Listen to Sermon
“Be still and know I’m God,” Psalm 46:10
Pastor Tom Johnson, October 27, 2019
“Be still and know that I am God.” That’s God’s call to us: to be still. The Hebrew word “still” means “relax.” In some passages it means to relax one’s hands so that they withdraw or drop away from work. In other passages it describes dry grass as it surrenders to the flames or as the sun surrenders to the darkness at sunset. God calls us to calm—to relax ourselves—to be relaxed—to withdraw ourselves from the anxious and wearisome toil of life—to find Sabbath rest—to surrender our grip and delusion that we have life by the horns—things under our control—that we can ride out this life like a wild stallion by our human skill and strength.
“Be still,” the Lord says, “and know that I am God.” Know he is God. Familiarize yourself with who he is. For us that means filling our minds and hearts with the Word of God. Through Scripture alone do we enter a relationship with God and learn who he is—and are assured that God is with us and for us. Know he is God. This call to know God better is a call to relationship with our Creator. It is an invitation to learn more and more about who he truly is—to no longer have a fixed view of who God is but a growing understanding of God.
We have all learned about God growing up—from both the enlightened and darkened imagination of our hearts. We have heard faithful teaching from the Scripture and not so faithful. God calls us to truly know him and it will set us free—free to live lives of peace and quietness. This is what happened more than 500 years ago with a medieval German monk by the name of Martin Luther. There was a lot of bad theology—false ideas and heretical teachings about God. There was a preacher by the name of Johann Tetzel traveling around and exploiting the fear and ignorance people had about God. He portrayed God as an angry God who would like to throw us all into the flames of the lake of fire or purgatory. He taught that for a price, you could buy forgiveness or time served out of God’s eternal punishment—not just for ourselves but for those who have long been dead. I hope all of us recognize how much of an abuse of power this was to generate income for the church. It was why Luther’s call to understand and know the true and living God resonated with so many people. They were starving for grace and mercy even though the church seemed to have lost a clear and plain proclamation of the Gospel.
But even in the recesses of our own minds and hearts there lingers—in all of us—heresies that would make these church walls come tumbling down. We still hold on to fables, superstitions, lies, and inaccuracies about who God is. That’s why we need the Word of God. We are disciples and learners of God through the Word. This is not to add shame and guilt to the idols and falsehoods we create and perpetuate. It is a call to be still—to relax our grip on them—to surrender them into the vast ocean of God’s grace and mercy. Bad theology robs us of peace and joy. None of us has perfect doctrine or understanding of who God is—the One whose ways are not our ways—whose thoughts are not our thoughts. We get to go on a journey of discovery of just how rich—how deep and wide—how overwhelming the love of God is for us—how much of a loving God he is—to be still and know God. Scripture says God is love. He loves the world in this way—that he sent his only begotten son so that all who trust in him will have eternal life. God did not send him into the world to condemn the world but that that world would be saved through him. God is love. He sends Love Incarnate to us.
That is the great insight of this Scripture—“Be still and know that I am God”: To intimately know God is to experience true peace and quietness. To be in a relationship with God is to live a life of resilient confidence in his strength. God invites us to contemplate—to ponder—to find our rest and stillness in the glory and strength of God, our Heavenly Father. We are not saved or sustained by our own strength. We are God’s royal daughters and sons by his free gift of grace alone. We receive this—not by works—but through faith and trust in him alone.
Christ alone was perfectly still and knew God. Just hours before his arrest, he handed his agony over to God—the cup of death he was about to drink in the stillness of obedient prayer with bloody drops of sweat. He surrendered his breath and life on the Cross. Three days later—early Sunday morning—as darkness surrendered to light, death surrendered to life. In Christ we find serene stillness. In him we know the love of God. In him our darkness surrenders to his light. Our anxiety melts away as we commend ourselves to the person and work of Jesus. We draw near to God in a relationship that overflows with resilient peace and quiet confidence.
With might of ours can naught be done,
Soon were our loss effected;
But for us fights the Valiant One,
Whom God Himself elected.
Ask ye, Who is this?
Jesus Christ it is.
Of Sabaoth Lord,
And there’s none other God;
He holds the field forever.
(“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” LSB 656 v. 2)
No comments:
Post a Comment