Trusting God.

Job 38: 1-7   Mark 10: 35-45 

When we had the baptism here last month I realised that it was a while since I had held a baby. I hope we all know how it feels. Making sure the baby is comfortable – that you are giving them a firm support, if they’re very young, supporting the head. It is a great honour and joy to hold a baby safely in your arms.

But even the smallest of babies will often grasp your finger, or the edge of your clothing. It’s a very deep instinct that however well you’re holding them, they will hang on to you.

 

I think in a sense we never lose that instinct in life.

There comes a time of course when we leave the security of loving human parents’ arms and learn to cope on our own. But we know that God whom Jesus called ‘Father’ holds us in arms of love the whole of our life through. 

But the instinct kicks in: it is not enough to be held in God’s arms – we are always looking for something else to hang onto.

 

 

For Job, he tries to hang onto a reason why his life is hard – he tries to argue with God that as a good person these terrible things should not be happening to him.

God’s answer seems at first baffling:

 

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

Who determined its measurements?…

who laid its cornerstone?…”

Later on, God will ask Job my favourite question 

‘Where were you when I made the hippopotamus?”

 

Clearly the answer to all these questions is that Job has nothing to do with all these things– only God has the power to create the world and all its creatures.

 

God might just as well have said to Job – ‘your tiny grasp on how life works is nothing compared to my arms underlying the whole of creation. 

You only see a tiny sliver of life – purely from your own perspective – the wider picture of the creation and sustaining of everything is beyond you. 

So don’t try to hold onto an understanding of life based only on what happens to you – let go of your tiny questions about life and try to trust the widest possible grasp of life – the grasp I have on you and everything that lives.’

 

Job needs to let go of his desire to find a reason why bad things have happened in his life and trust that despite all appearances, God is still caring for him. That is precisely what Job does, in the end – he decides that he cannot possibly question the majesty of God.

 

Meanwhile, Jesus’ disciples -   James and John  - are grasping after something else in life.

They want status – position. They recognise that Jesus is a great teacher and he has told them that he is destined for glory in God’s kingdom. So they ask Jesus if they can sit on either side of him when he comes into his glory. Jesus explains that he is not able to assign glory to others in this way.

Then the other ten disciples join in – no doubt angry that James and John are trying to get to the top of the pile. They are each wondering about their own status – they, too, want to grasp onto a position of importance in the band of Jesus’ followers.

 

You can almost hear the sigh in Jesus’ voice when he says 

“You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it shall not be so among you…”

 

All that Jesus has told and shown the disciples so far has been pointing to God’s kingdom where they are not required to earn a place of honour, or grovel before a tyrant in the hope of preferment, but where everyone is loved as a child of God, and held in God’s arms as securely as a new-born with their parent. 

In God’s kingdom it is not like an earthly scrabble for power – it is different ‘It shall not be so among you”.

Then, to really drive home the point, Jesus says

“but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

 

Ultimately Jesus will show that the greatness of God’s kingdom which he teaches will be displayed most clearly when he gives his life upon the cross. Jesus wants his disciples to know that God’s love is for them – all of them, whoever they are – and that God’s love is greater than all the human schemes and powers. Jesus will die the death of a criminal – but the power of God the Father will raise him up from death to resurrection life.

 

Jesus will show his disciples – show us – that he is willing to let go of every earthly comfort – even life itself – because he trusts in the arms of God to lift him up.

Jesus teaches his followers to let go of earthly ideas of status in favour of trust in God’s kingdom. 

Just as Job shows that humans naturally hold onto reason in life – but need to let go and trust in God’s care.

 

I love Isaac Watts’ hymn (no 37 in the hymn book) ‘We give immortal praise”. 

Verse 1 expresses praise to God the Father, verse two praise to God the Son, and verse three praise to God the Holy Spirit (I do love a good strong trinitarian hymn!). 

But verse four is the real gem:

Almighty God, to thee be endless honours done

The undivided three and the mysterious One.

Where reason fails, with all her powers

There faith prevails and love adores”

 

Letting go of explanation and reason is sometimes the way to greater trust and understanding of God’s love: just as letting go of the ‘greasy pole’ mentality of earthly power helps us understand God’s kingdom better – a kingdom of grace and peace.

In the section of Mark’s gospel just before this story of James & john, Jesus meets a rich young man who asks ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’. After he assures Jesus that he has kept the laws, Jesus tells him to ‘go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor and you will have riches in heaven’. The young man goes away sad because he can’t do that. He is clinging onto his riches (and perhaps his achievement in keeping the law) rather than trusting in God’s love to hold him and save him.

 

I wonder what we all cling onto that stops us fully trusting God.

 

It could be reason, argument, understanding.

It could be status, a sense of importance, position.

It could be money, or belongings, or pride. 

Or.., it could be something else… 

 

If we picture ourselves like a helpless baby in the arms of God, we might see how futile our grasp on these things is, compared to the arms of love which really hold us and support us throughout life.

 

May the grace of God bring us the trust we need to live more securely as children of God; through the love of Jesus and the comfort of the Spirit. Amen.