Taken For Granted

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

February 5, 2012

Taken For Granted

Isaiah 40:21-31

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Who determined its measurement?

Have you commanded the morning since your days began

and caused the dawn to know its place?

Just who do we think God is?

Just who do we think we are?

Who among us could create a face

with the ability to smile?

Who among us could create arms to cuddle a baby?

Who among us could form a mouth and tongue

to speak words of love?

For that matter, who among us could create love?

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Just who do we think God is?

Someone to turn to only to solve problems,

get out us out of trouble,

someone to bargain with, negotiate with,

and then only when our back is against the wall?

“God help us!”

We are talking of the Lord God,

the one who sits above the circle of the earth,

the one who brings the powerful to naught,

the one who makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

This is the Lord God!

The one who created the heavens and the earth,

The one who created laughter and joy,

who created mountains and trees,

who created water and light.

This is the Lord God, the Creator!

Our Creator!

Yet, this is the same God

whose name we speak of so casually,

who we so often take for granted.

Proud man, proud woman:

Have you commanded the morning

since your days began,

and caused the dawn to know its place,

Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Declare, if you know all this. …

Do you give the horse its might?

Do you clothe its neck with mane?

Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars,

and spreads its wings towards the south?

Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up

and makes its nest on high?

Our ancestors in faith spoke of “fearing” God

and we almost laugh at the quaintness of the language,

laugh at the very idea: to be afraid of God.

We are proud, independent;

we fear nothing;

we fear no one.

To fear is unseemly, cowardly,

and who would admit to that?

But we misunderstand the word,

the way it is used in the Old Testament,

the way we should understand it as we hear in Job:

“truly, the fear of the Lord,

that is wisdom.”

(Job 28:28)

Or read in The Book of Proverbs:

“the fear of the Lord

is the beginning of knowledge.”

(Proverbs 1:7)

It is not to stand before God with knees shaking.

It is not to quiver and quake.

It is to stand before God in awe,

in reverence,

in honor.

It is to stand before the Lord our God,

our Creator,

in utter astonishment –

astonishment at God’s creative power,

astonishment at God’s majesty,

astonishment at God’s goodness,

astonishment that God gives his love equally,

unconditionally to us all,

each of us, all of us because we are forever

“precious in God’s sight”.

To whom then will you compare me,

or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

Who has put wisdom in the inward parts,

or given understanding to the mind?

You and I: we can teach, we can learn,

we can share knowledge.

But who but God could have created our minds for understanding?

Who but God could have created us

with a desire to grow in wisdom,

grow in wisdom so we can grow in knowledge of God?

Think of the sheer absurdity of his call to us

to come to this Table.    

Come and be fed, God says;

Come and I will quench your thirst.

As hungry and parched as you are,

come, and you will be satisfied.

Filled by a mere morsel of bread

and a few drops of juice?

But incredibly,

astoundingly,

astonishingly,

we will come and we will be filled,

our thirst quenched,

our deepest hunger satisfied.

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

and strengthens the powerless.

God astonishes us

by giving us hearts with which to love;

Why then do we astonish him

by breeding and spreading division, conflict, hatred?

God astonishes us by creating us each in his image;

Why then do we astonish him

with our racism, bigotry and sexism?

God astonishes us by giving us a world

created in goodness and beauty;

Why then do we astonish him

by filling the world with our garbage,

our poisons, our filth,

blindly denying the damage our self-indulgent lives

do to God’s creation?

God astonishes us by creating us with compassion and empathy;

Why then do we astonish him

with our indifference,

our intolerance,

our judgment and self-righteousness?

God astonishes us with his hope for us

that we will live in peace;

Why then do astonish him

with our readiness, even eagerness,

for conflict, violence, and war?          

God astonishes us by setting before us

a life rich with treasures in heaven;

Why then do we astonish him

by turning away in search of treasures on earth?

Even youths will faint and be weary,

and the young will fall exhausted;

but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,

they shall mount up with wings like eagles,

they shall run and not be weary,

they shall walk and not faint.

Those who wait for the Lord;

those who stand in astonishment;

those who stand in humbled awe

in the presence of the Lord God

The one

who alone does great wonders,
who by understanding made the heavens,;
who spread out the earth on the waters,
who made the great lights,
the sun to rule over the day,
the moon and stars to rule over the night:

our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sustainer,

our Savior,

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
   his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall laud your works to another,
   and shall declare your mighty acts.
On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
   and on your wondrous works, [we] will meditate.

The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,
   and [we] will declare your greatness.
…All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
   and all your faithful shall bless you.
They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
   and tell of your power,
….Our mouths will speak the praise of the Lord,
   and [we] will bless [your] holy name for ever and ever.

(Psalm 145)

AMEN