“We Do Not Yet See Things Clearly” 
1 Corinthians 13:12, Pastor Dale Stiles, March 3, 2010

 

 

Confronted By God (God Is In Control) 
Job 38; Mark 4:35-41
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
 
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

After listening to those Scriptures it’s clear who’s in control isn’t it?
Job had lost it all – Job suffered immensely – that’s why, to this day, Job’s name is still synonymous with suffering.
Job asked “Why?” Job asked, “Why me?” And Job brought all of his difficult questions before God. Job was persistent. Job was passionate. Job was even quite eloquent I must say. Job was also quite courageous to speak out against God like he did, refusing to take silence or cliché’s for an answer. In a sense, Job wasn’t ready to let God off the hook. He took a stance before God, protesting his suffering. Job went straight “to the top” with his questions basically asking, “God, if you loved me, you would end this suffering. God if you really cared, you would take action to end this misery” – and God responded in the way we just heard read – in what seems a pretty harsh way – in order to remind Job of who is in control. 

We also heard read how the disciples and Jesus were crossing the Sea of Galilee at night, when a huge storm suddenly enveloped them. Waves were smashing against the sides, water was pouring in, the wind was nearly capsizing their tiny vessel. And through it all, Jesus was sleeping on a cushion in the back of the boat!
When the disciples finally woke him up, they asked him an obvious question. It’s not an insulting question, or a disrespectful one. An honest and obvious question. “Don’t you care if we are about to die here?” The evidence sure seems to say that Jesus didn’t care doesn’t it? Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus, the Creator of the world – asleep, while those poor disciples fought for their lives against the storm. They’re certainly entitled to ask in so many words: “Jesus, if you loved us, you would do something. If you were God, you would take action.” And again, Jesus responds in what sounds so harsh to us – in order to remind them of who is in control. 

These questions that Job raised and that the disciples raised, and that you have raised and that we will raise throughout our lives are not any different. Job suffered in the same way that we suffer – in vitally important areas as family, personal health, and necessary material things. “Lord, do you not care that I’m unemployed? Lord, do you not care that my mother has cancer? Lord, do you not care that I can’t hear you speaking to me? Lord, do you not care that I’m grieving? Lord, do you not care that we’re starving? Lord, do you not care that my parents are fighting? Lord, do you not care that our home and everything in it exploded and burnt to the ground? Lord, do you not care…? Lord, do you not care….? 

Questions like these are raised every time there is human suffering in this world. Whether it hits us close to home in a very personal way, or whether it affects millions of innocent people in Haiti. “Why?” “Why Lord?” 

Is God asleep in the back of the boat? Does he not care that we are struggling. Is he unwilling to help us, or is he unable to help us? Like those disciples, like Job, we too go through life thinking that, if a storm arises, at least we have Jesus in the boat with us! And then the storm comes and we wonder where God is don’t we? Sometimes when we need God the most, when it seems our boat is sinking, it seems like God is asleep doesn’t it? In our hurt, in our pain, God may seem asleep in the back of the boat on a nice comfy pillow. 

Feeling this way, it’s easy to loose heart; it’s easy to be discouraged. When our faith is challenged like Job’s was, sometimes we loose our faith in God, because it seems as though God cares so very little. We cry out for God to wake up and save us, and instead we seem to get a nasty scolding, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 

So many questions. I don’t have answers to those questions.

In a book I’m reading right now by Eugene Peterson, called “Practice Resurrection” he says this: 

“God is who God is. We don’t figure God out. We don’t explain God. We don’t define God. We don’t second-guess God. We don’t Monday-Morning Quarterback God. We don’t evaluate God on a scale of one to ten. We don’t presume to tell God how to be God. When we worship God, we let God be God.” (pg. 57) 

I do not know how to figure God out, or how to explain God, or how to define God, or how to explain God’s actions. But what I do know is that there is evil on the earth. A world that God created to be good, and peaceful, and loving, has, over time, become a world filled with greed and hatred and violence. But I don’t believe for one minute, that Jesus has abandoned this world. Instead, I believe that he rides out the storms with us, and even in the midst of the suffering, and the pain, and the fear, Jesus gives us courage to go on. I believe this, because there is evidence in the world that Jesus is present. I see it in the good of rescue workers who risk their own lives to save others. I see it in the way love abounds among people when we need each other for strength. I see it in you, when you gather here every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening for prayer, worship, and fellowship.

So yes, there is no doubt that Jesus is present in our world of hurt, pain, confusion, and suffering, but we still ask “Why?” like Job did. We understand that suffering is a part of living, but undeserved suffering is harder to grasp isn’t it? That’s where Job struggled. That’s where we struggle. Undeserved suffering confuses us, outrages us, bewilders us. Job was doing everything right when suddenly everything went wrong. Is it any wonder he got mad at God? Is it any wonder he calls God to the carpet and meets God face to face, head to head, with his complaints?

