Bringing Meaning to Work

How meaningful is your work?  For many of us, we find a great deal of meaning in our work.  We have a tendency to wander into those fields that we enjoy, or that we have some degree of aptitude in.  We enjoy putting our time and effort into our work, and find joy and fulfillment in it.  In some ways, we don't mind when it's hard work because it's meaningful.

But what happens when your work isn't meaningful?  For many of us, we also find ourselves in careers or jobs or occupations that we didn't necessarily anticipate.  Or, we find ourselves in those kind of jobs that we think of as menial.  We fail to see how meaningful those positions are, and so we find ourselves merely being a warm body doing what is necessary to get a paycheck.

In my perusal of the Bible, I have noticed that our God is one who seems to believe in meaningful work.  After all, everything that there is that needs to be done is there because of His creation.  God gives meaning to work because He created us to be active in working as we care for this world and creation.  Now, because of the presence of sin in the world, our work is often challenging, difficult, and can seem dreary rather than joyful.  But God's intent from the beginning was for work to be meaningful.

I bring this up because we also often find much work to be done in our life together as Christians in the context of our congregations.  Yet, so often, that work doesn't seem to be all that meaningful.  We get chosen for a board, or a position, and seem to discover that we're a warm body filling a spot that some document calls for to exist.  We don't see the meaning of the position, and so we don't find ourselves doing the work of the position.

I have come to believe that meaning, however, isn't something that we draw out of work or positions which call for work, but is rather something that we bring as we work.  Meaning, in and of itself, does not exist in relation to our work.  The work is merely necessary.  The meaning comes when we look at what we are chosen to do, when we apply ourselves and make things happen, and as we start to touch the lives of others with the work we do. 

In other words, we so often bring meaning to our work, rather than getting meaning from our work.  And here's another thing.  That meaning tends to come when we find out how our work impacts others.  In other words, meaning comes when we apply ourselves to our work, and when we see that the work touches other people in their lives.  Meaning comes when community touches our work, and when our work touches community.  And as we discover that meaning, we then are so often led to invest ourselves even more in what we are doing, because we see the importance it has for us, as well as others. 

What is "Physically Exhausted"?

"And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.  And he ate nothing during those days.  And when they were ended, he was hungry."  Luke 4:1-2

You always hate to feel like you might be insulting God in the words that He conveyed to this world, but the last statement of those two verses previously quoted sure seem to call for a, "Well, duh!"  Who wouldn't be hungry after not eating for forty days?  And if you'd like to call me a blasphemer or something like that, feel free.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit simply seems to say that which is so obvious, but maybe, just maybe, He knows what He is doing.

This is an interesting thought to me, though.  The last week and a half in my life have been fairly physically challenging.  Now, I've had physical challenges before.  Training for a marathon and half marathons would be some of those times.  But during the last week and a half, I've had a daughter who hasn't been sleeping well, a wife who hasn't been sleeping well, with both of them battling various illnesses.  Not to mention that last week turned out to be one of those weeks where things seem to snowball on you.  You never feel like you're going to get caught up.  And then, when you get home from work, you have to help take care of things around the house because the two ladies aren't feeling up to snuff.  And then, you only get about 5-6 hours of interrupted sleep before you get up and do it all again.

I'm very thankful that God made my body and spirit as resilient as He did.  Other than a general weariness and perhaps a minor headache or two, I pulled through remarkably well.  With the two ladies on the mend, it seems like they are pulling through, too.  And with a couple of nights of much better sleep all around, we might be turning the corner.

But that has gotten me to thinking.  How far is it that we have to go until we become absolutely physically exhausted.  I don't mean tired, but we still could keep going if we had to.  I mean, getting to the point that your body simply refuses to allow you to get up and do anything.  I know it's possible, because people have died from physical exhaustion before.  (And I should throw in, I'm looking strictly at dying of physical exhaustion, not from something, say like dehydration, that comes because you wore your body out, but from truly just working it or demanding too much of it.)

Jesus endured 40 days without food.  He was hungry at the end of them.  I've heard some put forth the thought that this is one way that the Bible is not inerrant.  There are those who would say that the body would physically shut down after 40 days of no food.  Now, I might agree if it's a body that has been used to getting three square meals a day for most of the lifetime.  But for someone who probably lived through a lot of times of hunger and want, it doesn't seem quite as much of a stretch to endure that long.

