Sermon preached at St. John's Lutheran in Marion, Texas as the supply pastor for the local pastor.  Based on the Hebrew Bible text from Isiah.

    Guardians of the Galaxy is a growing movie franchise based on the Marvel Comics of the same name, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios. It first hit the screen in 2014. Vol. 2 appeared almost precisely a year and 21 days ago, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is scheduled for release in 2020. In these films, a team with quasi, semi-impressive superpowers comes together to be guardians of the galaxy.
    I am not going into further details, but I bring it up because today we have our annual liturgical remembrance of a key concept about God, the Trinity. We have Christmas, a day we put aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus, God incarnate. We have Easter, when we remember Christ’s resurrection. And last week we just had Pentecost, fifty days after Easter, when the Holy Spirit blew into the hearts and lives of the first disciples and pushed them out the door of their gathering, a gathering that is the birth of the church.
    We could discuss many aspects of God, but I thought today considering the popularity of the Guardians movies one aspect of God that we are to consider, that God is the real Guardian of the galaxy. This Protector is the ruler of everything, the potentate of innumerable universes filled with galaxies we cannot see, and is more powerful, fearsome and wise than we can imagine. And, based on today's lesson from Isaiah, this Guardian is holy and just --- more holy and just than we can imagine.
    Moreover, this Guardian is triune and thus exists in three forms, each being peculiar and unique and yet each possessing the powers of the other. In a word, this Guardian transcends everything we know or think we know about guardians. A trinity of powers; a unity of personality, a community in one.
    This is the triune deity who stunned Isaiah in our text. The prophet writes, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.”
    If we had millions of dollars we could make a pretty good video game couldn’t we. All the elements are there: A powerful Being whose glory covers “the whole earth,” cool clothes, celestial beings that fly around with six wings, lofty thrones, powerful earthquakes, lots of smoke and a cool name for the all-powerful Being --- “The King, the Lord of Hosts.”
    Now of course, this is not the only place where God is described as the Guardian of the galaxy. But how about we start with the same prophet who had the vision of God as recounted in today's first lesson. Isaiah records the words of the Guardian who says, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?” Not only is God the Guardian, but this same God created everything that is now guarded.
Moreover, Isaiah says of the Guardian, “All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?” Just think of that with me for a moment, we tend to think of nations as just on our little blue marble spinning around a sun, with borders in sand or along rivers. But just imagine all the galaxies, planets and stars, all that is nothing before God.
    “Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.”
    Whatever we may experience in life, have read in our history books, or stood in awe of the pictures from the Hubble telescope, all that is mere one grain of sand, on the largest and longest beach one can imagine, yet, even that is nothing to compare to God.
    If that gets a little overwhelming or as usually happens sounds like we are droning on and on, no wonder that the focus in the Bible and the church moves to the attributes of this Guardian of the galaxies
    The list of God's attributes includes at least the following, in alphabetical order that I have read, heard and used --- you may have others: eternal, good, grace, holy, immanence, immutability, justice, love, mercy, omnipotence, omnipresence, righteousness, self-existence, sovereignty and transcendence. Obviously, if I spent time on each attribute your eyes would be more glazed over than now.
    So, let me pick out just a couple of those attributes for us to ponder this morning: goodness, justice and love. Those three are important in my mind because those are not ones we necessarily hear very much about.

    The Guardian is Good. God is not only good in God’s essential nature but is the source of goodness as well. Consider these verses. In Psalm 34:8 we read, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” The psalmist also declares, “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.” And of course, Jesus reminded the rich, young ruler that if you remember came to him asking “Rabbi, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” To which Jesus answered, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good.”
    What does God’s goodness have to do with us? Well, God is so good that just by understanding the goodness of God, we can forswear the bad stuff we do. This is the apostle Paul's point in Romans: “Do you not realize that God’s goodness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
Why else is the goodness of God an important attribute and again why does it matter to us? Well I don’t know about you, but I wouldn't want God to be an evil tyrant.
