Title: The way it is

What better day than Father’s Day for us to get to better know our heavenly Father?

In today’s Gospel, we learned to name God, "the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," as the Lord Jesus instructed us to baptize in that name. So, this is who God is, a Father and a Son and a Holy Spirit, as we confessed in the short and sweet Athanasian Creed.

Now, God can do anything, right? If God can do anything, He can be whomever He wishes, right? If God decided that He didn’t want to be Father and Son and Holy Spirit, but chose to tell us that He is Mother and Daughter and Holy Caterer, or King and Queen and Holy Jester, or whatever He might come up with, then that’s who He would be, right? Wrong.

The reason the Lord Jesus told us to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is because God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. That little word is carries vital weight. When something is something, it is not something else. For example, you are people, thus you cannot be caterpillars; this church is a building, it cannot be an oak tree; cotton candy is pure sugar, it cannot possibly be good for you.

While God can do all things, there are some things that He cannot do—things which are contrary to His nature. Since God is holy, He cannot sin. Since God is truth, He cannot lie. Since God is love He cannot trick or harm or offend.

Thus, when the Lord Jesus tells you that God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit, God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and you can count on His being Father and Son and Holy Spirit. This is vital, because if you cannot trust the Word of God to tell you the truth, then the Bible becomes another dust-catching paperweight.

This takes us to today’s Old Testament lesson, which is from the very beginning of the Bible, which teaches us how God created the world.

This is familiar territory. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God said, "Let there be light." God made the sky. God separated the water and the land. God made the earth sprout with vegetation. God put the sun and moon and stars into the sky. God filled the water with fish, the sky with birds, the land with animals.

When God was well into the sixth day of creating, He had one last thing to create: us. Where God had so far created everything simply by speaking it into being, when it comes to creating us, He uses the earth. He uses the earth to create us, and then He puts us in charge of the earth, giving us dominion over everything He has created. Indeed, He hasn’t simply created us, speaking us into being, but He has used the very ground on which we will walk to create us, and He has blown the breath of life into us, and He has made us in His image.

What is that image? Among other things, the image of God is what I mentioned earlier: God is holy, God is truth, and God is love. Thus, He made Adam to be holy and truth and love. And, that’s exactly what we are, right? Once again, wrong. Indeed, dead wrong, and that’s why you’re in church, this morning.

This, you also know very well. God instructed Adam, giving him one law to obey. Adam neglected God’s instruction. Adam’s sin meant that Adam died—but, not only physical death. Adam also died to God’s image.

• No longer was Adam holy. Now, not only could Adam sin, but every human being could not help but sin.
• No longer was Adam truth. Now, not only could Adam lie, but every human being would find lying to be a great way to avoid trouble and to put the finger of blame onto others.
• No longer was Adam love. Now, not only could Adam trick and harm and offend, but every human being would find himself, daily, thinking a host of thoughts, speaking of host of words, and performing a host of deeds which trick and harm and offend.

I could argue that you know that this last part, regarding the bad behavior of every person, is true by our experience, yet our common experience does not lead us to agreement. What you call sin, others say is due to psychological problems, or emotional abuse, or economic disadvantage; that, if we only correct the problems of the world—make sure that every child gets a good education, every person has proper medical care, everyone has a safe place to live—then, we can put to an end all of these troubles, and everyone will behave properly.

Since our common experience doesn’t lead us into agreement about our troubles, we need a higher authority. In our age, most of the world turns to science. You, however, turn to the Word of God.

You believe that the Word of God, the Bible, is true. Being true, it is reliable. But, to rely on it for its truth, you have to let it say what it says.

Here, Christians get into all sorts of shenanigans. Because the people of our age get most of their knowledge from science, the majority of Christian church bodies have bought into evolution, and believe that the creation is billions of years old, that all life evolved millions of years ago, that humans evolved from the image of lower animals.

These Christians read the same Old Testament lesson that we read, today, and read it differently. They say that the six days of creation is simply a story. It didn’t really happen that way; science has taught us to know better.

This brings you, dear Christians, to the crux of the matter. Is the Word of God the true Word of God? Does God tell the truth, or does God tell lies, fables, bedtime stories?

• If God didn’t tell the truth about how He created the world, then how do you know that Jesus told the truth that God is Father and Son and Holy Spirit?
• If God didn’t tell the truth about how He created the world, then how do you know that He told the truth about how He created Jesus by the virgin Mary?
• If God didn’t tell the truth about how He created the world, then how do you know that He told the truth about how Jesus died for your sins?
• If God didn’t tell the truth about how He created the world, then how do you know that He told the truth about how the good news of the Gospel, the bathing of Baptism, and the consuming of Communion bless you with the gifts of forgiveness of sins, salvation from death and devil and damnation, and eternal life?
• If God didn’t tell the truth about how He created the world, then how do you know that He told the truth about how Jesus is going to return to bring you back from the dead, in a resurrection just like His, so that you can live in a body which will be the body in which He originally made Adam in His image, so that you live in the eternal Paradise in holiness, truth, and love?

I pray that you are thankful, dear Christians, that you are members of a church body—the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod—and of a congregation, and with a pastor that relies on the Word of God as the Word of God—reading and believing it as the Holy Spirit inspired it to be written. I pray that you do just this: take it as it is and rely on it. Make use of it, as I always like to say, to know who God is, who you are, and how you have eternal life.

This is how you know your heavenly Father, through the Word of God, His Son, Jesus Christ, who gave you the Holy Spirit so that you could believe in Him, the Son, who reveals the Father to you—the Father of holiness, of truth, of love, in whom you live by believing in the holiness and truth and love of the Son, Jesus Christ, who speaks forgiveness to you in His name, in whose name you are baptized, on whose body and blood you are nourished.

That’s the way it is. Amen.