Two final thoughts before I bring this to a close.  First, since Jesus is not only God, but a truly perfect, sinless human being, is it even possible for something like physical exhaustion to kill Him?  I believe very strongly that the statement, "Jesus gave up His spirit," is the only way Jesus could die, because nothing in this world could possibly kill Him.  So from that standpoint, 40 days of hunger are just that, hunger.

Second, what if our human bodies are truly capable of so much more than what we give them credit?  God created us with both remarkable strength and terrifying fragility.  I've seen people bounce back from the toughest of injuries, and I've seen people's bodies lose the fight over something that seemed relatively minor.  But who is to say that God hasn't, in the creation of our bodies, actually created something that has far more strength than what we ever could imagine?  It's an interesting thought, especially when we find ourselves in those wearying, wearing times of life.

Transition Times

In my life, I have seen quite a few transition times.  Some of them have involved moving from one place to another, an event that I've done enough that I'd rather not have to do it too many more times in the future.  Some have involved significant life events, such as marriage, or the birth of a child.  And some have been much less significant, such as the time I decided to change my exercise routine from basketball (due to several sprained ankles and the doctor's advice) to running, and chose a half marathon as my first event.  All have impact, though some have greater impact that others.

Congregations also go through transitions.  Sometimes they involve major things, like the changing of pastors, or locations.  Sometimes they involve such things as refining the scope of the ministry of the congregation, seeking to be led by God's Spirit in ministry.  Sometimes they involve changeovers of significant people, such as when a long-time president or elder or teacher steps aside, or new people begin to make their way into leadership roles.

There are also transitions that come as congregations reach certain numbers of worship attendance.  Once a congregation reaches a certain number of people who call that place their worship home, things inevitably have to change.  One of these transitions arises as a congregation passes about the 50 worshiping community mark.  Up until that point, the pastor is pretty able to be a very hands-on shepherd for all of God's people.  In a congregation of that size, one or two influential members can be very important to the life of the congregation, and their support and work together is vital when congregations seek to minister.  Some would call this the family member size congregation.

After that 50 worshiping community number arrives, a transition takes place.  Now the pastor simply cannot be as hands-on with each person there as he and they might hope.  It becomes simply a logistical matter.  Also, as that worshiping community increases on to 100 and beyond, each individual voice becomes a bit less influential.  God's people begin to look to the pastor, rather than significant influential people for leadership and guidance.  Some would call this the pastor led congregation.

However, another transition takes place when the worshiping community begins to rise between 150-200 (several different authors place the transition at different places, but typically, they arrive between these two numbers in the worshiping community).  No longer can the pastor continue to effectively be the most influential servant among God's people.  He has to now rely upon other trusted leaders, since he simply cannot be everywhere, and attend to all the things that need attention and oversight.  The transition becomes more about the staff that work in close coordination with the pastor.  If that staff (which includes both paid and volunteer positions) are not on the same page and going in the same direction, many difficulties will occur.

This transition places a great deal of importance upon the individuals who walk alongside the pastor in guiding the congregation.  This isn't to say that they all have to agree with everything that the pastor leads (as though that were possible in the first place), but they all have to be able to work together, and then, when decisions are made, be able to support the decision, even if it isn't one they personally were hoping for (and, by the way, that also goes for the pastor, who cannot assert his authority unless it is something mandated by the Bible as right or wrong.  He also has to be able to go where the Spirit may lead through God's people, rather than in his own personal preference). 

Transitions are very important times for congregations.  They have to be handled with wisdom, with sensitivity, and with a great deal of care.  When they are handled well, the congregation remains equipped to share the Gospel message in their community.  When handled poorly, they often set back the congregation and cause an internal examination, rather than a striving to reach out to the community.  As congregations arrive at these transition places, the hope and prayer is always for a smooth, Spirit-led transition.

Sermon from November 3

This past week, I read the kind of email that you always dread.  Way back in 2001, I graduated from Concordia Seminary with about 75 other men.  We headed out to our respective places throughout this world to serve God and His people with the message of the Good News.  Now, my class was pretty typical.  We had those younger guys that went straight from college to the seminary, and we had a decent amount of guys who had heeded God’s call to ministry after working in some other field for a time.

