While preparing the sermon for Good Shepherd Sunday- April 4, 2008- on the text John 10: 1-10 and with a special focus on verses 27-28, "My sheep hear myt voice, and I now them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perhish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand", as is typical during most sermon preparation I was confronted with the problem of God. 

Let me explain.

I think my favorite paragraph in the sermon was this.  "You see, the Preservation of the Saints for Lutherans means that God in Christ will never change hismind about you.  That God in Christ will never not forgive you.  That God in Christ will never not keep his promises to you.  That God in Christ will never not change his disposition toward you.  That God in Christ will never not, no way, no how, ever drop you.  Nothing will ever snatch you out of his hand.  This is what the Preservation of the Saints means; God in Christ mercifully preserving you- it's true!"

It was a fun paragraph to write because of double negatives which made the point clear.  And these are the promises that we have come to cherish about our God.  Nevertheless, this paragraph almost did not make the sermon because I didn't want to say something untrue.  When I was first preparing the sermon the first sentence of the paragraph went like this, "You see, the Preservatin of the Saints for Lutherans means that God will never change his mind about you" and so on.  But that struck as perhaps not consistent with the Biblical witness.

What came to mind was David's famous prayer in Psalm 51, which we sing after the sermon in some of our liturgies, "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me."  That sounds the possibility that God could take his Spirit from us, that he could change his disposition toward us and so I couldn't include the rought draft of the above paragraph in my sermon.  Then I thought of Saul as well.  God chooses Saul as leader "over his inheritance" (see 1 Sam. 10, 1,6-7)  God's promise and spirit are bestowed upon and with Saul.  Flip to 1 Samuel 15 and the tone has changed!  1 Sam. 15:10, "Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: 'I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions'..."  I guess one could argue that Saul didn't obey God and so God turned his back on him-I don't obey God all the time either, will he turn his back on me?! 

The problem of God only gets worse!  See 1 Sam.15:24-26 "Then Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned.  I violated the LoRD's command and your instructions.  I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.  Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD.'  But Samuel said to him, 'I will not go back with you.  You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!'"  Saul even confesses his sin yet God's disposition has changed toward him and God has changed his mind about him!!  How could I possibly say in the sermon that "...preservation of the saints for Lutherans means that God will never change his mind about you?!"

The problem of God is this:  he simply is untamed and does not conform to our idea of God-- even when that entails being merciful to sinners- even repentant sinners!  This could be a problem- how do we know if this untamed God will be merciful toward us?

Then I remembered that God in the abstract is completely different from God in the concrete- God in the person of Christ.  God in Christ means that we are not dealing with God in the abstract, unpredictable, fearful and unknowable God.  Rather God in Christ means that we can "limit" or "place God in a box." (see Col. 1:15, 19-20)  God in Christ means that everything Christ said and did is the total and true representation of God toward us; Christ was surely forgiving, promising, granting abundant life to all people, indeed he said "...and no one will snatch you out of my hand." 

It is God-in-Christ that makes the sweet promises to us, more so than just God.  Our God is still God and that's precisely "the problem."  God as God is untamed, showing his favor to whom ever he will and removing his favor from whom ever he will.  But it is God-in-Christ through which the world is being reconciled by his pronouncements of forgiveness and peace.  It is God-in-Christ that allows for the sweet promises of the above paragraph that made it in the sermon.