Rabbi Harold Kuschner says this, “the question is not ‘where does suffering come from or why?’ but rather ‘where does suffering lead me?’” I think both questions are appropriate. It’s still okay to wonder why we suffer, and why there are tragedies in the world. But then yes, we must ask the question “What are we going to do now?” Will this event lead me to bitterness, or faithlessness? There’s a powerful line in the song you’ll hear in a moment that says, “Though this first taste is bitter, there will be sweetness forever, when we finally taste and see that our God is in control.” Will my suffering lead me to bitterness and despair, or will I trust that eventually it can lead me to hope? Will my suffering draw me closer to God and to others in my life who care about me and suffer with me? 

Perhaps like you, I find myself anxious quite often. Perhaps like you, I have emotions of anger, frustration, grief, and fear. But I am also absolutely convinced that, whatever happens that seems meant for evil, God can, and will, use for good. And we believe this, we’ll realize that any suffering we have or we will endure, calls our lives into question, not God’s. For God is alive and present and at work within us all the time! God is powerfully present in this wounded world of ours and in these wounded lives of ours, and his love and his grace will always be our strength.

God’s prayer for us is that we believe that and hold onto that promise. God’s prayer for us is that we might join Jesus in the back of the boat asleep on the pillow, realizing that no matter how grave and serious, these are just passing storms. 

So no, things may not be as they could be or should be right now. But this is where we are – and as people of deep faith – we know that our God is in control.   Amen.

 

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Up From the Ashes...Beauty Will Rise!
Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Imagine being asked to share your faith in God with a young couple who celebrated the joy and excitement and anticipation of nine months of pregnancy, only for their first child to be stillborn during delivery. 

Imagine being asked to share your faith in God with a small business owner and his wife who have managed to keep their business alive and fruitful for the past forty five years but due to the recent economic hardship have been forced to close down. 

Imagine being asked to share your faith in God with the family and friends of a young seminarian who, while doing mission work in Haiti was killed when an entire third floor of concrete and steel crashed down on top of him during the recent earthquake while his young wife stood helplessly watching. 

Imagine being asked to share your faith in God with the family and the friends of the young man whose body they found at the bottom of the Mississippi river yesterday near LaCrosse, WI. 

Imagine being asked to share your faith in God with the family and friends of a young, strong, and promising athlete who lost his life while training for his very first Olympic competition in Vancouver last week. 

Imagine being asked to share your faith in God with a couple whose marriage or relationship is on the threshold of divorce or separation. 

Imagine – sadly, we don’t have to imagine do we? 

The unfortunate thing is – these are all real examples of pain, and suffering, and death and loss. You have your own real life scenarios to draw from don’t you? However y ou may or may not have been put in the position of having to share your faith in God in those scenarios. But imagine if – if you were – what would you say? 

What do we say in these kinds of real life scenarios about a God who is so often believed and proclaimed as good, as gracious, as loving, as protective, as faithful – when, in these cases, or in these scenarios, He seems anything but good, gracious, loving, protective, or faithful. 

How do we talk to people who are hurting, who are questioning, who are grieving, or who are doubtful about the goodness of, or the beauty of, or the meaning and nature of the Almighty God that we worship and praise each and every day? How do we proclaim joy, victory, faithfulness, life and resurrection in the deep valleys of sorrow, defeat, doubt, death and crucifixion? 

The apostle Paul was faced with this very challenge as he preached to the Corinthian church for the first time. He had to proclaim to them that the whipped, the bloodied, the humiliated, the persecuted, and the murdered man known as Jesus of Nazareth, was in fact, their Savior – God in the flesh. Not an easy sermon to preach to people in such need for good news! Not an easy scenario to find one’s self in is it? And Paul felt this way too. That’s why, when he found himself in that situation, he decided not to sugarcoat his words at all. How could he? He knew that the suffering and death of Jesus was the critical key, the core component to who we are as Christians, and so, with his work cut out for him, he preached this, “the cross is folly to those who are perishing,” it’s foolishness, it’s stupidity. A cross is no way for the life of the Son of God to end. Yet what else can I say because, whether it makes sense to us or not, it pleases God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Cor. 1:18-21) He continues, “So I come to you, brothers and sisters, not proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom, or in words that make any sense. But rather, I admit to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I deliberately keep it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did – Jesus crucified. And in sharing this message I am scared to death – if you want to know the truth of it – and so nothing I say will impress you or anyone else. But the message comes through anyway – God’s Spirit and God’s power will make this happen.” (1 Corin. 2:1-5) 

Last Wednesday evening during our Sr. High Faith4Life bible study we talked about oxymorons. Oxymorons are any combinations of words that seem to contradict themselves, like jumbo shrimp, or an exact estimate, or a working vacation, or even good grief. The example we discussed as it relates to our faith that night was how oxymoronic it is to be a lukewarm Christian or to try to be a perfect Christian – both oxymorons, or contradictions of terms, in and of themselves. But for tonight’s purposes, there is another oxymoron I want to share with you – a crucified Messiah. 

