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United Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors Weekly Sermon |
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“What Do You
Deserve?” October 25 Where
is God today? Where is God in all of
this? Many
of us have asked these pressing questions over the years. Many of us have wondered where God was in our
greatest time of need. Where was God
on that day where we felt so alone; when we felt like the wind was knocked
out of us and we only felt emptiness and grief? To
be human is to suffer. Sometime,
someplace, each one of us will arrive at a place of ultimate sadness where we
feel all alone, and there is no one there to comfort our grief. Not even God. “Where
are you God? I have heard and believed
that you would have been there. I
wanted you there so much. You could
have done something! You could have
given me what I asked. It wasn’t that
much. You could have granted it. I was
so faithful. What more did you want?” That
last statement says it all: The human
understanding of a contract; a negotiated agreement with God, where some sort
of deal is made with the Almighty.
Usually the deal is one-sided, always in the human’s favor in exchange
for some behavioral change; a change that person should be doing in the first
place. But
we all believe that we can work out some deal with God, and we are under the
impression that we can ebb and flow in and out of the deal. But God will be faithful no matter what. We
believe in deals. We live in a society
that thrives on deals, the more we can achieve for offering so little is what
we Americans call a bargain. So it
seems so natural to carry our capitalistic ideals into the company of
God. Of course God, the eternal
‘mark’, will always accept whatever lopsided deal we might conceive. At least that is what we believe. We might even verbalize this deal in a
solemn prayer, or the more timid might just choose a Bible passage to live
by. They decide to be faithful to one
story while ignoring the rest of the Bible, and believe that God is alright
with that. I
remember making a deal with God when I was in junior high. I believed that God wanted me to become a
pastor, and I believed that I could work out a one-sided deal. I saw the lives that pastors lived and I
saw the possibilities of an affluent lifestyle. So I believed that “I” as a teenager could
negotiate an agreement with God. I
remember sitting there on the top of my bunk bed making this lop-sided deal
with God. “God, I will pursue a life
in the aerospace industry, where I will make my fortune, and then I will
retire and become a pastor.” I was so
confident with this plan I didn’t even say “deal.” So
I continued to live the good life. I
went to church. I volunteered to do
service. I served on committees, and I
even took struggling young adults into my home. Even though my grades weren’t spectacular I
made it into the aerospace industry.
No glamorous engineering assignments, but my career eventually
improved after a rocky start with racial prejudice. I was on my way to be a manager, and I
credited it all to God’s favor. But
all the other dreams; the expectations of great wealth, an expensive car, and
the large home and family. That didn’t
come to fruition, and I got tired of waiting.
“Hey God, what’s up? I have
done this for you, and this, and that, and this. When am I going to get the things that I
want?” You see, I was under the
impression that God would reward me for my good behavior. I had heard from others that God would give
you whatever you wanted; you just had to ask.
I was led to believe that you could live like an upstanding citizen
and that God would reward you for that. Some
people say that God does not talk to us like in the Hebrew Scriptures, which
are known as the Old Testament. But I
certainly heard the voice of God. I
heard the voice of God in the midst of my complaining. I heard the voice of God asking for me,
wanting me thirty years sooner than I had agreed to. A
little advice; if you really want to hear the voice of God be ready to give
up your expectations. Be ready to have
your plans changed. If you think that
you are going to be able to negotiate a new deal in your favor, well, that’s
just foolishness talking. Getting
what we deserve is a human notion which can be traced back to our ancient
ancestors. This is the human notion of
fairness, justice and equality. We
believe that such a notion is good for our society, and we have been taught
to believe that God is bound by this notion.
To be pleasing to God we must give people what they deserve. How many of you have heard the saying “They
got what they deserved?” With regards
to prisons how many of you have heard someone say “They’re in there to be
punished. They should suffer. We shouldn’t waste our money on adequate
bed space or expensive medical treatments, recreation, television, or even
rehabilitation programs. They don’t
deserve it.” Have anyone of you heard
someone say something like that? On
another note, maybe you have heard someone say “if those people didn’t do
‘whatever’ they wouldn’t have to suffer.”
Or someone say that someone didn’t pray enough, or that God had cursed
someone. Have you heard statements
like that? I sure have, and for many
years I believed those statements were true.
At that time I believed that if you do good you are going to receive
good. And if you do bad you are going
to receive bad. This
belief is at the center of our scripture reading this morning. Our reading is from the Book of Job Chapter
Forty-Two and starting with Verse One.
Today’s reading is the conclusion of the book. The Book of Job is located with the other
poetical and wisdom books in the Bible.
Books such as Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon
all are part of the writings section of the Bible. These books do not tell of historical
events, but are written to direct hearts and minds to consider the ways of
God, and to give God praise. The
Book of Job begins with a righteous and rich man named Job. God allows Job to loose his fortune, the
lives of his adult children, and his livestock. Job becomes covered in sores, and no one
wants to be his friend. Which points
to the question ‘why do bad things happen to good people?’ In
response to this question three friends of Job arrive to be with him. His friend Eliphaz reasons that Job has
sinned, and should seek God. Job’s
friend Bildad reasons that Job suffers for the sins of his children, and
should repent. And Job’s third friend
Zophar reasons that Job deserves the punishment. Despite his friend’s assumptions, and even
his wife’s insistence that he curse God and die, Job maintains his
integrity. Job refuses to admit to
something that he has not done. He
refuses to believe that he is the cause of such suffering. So he musters up the courage and asks God
directly to account for all that has happened. He wants the suffering to stop! And he wants some divine clarity. Job’s
been crying out to God for a status on his relationship, and where God is
amidst all the confusion. “Then call,
and I will answer; or let me speak, and you reply to me” (13:22). Doesn’t that reflect how we sometimes feel
before God? While the Lord’s ways have
been mysterious to Job, God didn’t remain silent forever. In chapters 38-41 God gives Job a big fat
status, and locates it right between Job’s eyes! In no uncertain terms God basically said
“Job, I am here. You are there. Don’t ever be confused about that
difference.” Okay, here’s a little
Theology 101. Take a piece of paper and draw a thick line up the middle of
it. On one side of the line write
“God.” On the other side write “My
world.” With that line, you’ve just
drawn an important piece of the Christian worldview, because only one side of
the line is subject to the other.
Don’t overlook the simple fact that the line means there is a
difference between God and us. The
line means that God is all-powerful and we are not. God has purposes that will come to fruition
(v. 2). And ours may, if they are in line
with God’s pleasure and plans.
So
how do we respond to similar situations?
Do we lament the distance between God and ourselves? Do we attempt to reason our way over the
line to understand God’s ways? Do we
return to the belief that we got what we deserved? No,
those are all natural responses. But
like Job, they aren’t the things God has given us to focus on. Even when we don’t have all the pieces to
the puzzle we can still accept God on God’s terms. We don’t deserve good. We don’t deserve bad. But we do deserve God’s mercy. We deserve the opportunity for God’s
unmerited love in our lives. So ask
for God’s acts of grace, and be willing to ask what it means to respond
faithfully for today, and tomorrow, and next week, in light of God’s mercy. In
the Name, of God our Creator, Christ our Redeemer and the Holy Spirit that
sustains our lives, Amen. Pastor
Golden Neal |
