August 10, 2025 - Ninth Sunday after Pentecost: The Goodness of God

August 10, 2025 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church
Genesis 1:24-31      Luke 18:18-25
“The Goodness of God”
Melissa K. Smith

“Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was          very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out          further than the brim of his shady hat.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a               good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is             a morning to be good on?"

"All of them at once," said Bilbo.
 
J.R.R. Tolkien was a writer and a philologist – someone who studies, creates, and deeply understands languages. His love and dedication to languages is evident to all who have read the Lord of the Rings as he created a language for the elves, for the trees, the dwarves, and more. But his mastery of the English language is what captures my attention the most. The way he creates worlds and cultures, his epic stories of good versus evil, and his character development – can you tell I am a fan?

In the quote I read to you from The Hobbit, we see a sense of his mastery of English. Yes, it can come across as Gandalf being snarky with his dear friend Bilbo, but it’s also a reminder that our words can potentially carry many different messages within them.

Each word has a denotation and a connotation – the denotation is the dictionary definition, the literal, and primary meaning of a word. The connotation is an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its denotation. Gandalf asks Bilbo, “What do you mean, good morning?” pointing out that even just a simple phrase can communicate many different messages.

In our passage, Jesus asks a similar question, narrowing in on the connotation of the word “good”. “A certain ruler asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.’”

Throughout the Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, not once is a rabbi or teacher called good. The title, or adjective correlated with the title, “good” like “good teacher” is only used for God. Jesus asks this rhetorical question pointing to God – perhaps reminding the Jewish ruler of the Shema – “שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד׃” “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” As Jesus says, “No one is good but God alone.”

Jesus said, “Why do you call me good?”
 
I don’t think we can jump to the conclusion that “the ruler knew Jesus was God!” We don’t get to know that. But Jesus’ question for the ruler is a question for us all – and we often jump over the question to get to the answer to the question we often ask, “How do I inherit eternal life?”

The primary question is the question Jesus asks – even if it is rhetorical, even if it was asked to a particular man at a particular time. Because worshiping God – proclaiming God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be good and all the other adjectives – is our chief end.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins:
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? 
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Our chief end, our ultimate purpose, is not to achieve eternal life – that’s a fruit of faith, a gift and blessing from God, and the result of being saved by God’s grace through faith. What we need to focus on is worshiping God, glorifying God, and enjoying God.

Why do we call Jesus Good? Why do we call the Triune God Good? Because God IS good!

Marj read the end of Genesis 1 for us. On the sixth day of creation, after God had created the heavens and the earth, the sky and the sea, the creatures of the air, the creatures of the sea – it was time to create humanity.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let           them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over                 the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing                 that creeps upon the earth.

So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and           female he created them… God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was             very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

God created humanity in his image and likeness – he created them imago Dei. And he saw humanity and indeed, it was very good – tov ma’od. If we are created in God’s image, and if we are declared as “very good”, is God not also “very good”?

God is, at his nature, good. 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” In various movie tropes we see good and evil at odds and they are usually depicted by color and light. In Star Wars we have the light side and the dark side. In the Wizard of Oz or Wicked you have the good witch and the bad witch – pink and green. I could go on and on with examples. The point is: we are familiar with good vs evil and we understand the motif of light and darkness. God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. God is, at his core, good.

One of the primary ways we see God’s goodness is through his creation. The natural world reflects the goodness of God through its beauty, through its balance, and through the ways it provides.

We also see God’s goodness through his love and mercy. God loves the world so much that he gave his only son – he died on the cross to defeat sin and death so that we may live and be cleansed of all unrighteousness. We see the goodness of God through Jesus’ mercy. He says in Mark’s gospel, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Jesus is merciful, gracious, loving, and good.

Examples of the goodness of God are endless.

Why do you call God good?

Sometimes we call God good because he is good to us. We can tangibly see God’s goodness through the ways he provides and blesses us. But then sometimes we feel as though we cannot call God good because we don’t see God, we don’t feel his blessings, and life is not going the way we want it to go.

God is light…in him there is no darkness. God is consistently and constantly good. God’s goodness is not measured by how much we can see or feel. Our pride, our desires…if they are not in line with God’s will, then we may not feel God’s goodness. That does not mean God is not good.

The certain ruler wanted to know how to have eternal life, but when told how to receive it, when invited to follow Jesus, he walked away. His priorities and choices do not indicate that God is not good. God is good – all the time – and all the time – God is good.

Life is hard, and one thing we can do to help one another is remind each other of God’s goodness as we follow Christ together. As we navigate life and its abundance of joys and concerns we will celebrate together and we will lament together. But we also need to worship together – to praise God together – to remember that God is good and to thank God for his abundance of goodness.

Because God is good.
 
I have named many ways we can see the goodness of God – and I hope and am guessing that many of you have your own examples of ways you have experienced God’s goodness. So…what do you mean by, “good teacher?” Why do you call God “good”?

Lewis Carrol is another author who plays with the idea of the meaning of words. To use a quote from Through the Looking Glass, “When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.”

What do you mean when you call God good? When you praise him? When you worship him?

Are you just saying it because it is a thing to say? Are you hoping to butter him up and compliment him with empty words? Or do you mean it as a reflection of the ways you personally know God to be good, as a way to proclaim your faith and assert your joy?

When we use a word to describe God, let us choose what it means. Let us be intentional with our prayers, our praises, and our worship. Let us proclaim to God exactly what we believe. For God is good – and we mean it.

Thanks be to God. Amen.