How is it possible that the Messiah – the Son of God – the Savior of the Nations, could be crucified? That seems contradictory as well doesn’t it? It doesn’t make sense does it? It’s “folly” as Paul would refer to it as. It’s foolishness, it’s stupidity – to those, who Paul says, are “lost”. But for us who are being saved – it is the very power of God. For followers of and believers in Jesus – the term crucified messiah is not a contradiction. It’s the very foundation of our faith. 

And yet Paul seemed to understood this so well and was able to so eloquently proclaim it to those who didn’t. That’s why, when he preached to the Corinthians he “deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and what he did – Jesus crucified – plain and simple!” 

Paul knew that in scenarios like I mentioned before, all we can do is preach the cross – who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us, and then rely on the “power of God” to make sense of it all. The only way to understand Jesus hanging from the cross in humiliation and utter defeat – something so entirely unimaginable and contradictory and oxymoronic – is to rely on the power of God in our attempts to understand or comprehend. 

Now, with that said, imagine again, being asked to share your faith in God with a man, his wife, and his five children as they mourn the sudden and tragic death of their five year old adopted daughter, Maria, when their sixteen year old son accidentally ran over her while backing out of their driveway. 

This is what happened to Christian singer/songwriter, Steven Curtis Chapman and his family 18 months ago. As you might expect, it’s been a very painful and emotional 18 months. But Steven’s way of dealing with his pain, with his sorrow, with his disappointment and with his loss of dreams has been to write music. His brand new CD, entitled “Beauty Will Rise” is the result of much prayer, tears, anger, and faith. What Steven has written on this CD is a hopeful, personal and honest message of how his faith triumphed over his sorrow. This is also the message of Lent – that our faith in God should daily triumph over our sorrow. That’s why Steven’s CD, “Beauty Will Rise”, is the theme of our Lenten season this year at Fish Lake. 

Each Wednesday evening we will journey with Steven and his family through their pain and through their suffering – a journey which eventually brings them back to a faith that triumphs over their deep sorrow and sadness. We’ll do this by reflecting on a different song from the CD and the scriptures that accompany it each Wednesday evening. These songs will guide us through our own personal experiences of journeying from death to life. 

In a moment we’ll listen to and reflect on the bold, the driving, and the forceful title track from that CD, “Beauty Will Rise” as it will set the tone for the rest of our Lenten journey together. The lyrics to each song will be included each Wednesday night for you to follow along with, to meditate on and to reflect on. Tonight, on page six of your bulletin the lyrics to “Beauty Will Rise” are included. The chorus of that song states confidently that “out of these ashes beauty will rise – we will dance among the ruins – we will see it with our own eyes – out of these ashes beauty will rise – for we know joy is coming in the morning – beauty will rise!” 

So, on this Ash Wednesday evening, we are literally reminded of our own grief, of our own brokenness, of our own sinfulness, of our own frailty, of our own shortcomings, of or own weaknesses – as, in a few moments, along with the sign of the cross on our foreheads we will hear the words, “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”. Dust and ashes – they are one in the same – simply remains of what once was. 

In this symbolic act, our grief, our pain, our suffering, our loss, our disappointment is all being exposed and we’re being told as Steven so beautifully reminds us in this song, that “buried deep beneath all of our broken dreams – we have this hope”. And this hope we know to be Jesus – who he is – and what he did – the crucified messiah is our hope – a hope that assures us that from our remains – from our ashes – beauty will rise. 

And because of that kind of hope – which some consider to be “folly” – we can trust in the words of the psalmist who so confidently proclaimed – “nights of crying our eyes out will give way to days of laughter”, and “those who go off with heavy hearts, will come home laughing, with armloads of blessings” – all because of the power of God! 

So if and when you are asked to share your faith in God to a friend or family in the midst of sorrow, pain, suffering, death, or disappointment, simply point them to the cross – which again, may sound like foolishness – but to us who believe, it is the very power of God and the assurance of our salvation. 

The prophet Isaiah knew this. For to those people he states, “God gives roses instead of ashes, God gives joy instead of doom, God gives a praising heart instead of a languid spirit.” 

Thanks be to God! Amen.

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