Together Again? – 7/20/08

Alone Together. That’s the title of a book that came out last year that takes a look at how marriage is changing in America. The authors compared a number of families, their relationships, and how they chose to spend their time in 1980. It was a random sample. Then, 20 years later, the authors took another random sample of families and considered their relationships and how they chose to spend their time together. They noticed a number of changes over the course of those two decades. Many of their observations pointed to the conclusion that marriage has become a less cohesive institution, but also point out that it is less confining at the same time.

For example, they find that family income has increased. That’s a good thing but it’s because both spouses are working leaving less time for home life. Decisions-making has become more equal over the course of 20 years. Marital conflict and violence have gone down. And support for marriage as a life-long commitment has actually gone up. However, spouses share fewer meals together. They are less likely to enjoy each other’s friends. They aren’t reporting any greater level of happiness and the divorce rate isn’t moving in a positive direction. So, the authors don’t agree with the critics who say marriage is in the dumps, but they don’t agree with people who say that marriage is becoming better.

They point out that people are waiting longer to get married. I imagine much of this has to do with the pursuit of education. It’s taking people longer to earn the degrees they need to get the job they desire. Quite frankly, it’s taking people longer to grow up. That’s true of both men and women. So, they are meeting with clear career goals in mind and neither of the potential partners is willing to give that up what they have worked so hard to achieve. That’s all well and good, but when the partners become a pair their priority remains their own pursuits rather than each other. Waiting longer to get married also means that potential spouses have developed other relationships as well.

We all know that as we get older we get more set in our ways. Many people surround themselves with circles of friends and since they are established in their career and social networks before they get married, they are less likely to share those networks with each other. The authors have found that spouses today are less likely to enjoy one another’s friends. I imagine this means they end up doing things separately. Men hang out with the guys and women have their girl’s night out, in other words. Again, all of this is well and good, but the trend is clear. People are still getting married, but they seem to continue to do their own thing. It’s not about being together. It’s not necessarily about starting a new life, but about carrying on the life you want in a socially acceptable way as if remaining single your whole life is weird for some reason.

I found great evidence for the author’s conclusion just on Friday. As some of you know, Julie and I had our 6^th Anniversary yesterday. On Friday when I was looking for an anniversary card 5 minutes before closing, I noticed that many of the cards shared a common theme. “I know we don’t get to spend a lot of time together, but I want you to know I love you.” Or, “I know we are so busy in our regular routines that we don’t get to do all we want, but I appreciate you.” Of course, they’re much more poetic than that, but you get the idea. Spouses are giving each other cards that acknowledge that even though they’re together, they are living their lives alone.

It seems that the same could be said of children and parenting. Being a good parent these days isn’t about being with your kids, it’s about providing for them a certain number of activities so that they’ll be well-developed and have good resumes. Some psychologists say that kids feel abandoned by their parents because they’re always being sent away when what they really want is time with mom and dad. They also say that kids are stressed out and over scheduled and don’t have enough quality time with adults. The same trend is visible here. It could be said that parents have kids because that’s the socially acceptable thing to do. But rather than starting a new life when a child is born they carry on with their own life and use endless activities as babysitters. Spouses, parents and their kids, they are all together, but they are really alone.

At any number of levels and according to any number of authors, relationships are becoming less important and self-fulfillment is taking center stage. People continue to go through the motions of marriage and parenting, but they take a back seat to individual desires. We’re left to wonder if people really want to be together in the first place. That’s an especially interesting thing when we consider the “Stump the Pastor” questions for this week. You might be surprised to hear that I actually received the same question 3 or 4 times. They all had to do with relationships and heaven. Everything from will I see the child I lost in heaven to will I know my spouse in heaven to which of my three wives will I be married to? It seemed that people wanted to know if we’ll have relationships in heaven and, if so, will they be a continuation of the relationships we had on earth. In other words, will we see and know people in heaven that we love on earth?

