Even when I cry out, ‘Violence!’ I am not answered; I call aloud, but there is no justice. (Job 19:7)
During our recent sermon series on the Book of Job, our congregation members and world faced its own share of challenges and loss: economic threats, deaths in our extended family, a terrorist attack in Orlando, even our own roof-ripping kind of “whirlwind.” The world can seem a terrible place, and like Job, we are tempted to cry out to some divine police officer, “Violence! Help us!”
If you missed our sermon series, know this. God hears us, and God cares. We might not always see God at work, but he promises to labor for our welfare not for woe (Jeremiah 29:11). Indeed, our God often works behind the scenes hidden from our human view. As Jesus proclaimed, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27). Our sovereign, loving Lord is in control.
Still, Job was right in one sense. There is no perfect justice in our world. Bad things can happen to good people. Yet in an unfair world, we are gifted with an unfair grace. God loves us and plans never to abandon us.
No more than Job can I pretend to know why month after month it seems I am mourning with congregational members or my own family members over one thing or another. Yet, I know this. God is love…only love. Like a child, I can choose to trust my heavenly parent who created me and you out of love. It is all I really have – God’s promise to love me. Fortunately, God doesn’t lie. Jesus, our brother, Son of the Living God, proved this love through his death and resurrection for our sake. Hear God’s promise:
“For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, ‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.’ And again, ‘I will put my trust in him.’ And again, ‘Here am I and the children whom God has given me.’ Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.’” (Hebrews 2:11-15).
Job did not live in this world long enough to see justice reign in fullness, and we might not either. Still, even Job knew his Redeemer lives. We must as well and share that good news with others. God’s justice is breaking into our world. While we wait, we are only asked to trust in the love being offered us and share it. We must seek to give into love, not fear.
Yes, more trouble is in our future, but so is our Redeemer. He will return because he wishes to banish fear, tears, violence and evil forever. We might never understand the evil and struggle we face, but we can find courage. God loves us more than we could ever understand.
So in the face of much darkness, go ahead and pray. Go ahead and live in Jesus’ name.
I wish you Christ’s peace in all that you might face,
Pastor Lou
Originally published in Messiah Lutheran’s newsletter, The Messenger (July 2016).
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this article are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)
With each January, I’m usually contacted by several of our congregation’s youth and young adults as well as younger staff members at our school. They want me to write recommendations for college entrance or a new job. Almost always, the person making this request is humbled by the choices before them. They fear rejection or failure. At the same time, they feel dwarfed by the opportunities looming before them. Could their dreams be realized? They are almost afraid to find out!
Certainly, we aren’t always successful in our plans, but perhaps we should not get stuck in despair. Look instead toward God’s plans for us and be comforted. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God tells us, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future filled with hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). God seeks to be in communion with our hearts. Jesus came to rescue not condemn. The Spirit is our gift to console and guide us. With such company, need we become paralyzed in fear?
Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche, reminds us, “Prayer is to say to Jesus, ‘Tell me what you want. May your will be done.’ Then, unexpectedly, Jesus says to us, ‘Tell me what you want.’ ‘Whatever you ask in my name, I will do…. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it’ (John 14:13, 14).” Peter begs us, “Cast all your cares on Jesus, for he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Paul reminds us, “All things work for the good of those that love the Lord” (Romans 8:28).
Fear is very human, but Jesus wants to walk with us through our fear to the place God needs us to be. God’s plans may not prove our own. If we seek to listen to Jesus and follow, even if we mishear him a wee bit or a lot, it is he who will lead us to that place. That’s his promise to all God’s children, yes, even you.
The future is like a cloud to us, but then is it really just a coincidence that God so often is heard speaking from clouds in scripture? I don’t think so. We only have one way to go – forward. We can only navigate properly by following the Christ who loves us…into the gray…into sickness…into failure…into joblessness…even into the valley of death…
Yet through faith, we know any sadness need not last. Grace, forgiveness, healing and a peace beyond understanding awaits us. You see, God is already in our future awaiting us with open arms wherever and whatever that future may be. There’s nothing really to fear. God’s ready and willing to welcome us home. Like the paralytic healed in Capernaum, we really just need to pick up our mat and walk. We are forgiven. We are healed. We are free.
