Lancaster First United Methodist Church

May 2, 2010

Job 1:13-22 

Rev. Sam Halverson

“Big Questions: Why Do Bad Things Happen?”

One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.”  While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.”  While he was still speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”  In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong-doing.

One of the most powerful times I experience as a minister is the opportunity to serve as a pastor for people who are hurting or suffering.  I remember shortly after coming here to Lancaster being told by Brooks Heck, the senior pastor at the time, how much he was blessed by families who invited him into their lives, allowing him to serve them in such personal and private times as these times of suffering.  When people are afraid, when people are mourning, when they are hurting or sick or dying and they invite Robert or Cheryl or me (or any pastor) in to pray for them, to comfort them, to be a witness of God’s presence with them in those hard, painful times – that is holiness and that is powerful.  It is powerful because it is personal and because it is real.

I take no joy in such times though.  While I grow and learn and recognize God’s presence in and around those situations, I would gladly give that up for myself if it would mean that these people would never suffer again.  As much as I enjoy being helpful in times of suffering and sorrow, I take no joy in seeing people suffer.

People for centuries have tried to understand suffering.  You and I have tried to understand it at times.  This is why it’s such a big question for us humans.  For the last few weeks we’ve been studying big questions that people have, and we’ve tried to come to some point of understanding about those questions here in worship each week.  The first week we learned why God is real; the second week we heard Cheryl tell us how we can forgive; last week we discovered reasons we can (and should) rely on the Bible; and today – today I’m to try to answer the question as to why bad things happen.

It seems that the way human beings have started asking this question about bad things and why there is suffering is that we try and try to come to terms with a just and powerful God who cares about our world and everyone in it but who also allows pain and suffering.  We want to know that God is in control, don’t we?  We like to believe in a God who has everything under control, and to think that some things are random or that they happen without God’s consent can be frightening, confusing, and uncomfortable.  After all, if we say that things happen that God doesn’t want to happen then that almost sounds like God has no control.

I remember being at a funeral earlier this year for a man who had died suddenly.  He wasn’t a member of this church, but he had many friends in the community and these friends just loved doing things with this guy.  He was a Christian.  He loved his wife.  He was true to his friends.  He was dependable.  And he died – way too young.

As I walked into the group of mourners I heard one person say about the deceased, “God just loved him so much that God wanted him up there in heaven with him, and so he took him early.”

This is a nice thing to say about the person who died, but it’s a terrible thing to say about our God – one who loves us and is with us whether we’re in heaven or here on earth.  If God’s spirit dwells within us then we are in God’s presence regardless of whether we are in this world or the next.  The Bible shows us a God who does what he can to help us live – not one who kills us off so we can get to heaven quicker.

I’ve heard other comments like this that characterize God as the perpetrator of suffering and death.  I suppose it’s easy to fall into the notion that God causes suffering to happen if we want God to be in control of everything. Last week, as I heard a farmer in Mississippi talk on TV about a tornado that spared him but killed the rest of his family I heard him thank God for sparing him.  I wondered what that person thinks, then, about God’s role in the deaths of the other four members of his family.  If God had a hand in keeping that man safe, does that mean that God also had a hand in the deaths?  If God is in such control of a tornado that God would save someone from being killed, did God also cause that tornado to kill those who died?

It’s no wonder that we’re confused about suffering when we believe that God is in control of everything that happens.  This line of reasoning leads to ideas about why God would allow someone to suffer:

God must have a greater purpose for that person.

God must want to lead others to Christ through this disaster.

God must be punishing these people for something they are doing wrong.  Do you remember the comments by some Christian leaders that AIDS is God’s punishment on people who don’t live the way some think they should?

This was the argument of Job’s friends.  In the scripture today we hear about a man, Job, who is righteous and loved by God.  Job is all about doing God’s will, and God is proud of Job.  When Job loses everything he has, though, through disaster after disaster his friends come and try to convince Job that he must have done something to deserve this. God would not allow such horrible things to happen if Job had been living correctly.

We do that sometimes, don’t we?

When something so horrendous happens to us – we get sick, we feel bad, we lose a loved one, we have an accident or lose something, we are surprised by frightening news – when fear or suffering that is beyond our control happens to us we ask, “Why, God?  Why would you allow this to happen to me – to her whom I love, to them, to my friends or my neighbor?  What did we do wrong to deserve this?”

Because when things go right we praise God.

“It’s a beautiful day.  Thank God for this sunshine.  My daughter made it safe and sound.  Praise God for a safe trip.  I avoided that accident yesterday because the light turned green just in time.  Thank God for that.  My child is now cancer free.  Thank God for healing.”

When things go right we thank God.

When things go wrong – or when we hurt – we wonder what God has in mind, and we ask “Why?”  Why do these bad things happen?  There must be a reason. I need to know why.

As if knowing why would make it that much easier to handle.

If you knew that someone else is going to benefit greatly because of your hardship, would that make it easier?  If you found out that your best friend died because he sinned in God’s eyes would that make it easier?  If you knew that God took your loved one because God wanted to, would that make it easier?

In some cases, it makes it harder.  Through some of that thinking a person could get used to being very angry at God for being so manipulative and controlling.

God isn’t that way, though.

God wants us to thrive.  God wants us to live good, healthy lives. Jesus said that he came so that we could have abundant life – not more sorrow and suffering.

When we go through suffering and pain God goes through the same thing.  When we suffer our God is right there helping us through it – not causing it.  Whatever the reason for those terrible things that happen, it’s not because God wills it or causes it or needs it to happen in order for something far greater to happen.  God does not manipulate our fates.

What God does do, though, is walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death.

What God does do is stay with you – always.

What God does do is become your strength and takes your crisis and turns it into something amazing.

Adam Hamilton, in his book, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, writes of a newspaper clipping he has that helped a friend of his focus on just where God is in suffering. It reads:

Suffering is not God’s desire for us, but it occurs in the process of life.  Suffering is not given to teach us something, but through it we may learn.  Suffering is not given to punish us, but sometimes it is the consequence of our sin or poor judgment. Suffering does not occur because our faith is weak, but through it our faith may be strengthened.  God does not depend on human suffering to achieve God’s purposes, but sometimes through suffering God’s purposes are achieved.  Suffering can either destroy us, or it can add meaning to our life.

God does not cause your suffering, but God is there – most present – in your suffering, showing you ways that it can become holy and powerful – showing you opportunities for growth and strength and meaning.  God takes no joy in your suffering, but God enjoys being brought into your heart and into your life when you do go through hardship because God wants so very much to help you and to be close to you.

We may never know why God allows suffering and pain, but by allowing God into our times of suffering we can always know and experience God’s most powerful and awesome love which transforms us.

Back in the early 5th century, St. Augustine distinguished two kinds of love, in Latin, uti and frui.  Uti love is love of use.  I love money -- not because I particularly enjoy looking at it or feeling it.  I love money because I can use it to get something else I want.  Uti.

Now, frui love is different. I love -- I'm not sure that's a strong enough word -- I love chocolate, not because of what I use it for, which really isn't all that good.  I get fatter, cholesterol count goes up.  But it doesn't matter.  I just love chocolate.  I'll do anything to get it. Frui.

Augustine said we have this bad habit of loving God with uti love.  We love God because we hope to get God to help us get whatever it is we want.  Lord, I'm after the good life, a better job, this or that success: so, bless me!  But God prefers not to be used.  God wants us to love God with frui love.  We just love God, not because of what we get out of it, but just because God is God, and we would do anything for God.  As the Westminster Confession put it, the chief end of humanity is to love God and enjoy him forever.