So, on the one hand, there is a study that says people aren’t all that interested in being together on earth. On the other hand, I got a bunch of questions from people wondering, hoping, that they would be together forever in heaven. I couldn’t tell for sure if the question about the three wives was serious our not, but that’s probably because it sounded so similar to the question that Jesus got from the Sadducees. At the point in Matthew’s gospel where we found Jesus this morning everyone is trying to trick him. The religious leaders are trying to find a Stump the Messiah question that will turn Jesus’ followers against him. The Pharisees tried taxes. That didn’t work. The Sadducees decided to go with the resurrection. On the whole, they didn’t believe in a resurrection at all so they thought they might be able to get Jesus on that one. It’s obvious that their question is intentionally outrageous.

It goes like this: Teacher, Moses said, “If a man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.” Let’s say there were seven brothers among us, the first married and died childless, leaving the widow to his brother. The second did the same, so also the third, down to the seventh. Last of all, the woman herself died. In the resurrection, then, whose wife of the seven will she be? For all of them had married her. Again, the point of the question was to present such an outrageous scenario that Jesus wouldn’t be able to find an answer. In that way, the idea of a resurrection would be called into question and Jesus, himself, would be called into question. Unfortunately for the Sadducees, it didn’t work out that way.

Jesus makes two points. First, he says that in the resurrection we will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but they will be like angels in heaven. What does that mean? Many people agree that those words refer, ultimately, to sex. They say that the kind of intimacy shared by a husband and wife in this life will not continue in the next. In other words, those kinds of relationships will not be a part of heaven. They will be neither the need for sex for procreation nor the need for sex as an expression of intimacy. There are some people who are disappointed at this thought, but the response is that that expression of intimacy will be replaced by another and more fulfilling expression. Some people have taken that to mean a deep, endless love for God and God alone. In heaven, they say, we will be lost in the wonder and worship of God unaware of those around us. I think there are two doctrines that would call that view into question.

The first is the idea of a new heaven and a new earth. I’ve mentioned it before, but the general idea is that when Jesus returns we won’t all be ushered into heaven, but find ourselves on a new earth. Why this idea is important is to distinguish Christianity from any number of other religions or philosophies. It tells us that the earth is good. Matter is good. Our bodies our good and not prisons from which our soul must escape. It’s a doctrine that points us back to creation. God created the world and placed people with bodies in it and walked among them to enjoy what he had made. The doctrine of a new heaven and a new earth says that God would like to get back to that. In other words, God enjoyed walking in the garden as much as Adam and Eve did and it was sin that drove God away. When Jesus returns and drives out sin from the earth, God will once again walk among us as he did with Adam and Eve.

As I mentioned last week, God is not so self-centered that he made the world just to have people praise him all the time. When we read the story of creation it seems that God wanted Adam and Eve to enjoy the garden and enjoy one another. Even though God was with Adam, Adam still felt alone. Only Eve met the longing that Adam felt. It seems that God created us for relationships, not only with him, but with others human beings. If that was a part of God’s original creation, it would seem that God would like that to be part of the new creation as well. So, the doctrine of a new earth or a new creation seems to say that we will enjoy relationships as we do now, but only in a much more fulfilling manner.

The second doctrine that is helpful, probably most helpful, is the resurrection. We can learn a lot about what to expect regarding the next life by looking at Jesus after he was resurrected. The first thing we note is that he had a body; one that could be seen and touched, one that walked and talked, one that sat at a table and ate. After the resurrection Jesus had a body much like the one before he died, but better. Also, after the resurrection Jesus returned to his disciples. Clearly, this was meant to serve a purpose. Jesus returned to his disciples so that they would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was God’s Son and the Messiah. That’s the main idea. But we should note that, after the resurrection, Jesus still recognized the disciples. He hadn’t forgotten what went on before he died. He still had feelings and thoughts about what had gone on.

If Jesus is truly the first of many as the Bible says he is, then we can expect the same when we die and rise again. It would seem that after our resurrection we will recognize the people we walked with and talked with before we died. We won’t forget the previous life, but we will be healed of its hurts and painful memories. We will finally be holy enough to forgive and be gracious toward those who harmed us and toward ourselves. It seems that Jesus appeared different to the disciples after the resurrection, but not so different that they didn’t eventually recognize them. There seems to be no reason to expect that we won’t recognize those with whom we spent time on earth and be able to walk with them again. In fact, there is good reason to hope that we will. At least, that’s what Paul says.

