Readings: Isaiah 55:1-5 | Romans 9:1-13 | Matthew 14:13-21
Text: Romans 9:1-13
The Gradual that we’ve been singing in between the Old Testament reading and Epistle for several weeks comes from the conclusion of St. Paul’s inspired treatise on election in Romans 9 through 11:
“33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33–36)
This comes in response to the goodness of God’s mercy that chooses undeserving humans out of disobedience to be His own children. The depth of riches of both the wisdom and the knowledge of God is His mercy. That is that God is loving and kind and seeks us out even when we did not want to be sought and even when we hated Him. And His unsearchable judgments and ways that are past finding out include explicitly the doctrine of election, the fact that some are chosen and by implication that some are not saved.
“8This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'” (Romans 9:8–13)
Neither the doctrine of election, nor the unanswerable questions that surround it send Paul into a funk at God’s unfairness. Rather, Paul is propelled into ecstatic praise as he realizes his own good fortune and God’s magnificence. The generations before us chafed particularly under unanswerable questions. In the age of modernism, the prevalent sense was that the world was progressing through technology and that science would solve all our problems and end all mysteries.
It’s obvious to us now that that’s not possible. And in response, we are more prone to skepticism and disenchantment than almost any humans before us. Some of this is because it is plain to see that technology will not solve all of our problems, and so also that science is neither almighty nor without the need for interpretation. Furthermore, that science can be misused and misapplied by liars and evil mens with their own agendas.
For example, we should not blindly believe that just because a book purports to be a history book or a science book, that it is trustworthy any more than we should trust a website or a radio broadcast because it calls itself news. Thousands of years ago, King David told us both, “All mankind are liars.” (Psalm 116:11) and also, “3Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.” (Psalm 146:3). So here we are. If the ages before us were prone to an optimism regarding technology, we are prone to this skepticism and disenchantment and disillusionment that can lead us astray into thinking that nothing is trustworthy and there is nothing that is knowable.
While it’s true that human beings are not trustworthy, that we should not unreservedly trust the government or scientists or the pastor or ourselves, it is not true that nothing is trustworthy. The Bible is trustworthy. God is trustworthy. We should fear, love, and trust in Him above all things. We should trust His Word and we should trust His promises. The Bible is accurate. It tells the truth and does not have ulterior motives, nor is it the manifesto of some cabal bent on manipulating society to their own advantage.
So also, what the Bible says of the world, including its creation and the fact that it continues, is accurate, even if it baffles our scientists or requires God to actually be all-powerful and to perform miracles (which of course it does). And most of this cannot be explained by us. We take it as a matter of faith that what the Bible says about the creation of the world in six days is true, even as what the Bible says about Jesus multiplying loaves or walking on water or healing the sick is true. We take it on faith because we trust the Bible precisely because it is the Word of the true and living God.
This is the anchor that we need. We do not need answers to every question or all of our curiosity satisfied. What we need is faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul is in no way exaggerating when he states that no one in fact can know the mind of God or be his counselor. This is called “theodicy”—attempting to make God justify Himself. We should be humble enough to know not only that we are morally unworthy of God’s gracious attention, but also that we are intellectually incapable of perfect knowledge or understanding. We need to recognize that we are saved by grace. That means we’re not saved by works and also that we’re not saved by understanding, by holding to correct doctrine, or by knowledge.
We have sometimes spoken of the gospel as though the power of the gospel rested not in God’s mercy but in our decision. as though the difference between those who are saved and those who are not is that the people who are saved made a good decision. They were given the option, and they were clever enough to recognize a good opportunity, or they had some inherent wisdom in themselves that caused them to see the accuracy of the Bible, whereas the rest of the fools just couldn’t. No, the doctrine of election demonstrates that God works by grace. Grace is in fact, by definition, unfair. To those who have, more is given. That’s not fair. The workers in the vineyard are not wrong when they see the 11th hour hire get paid as much as those who worked all day. Paul rejoices in this because he recognizes his great good fortune.
In fact, to put it in the vernacular, we could just say we got lucky. How many of us are Christians, primarily because we were raised in Christian homes, because our parents had a good sense by God’s prompting to bring us to the waters of Holy Baptism. None of our ancestors were living in the land of Israel. Our ancestors were pagans. They believed when missionaries came. The Holy Spirit worked faith in them. Sometimes, we ourselves heard an evangelist or a preacher or a friend who witnessed of Christ and by the work of the Holy Spirit we believed.
It wasn’t because we were clever or smart enough, but because God worked things out because he chose us. We do not deserve it. This is what it means when we say that we are saved by grace. Not just that we didn’t earn it by our good works, but also that we don’t earn it by our intellect or by our will or by some decision that we made. It was by the giving of the Holy Spirit who creates faith in us, so that “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord,” (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21) and, “whoever believes and is baptized”–will be saved. (Mark 16:16) In Holy Baptism God gives His Name to us—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, by which we call upon Him and by which we are brought into the mystery and by which we are saved.
Faith is a confession, not an understanding. Faith is knowledge of God in some sense, to be sure, and knowledge in some sense of who we are in Him. But it is not the same sort of knowledge as the sort of knowledge like learning your ABC’s, memorizing the Presidents, or knowing how change a flat tire. Rather, the knowledge of God that is faith is more akin to the knowledge of a newborn infant who knows how to suckle and who turns automatically toward the voice of his mother. The infant was created to suck at his mother’s breast for nourishment, even though he doesn’t know what he’s doing, doesn’t understand it, can’t articulate it, might even have false ideas about what it’s doing to him. Nonetheless, he knows to do it and is nourished by it, and God provides through it.
In the same way, we were created by God for God, to live in and by Him and His Word, to know Him and His voice as sheep know their shepherd. Without him, we are subhuman, deformed, not what God intended or wants us to be, blind and confused. But in Him, His image is restored in us and we are at home, even though we are not yet whole or what we will be or have knowledge of all things.
Faith that struggles with questions and is under attack is still faith. Its trust is not itself or its strength, but in Christ and His goodness. A weak faith is still faith. Struggling with doubt and worry and fear does not make you a hypocrite. It makes you a believer. a Christian. This is what Christians do on this side of glory. That is why God continues, with His Word and His Sacrament, to strengthen faith and to keep us close to Himself, to keep us also humble and dependent upon Him. The strongest faith does not conceive of itself as strong and boasts in itself. The strongest faith is that which clings to the Word of God for everything and that trusts not in itself, but in Christ.
And so it is that you, by faith, however feeble it might be, grasp onto God himself. You cling to his merit and his promises. He is the light, but he is also a man. He has an eye and he has a hand. And even if your vision is obscured by your confusion, by your intellectual capacity, or by your stubbornness and your desire to sin, nonetheless, he sees clearly. He sees you without confusion, without delusion. He knows the secrets of your heart. You do not fool him, even if you can fool the whole world and yourself. He sees clearly, but he still loves you. He chooses you. He seeks you.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Original sermon by Pastor David Peterson, Redeemer Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Edits by Pastor Michael Miller.
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