Job 38:1-7, Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b Hebrews 5:1-10 Mark 10:35-45

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone

when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?”

These are God’s words to Job that we have read this morning.  After four decades as Captain Kirk in a Hollywood-produced outer space, I cannot help wondering how William Shatner is relating to these questions from the Creator of the real earth and space.  His tearful reaction to last week’s 10 minute, 30 second ascension and descension to and from space expressed the extraordinary lifelong impact of the voyage.  Reaching a maximum height of 66.5 miles, just a few miles beyond the internationally recognized boundary between earth and space, Shatner’s words upon return were, “I hope I never recover from this… It’s so much larger than me and life.”  Shatner acknowledges our seeming insignificance in the scheme of creation. 

But God’s words to Job are not intended to reinforce our sense of smallness; God’s words are words of assurance of God’s wisdom and power, God’s provision and protection.  

These words we read from the Book of Job are God’s answer to Job’s complaints in the form of a series of rhetorical questions, essentially:  Where were you when I formed the earth and all therein?  Were you there laying the brick??

The rhetorical questions we read from the Book of Job are directed to Job by God from the whirlwind.  Job, defined as an innocent man, nevertheless has suffered immeasurable tragedy; Job is angry with God; Job dares to question God – to express his immense anger.  

These are not questions through which God intends to browbeat Job; these are questions intended to assure Job of God’s continuous presence and power to save him from adversity.  God reminds Job that he is an awesome God whose power and wisdom are infinite, beyond human understanding.  God has done all this; God can surely rescue Job from his earthly adversity.

We along with Job too often reduce God to a small God; we trust that tomorrow’s sun will rise, but we too often lose sight of the trust that God’s love will rise before the sun.  It is too easy to neglect to trust that our God who created all that we know of our universe and far beyond – the God who knew us long before we were created in our mothers’ wombs – is our all-powerful God who cares for us, wants only what is best for us, and even in death claims us as his own.  

Of all the mega-trillions of human beings conceived since the beginning of humanity, each is individually crafted, every human being is unique in character and personality and physical makeup.  Every sunrise and every sunset from the beginning of time is matchless, each casting its exceptional artwork upon the sky as it enters or departs the day.  Even every snowflake is unique.  So that, though we are a mere speck in the realm of eternity, God loves each of us intimately, calls each of us by name, and knows the very number of the hairs on our head.  Despite the enormity of the universe, God enters our every joy and sorrow.

I’m not proposing to diminish the relevance of our hardships and grief.  Remember that God always answer our prayers:  Sometimes the answer is “yes,” and we feel our prayers specifically fulfilled;  more often, the answer is “Not now,” and God reminds us we are to be patient and persistent; but usually the answer is “I have a better idea,” reminding us that God is working behind the scenes, revealing his presence, transforming our hopes and dreams in accordance to his will into something far more desirable than we could have imagined.

God reveals his presence to us in the life and works of Jesus Christ.  As our Gospel lesson for today begins, James and John request the glory seats on Jesus’ left and right. The great irony of James and John’s request is that it would be two thieves who would fill these positions on Jesus’ left and right as he and they were crucified alongside each other.  Jesus reminds us, “Whoever wishes to be first must be slave of all.”  

Over and over through the predictions of his death and resurrection, Jesus drives home the Gospel message that only by His death and rising again can death be overcome.  Only a human Jesus could live and die as one of us and rise again to overcome death definitively.  What if Jesus had not died for us; what if Jesus had not defeated death by rising again?  What if death was the end?  How would we bear the loss of our loved ones without the promise of joining them in God’s everlasting kingdom?  How would we face our own deaths minus the peace of the promise of eternal life?

We come to understand that only through this overcoming of death can our human sin be redeemed by the sacrifice of another human.  God became human in Jesus Christ to suffer our human tragedies and redeem our sinful humanness.   Our God is an awesome God.

So, where were you when God laid the foundation of the earth?