Paul wrote, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.” No doubt people were concerned then with the same questions that people are concerned with today. What will happen to the people who have died before us? Will we get to see them again? These words to the Thessalonians are Paul’s resounding yes! The scene is like that of the arrival of a well-known, honored, and adored dignitary coming to town. Trumpets blast to announce his arrival and the people flock to go meet him. They go to meet him not so that they can be taken away somewhere, but so that they can walk with him and welcome him into the town. In this passage, Jesus is that well-known, honored and adored dignitary. Paul writes that when Jesus returns, the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.

These words are often read to comfort people that they will be with the Lord forever. But Paul’s intention here is to comfort those who are worried about their loved ones. They already know they will be with the Lord. Their concern is whether or not they will see those whom they love. With this letter, and this passage in particular, Paul encourages us that we will. We grieve the loss of our loved ones, whether it’s a spouse or child or grandparent or friend because we love them. Paul is not one to say that we shouldn’t grieve, but that we should grieve with hope. Because through Jesus God is bringing with him all those who have died. So we will be “with them” when we meet the Lord.

Whether it’s in heaven or on a new earth, it’s clear that the next life will turn this one on its head. There is good reason to hope that all of our broken bodies and broken relationships will be fixed and we’ll have a chance to enjoy life as God intended it. Where as spouses in this life live together but feel alone, in the next life we will live together and feel connected and find communion. Where as parents and children in this life struggle to find meaning in one another, in the next life they will discover the depth of love they long for here. Where as people in this life pursue their own interests to the neglect of others, people in the next life will pursue the interests of others with their own. Where as people in this life discriminate between friend and foe, family and stranger, people in the next life will show no partiality and find it in their hearts to love even their worst enemy. Where as people in this life search for God and find his presence fleeting, in the next life God will walk with us and we will walk with those we love and with those we have known in a new creation of life and peace. Amen.

Church, why bother? – 7/13/08

“Mommy, is daddy going to church today?” Those words had become a familiar refrain for the man as he laid in bed on Sunday morning. Those mornings always started so peacefully. The sun crept in through the cracks in the blinds. The birds began chirping to wake everyone up. The man’s little boy would toddle into the room and slide under the covers. The peace of the morning would end soon after that. The man’s wife would spring out of bed and announce her plans to jump in the shower and get ready for Sunday school; racing through her routine and then moving onto the children so that everyone would be out of the door on time. It was about then that the man’s 9-year old daughter would ask, “Is daddy coming to church?”

By that time, he had already rolled over and pulled the covers over his head as he waited for the others to leave. When his daughter came around he would hand her a dollar to put in the plate, but he never had an answer for her about why he didn’t come to church. His wife had long given up on the excuse, “Daddy has a lot of work to do.” Now she just said, “Nooooooo,” in a way that signaled her disappointment and disapproval. So mom and the kids raced off to church on another Sunday morning while the man went through a round of his own Sunday rituals. It had been this way for quite some time and it puzzled even the man himself.

It’s not that he was unfamiliar with church. In fact, he was the grandson of a pastor. He was even a licensed minister. He knew the vocabulary at church. He was comfortable with his hands in the air shouting “Hallelujah.” He proclaimed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He used to attend every prayer meeting whether it was at midnight or a month-long. He made sure to arrive on time to every Bible study. So, the man knew the in’s and out’s of church. That’s not what kept him away. It’s not that he dislikes church either. He stills misses the rev of the organ. He misses the sound of the choir. He considers worship to be beautiful and misses joining his brothers and sisters in praising the Lord. So, it’s not a distaste for church that keeps him away. Rather, he feels disconnected.

Sunday mornings are now a time of dread rather than delight. He wakes up Sunday morning with a tension headache as those bitter sweet thoughts run through his head. In the back of his mind are the voices that tell him that real men lead their families to church on Sunday. But he can’t bring himself to do it. He’s not alone. Tens of thousands of people flock to coffee shops, baseball stadiums, or bowling alleys; anywhere except church. The man’s reasons are familiar. He is dismayed by the materialism of the church; by new buildings and flashy programs when there are poor people in the pews and outside the door. He wonders why all the money doesn’t go to care for the elderly or more recreation centers or housing developments or start-up money for small businesses.