All in all, my class was pretty typical, I would think.  But what has happened over the past 18 months or so hasn’t been all that typical.  During that time, I have received a message on four occasions that one of my classmates has gone from this world to receive his eternal inheritance.  Two of these have been dear brothers who were my very own age.  One was a man who had some serious health issues already, but whose leaving of this world was rather unexpected anyway.  And then, this past Wednesday, I got the email.  Yet another dear friend, a man a mere 17 years my senior, had gone on to receive his eternal inheritance.  I had been keeping up with his health issues over the past week or so, as he’d gone in for some heart troubles.  And so it was that, on Wednesday, the eternal kingdom received one more who is no longer sinner, but purely a saint.

So this All Saints day that we observe today is one that has some special meaning for me.  A few moments ago, we heard the beautiful picture that was painted for St. John when he received the revelation of Jesus.  A great multitude standing before the throne and the Lamb, crying out their praise to God.  An unnumbered crowd whose robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.  An unnumbered crowd who have no cause for tears because their sin has been fully and completely put away from them forever, and they live in the full, unencumbered presence of God forever.

That’s a crowd that contains four dear friends and classmates of mine.  It’s a crowd that contains many in your lives who can drop the “sinner” label of their existence and fully seize the “saint” aspect of their life in Christ Jesus.  But those aren’t the only ones in that crowd.  What John saw at that moment was every single one of the redeemed of Christ Jesus standing there.  That means that you are in that crowd that he saw.  John himself was in the crowd that he saw.  Even those who have not yet been born are part of that crowd.  And that’s significant as we remember All Saints Day today.  

That crowd consists of every single person who has, does, and will put their faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Lamb who was slain.  That is a crowd who recognizes the importance of “Connecting Community and Christ.”  Every single one of the members of that crowd is connected to Christ Jesus, through the saving waters of their baptism and through the gift of faith that God the Spirit grants.  And every single one of those people there are present in that crowd because someone saw fit to bring them to Christ Jesus.

You’ve heard our little catchphrase since Easter of this year.  “Connecting Community and Christ.”  It’s what we here at Oak Road Lutheran Church do as we live out our lives as God’s saints in this world.  We connect the various communities that we are part of to Christ Jesus.  In His wisdom, God has seen fit to spread the message of His victory over sin, death, and the devil through His saints.  He sends every single one of us out into our personal, unique communities with that message of hope and good news in our hearts and on our lips.

But all too often, that task seems overwhelming to us.  We can be tempted to wonder if it really matters if we connect community and Christ together.  Maybe it’s because we’ve tried, but it didn’t seem to ‘take hold’ somehow.  Maybe it’s because we feel that we’re inadequate to the task.  Maybe it’s because we feel like we can’t make a difference here in Gwinnett County.  And so we start to wonder if it really matters if we connect community and Christ together.

Does it really matter?  That’s the question, really, isn’t it?  Does it really matter if I take my faith out into my everyday life?  After all, I’m forgiven.  My robes have been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.  Jesus has lived for me, died for me, and risen back to life for me.  I have all that I ever need when it comes to my relationship with God.  If I don’t connect community and Christ, does it really matter?  My hope and place in that crowd is secured.

Does it really matter?  After all, I can’t really make that big of a difference. I’m just one person in a sea of faces.  I don’t have the gift to simply insert Jesus into every conversation I have.  In fact, I’m rather uncomfortable about speaking about my faith even with those closest to me.  Does it really matter if I go about connecting community and Christ?

Does it really matter?  After all, I’m not someone with a lot of influence.  I don’t have a really large circle of friends, and most of them already know that I go to church.  Does it really matter if I share anything more than that with them?  It would seem that, if God really wanted me to do that, He would have had them ask questions that I would have been able to answer, but that just hasn’t seemed to happen.

Does it really matter?  After all, it seems like our community and our nation seem to be heading in a direction other than that which reflects faith in Christ Jesus.  I’m just one person, and I can’t really do anything to change that tide.  So it seems more prudent not even to try.  I know where I stand in God’s eyes.

Does it really matter if Christ and community get connected?  My friends, look at that Bible reading from Revelation 7 on the back of the worship folders again.  In particular, look at the last few verses there.  “Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Does it really matter?  It seems to matter a great deal to God and to the Lamb.  Every single one of those who stands in that unnumbered multitude is a dear one of God’s.  God knows each of them so intimately that He protects them from anything that would harm them.  God knows each of them so intimately that He provides everything they need for that eternal life that they inherit.  God knows each of them so intimately that He shepherds them.  God knows each of them so intimately that He knows, not just them, but knows every tear that falls from their eyes.  God knows each of them so intimately that He wipes each tear from their eye because each of them matter to Him that much.

