A Firm Foundation

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“How firm a foundation, O saints of the Lord, / Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!” (LSB 728:1) So we sang, and so we have heard repeatedly from our lessons in the past weeks and today. The Lord provides solid ground for us to walk. He levels the pathway for His saints. He gives His light to shine upon our way and illuminate our footsteps. And yet, like Peter, still we doubt, and we sink.

The wager between the Lord and the devil was that, given the resources, the devil could make Job curse God and renounce His faith. Of course, the devil lost that bet, but in the course Job indulged in no small pity party, even to the point where he cried out that he wished he had never been born. He had trouble standing upon the foundation of the Word of God in the midst of trials.

However, the Lord came to Him, and because Job remained faithful, He restored Job's fortune even more than he had before. But the Lord does not let Job have the last word. He asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world?” Where was Job when the Lord spoke and light came into being? Where was Job when the Spirit of God hovered over the void? Of course, the answer is nowhere. At those junctions in history, Job was not there, because it is the Lord God who created the heavens and the earth, and no other.

The Lord God of Hosts, is lord over the whole of heavens and earth. To Him belong all power, majesty, glory, honor, might, and riches. To Him, and through Him, and from Him are all things. Not one thing was made without Him. Nothing happens except by the express permission of the Lord.

All things are in His control. The seas and all that dwell in them are His. He makes the winds to blow and the waves break. He makes the whales sing and the fish leap. The Lord brings storm and rain, and He brings sun and calm. He makes the seasons turn and the sun follow the snow. He established the universe and all therein. The Lord God has created all things according to His perfect plan and decree, and He still daily and richly preserves and protects them, just as He would have them be. No one can make something out of nothing, and no one can snatch one of His beloved children out of His hand. It is He who kills and makes alive, who wounds and heals.

“Fear not! I am with you, O be not dismayed, / For I am your God and will still give you aid.” (728:2). The Lord God of Hosts is not some ambivalent bystander watching the ant-sized people scurrying about from thousands of feet above it all. Rather, He comes to His people in their distress and comforts them. On the water, Jesus spoke to His disciples and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” The Lord your God is here, and He has come to give you comfort and aid in your time of distress.

The Lord is God, and all will progress according to His plan. The world and all the events therein are under His direction and control, and not one thing happens without Him. The stock market, the crops and livestock, the state of affairs in Washington – all these things are under His direction. Therefore, do not be afraid. Take heart, for He is here with you, leading, guiding, and protecting you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

The Lord exhorts you to believe in Him, and trust Him for your strength and defense throughout the changes and chances of this life. Let Him be God, and realize that you are not. Pray “Thy will be done” and believe that His will shall be done. Leave all things to God's direction.

The problem, though, is that you fail at this. You want to worry and fret. You want to hang onto your problems like an anchor. All the stresses and strains of this life weigh you down because you make them your own, even though you cannot do anything about them. You want to be God and to do God's job for Him, even without the omniscience that allows Him to keep it all spinning. You want what you want to happen, regardless of what is really best.

Besides that, you doubt God's power to order and preserve your life and the life of all His creation. Notwithstanding the fact that life has been happening without your help for millennia, you doubt that God really knows what is going on around you, or that He will do what is best for you and for this world, regardless of what you think that is. You want to be in control. You want everyone to listen to your ideas of what the president should do, what the government should do, what the pastor should do, what everyone else should do, so that, ostensibly, what you want will come to pass. Never mind about that bit about “not my will, but Thine be done.”

However, the Lord will still deliver you out of all your troubles. “The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose / I will not, I will not desert to his foes.” (728:3). Peter sank because his faith faltered and he doubted. But Jesus reached, took hold of him, and pulled Peter to safety. He rescued Peter out of all his peril and danger. Likewise, the Lord has taken hold of you and lifted you up out of the mess of your own sin and despair. He performed a miracle much greater than walking on water when He came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and was made man. He did more than take your hand when He took your sin upon Himself and it was nailed to the cross along with Him. He died so that dying you might live. He was lowered into the grave so that you might rise in newness of life. He was raised so that you might never go down to the pit of destruction.

Jesus Christ your savior lifts you up by sinking you into the blessed flood of Holy Baptism. He pulled up Peter to keep him from drowning, but He plunged you into the waters and drowned the old evil man within you. Only then did He pull you up, out of the deluge and into new life in Him. He joins you to His death on the cross, so that you will not face death alone. Your future is secure, because your present rests in Him. You need not fear. You need not be dismayed. The Lord of Hosts is with you, and He is your savior. He is the eternal Father, strong to save, whose arm calms the restless wave. He is the sinless Son of Man who delivers you from all your sin and death.

You will probably never walk on water. You will never see 5,000 men fed from one boy's lunch. You will never see someone raised from the dead. However, you have seen the miracle of life as God has sundered children from the number of the unbelieving and joined them to Himself. You have witnessed the miracle wherein a man and a woman come before this altar and leave as one, joined in Holy Matrimony as a living image of our Lord Christ and His Church.

You have experienced for yourself the miracle of life as our Lord has poured into you time and again His very lifeblood with the forgiveness of your sins. You have been kept safe and secure in the hand of God, out of which no one can steal you. Joined to the cross of Christ, you will never sink beyond what God can pull you out. “Take heart; it is Jesus. Do not be afraid.”

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.