He’s disheartened by the territorialism of churches that compete for control and membership. What bothers him most is that the church seems so lax in its mission. He once asked a pastor about the growing drug and gang problem in the neighborhoods around the church. The pastor replied, “I don’t know anything about that.” The man wonders why not. It’s at times like that that he wonders if the church is worth bothering for anymore. The man, by the way, is John Fountain and he wrote an article about his experience. He is a black man writing about the black church, but he’s not the only one feeling disconnected. He could just as well have been a white man or woman. He could have been single or married. He could have been a senior citizen or a teenager. For every person that regularly finds their way into a pew, there are two more who are asking themselves, “Church, why bother?”

The last time I went to visit Paul Ross, he asked me a similar question. Why do we go to church? I didn’t get the sense that he was as dismayed as John Fountain. He question was more theological in nature. In other words, what’s the reason for going to church? Both questions are important for us to consider because there are both kinds of people asking those questions in the neighborhoods where we live and worship. Both kinds of people, those who are dismayed with church and those who wonder about church, are probably right here. Each of us has probably felt disconnected from the church at some point in our lives. And, each of us has probably wondered if they had a good reason to share with someone.

The world is filled with people who feel dismayed when they consider God’s people and, quite frankly, the Bible is too. They’re called prophets. Isaiah is one of those prophets. The stage is set like a court room drama as Isaiah addresses the crowds of God’s people who are satisfied in their worship. “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?” says the Lord, “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of rams, or of goats.” If the people are satisfied in their worship, clearly God is not. I’m sure God’s people are quite taken aback by these words. After all, it was God who prescribed these sacrifices in the first place. The Lord continues.

“Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation – I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them.” Isaiah, speaking on behalf of the Lord, has just denounced every central practice of worship that God’s people performed. Everything that they felt called to do to honor the Lord and show gratitude, Isaiah decries as a weary burden for God. In fact, God has come to hate what they do. That should not be passed over too lightly. God hates the worship of God’s people.

“When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” It turns out that the Lord can no longer bear to watch. The people have profaned the rituals of worship with lives full of sin. Rather than seeking to please God in their worship, they have sought to appease God, to get him off their backs for another week so that they can go about their business. Rather than seek salvation, they have sought to soothe their own souls; to release their guilt through the shedding of blood. Well, they have not appeased God. They have made him angry. They have not cleansed their souls. They have made them dirty.

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Isaiah is joining in the chorus with all of the other prophets who are dismayed at the way God’s people are living their life together. It’s not that God doesn’t care for the rituals of worship, it’s that those rituals are meant to serve a purpose. Those sacrifices and Sabbath celebrations and assemblies of praise are a means to an end, but God’s people have turned them into an end in themselves. This is the very thing that had John Fountain so puzzled. How can we spend time and money on multi-million dollar additions when children are hungry and single moms are weary and men are finding solace in alcohol and illegal drugs? He joins the prophets in wondering, “Aren’t we missing the point?”

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Those words come from the letter of James and they provide an answer to the question, why do we go to church? They echo Isaiah’s concern for widows and orphans and keeping oneself pure. Church is a kind of training ground for those things. The mistake that God’s people have always made is making church attendance the pure and undefiled religion before God our Father. They have used Sunday morning as the rule for faith and left the other six days secondary. The prophets are the ones who say we’ve got it backwards. What the prophets tell us is that when that our rituals of worship are separated from a life of justice and rescue, of defending and pleading for those in need, God finds them to be a burden to listen to.

Now, there might be some Christians who say, “Oh we don’t have to worry about those works any more because we have Jesus. Salvation is a free gift from God and we worship to thank him for it and to acknowledge Jesus as Lord.” Those Christians would be kind of right when they say that, but only kind of right. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. There will be many who do wonderful and powerful things in my name, but to them I will say, “I never knew you.” We’ve always been told that confessing Jesus as Lord is the answer to all our worries, but Jesus calls the whole thing into question. Then he provides an answer.

