God Uses Means (Things)
Genesis 2:7-17
July 19, 2026 anno Domini
Dust. Nostrils. Garden. Ground. Trees. Food. River. Water. Gold. Bdellium. Onyx. Work. Fruit. Eating.
That’s the short list Moses gives us of everything God created and used to give Adam life and keep him alive. God formed the man from dust, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, put him in a garden, caused trees to spring up and bear fruit. Adam worked in that garden and kept it so that, by eating the fruit from those trees, he would live.
In today’s Collect we acknowledge God’s providence – His never-failing providence orders all things in heaven and earth. God provides. He provides things for which we prayed: Give us those things that are profitable for us.
It doesn’t sound very educated or sophisticated that God used things to provide for Adam. Yet, that is exactly what He does. He uses created things. The church has a more technical word for this. It isn’t a big word, but it does take a little explaining. God uses “means” to provide for us and to deal with us. Now means doesn’t mean what you think it means. (I just wanted to say that.) Means are the particular channels or methods or objects through which God cares for us and loves us.
To illustrate what means means – in this hot, dry weather you might be watering your lawn, garden or flowers. Somehow you need to get the water from the source to the target – from the tap on your house to the garden. You might use a watering can, or a bucket, or a hose. Whatever you use is the means by which you water.
Or look at Jesus in today’s Gospel reading. A great crowd had followed Him into the wilderness and had gladly heard Him for three days. Now they were hungry. There was nowhere nearby to buy food – no Coborns, no Burger King, no Kwik Trip. Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, certainly could have made a banquet out of thin air, but He doesn’t. He uses means. He asked his disciples, “How many loaves do you have?” They had seven loaves and a few fish and Jesus took those simple, meager means to provide for the crowd. Through His blessing, His breaking, and His distribution of the loaves and fish, He multiplied them to feed four thousand people.
Do you recognize God’s providence? Do you see all the little things He uses every day to give you life and preserve it? I know it’s hot, but have you thanked Him for the sun? You wouldn’t be here without it. Or air-conditioning? Or plumbing? Or gasoline? Or all the MN Dot workers who maintain the roads, keep the stop lights working, and make sure the signs are in their proper places? Thanks be to God for His indescribable gifts – the good things that are so profitable for us.
That God provides for us physically with physical means makes perfect sense. He made Adam physically, formed him from the dust of the ground, gave him nostrils and lungs to breathe and a heart to pump blood throughout his body. When’s the last time you thanked God for your nostrils, your veins and arteries? More little things that are very profitable for us.
But have you ever considered this uniquely Biblical truth? In dealing with you spiritually, God also chooses to use created things – created means.
One of our Lutheran Confessional writings – those writings that we as a pastor and congregation, have pledged to believe, teach and confess, the Smalcald Articles says this,
God does not want to deal with us in any other way than through the spoken Word and the Sacraments. Whatever is praised as from the Spirit—without the Word and Sacraments—is the devil himself.
None of you believe that God will magically put food on your table. You believe that God works through means – that your work earns a wage so you can buy groceries and prepare your meals. Yet one of your great temptations is to seek God apart from His Word and His Sacraments – to seek knowledge, assurance, comfort, or even God’s favor apart from His appointed means: His Word, written in the Bible and spoken by your preacher; His water poured on you in Holy Baptism, His bread and wine through which He feeds you Christ’s true body and blood in His Supper; His forgiveness, purchased by the real human blood of the real human Jesus, the very Son of God, and spoken into your ears by the mouth of His servant.
How do you seek God apart from His means?
When you judge God by how you feel.
When you are depressed or anxious the Devil works hard to make your mood the measure of your faith or God’s favor. A Christian should be happier than you are. A real Christian wouldn’t worry like you worry. The Devil would have you follow the little demonic voices in your head, instead of the Word of God and the water poured on your head: I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. By His Word He placed His name upon you. By His name God adopted you as His child. Through His water He drowned your sins with Christ and raised you to a new life. Trust that Word. Hold fast to that water.
How else do you seek God apart from His means? When you interpret God according to your circumstances – according to the experiences of your life. Dr. Luther called this a theology of glory. If life is glorious, then your faith must be right and God must be pleased with you. If life is inglorious, then something must be wrong and God must be angry with you.
Consider again that crowd in the Gospel reading. They hung around with Jesus for three days, following Him in to the wilderness. Their lives were in physical danger because they had remained with Jesus, hearing God’s Word. The Devil focused their attention on their empty bellies and wanted them to forget that God in the flesh was standing right in front of them. He wanted their hunger to overpower their hearing.
Don’t judge God or interpret Him apart from His Word, and especially not apart from His Word made flesh – the Son of God and Son of Man – Jesus of Nazareth.
Every sermon should speak to your life, but the sermons of the church year preach first proclaim the life of Christ. Christmas proclaims His birth. Epiphany reveals His compassion for all people. Lent proclaims His suffering and sacrifice. Holy Week recounts His betrayal and death. Easter announces His resurrection.
At every event in His life, you need to hear the two little words: for you. He was born for you. He suffered for you. He died for you. He rose again for you – for your salvation, to take away your sins and deliver you from the Devil’s power and death’s dominion.
God works His love, His care, His favor for you, not in your thoughts or your circumstances, but in the man Jesus. Jesus’ life you can trust. Your life – not so much. The Devil – not at all.
As God gave Adam every tree but one in the garden for food, and as Jesus fed the 4000 with seven loaves and a few fish, so today the Lord has set a meal before you. It is a simple menu – bread and wine. That’s what Jesus used and that’s what you receive here – nothing more and nothing less. Yet under those simple, common, created things, Christ gives you Himself – His true body and blood. And with His body and blood comes all that He is and all that He has won for you – forgiveness for your sins, life instead of death, and the resurrection of your body.
God has not promised to work directly on your faith any more than He would magically place food on your table or money in your checking account. He uses things. He uses means. He uses created gifts. For your faith He uses His Word, His water, His bread and His wine to preach into your ears this enduring truth: He loves you. Your sins are forgiven. You receive all of this from Him, through His means in the name of Jesus. Amen.