I pray that your Lenten walk be one centered on Jesus and the abundant hope he has in store for you.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Life is indeed challenging, but when the theology of our faith meets the bumpy roads of our lives, we will be reminded that God will make all things work for the good of those who love him in God’s good time.
Our Lord is sovereign, all powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal, all knowing, all loving, and you know what? God loves you – at every time and in all seasons, good and bad. So, we don’t need to walk alone, and we were never meant to do so. Our lives are not meant to be about pressure or time crunches, although those do happen. The fate of the world doesn’t rely on us even if it sometimes feels that way. Our God is, well, our God. We need to trust rather than work and worry.
True, we were created to share in God’s creative, redemptive work, but we are not God. We never will be. So, God provides us with a call to Sabbath, a time for rest, worship, and reconnecting to God and one another as a community. God provides us with people to love, care for and walk with us called family, friends and church. And if these should ever fail you as humans sometimes do? God in his Word directs us to cast all our cares upon Christ, for he cares for us.
We aren’t to shirk our responsibilities. We aren’t to hang back when called to act. We are not to forsake the assembly as some are prone to do. (Consider Hebrews 10:19-25, for example.) Yet we can let go, and let God do the heavy lifting in our lives through the grace and forgiveness offered us. The refreshing Fruit of the Spirit is always at our disposal: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We don’t have to work for them. Yet, we need to slow ourselves down and savor their taste. We need to seek them out even when they seem most far off.
As the world seemingly goes crazy, we are called to discernment. Rather than asking what God is doing, we ask, “What should we be doing to help?” Sometimes there will be lots to do. Many more times the answer is “ do nothing” due to our powerlessness…nothing other than watch and wait in hope…nothing other than pray for God’s will to be done in our lives and the courage to live it out…nothing other than trusting that God’s Spirit is at work in the craziness around us and battling for our welfare just as promised.
What good does worrying do? In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said it does no good at all. The wisdom of God isn’t as hard to live out as we might at first think. Do what you can as you discern that you are called to do. Seek to love God and neighbor as yourself. Yet also recognize God’s authority and love reigning over your life. You don’t have to be in control of everything. You don’t have to be your own savior. You can let God and others seek to love you, even as you seek to love them. Trust God to do what we cannot. The pressure is off.
At work or on vacation, rest in the Spirit that is reaching out to you. Attend to the Spirit and let it direct your path. Trust God in all things. Those who have God’s love have enough. This is the true wisdom of God.
As one saying goes, “Growing closer to God isn’t the result of working harder, but of surrendering more.” So, relax, and let Christ complete his work in you. The Spirit will make our paths clear and is there to catch us when we fall.
Wishing you a joyful summer with spiritual growth,
Pastor Lou
This post originally appeared as a pastoral letter in Messiah Lutheran‘s newsletter, The Messenger (July 2015).
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this article are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation.
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s gracewith me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. (Philippians 1:6-7)
We members of Messiah often face some tough days. This past week, I have had conversations with brothers and sisters facing serious disease, family discord, financial difficulties, homelessness, and more. Institutionally, our old van broke down again at the cost of over $1000. For a small congregation, there is a lot going on here, and not all of it seems good.
Yet amidst all of this, we keep coming back and reaching outward. Why? We have been blessed to live an abundant life found in hope. This isn’t the hope of our secular world – as when we hope to win the lottery and magically have our financial (and other?) problems drift away. It is a hope found only in the reality of Pentecost.
The Spirit is moving in, around and through us. It offers us unexpected opportunities and roots us in Christ’s victory. There is an understanding and expectation that God is doing something here, and that although bad things will happen, God is always good. So although we might at times feel like we are in prison with Paul, we share similar hearts and expect the same wonderful destiny.
Rather than relying on any strategic planning and committees (although these can be helpful), we surrender to the Spirit. We are flexible because we know that we are reeds that God might allow to bend but not break (Isa. 42:3). We are courageous and generous in our love for our neighbor and one another because we believe God won’t allow us to be tempted beyond our abilities. Yet if it seems we are about to fail or give up, scripture goes on to say, it is God who will provide us a way out (1 Cor. 10:13). We are strong because despite any quirkiness, shortcomings or disagreements, our abilities or challenges, we strive to live out our baptismal covenant to love and forgive one another as Jesus loved us first (John 13:34). We don’t obsess about mistakes and program challenges, nor do we fret about political differences. We meet people and embrace them as they are (2 Tim. 2:23-26; Rom. 12:9-21; Gal. 3:28). We can come to our assembly without makeup or dressed to the nines because we know we are welcomed, known, and loved here (Mark 9:36-37). I have witnessed how we live as family, brothers and sisters in Christ, and I and others are encouraged and inspired to believe in Christ all the more.