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.” The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.” Of course, Jesus would go on to say that the people who hear Jesus’ words and don’t act on them would be like a man who built his house on the sand. The same house would be rattled by the same elements but would meet a different end. Jesus wants his followers to know that it’s important to hear his words, but it is important to hear them so that we do them. Just hearing them isn’t enough. Just confessing Jesus as Lord isn’t enough. We confess Jesus as Lord so that we know whom to follow. We listen to Jesus’ words so that we know what to do.

Jesus is really not saying anything different than the prophets before him. We come to church to honor Jesus as Lord and that is right and good. But we do that so that we can live as if Jesus were our Lord every other day of the week. We come to church so that we can hear Jesus’ words and that is right and good as well. But we do that so that we can be salt and light, so that we can be slow to anger and look away from lust, so that we can be faithful and honest, so that we can avoid vengeance and love our enemies, so that we can be generous and pray, so that we can refrain from worry and judging others, the other days of the week. God is not so self-centered that he just wants people to sing his praises if that’s all they’re going to do. God does not sit back and bask in the glow is if all he wanted was honor and praise. In fact, God is wearied by it.

We should not, however, go to the other extreme. We should not forsake worship in the pursuit of justice. There is ample evidence in Scripture that God finds great joy in the praise of his people. God appreciates grateful prayers the rise to his throne and they are like a sweet fragrance to his nose. God longs to commune with us on holy ground. And God longs to inspire, encourage, and support us in our lives. While God does not want worship without justice, not doubt God would say justice will not last without worship. Much in the world prevents and denies and perverts justice and the pursuit of it is hard, long work. It is in worship that we find wisdom and the strength to carry on.

John Fountain should go to church. Everyone should go to church. I think more people would if the church was more faithful to its calling. Those who do go should go more, not less. We would hope that everyone who goes would be served by the church and not feel like they are there to serve the church, perpetuate an institution, or make the pastor rich. Hopefully, all of us feel that our church leads us to know Jesus as Lord and opens our ears to his words. Hopefully, all of us find ourselves inspired to do justice and rescue those in need; to defend the helpless and plead for those with no voice. If this church does not do that for you, if you feel disconnected and dismayed at this church, it’s time to speak up. Be a prophet as Isaiah was, as John Fountain is.

Toward the end of his article he wrote these words: And so I have taken some solace in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who, more than 40 years ago in his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” wrote that the church was in danger of being “dismissed as an irrelevant social club.” “In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church,” he lamented. “But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church.” And so should we. Amen.

When Bad Things Happen – 7/06/08

Bad things happen to good people. There’s no way around it. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Bad things happen to good people. But just because they happen doesn’t mean that they’re any easier to swallow. California is suffering from some 1,500 different wildfires. Two of them are especially bad and people have been forced to leave their homes. No doubt some of them will lose their homes to the fire. People in Iowa were just recovering from the damage done by tornadoes when the rains came and rivers flooded their small towns and cities. There’s Biloxi and New Orleans and parts of Florida that are still recovering from the effects of hurricanes. Natural disasters are bad things and they don’t discriminate between good and bad people.

Golf Digest recently had a contest and the winner got to play the U.S. Open course in U.S. Open conditions. That means it’s really hard. The golf magazine wanted to know if an average golfer could break 100 on a course the pro’s play. 10’s of thousands of people submitted a letter saying why they should be the one chosen. Out of all of the applications, John Atkinson was chosen. What made his story so appealing was that he had inoperable lung cancer. Now, your first thought was that he might be a smoker, maybe a drinker, or works too much or has some vice that would weaken his body. In many cases you might be right, but not in this one. John seemed to be a pretty straight and narrow kind of guy. Cancer is a bad thing and it doesn’t take a moral inventory before choosing someone to infect.

When it comes to bad things and good people, it’s one thing to consider adults. It’s another when children are the ones involved. The police in Portugal are about to close the Madeleine McCann case. It’s the one that involves a 4 year old girl from England who was taken from her parent’s room while they were on vacation. There is a lot of suspicion around this case not least of which is the fact that the parents left the children alone in their room with the doors unlocked while they went to eat. Now some might say that’s what the parents deserve for being so careless. But no one could say a little girl deserves to be taken and possibly killed. Likewise, a number of Chinese school children are in the hospital this week because of water they drank at school. It turns out that someone poured pesticide in the water supply and it went unnoticed. Again, the school may be to blame, but the children certainly don’t deserve it. Bad people do bad things and they often do it to good people.

