WEBVTT 00:00.200 --> 00:01.200 Grace, mercy and peace 00:01.200 --> 00:04.300 be to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus 00:04.300 --> 00:05.100 Christ. 00:05.100 --> 00:05.500 Amen. 00:07.300 --> 00:08.000 Last Monday 00:08.000 --> 00:13.800 God gave Diane and me a reality check that I did not like at all. 00:14.600 --> 00:19.700 I was upstairs brushing my teeth and Diane was downstairs. 00:20.000 --> 00:25.300 Suddenly we both heard a very distinctive sound pop pop, pop, 00:26.400 --> 00:31.400 It was loud and it was coming from right in front of our house, Di 00:31.400 --> 00:35.200 happened to be walking towards our front door and through the window, 00:35.200 --> 00:40.700 she said she saw the flash from a gun in a passing car. 00:41.500 --> 00:45.200 She said, the car slowly passed by our house, then it backed up and 00:45.200 --> 00:48.500 went down this nearby side street, out of sight. 00:49.900 --> 00:53.300 We immediately called the police, but both of us were left 00:53.300 --> 00:54.600 pretty shaken up. 00:54.600 --> 00:58.700 I got this queasy feeling in my stomach that stayed with me, for quite 00:58.700 --> 00:59.300 a long time. 00:59.300 --> 01:04.400 In fact, I was a little bit surprised at how hard it was to shake off 01:04.400 --> 01:05.500 that feeling. 01:07.000 --> 01:11.900 Anyway, less than an hour later, I was sitting here in Chapel still 01:11.900 --> 01:16.200 trying to process all that stuff that had just happened. 01:17.200 --> 01:19.300 And you might remember that one of the hymns we sang 01:19.300 --> 01:23.500 last Monday was Martin Franzmann's O God, O Lord of Heaven and 01:23.500 --> 01:24.000 Earth. 01:25.100 --> 01:31.400 Well we got the verse 3 and I got stuck on the first line of that 01:31.400 --> 01:32.000 verse. 01:32.200 --> 01:37.600 The verse begins thou camest to our Hall of death. 01:38.100 --> 01:42.600 My queasy stomach full stopped on that image Hall of death and I 01:42.600 --> 01:43.700 understood 01:44.700 --> 01:49.400 What those gunshots were trying to tell me. In case I had forgotten, 01:49.400 --> 01:54.400 God wanted to remind me that I live in a hall of death. On that, sunny 01:54.400 --> 01:54.700 day 01:54.700 --> 01:59.500 last week I was forced to think about what this grim truth means to 01:59.500 --> 02:01.000 me, personally. 02:02.900 --> 02:06.100 And I guess I needed reminded because to be honest with you, most of 02:06.100 --> 02:11.900 the time, I don't think about my life in this dark way at all. In the 02:11.900 --> 02:12.500 first place 02:12.500 --> 02:13.600 It's too scary. 02:14.400 --> 02:19.000 And in the second place, it doesn't feel to me as if I am living in a 02:19.000 --> 02:19.800 hall of death. 02:19.800 --> 02:21.300 In fact, quite the opposite. 02:22.300 --> 02:25.300 I was thinking about this while I was sitting in Chapel and I had to 02:25.300 --> 02:29.300 admit, that I've had little first-hand experience of what it really 02:29.300 --> 02:32.600 means to live in a hall of death. 02:34.200 --> 02:36.800 I had to admit that I have all kinds of cushions. 02:38.100 --> 02:44.000 That well cushion me from that, life is a haul of death experience. 02:45.000 --> 02:46.400 For example, by ZIP code. 02:48.000 --> 02:50.700 I have always taken the benefits of where I live for 02:50.700 --> 02:54.600 granted but did you know that your ZIP code is the number one 02:54.600 --> 02:59.500 determiner of your physical health outcomes. More important even than 02:59.500 --> 02:59.900 your genetics. 