it, Kings shall shut their mouths. Be silent and know that I am God. Look, you don t have to lead a parade. You don t have to participate in a protest. You can be quiet and allow God s mercy work to move forward.
Once there was an Ethiopian eunuch. Get it? Ethiopian? Eunuch? Luke tells us the Ethiopian had come to Jerusalem to worship. Now the Bible was very clear about this sort of thing: The eunuch shall not be permitted in the assembly of the people of God (Deut. 23:1). Then why would the Ethiopian eunuch knock on a locked door, go where he was not welcome? Because he was hungry for God and the people of God were hindering him. He wanted to be included and he was excluded. So the eunuch, turned away, was on his way home and he was reading the book of Isaiah and not understanding a word of it. So the Holy Spirit sent Philip to tell the Ethiopian eunuch what Isaiah means. The eunuch asks, Why can t I also be included? Well, I know you don t want to think about all this Bible material, but what is in Isaiah? I will tell you: No longer let the foreigners say surely the Lord will separate me from his people. The days are coming when the eunuch will have a place in my house (Isa. 56:3-5). So the eunuch s eyes are opened and he stops the chariot besides some water and says, Here is water. Can anybody hinder me from being baptized? Do you know what the word Ethiopia stood for in ancient times? It meant the end of the world. The jumping off place. To be an Ethiopian meant to be as far away from civilization as possible the ultimate outcast from the ultimate outpost of the world. And he was a eunuch a man rendered sexless. And Philip baptized an Ethiopian eunuch. I know, I know: you don t want to think about it. Well, think about it. In the Bible, the place is running over with foreigners loved by God, called by God, saved by God. There s a picture of what the church is supposed to look like when we gather on Sunday. It is a picture of the church on the first Pentecost: They are all there Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 Cretans and Arabs. 9 It has dawned on me that all God s questions are designed to create awe, humble awe. If we concentrate on God s questions instead of those the churches are asking, it might change our perspective. Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Adam, where are you? Cain, where is your brother? Who is your neighbor? Who is my mother and brothers and sisters? And I am hoping against hope, I am praying on bended knee and fastbeating heart, that all of you are about to answer, Who are we to hinder God? Postlude
Instead of us asking, Who s in and who s out, God asks, Where is your brother? Who are my mother, brothers, and sisters? My brother is Abel and his blood cries out to me from the ground. My mother is Sarah the wife of Abraham. My mother is Mary the mother of our Lord. My sister is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. My sister is Rahab, the harlot of Jericho. My brother is the Ethiopian eunuch. My brother and sisters are the babies they were bringing to Jesus and Jesus said, Do not hinder them for to them belongs the kingdom of God. Instead of us asking What do we do about all these foreigners, God asks, Who is your neighbor? The book of Ezra says Get rid of all the foreigners. If you have a foreign wife, divorce her. Get rid of the foreigners. But the book of Ruth reminds us that Ruth was a Moabite, a foreigner. Our Lord has Moabite blood in his veins, and Luke tells us that God made of one blood all the nations of the world. Our God is a borderless God who doesn t build walls. He destroys them. My neighbor is Nineveh. My neighbor is the My neighbor is Nicodemus, religious scholar. My neighbor is Zacchaeus, tax collector and traitor. My neighbor is the widow of Sidon and Naaman the Syrian leper. My neighbor is the Canaanite woman confronting Jesus about bread and dogs and a sick daughter. My neighbor is the man lying in the ditch on the road to Jericho. My neighbor is the woman of Samaria at Jacob s well. My neighbor is the mourning mother of Nain. My neighbor is the woman caught in sin and on the verge of being stoned to death. My neighbor is the angry congregation in Nazareth. My neighbor is the rich young ruler. My neighbor is the pack of lepers crying Have mercy. My neighbor is the pair of thieves hanging from the cross on either side of Jesus. My neighbor is Judas. My neighbor is.... Who is your neighbor? Instead of us asking, How old is the earth, God asks Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. 5 Who determined its measurements surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? 6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone 7 when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings * shouted for joy? God s questions change everything. And that should change us. Rodney Wallace Kennedy Lead Pastor First Baptist Church Dayton 111 West Monument Avenue Dayton, OH 45402 937-222-4691