Yes, there are many larger, well healed congregations on our street and in our community doing wonderful things. (The Spirit is at work there too.) Yet, we pass those by to share in a call to this unique spiritual home called Messiah Lutheran. It is a place where both our needs and our talents fit into and find purpose. As brothers and sisters, we don’t give up or turn away when life gets hard. Instead, we dig in and get to work defending and confirming the Gospel. We hold on tight to one another and Christ to face our problems together and overcome. We do so trusting the Spirit is upon us.
Tough times will come and go, but the love we share – Christ’s love for us – will last forever. All things remain possible. All is and will be well.
Pastor Lou
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations for this article are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) translation. This post was first published in The Messenger, the newsletter of Messiah Lutheran Church (June 2014).
The following is a short sermon I preached to my congregation at Messiah Lutheran Church and School, on the Third Sunday of Advent, often called Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday. Although our preschool students and elementary-agers were present to perform a joyous Christmas musical, the death and sadness of the last week, especially in Newtown, CT, could not be ignored.
As our last hymn [O come, O come, Emmanuel] reminds us[i], the Advent season is a time of waiting and expectation. The song is much like many others among our Advent hymns and even some of our more traditional Christmas carols. Many project a sense of sadness and longing. They can prove almost melancholy. Our hymn writers and liturgists – just like us – know the imperfections and pain of this world, and so we look toward Christ to deliver us. Our music, images, and prayers can reflect that sense of loss, waiting and hope. Being a Christian, I heard someone once say, is like being a person separated from their greatest love; something is missing, and not quite right. We hunger and thirst for that love to be one with us again, so that our lives can feel whole.
This week, we have been unhappily reminded of that truth. We lost our assistant to the bishop, Pastor “Chip” Gunsten, a dear friend of mine and many here at Messiah as well as throughout our synod, who died suddenly while undergoing treatment for cancer. We are not the only ones mourning, for our Catholic brothers and sisters lost their former beloved bishop, Walter Sullivan on the same day. He was someone I knew well, and he proved influential to my own discernment of service within the church. Our Presbyterian friends in Virginia lost one of their own leaders as well, Cynthia Bolboch, Moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on December 12th. Having many Presbyterian friends after attending a Presbyterian seminary, I shared in their own grief and sadness. As the week closed, I was tired and worn down from dealing with death and the many emotions that always accompany it. Then, we received the horrific, numbing news of Newtown, CT. People thousands of miles away shared in that community’s dread and grief and fearfully held their own loved ones closer.
How can we make sense of such things? I’m not sure that we can. Oh, as a Christian, I trust that God can use them – turn them on their head and make all things work for our good. I know blessings and signs of love can be found even amidst tragedy – perhaps especially at times of tragedy – through the heroes and servants shining in those times of darkness, or through the love that is shared with us to help us make it through. Yet, maybe we are never supposed to make sense of these things at all. It isn’t within our capabilities to make sense of the nonsensicle. The issues can be too involved for us to handle or beyond us. Maybe they just can’t ever make sense, because they are counter to what God wants for us. God’s will is to save us for a future full of hope, not to condemn us to an eternity of woe[ii]. God’s plan from the time of Adam and Eve was to redeem and save us out of love.[iii]
These sufferings are symptoms of that earlier wound. They are parts of our life as a fallen, imperfect people in a fallen, imperfect world. People sin. People suffer. People die. Uncontrollable evil and sadness do exist. Perhaps instead of looking back for answers as to why things happened, we should look forward. Our time is better spent in the face of such evil asking, “What would you have us do, Lord?”