03:00.000 --> 03:03.000 And I've always had that cushion 03:03.600 --> 03:05.000 many people do not. 03:05.000 --> 03:09.600 They live in a zip code where death and despair and hopelessness are 03:09.600 --> 03:10.600 far more 03:10.700 --> 03:11.500 prevalent. 03:12.300 --> 03:16.100 We're gunshots are normal sound in their daily lives. 03:17.100 --> 03:20.500 My zip code is just one of many cushions that have made my life 03:20.500 --> 03:23.300 generally comfortable and full of hope. 03:25.000 --> 03:29.400 Those gunshots reminded me how easily God could take it all away. 03:30.300 --> 03:35.500 And unlike what I easily do with daily news, I could keep neither the 03:35.500 --> 03:40.800 gunshots, nor those disturbing thoughts about God at a comfortable 03:40.800 --> 03:41.400 distance. 03:42.100 --> 03:47.500 Frankly, the idea that God might take away all the things that I hold, 03:47.500 --> 03:50.500 most dear scares the liver out of me. 03:51.700 --> 03:53.900 My children, please 03:53.900 --> 03:54.100 God 03:54.100 --> 03:56.000 no. My grandchildren 03:57.500 --> 03:57.900 heavens 03:57.900 --> 04:01.000 no. My wife, my house, my health. 04:01.000 --> 04:01.900 my mind 04:02.700 --> 04:03.200 no. 04:03.800 --> 04:05.500 No, no. 04:06.800 --> 04:09.000 Scares me that, God could do that to someone 04:09.000 --> 04:13.300 I love and I pray all the time that he actually not do that. 04:14.300 --> 04:18.000 I recoil from the thought that sometime in the future God is going to 04:18.000 --> 04:23.600 take me from every one of those people that I love and from everything 04:23.600 --> 04:24.100 else, 04:25.100 --> 04:26.900 that makes my life worth living. 04:28.100 --> 04:32.300 But all last week, like an earworm burrowing into my brain, those 04:32.300 --> 04:37.600 gunshots along with that Hall of death picture have made my fears, 04:37.700 --> 04:43.100 hard to keep at Bay. And having to read Job for this sermon has 04:43.100 --> 04:44.300 certainly not helped. 04:46.700 --> 04:50.600 Job is neither a caricature nor an abstraction to me. 04:50.600 --> 04:56.800 I look at Job and I see a real picture of what God can and does do to 04:56.800 --> 05:02.000 one degree or another all the time and to people all over the world. 05:03.000 --> 05:06.400 God removes cushions and gives death its way. 05:07.500 --> 05:10.200 This is what happens when you live in the Hall of death. Sooner or 05:10.200 --> 05:10.700 later 05:10.700 --> 05:15.400 God starts messing with the things that give your life hope, the very 05:15.400 --> 05:17.700 things that make your life worth living. 05:19.400 --> 05:23.700 God has pulled up my hope like a tree Job says in verse 10. 05:23.800 --> 05:27.600 He has kindled, his wrath against me and counts me as his adversary. 05:28.100 --> 05:31.200 My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end 05:31.200 --> 05:31.900 without hope 05:31.900 --> 05:36.400 he says in another place. The water wears away the stones and torrents 05:36.400 --> 05:38.000 wash away, the soil of the earth. 05:38.000 --> 05:41.200 So you destroy the hope of mankind. 05:42.500 --> 05:48.500 Where that is my hope Job asks, who then we'll see my hope. 05:50.100 --> 05:56.000 This is what God does silently and unapologetically God robbed Job of 05:56.000 --> 05:57.800 his hopes and dreams. 