Does it really matter if we take seriously our task to connect community and Christ?  Right here we see a picture of just how much it matters.  For my friend who went to receive his eternal inheritance this week, it matters to him that God’s servants saw fit to bring him to the waters of baptism, and to raise him to know the God who redeemed him.  Does it matter that someone in his life connected him to Christ?  It does, especially now that he has received his eternal inheritance.  

Does it really matter if we connect community and Christ?  It matters to every person who gets the joy and privilege of standing in that unnumbered multitude before the throne and the Lamb.  They will each know God intimately, just as they will be intimately known.  And that’s good news.  It matters because that connection to Christ will be lived out in a life that never ends.  Nothing will ever separate that crowd from Christ.

Does it really matter if Christ and community connect?  Let’s look at it from the other side of the coin.  There’s another reality that we don’t see in this picture.  It’s the reality of all of those who don’t get to be part of this crowd, those whose robes are not washed in the blood of the Lamb, and who don’t receive an eternal inheritance.  Does it matter to them that Christ and community remained unconnected in their lives?  It does, and it does so forever in a reality that does not end.

Does it really matter if we connect Christ and community?  Let’s think about this for a moment.  Does it matter if you connect Christ and that person who regularly cuts or styles your hair?  Have you ever thought about how you can serve God and that particular neighbor by thinking about ways to connect that person to Christ?  It could very well be that they get the joy and privilege of spending forever with you in this crowd because of your sharing with them.

Does it matter if your neighbor is in this crowd because he or she saw your life, or heard your words, and became a part of that crowd?  Chances are, you know the people who live on either side of your house, or across the street.  What do you know about their connection with Christ?  In what ways might Christ be calling you to connect them to Him, so that their robes can be washed white in His blood, and they be part of that unnumbered multitude?

Does it matter if you know a young person who may be missing a parent in their life, and you chose to make some small effort to connect with that part of your community?  They may be missing more in their life than you could ever imagine, and your influence in their life may be the very thing that introduces an eternal change in their destiny.  Would you say that matters?

Does it matter if you talked, not just about your church, but about your faith, with that person who asks about your church?  The Holy Spirit may simply be waiting to seize the opening in order to plant the gift of faith into that person’s soul, and introduce them to an inheritance that never passes away.  Would you say that matters?

Does it really matter?  It’s easy to fall into Satan’s trap to think that our words or our lives don’t really make that big of a difference.  But this All Saints Day, as we once more hear of this beautiful picture of the unnumbered multitude who stands before the throne and the Lamb forever, we’re reminded that it really does matter.  How we live our lives as God’s saints does make a difference.  Being prepared to share our faith really does matter.  Connecting Community and Christ really does matter, because God works through those efforts to add more and more to that unnumbered crowd.  May we respond to God’s call to connect community and Christ, for the sake of Christ.  Amen. 

Sermon from November 10

The time is ticking down.  We’ve changed our clocks back an hour, and you’ve probably noticed that it’s getting dark outside a lot earlier.  The cool weather has set in, and Christmas has fully invaded stores already.  We have a mere month and a half left in this year 2013.  And we have even less in the way that the Christian Church keeps track of the calendar.  We’re already in the last month of that unique thing that we call the Christian Church Calendar, a strange thing that typically begins in December with the season of Advent, and concludes in late November with a Sunday called, very creatively, the Last Sunday of the Church Year, or perhaps at times a bit more creatively, Christ the King Sunday.

And during these last few weeks of the Christian Church Calendar year, we start to hear about the time when Jesus will re-appear.  I both love and dread this time of year.  I love it because we’re reminded about the hope that we have in our Christian faith.  Christ Jesus will re-appear and will usher in the eternal kingdom completely.  It won’t just be something that is promised to us through what Jesus did on the cross and the resurrection, which He has given to us by virtue of our baptism, but it will become the reality in which we live.  I love that reminder as we approach that Sunday where we remember His promise to re-appear.

But I also dread this time of year a bit.  I dread it because, as we hear about Jesus re-appearing, I also start to hear all the different “thoughts” that are out there about what the time of Jesus’ re-appearing will be like.  I dread it because there are some really poorly thought out theologies out there, and very few that truly hold to the biblical picture of Jesus’ return.  I dread it because so many want the quick and easy answer to what the Bible teaches about such things, but the truth is, you simply can’t cover some of those topics very quickly or easily, and so they tend to remain misunderstood.  Biblically, it’s a lot more simple than many of the thoughts that are out there, but it still takes time to work through what the Bible says.