So, there’s no doubt about it: bad things happen to good people. The question is, why? Why do bad things happen to good people? That’s the question I received in the Stump the Pastor box and the question you wrestled with a little earlier. Right off the bat I should say that there is no good answer. Not that people haven’t tried. Many people will look at the bad things that happen to good people and say, “Oh, they’re not so good. They probably deserved it.” In some cases they might be right. The heavy smoker or drinker who ends up with cancer, the promiscuous teenager who ends up with an STD, the greedy executive who ends up in jail; they are all examples of bad things happening for a reason.

Other people might say that the bad thing is a trial. God has sent it to test you or refine you. Again, that’s certainly a possibility in some cases. When you don’t get the promotion you want because God wants you to spend more time with your family. When that stress headache wont’ go away because God wants you to pray. When everyday you’re forced to deal with someone who rubs you the wrong way because God wants to teach you what it means to be patient and kind. Those are times when God might be testing us, but that’s certainly not the case every time something bad happens to a good person. Sometimes there’s just no good answer. That’s what the book of Job tells us anyway. The book of Job might be in the Bible to answer this very question.

The story is a familiar one: Job has a good life; a great life really. He has a wonderful wife, a lot of children, he’s wealthy, and he’s a man of good faith on the earth. He has not gone unnoticed up in heaven. God is pleased by his faith. The devil is annoyed. As far as Satan is concerned Job is only faithful because God has given him all that great stuff. Of course, God disagrees. Then, it’s almost as if they enter into a wager over Job. In one day, Satan takes all of his property and kills all of his children. Still, Job remains upright in faith. Triumphantly, God says to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.”

Satan will have none of that because Job still has his health. Again, God lets Satan have his way with Job only he cannot take Job’s life. This sets the story in motion. Shortly after Job’s tragedies, three friends arrive with words to console him. Unfortunately, they aren’t very consoling. The first friend is certain that Job has sinned. He says, “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and so trouble reap the same.” Clearly, this first friend is of the God-is-punishing you variety. The second friend says much the same. And so does the third. Much of this book of the Bible is a repetition of Job’s complaint and his friend’s condemnation. Their words are not at all helpful.

Toward the end of the book, a young man enters the picture and finds fault with all of them. He finds fault with the friends for providing no helpful answer to Job. He finds fault with Job for persisting in self-righteousness. He proclaims God’s goodness, God’s majesty, and God’s justice. While he seems to make a lot of sense, his words go unnoticed. Or, perhaps they are overshadowed because shortly after he closes his mouth, God opens his. “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” From there God poses and endless series of questions to Job: where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Have you commanded the morning since your days began? Can you establish the ordinances of heaven on earth? Do you control the beasts of the earth? Do they turn to you for food?

God’s point is plain: who are you to argue with me? Are you the one who holds the world in your hands or is it me? You can’t pretend to know everything that goes on in the earth, how can you speak for what goes on in the heavens? I am God and you are not, you should not confront me so carelessly. Job gets the point: see, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but will proceed no further. At the end of the day, Job’s friends are put in the wrong and Job is vindicated. He may have crossed the line in demanding justice for himself, but considered God in the wrong and was rewarded for it. The story finishes with Job’s fortunes and families being restored. It’s a happy ending, but leaves a strange taste in our mouth. God may not have caused Job’s suffering, but God certainly allowed it.

After all, if God is the god we believe him to be, then God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere. If God is this God, then God could do something about these bad things. But they continue to happen and God seems silent. When bad things happen, especially when bad things happen to good people, we want God to intervene, to save, to protect. Here’s the difficulty with that desire: where would God stop? We could say that we definitely want God to prevent a hurricane from destroying a city, but what if it was just 10 houses? Should God still stop it? We would definitely want God to prevent a small child from being murdered, but what about stopping hateful things from being said to that same child? In other words, if God’s will is life and peace, we could ask God to prevent everything that goes against his will. But if God did that, if God prevented every thought, every word, every deed that went against his will for life and peace, we would live a very strange existence. Do we really want God to intervene every time one of us is rude or arrogant or insists on our own way?