06:00.000 --> 06:01.600 And so I find it remarkable, 06:02.800 --> 06:03.800 incredible 06:03.800 --> 06:07.400 really that stripped of every sliver of hope. 06:08.200 --> 06:13.300 This strangest of all hopes remains on Jobs lips. 06:14.800 --> 06:19.400 Job is not sitting on a cushioned seat in a comfortable church when he 06:19.400 --> 06:21.100 gives voice to his one remaining 06:21.100 --> 06:26.100 hope. He is suffering, immense, physical, emotional, and spiritual 06:26.100 --> 06:26.700 pain. 06:27.800 --> 06:31.900 Death has hemmed him in on every side and God is crushing him. 06:33.400 --> 06:36.600 How in the world could he say in those circumstances 06:36.700 --> 06:41.700 I know that my redeemer lives? And how could he say even after my skin 06:41.700 --> 06:45.600 is destroyed, yet in my flesh, will I see God? 06:46.500 --> 06:49.700 It's a crazy hope for anyone who knows anything about life in the Hall 06:49.700 --> 06:50.400 of death. 06:51.100 --> 06:55.600 And in this dark hallway, there is no visible evidence for it all 06:55.600 --> 06:56.500 evidence points 06:56.500 --> 07:02.500 to the contrary. Evidence points, to the fact that got that Job's wife 07:02.800 --> 07:05.700 was right. Curse, God and die 07:05.700 --> 07:06.700 hope is useless. 07:08.000 --> 07:10.500 In fact, most Scholars deny the possibility 07:10.700 --> 07:13.900 That Job is actually hoping for a Divine Redeemer and a physical 07:13.900 --> 07:15.400 Resurrection at all. 07:15.400 --> 07:18.100 And so they very easily interpreted all the way. 07:19.500 --> 07:26.400 They, but notice not God, they rob Job of the most amazing hope of 07:26.400 --> 07:30.400 all and advise that we not listen to it either. 07:32.700 --> 07:35.800 Well, all I can say to that, is that you either see the hope or you 07:35.800 --> 07:38.000 don't you either believe it or you do not. 07:40.000 --> 07:43.500 But still, I want to invite both believers and unbelievers to stop and 07:43.500 --> 07:47.600 to consider these enigmatic and mysterious words of Job. 07:48.900 --> 07:51.000 Like a flower in a vast desert 07:51.900 --> 07:57.800 a single beautiful hope springs from the wreckage of Jobs heart. 07:58.600 --> 08:04.100 Surprising voice from one soul shipwrecked in the Hall of death. 08:05.100 --> 08:10.100 One startling strain in the midst of the groaning and the crying, and 08:10.100 --> 08:14.800 the gunshots that come to our ears through the poisoned air that we 08:14.800 --> 08:15.600 breathe. 08:17.100 --> 08:23.800 Job's hope blossoms for just a moment and then it passes from our view 08:23.800 --> 08:29.100 as quickly as it came and Job never gives voice to it again. 08:31.400 --> 08:33.799 Now, you may be disappointed, that Job 08:33.799 --> 08:36.600 never again, utters such a hope. By our lights 08:36.600 --> 08:37.600 you see Job 08:37.600 --> 08:40.700 should invoke it triumphantly again and again. 08:45.000 --> 08:50.000 Well, that might make us feel better about it might make it easier for 08:50.000 --> 08:53.000 us to get a handle on it. 08:54.200 --> 08:55.100 Maybe not. 08:56.700 --> 08:59.300 Maybe the point is Job's silence. 09:00.400 --> 09:02.300 Maybe you can think about it like this. 09:02.300 --> 09:07.000 At the beginning of the book Job had a life full of hope. A life 09:07.000 --> 09:08.500 that was complete 09:09.900 --> 09:13.000 But God took everything else away from him 09:15.000 --> 09:17.600 except this one rare and improbable hope. 09:19.500 --> 09:25.200 God doesn't mess with this hope and I like to think the Job hid it 09:25.200 --> 09:28.400 away in his shattered heart. 