But the end of the Christian Church Calendar year is also significant to the topic we’ve been covering this fall.  We’ve been spending some time thinking about the conflicts we have in life, and what God has to say about how we handle our conflicts.  We’ve touched on what the root of these conflicts is, and we’ve repeatedly heard the importance of forgiveness and restoration.  The re-appearing of Jesus is a reminder that there is a time coming when all conflict will truly come to an end.  Even our conflict with sin and death will come to an end.  We will be in the gracious presence of our God, and will stay there forever.  The re-appearing of Jesus is a reminder that conflict is temporary.  It will come to an end.

However, until that actual day arrives when Jesus re-appears in glory and brings His people into their eternal inheritance, we still have to deal with conflict in our lives.  Day by day, conflict will come up, and we will have to find ways of dealing with it.  It still needs to be dealt with as it comes up in life, and how we deal with it actually does say a lot about who we are, especially as people of God in Christ Jesus.  Especially as people who have been given the rich gift of forgiveness, and who have been sent, as Jesus Himself was sent, with forgiveness on our lips, eager to pass it on to every person we encounter in life.

Now, today, we heard a couple of interesting Bible readings already.  The first one is one that is probably a somewhat familiar story to many of you here.  It’s the story of Moses and the burning bush.  Moses was born in Egypt at a time when the Israelite male children were to be killed.  Instead, his mother hid him in a basket and put him in the river, where he was found by Pharoah’s daughter.  He was raised in the royal house until he saw a fellow Israelite being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster.  After killing the Egyptian, Moses ran away into the wilderness.  For the next forty years, he became a shepherd.  But all that changed the day that he was watching the sheep and encountered the burning bush.

The bush was on fire, but didn’t burn.  Strange enough of an occurrence for Moses to go check it out.  And then, a voice spoke out of the fire.  God was calling Moses to free his people, something Moses had already tried once to less than stellar results.  But this time, God would be with him.  And Moses wanted to know the name of this God.  “What’s your name?  Who shall I say you are to the people?”  And God gives Moses a very memorable name.

I AM who I AM.  The LORD, the God of your fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent you.  This is my name, and ya’ll will remember it forever.”  And at the root of God’s name that He gives to Moses, we have a great deal of meaning.  The very name of God is the verb of existence.  It’s like He is telling Moses, I am the God who actually is, who actually exists.  I am the living God.  I am the God who truly does exist and have life.

And we see that same connection to the living God mentioned in our Bible reading from Luke 20.  The Sadducees, a group of theologians in Jesus’ time who claimed that the resurrection was merely a spiritual event, came to Jesus with their puzzle.  The seven brothers all married the same woman, according to their custom.  So in the resurrection, whose wife is she?  And that’s when Jesus reminds them of who God is.  He’s not the God of the dead, but of the living.  He is the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, who are still alive and still exist.  He is the living God of the living.

Ours is a God who is a living God.  We see that in the Father, who has existed even before time began.  We see that in the Son, who lives even though He was crucified and died with your sins and your conflicts.  You’ve been washed clean through His resurrection, and through your baptism, you have a connection to His new, everlasting life, a gift which is yours by virtue of your baptism.  Your God is the living God, and He is the God of the living, which includes you, as you live your life in this world, and as you take up your eternal life in His eternal kingdom.

And since God is a God of the living, He takes a very personal interest in your living.  He takes an intimate interest in how you live your life.  And that means He takes a very personal interest in how you handle your conflicts, and in how you handle the precious pearl of forgiveness.  Because God in Christ Jesus has seen fit to take away your sins, to bear them in His body on the cross, and to rise again to new life, and to connect you to that new life through your baptism, God has a very great interest in how you go about living your life.

After all, you belong to the living God.  The living God is the God of the living, and He has not only given you life in this world, but already planted the eternal life within you in your baptism.  Every breath you take is a gift of grace from the living God.  Every day that you awaken is a gift of grace from the living God.  And since He is the God of the living, He wants each day and each breath to be one in which you breathe out grace and forgiveness in your life.  And that’s the very thing that the new life in you wants to do, in response to God’s living grace to you.