Probably not. Instead, all of creation has been handed over to futility. That’s how Paul describes it in his letter to the Romans. He compares that futility to the pains and groans of labor. Having observed them twice now, I’m confident that they are terrible pains. And I can still hear the groans from the delivery room. You want to help. You want to stop it. But there is little you can do because you are waiting for someone to be born. When the baby arrives you realize that all the pain and all the groaning was nothing compared to the little baby you hold in your arms. Paul says that where we stand in the world today. The world is in labor, waiting for all the children of God to be born. It’s a painful time and a time filled with groaning. Bad things happen even to good people. But, while God won’t intervene to stop every bad thing, God has not left us entirely alone in our suffering.

We have the first fruits of the Spirit. God’s Spirit is like the first plant that pokes through the ground and tells us that the harvest is on its way. The presence of God’s Spirit in our lives tells us that a new life is on its way. While we will have to put up with some pain and groaning in the meantime, the Spirit assures us that redemption is being born and the suffering we face in the present is nothing compared to the glory we will encounter in the future. As God’s children we wait, we hope, for our adoption and the redemption of our bodies. We wait, we hope, for the renewal of the earth where there is no more crying or pain, death or disease. We wait. We hope. Unfortunately, that doesn’t do anything for us today. Bad things will continue to happen and they’ll continue to happen to good people.

However, by the Spirit, we know that God makes all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. There are two ways to consider this statement. The first one would be to consider it like Job’s friends would have. That is to say, that everything that happens in our lives is part of God’s plan and God’s purpose including all of the suffering and the pain. It makes God sound rather cold and callous; like a drill sergeant whipping us into shape. There is another way to consider these words; a way that sees God as a compassionate Father. That is to say that everything that happens to us in our lives, including the pain and the suffering, God will work for our good. God will take up all the bad things in himself and turn them inside out and upside down so that they result in new life for us. We look no further than the cross to see this happening.

There was no greater pain, no greater suffering in the day of Jesus Christ than to be put to death by hanging on a cross. We believe and we know that, as Jesus hung on the cross, a bad thing was happening to a good person. We believe and we know that in some mysterious fashion that was God joining us in the suffering of this world; taking it into himself so that he could turn it around. Jesus too felt abandoned and alone as he hung there, but I believe he hung there in hope. I believe he kept faith in God’s goodness that God would work in the midst of that pain and suffering. While others might have intended it for evil, God took the crucifixion and turned inside out with the resurrection. God brought new life and new joy where there was only death and grief. If God did it for Jesus Christ, God will also do it for those with the Spirit of Christ. If God could take the pain and suffering of the cross, overcome it, and turn it into new life and joy, God can take our pain and suffering and do the same.

Why do bad things happen to good people? Because we live in a world that is giving birth. Once labor has started, you can’t stop the labor pains. All you can do is try to bring comfort in the midst of the pain. You give little massages or ice chips or cold washcloths. They seem like very feeble gestures in the midst of it all, but it’s something. That’s why God has called us and chosen us and set us apart. In a world of pain and suffering, someone needs to be the bearer of good news and good works. We can’t stop the floods but we can go rebuild the houses. We can’t prevent every disease but we can ease the pain. We can’t protect people from every evil, but we can make every attempt to overcome evil with good. While these gestures might seem feeble at the time, they are a sign that the pain will end. They are a sign that the suffering is on its way out; to be replaced by an incomparable glory. They are a sign of hope.

For some people that won’t be a good enough answer. If the suffering can be stopped, they want God to stop it immediately. Why should Jesus have to go to the cross in the first place? They ask. If God is going to save us from this misery, why not do it already? Why make us wait? The only answer we have is that only God knows. But since God is good and will take all our pain and suffering and work in it for good, we wait with the hope of God’s Spirit and rest with the faithful in the body of Christ. For we are convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.