09:29.800 --> 09:31.700 Thereby leaving us hanging. 09:33.200 --> 09:37.200 Because hope is not the realization after all, is it? 09:38.800 --> 09:40.900 We have to wait agonizing 09:40.900 --> 09:43.700 wait, because God wants us to wait. 09:44.700 --> 09:48.500 Until the end of the book, till the end of our lives 09:49.600 --> 09:55.700 till the end of time. He wants us to wait and see for ourselves what 09:55.700 --> 09:58.900 God is going to do with his final crazy 09:58.900 --> 10:00.400 hope of Job's. 10:01.900 --> 10:05.900 Is he going to disappoint that hope to or not? 10:08.300 --> 10:12.100 Now it's easy enough for me to remind you that in one sense that wait 10:12.100 --> 10:12.900 is over. 10:13.100 --> 10:15.800 We live on this side of Jesus 10:15.800 --> 10:22.600 Resurrection. I know that my redeemer lives in Jesus God gave us and 10:22.600 --> 10:28.800 Job the Redeemer for which Job hoped. Jesus rose from the grave and so 10:28.800 --> 10:34.000 will I. Jesus Lives no more to die and so will I. That's God's promise 10:34.300 --> 10:36.100 that he made to each and every one 10:36.200 --> 10:39.500 none of us. An indelible amazing promise. 10:42.100 --> 10:44.700 Yet those gunshots still ring in my ears. 10:46.000 --> 10:50.100 Echoing off the walls of the Hall of death, scaring me. 10:50.600 --> 10:54.300 So like Job, I still find myself holding on to this hope 10:55.700 --> 11:01.000 and also being afraid. Out of pure grace, God has planted the same 11:01.000 --> 11:04.100 improbable hope into my weak heart. 11:05.300 --> 11:08.600 By the way, it's pretty much a hall of death in my heart, too. 11:09.600 --> 11:10.300 There it is. 11:11.300 --> 11:12.300 I'm conscious of it. 11:12.700 --> 11:13.300 Hidden away 11:13.300 --> 11:18.000 the hope that someday in my flesh I will see God. 11:19.200 --> 11:22.900 But I'm also conscious of the fact that it is hidden in a heart heart 11:23.100 --> 11:28.400 marked by fear and worry and doubt not to mention a myriad of sinful 11:28.400 --> 11:30.200 thoughts and feelings. 11:31.300 --> 11:34.400 So in my daily life, those gunshots reminded me 11:34.400 --> 11:42.200 once again that I a sinner given a glorious and in unshakable future 11:42.300 --> 11:46.500 life, I still continue to wrestle with my fears and my anxiety about 11:46.500 --> 11:47.100 the future. 11:47.500 --> 11:52.700 And in that daily battle with myself, I try to remember that God has 11:52.700 --> 11:53.800 really promised me 11:53.800 --> 11:55.300 only one thing. 11:56.700 --> 11:59.800 He has given me only one sure 12:00.000 --> 12:00.700 Word 12:00.700 --> 12:05.900 one certainty, what Luther calls one little word. 12:08.000 --> 12:10.400 And that's the hope that he wants us to cling to. 12:12.200 --> 12:16.200 And that's also the hope that he promises to nurture. 12:17.500 --> 12:21.600 One hope that he promises never to take away from us. 12:21.700 --> 12:28.800 In fact as you just sang, Our Redeemer Lives to nurture it, he lives 12:28.900 --> 12:31.100 to comfort all my fears. 12:32.000 --> 12:35.200 He lives to wipe away my tears. 12:36.500 --> 12:40.000 Lives to calm my troubled heart. 12:41.100 --> 12:42.800 He lives to do all this for me. 12:43.700 --> 12:46.300 Yes, that's my savior. 12:46.900 --> 12:47.400 Amen. 12:48.900 --> 12:49.900 Now may the peace of our Lord 12:49.900 --> 12:50.800 Jesus Christ 12:50.800 --> 12:53.600 which passes all our understanding, keep your hearts and minds 12:53.600 --> 12:55.700 together in Christ Jesus. Amen.