That’s why we make much about the life we live as Christians.  God is the God of the living.  God is the living God.  When Jesus re-appears, He’s going to usher all who have received their eternal life into the eternal kingdom.  And while we look forward to that hope, we also recognize that our lives in this world actually have a great deal of impact on that eternal world which is yet to be fully realized.

That’s why God’s people live out each day in their baptism, and in their baptismal grace.  That’s why you and I live as people of the living God.  We live as a people who have been forgiven.  We know and believe that Christ Jesus has taken our sin into His very own body, bearing it into death on the cross, and then overcoming it by rising back to life.  Our living Savior has forgiven us, fully and completely.  No sin stands in the way of our relationship with our God, and so we live as a people who are forgiven.

Having been forgiven much, we rejoice in our connection with God.  Since we are a forgiven people, we then connect with our community by living as a people who are a forgiving people.  Since God can overcome our sin and forgive it through the cross and resurrection of Jesus, we can overcome the sin of conflict that crops up among us and between us and others by offering that same forgiveness.  We forgive their sin against us, and we announce the origin of that forgiveness in what God has done for us in Jesus.  We strive to live as forgiving people because we have been richly forgiven.

And we live as people who are living people.  Not only do we have life while we live in this world, but we are also people who have been given the victory.  Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, our great enemies have been defeated.  Satan has been defeated already, and we rejoice that God has done that for us in Jesus.  Death has been defeated, its jaws broken when Jesus came back to life, and we rejoice that God has connected us to that victory in our baptism.  Our sin has been defeated when Jesus died with it, and we rejoice that God has taken our sin away from us.  And so we live as a people who have the victory.  Our sin, our enemy the devil, and even death don’t win.  Our God has already won the victory, and so we live as people who already have the victory.  We don’t hang our heads in defeat, but know that we are in Christ Jesus, and so we have the victory.

And since we have the assurance of that victory, we also live as gracious people.  We don’t think poorly or badly of others because we see how highly our living God has thought of us.  He sees us of value enough to be our living God, and to make us His living, forgiven people.  And so we look at every person we meet with new eyes, with gracious eyes.  We don’t think poorly of them, but think graciously of them.  We don’t treat them with contempt, or even necessarily give them what they deserve, but we treat them graciously, just as our living God has treated us graciously.

That’s what it means to have a living God, who is God of the living.  And with that new birth in us because of our baptism, we pray that God grows us in grace, in victory, and in forgiveness every day, until the day when Jesus re-appears and ushers in the eternal kingdom.  And till that day, our cry remains, “Amen! Come Lord Jesus!  Amen.”

Sermon from November 17

Recently I’ve been reading a book that Carrie managed to get for free for me on my Kindle.  One of the authors that I’ve taken to over the past decade or so is a man by the name of Philip Yancey.  Way back in 1977, he started investigating a question that continually resurfaces in his life, as well as in the lives of pretty much every person who walks the face of this earth.  His book from 1977 is called “Where is God When It Hurts?”  That began a long journey for Yancey as he started taking a look at this thing called pain in the world, wondering why it happens, and what can possibly be done about it.

In that first book of his, Yancey looked at pain.  As he researched, he saw the good of pain.  Pain indicates that something is wrong, and encourages us to find a way to work to resolve the situation.  If you touch a hot stove or match, the pain encourages you to let go before more hurt comes along.  He came to see pain as something good from God, though difficult for us human beings to deal with.  And in the last year or so, he has come full circle.  He’s taken a look at things like the Jesus he never knew growing up, he’s explored his disappointment with God, he’s wondered what good God is, and with many recent events, he’s come full circle to the book that I’ve just finished reading, The Question that Never Goes Away.

Pain and suffering never seem to go away from this world.  And I’ll tell you a little bit about what Philip Yancey sees as part of God’s reason for it in a few minutes.  But one of the realities of life in this world is the presence of pain and suffering.  The question never goes away because we continually see pain and suffering in the world around us.  It hits, and sometimes it hits us hard, and makes us ask some really good, really hard questions about God, about pain, about suffering, and about what God is trying to do with this world.

From the beginning, though, let me start off by making one thing clear.  God’s desire for us in this world is not necessarily for us to avoid pain and suffering.  That’s a shocking statement for us to hear.  God knows that this is a world of pain and suffering, and even though it really shouldn’t surprise us, when we think about it, God’s intent is not for us to live a life with no pain and suffering involved.  Sure, in the perfect world of His creation, prior to sin, pain and suffering would have been foreign to that world.  But the world we live in, a world infected by sin, is a world where pain and suffering are going to be there.  And because we live in that world, God’s intent for us is not to avoid pain and suffering.