Certainly, God never abandons us to this sorrow. God has a purpose and a plan which includes us. Jesus was sent into our world as a little child to share our life and lot; even our suffering unto death. God doesn’t rejoice at our destruction, but rather wants us to live abundantly through his only son.[iv] Jesus would become God’s final word on evil, sin and death. They have been defeated through his cross and resurrection, and we are saved here and now. Yet, sin and death are enjoying their final death throws at our expense. Jesus declares we are free from their power; saved even as we and creation might groan at times.[v]
In this present age, Jesus promises to come again to complete the work which he started and banish sin and death forever. There will be a new heaven and earth where suffering will be no more.[vi] In the meantime amidst our lingering troubles, he asks us to look up and be ready, not as a sullen or defeated people, but as his beloved people. Be ready, he says, so that our hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, so that the day doesn’t catch us unexpectedly, like a trap.[vii]
No, we who are saved have a purposeful, divine work to do. We are left here – called to this time and this place – as his messengers speaking his words of love, healing and forgiveness; words so sorely needed in this wounded, combative world. Like the law and the prophets before him including John the Baptizer[viii], Jesus taught us what we need to do – love God with all we are and our neighbors as ourselves.[ix]
Today both despite our suffering and because of it, we are to speak these words and embody them. God uses us with all our weakness and imperfection to give them form and substance, flesh and bone, to make them real. We are echoes of Jesus crossing all the earth shouting, “Do not be afraid! Jesus has come! He is risen and will come again!” We are called to lovingly and boldly put these words into actions together as church…Christ’s church…his body…his hands reaching out and touching broken lives through our own.[x]
Today, we have also heard words that Paul spoke to Christians in Philippi when they were persecuted, broken and felt alone. These same words were shared with us yesterday at Pastor Gunsten’s funeral. Perhaps it is providential that the lectionary had them as one of our assigned texts considering recent events:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4: 4-7)
Rightly, Jesus is called Emmanuel, God with Us. We need not get stuck in our fear, hurt or anger. Look up! Raise your head! Do not be afraid! These are the words Jesus speaks to us in the face of our most unimaginable threats or losses. When the world and its realities rage, when struck by great sorrow, or when we cannot find reconciliation with others we so deeply long for, Jesus speaks to us as he did similarly to that storm long ago, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”[xi]
This world can be a frightful, sad and lonely place, but we need not grieve as people without faith.[xii] We need not live as a people without love.[xiii] Despite any of our doubts, Christ’s peace and love are with us always[xiv], and we have a shared ministry to do in his holy name.[xv] His light is in our midst and shining through our hearts, and the darkness shall not overcome it.[xvi] Remember always that we are baptized – claimed and called, to be Christ and to serve Christ in the world.[xvii] We must never try to hide ourselves from the pain of this life and thus not truly live.[xviii]
We are Christ’s church, together with Jesus and thus never alone. He has come for us and will come again. Our longing will be vindicated. This truth is rightly celebrated at every moment and forever, but especially during Advent. We celebrate it this morning through our young people attending Messiah Lutheran School who have come to proclaim the story of Christ’s birth with us anew today.[xix] Amen.
Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent – December 16, 2012
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
[i] “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel. (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Hymn 257, verse 1)
[xiv] In Mother Teresa and Brother Roger’s book called Seeking the Heart of God (1993), Brother Roger writes: “Four hundred years after Christ, a believer names Augustine lived in North Africa. He had experienced misfortunes, the death of his loved one. One day he was able to say to Christ: ‘Light of my heart, do not let me darkness speak to me.’ In his trials, St. Augustine realized that the presence of the Risen Christ had never left him; it was the light in the midst of his darkness.”
[xvii] At times of fear or doubt, Martin Luther is said to have reminded himself, “I am baptized”; a reminder that he was Christ’s called, claimed and sent child. His writings also indicate that we act as Jesus in the world, but also encounter Jesus in the least of these, those suffering and alone. Through their lives Jesus cries out to us for compassion.
Husband, Pastor, Law Enforcement Chaplain, and member of the Clerical Errors (aka "The Three Priests"), I'm sharing my two cents with anyone who cares...
You can also find me on social media as Loudluthrn (Lou-d-Luthrn or Lou the Lutheran). It is a moniker given me while attending a Presbyterian Seminary, but I'm a loud and proud Lutheran too (just not too loud and proud, mind you).
During our recent sermon series on the Book of Job, our congregation members and world faced its own share of challenges and loss: economic threats, deaths in our extended family, a terrorist attack in Orlando, even our own roof-ripping kind of “whirlwind.” The world can seem a terrible place, and like Job, we are tempted to cry out to some divine police officer, “Violence! Help us!”
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