    There are so many who believe that God is exactly that. That God is all about judgement and anger. Bring prayer back to schools! Bring commandments back to the front of courthouses! Bring those things and our school shootings will go away. I wish it was that simplistic. All we must do is look at history to sober us up and see that those attempts failed. Just read up about John Calvin and the city of Geneva in present day Switzerland that tried to establish a church led civil society. What do you think happened? Just try to get everyone of Marion to think and even act with justice and peace, at home, within their families much less in this community. I am sure all of you are lovely, gracious people, but….
    Instead, we follow a Good God who draws our hearts to goodness but more importantly, forgives us, so that every time someone screws up in Marion which must happen what once a year…. Our God is good. Everything about our Guardian is good and pleasant. An evil god is by definition or according to reason an inferior god to a super God who is all goodness and as the apostle Paul reminded us, is what leads us to forgiveness and change.
    The Guardian is Just. God can hardly be unfair, even though we may be inclined sometimes to think that God is. Why let people starve in parts of Africa and we throw away food? Why let a hurricane bypass one place and hit another? We don’t know why God doesn’t use God’s awesome power at every beck and call from us, but an unfair God lacks perfection. A perfect God is one who is just and fair. And so, God is.
God is not only justice, but God is the judge! Listen to Abraham pleading with God to save the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, “Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” Notice that God is called the Judge of the earth. God is also described as a judge in book about Judges in the Old Testament, “Let the Lord, who is judge, decide today for the Israelites or for the Ammonites.” And in James 5, the same thing: “Do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors!”
    How about us? I don’t know about you, but I like someone who is fair and just. It's a quality that I appreciate in those in life, whether in a church and church council, a parent, a neighbor, a judge, a political leader or someone possessing great wealth. If these people try to be fair, the quality of fairness highly recommends them to me. If they are unfair they are divisive.
    To be unfair is arbitrary, unkind, unreasonable and mean-spirited. No one could like such a God, much less worship such a God. Granted, God's justice is often delayed. Sometimes the wicked seem to prosper. Evil seems to be winning. Despite all our best efforts, the tide of evil continues to march forward. One thing we can safely say is that in the end, evildoers and the wicked will face justice. They will meet the guardian, who is just. This leads to the third attribute.
    The Guardian is Love. This God of the universe does not want anyone to face wrath and justice. “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” says the author of 2 Peters. Thus, although God is just, and God's justice demands that evildoers receive their just reward, God offers everyone, everyone from those on death row to those who built their wealth on the underpaid, a path to redemption. Just remember Zacchaeus the man who became wealthy on the backs of the poor, who changed at the first sight of God’s grace?
    Because of our guardian, God provided this cross-shaped loophole because God's essential nature is pure, white-hot, all-encompassing, blinding love. God is love. God loves. God loves the world. God loves the natural world. God loves the mountains and lakes and Texas scrub. God loves the meadow and its bluebonnets. God loves the deer and the rabbits. God loves saints and sinners alike. God loves children. God loves us when we're good and when we're bad, when we're happy and when we're sad. In fact, there's no power in the galaxy that can now remember the words of the apostle Paul …. That can separate us from the love of God.
    So, what's not to like and love about this Super Guardian who loves us, is fair with us and who is essentially good? We stand, like Isaiah, in total awe and amazement in that moment when God's incredible power and fearful essence are revealed to us. Like Isaiah, we might say, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a [person] of unclean lips ... yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
    Granted, God can often seem confusing to us. God sometimes God seems testy, capricious, whimsical and moody. Perhaps part of the confusion is generated by our attempts to understand God's nature with our limited intelligence. Yet, even our need for God to be tidy, understandable and rational is a human need. We cannot fit God into that kind of box. God will be testy with Job, have compassion on the inhabitants of Nineveh and forgive someone like David. God will be God.
    But, guess what, the most incredible part is this same guardian of the galaxies desires us to be part of the team. Not as superheroes but just as we are, mutual guardians. In verse 8, we read, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’” Isaiah responded as we, too, should respond: “Here I am; send me.” God then said, "Go and say ..."
    I can’t do it for you. Pastor David can’t do it for you. It is our individual responsibility, but rather than a burden, for God doesn’t need people on God’s team with superpowers, God can do everything and more. Rather God wants us to be part of the team to lift and live out God’s attributes of goodness, fairness and love. Whom shall is send….Here I am; send me. Amen.