We see that in the longer Gospel reading that I just read to you from Luke 21 a few minutes ago.  In fact, I bet that it was so subtle that most of us probably missed it there.  We start off our reading for today with Jesus and the disciples walking through the temple area, looking at the magnificent building and all the majestic trappings that came with it.  They marveled at the architecture and how grand God’s house was.  And then, Jesus really let the air out of their balloon.  Not even a stone will be left on top of another.  And that’s when they asked the question that shows us that the disciples were thinking differently than what you and I tend to think.

“Teacher, when will these things be?”  Not, can’t God do something to make it where that doesn’t happen.  Not, what does God think about the pain and suffering of all those who will suffer because of that.  It’s almost as though they accept that it’s a given that pain and suffering will come.  The things Jesus says will come true.  It’s not a question of avoiding it, or even asking why God permits such things to happen.  They almost take it matter of factly that God permits pain and suffering, and so they merely ask when it will happen.

It seems to me, in our day and age, we’re not content to think about God permitting pain and suffering.  We get caught up in asking the why question.  Why doesn’t God do something about pain and suffering?  Why do we have to go through pain and suffering?  Why would God allow something like that?  As Philip Yancey’s most current book notices by its very title, the question never goes away.  We move from one scene of pain and suffering in our lives, and then another one seems to pop up before too long.  It’s almost like a bicycle wheel, it spins, and once we move past that pain and suffering part, it’s only a matter of time before the wheel spins back around to the pain and suffering part once again.

And so we get caught up in the why questions.  They pop up among God’s people so often.  Why does a husband and father suffer and die at too young of an age?  Why does a young, healthy man have suicidal thoughts and battle depression?  Why do things like typhoons and hurricanes and tsunamis even exist, much less cause the extensive damage that they do?  Why do so many choose to deal with the issues of their lives by loading up weapons and unleashing them at those who don’t deserve it?  Why, and why, and why, and why?

We wonder why it hurts so much.  Why does pain rack our bodies?  Why did God even create us with the capability to feel pain?  And knowing that it actually is intended to help us doesn’t really help us when we are in the midst of the pain.  Sure, it’s here to tell me something’s wrong, but what’s wrong just can’t be fixed.  And so we wonder why it hurts so much, and why God seems to stand idly by, as though He’s helpless, or, even worse, as though He just doesn’t care.

We wonder why it happens in the first place.  If God is truly in control of everything that happens in this world, and nothing happens without His direction and guidance and control, then why the tornado that devastates a whole town?  If God is truly in control, why a typhoon that kills thousands, and why strike a land in which many likely don’t get to receive the eternal inheritance through faith in Jesus?  Or, when it hits a place where we know that Jesus has disciples, why does it happen to those that God has declared His undying love for?  Why, and why, and why.  The question just simply doesn’t go away.

And that’s where the disciples’ discernment and Jesus’ answer convey a great deal to us.  Those things which bring pain and suffering are going to come.  As sinful people who live in a world that has been devastated by sin, the devastating effects are going to come our way.  It’s not a question of avoiding it, but when they happen.  That’s what the disciples discerned as Jesus answered the question of when.  They knew God enough to know that He didn’t necessarily turn aside disaster and pain.  Their nation had been conquered and exiled into foreign lands, only to return.  God hadn’t spared them before, and so they had no reason to suspect that the things Jesus said would be any different.  It’s not a question of avoiding pain and suffering, but of when it will come.

And God’s answer is significant.  I say that because the reality is, God’s answer is really a non-answer.  God never answers the question of why.  One of the reasons why you and I sit here today wondering why things like these happen is because God doesn’t answer the question.  Jesus doesn’t say why these things happen here.  Throughout the history of the people of God, God rarely answers the question of why.  It is significant that the times He usually does answer is when His people have brought it upon themselves.  But when the cause isn’t brought on by them, God simply doesn’t answer the question.

And so there must be something to pain and suffering that we fail to see.  The question never goes away because God hasn’t answered it, at least not in a way that we are willing to hear.  Our life and experience tends to point to the fact that God permits pain and suffering to come in.  He doesn’t tend to turn it aside, but permits it to come a’knocking.

So I can’t stand here in front of you all today and tell you the answer to the question why.  But what I can tell you is something that is of great significance for us.  God doesn’t tend to turn aside pain and suffering, so when He does, that is all the more reason to give thanks and praise to God.  But what God does do is redeem pain and suffering.  God takes that which strikes often in our lives, as it rolls upon us again and again, as the question never goes away, and God redeems our pain and suffering.

That’s why the cross of Jesus is at the heart and soul of our faith.  That is where we see God redeeming the pain and suffering of this world.  That is where we see God causing something good to come through pain and suffering.  As Jesus bore the entire weight of the pain and suffering of this world in His own physical human body on the cross, God took the pain and suffering of this world and brought something redeeming out of it.  God brought about the death of pain and suffering, and the entrance into a new, redeemed life, in which no pain and suffering will ever enter.  And we see that entrance into that new life through the victorious resurrection of Jesus.

God redeems pain and suffering.  Jesus suffered pain and suffering such as you and I simply cannot fathom, and God redeemed that pain and suffering to be the entry way into the new, everlasting kingdom that we await, through the victory of our Lord Jesus.  God connects us to that new everlasting kingdom through His gift in the waters of baptism.  God connects us to that new everlasting kingdom as we are daily killed in our sin and pain and suffering, and as God daily brings forth a new creation that lives for that new, everlasting kingdom.  

God redeems pain and suffering.  God doesn’t turn it aside from us, nor does He always bring about the end of pain and suffering in our life.  But God gives us the promise that even pain and suffering are things that can be redeemed.  Good can still come out of them, even though our way of thinking would rather avoid them or turn them aside, or do away with them completely.  God, however, redeems that which we would rather avoid, even though we continually do find that the question doesn’t go away.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I would let you know what Philip Yancey said is part of the reason for the continued existence of pain and suffering in this world, and why it’s actually a redeemable thing in our lives when we face it.  Yancey has been to many places which have seen some of the worst pain and suffering of our world.  He’s been to Newtown, and Japan, and places like Rwanda.  He’s been to Aurora, Colorado, and Littleton, Colorado.  He’s been to Sarajevo, and seen the devastation of ethnic cleansing.  He’s been to Virginia Tech, and in all these places he’s been, he has talked to people who have suffered loss, sometimes unimaginable loss.

How is that kind of pain redeemable?  It almost brought a chuckle of joy to me when I was reading his conclusion.  Of all the places in this world that he could have searched for an answer, he eventually turned to a fairly well known Lutheran theologian by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  And in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Yancey found how God brings about some degree of redemption in pain and suffering.

Pain and suffering leave holes in us, especially when it comes to loss of loved ones.  And it’s like that we’ve heard that we’re supposed to let God fill those holes.  But Bonhoeffer opens the door to a very different picture.  He says that God doesn’t fill those holes.  God permits those holes to remain inside of us.  Not because He’s a cruel God, but because those holes point us to the community that those lost ones were part of in relation to us.  If God filled those holes, we wouldn’t miss our community connection with them.  But since God created us to be in community with one another, we continue to remember that community connection in their loss by those empty places in our lives.

God redeems our pain and suffering, especially in loss, by reminding us that He has redeemed us as part of a community.  That community finds its common connection in the pain and suffering of Jesus on the cross, and finds its redemption in His resurrection.  Even loss in our life demonstrates that God has created us to be part of a community, and shows us that God’s community stretches over time and place, even beyond life and death.  

That’s why the disciples didn’t ask why, but when.  And yes, most of what Jesus said there happened either in their lifetimes, or shortly after.  In a mere 40 years or less, all those things except for the Son of Man coming in glory happened.  Jerusalem destroyed.  The temple gone.  The people fleeing.  God’s people scattered throughout the nations.  All so that God’s redemption of this painful, suffering world could be extended throughout the world. 

While we would love to have an answer to the question of why, having that answer probably wouldn’t help things out any.  But knowing that God chooses to redeem our pain and suffering gives us hope, even in the worst pain and suffering.  And in the midst of that pain and suffering, we’re reminded that God gives us a community to connect with to help us in our times of pain and suffering.  That’s why we, as God’s people, connect community and Christ.  That’s where God redeems our pain and suffering, and gives us a message that connects to a community where our answer may speak much more than any explanation ever would.  Thanks be to God for that, in Christ our Lord.  Amen.