Scripture:
Romans 8:18-28
18
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not
worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of
the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to
futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who
subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of
the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole
creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not
only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits
of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the
redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope
that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25 But
if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we
do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit
intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who
searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the
will of God. 28 We
know that all things work together for good for those who love
God, who are called according to his purpose.
I
want us to think about how bold and audacious that statement is
from Paul: In ALL things God is able to work for good with those
who love God. In ALL things God is able to bring something good
out of them. In the loss of a job or even getting fired, God is
able to bring something good when we look to God and trust God and
love God.
Do
you believe that? Have you seen that happen? In an illness-God
doesn't send the illness-but God is able to work within that pain
and suffering and bring something good. Lance Armstrong says about
his very, very serious fight with cancer that cancer is one of the
best things that ever happened to him because of how he changed
his priorities and because of how he values life now.
In
ALL things God is able to bring good. In our failures and defeats
God is able, when we ask, to bring hope and something new that
would not have happened if life had just gone on smoothly for us.
In hearing the hard words of truth from a friend that we need to
hear but we did not want to hear about how our behavior is hurting
our life and the life of people we love - in ALL things God is big
enough to bring something new and something good. Even in the pain
of grief and loss God is able to do that.
Wayne
Watson of our congregation has his own experience to share about
that.
(Wayne's
Story)
Jesus
has been with me from the very beginning.
From my earliest childhood days, Jesus has always been a
big part of my life.
However,
as in any very long term relationship, Jesus and I have gone
through some tough times together.
A little more than ten years ago, we reached a breaking
point.
A
couple of years after my first marriage had ended in divorce, I
met Vicki. Vicki
was wonderful, we got married and for seven years we had a happy
and delightful marriage. But in the summer of 1992, Vicki had an ugly melanoma removed
from her arm. And
in the summer of 1993 it came back in her leg and in 18 gruesome
weeks it killed her.
On
a bright, crisp, December morning, as I stood over her casket in
a quaint cemetery in the middle of Missouri, I not only buried
my precious wife, I buried my faith in God along with her.
I
blamed God for Vicki's death and I was very angry. I wanted nothing to do with a God that would allow such a
good person to die such an awful death.
And so, when I walked away from her grave I swore I would
never love God again; I would never go to church again; I would
never sing for Him again; and indeed I would never even speak to
Him again. How dare
He take Vicki!
And
that's the way it stayed - for three years.
But
Jesus loved me too much to leave me that way.
And so, just as He did with Jimmy Stewart in the
Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," God sent me
an angel. Now, my
angel's name isn't Clarence - it's Mary.
But believe me, if you're familiar with the movie, just
like Clarence, Mary has definitely earned her wings.
It's
as if God said, "Mary, I'm not done with Wayne yet. I still have more for him to do.
But I can't use him when he's this angry at me.
Somebody's got to love this guy, Mary, and the job's all
yours." And
it's a mighty big job.
And
so, through love, wisdom and, extraordinary patience from my
angel, coupled with the prayers of my two sons, this angry man
found himself sitting at a Christmas Eve candlelight service at
a church called St. Andrew.
Then he came back for Easter and found himself coming
forward to join in the singing of the "Hallelujah
Chorus". And
for the next two years, as I sat out in the congregation, I
began to slowly realize that Jesus wasn't to blame for Vicki's
death. We happen to
live in an imperfect world and Vicki just got sick and died from
a terrible cancer.
And
so I began to let go of the anger and the grudge I held against
God and I began to allow Him to work all things together for
good. And He has. Ten
years after I walked away from Vicki's grave, He has done more
than I could imagine. I
still have my angel (and she still loves me so she has to be an
angel). He has kept
my two precious sons at my side, who are growing into fine young
men. He has even
doubled that measure by giving me two wonderful stepchildren,
whom I adore. He
has given me the best of friends.
He has given me my daily bread.
And He has given me this family of God we call St.
Andrew, and especially the Charles Wesley Choir, Mark Zwilling
and Tam Curfman, who have become my spiritual family.
He has healed me and He has restored me. He has truly worked all things together for good.
I
tell you all that because I have a compulsion to share with
anyone who will listen what God had done for me.
And so, if you are sitting here today and you hold a
grudge against God because of some tragedy in your life, I'm
here to tell you that Jesus isn't to blame for it and if you
give Him a chance He can work all things together for good.
Because that's what He did for me.
Ten
years ago, at the age of 40, my testimony would have been I have
tried Jesus Christ and I have found Him to be wanting and
hollow. But after 50 years of being together, I can say that not
only is Jesus my Savior, my Lord and My King, He is also my
great and good friend who is true to His word.
He never promised to keep us from harms way.
He promised to never leave us, nor forsake us.
And if you give Him but a chance, he will truly work all
things together for good.
In
all things God is able to work for good with those who love God.
It is not that the bad things that happen to us are not
bad. Being fired is bad. Failing at something important is bad.
God does not call a divorce or death good - but God is able to
weave within those difficult and painful times and bring good.
Joseph
in the book of Genesis says something like this. His brothers sell
him into slavery because they are jealous. He is thought to be
dead and his parents are just grief stricken. He is taken to Egypt
where he becomes very important to the Pharaoh. And in his new
role of leadership in Egypt he is able to save up grain for the
Egyptians for the famine and he is also able to give food to his
own family when they come to beg for food.
And
when he finally reveals his true identity to his brothers who have
not yet recognized him, he says to them something like what Paul
says: what you meant for evil toward me God has turned into good.
It
does not mean that there was no evil, no suffering in being sold
as a slave. God does not say that something bad was good. Rabbi
and Mrs. Harold Kushner learned over 25 years ago that their
three-year-old son Aaron had progeria, a disease of rapid aging,
and knew that he would die as a teenager. That diagnosis was true
and Aaron at the age of fifteen was like a little old wrinkled
man. And he died at that age. The Kushners knew God did not want
Aaron to have that disease and that God did not want Aaron to die.
But out of that painful loss Rabbi Kushner wrote his pivotal book,
"When Bad Things Happen to Good People" that has sold
hundreds of thousands of copies across the world and has helped
people stop blaming God when something difficult happens to us.
In
all things God is able to work for good. When Susie Gail Marta's
three children were all under the age of 8, she went through a
very difficult divorce. She tried to get help for her children in
the belief that without some help they would have scars from this
experience. She did not find the kind of group help that she
needed. What did she do? She started her own program that would
not be so much a help to her own children but would be a resource
for other children experiencing the loss of a parent thorough
death or divorce. She called the new program "Rainbows"
to say that it gives hope and a promise when life looks really
dark.
And
now, twenty years later, out of her family's pain, the Rainbows
program is used across the world and has touched the lives of
thousands and thousands of children including kids in our own
community because this church has been offering Rainbows for over
15 years and the current signup list includes 32 children for this
next round - almost all of them from our community and not our
congregation.
In
ALL things - this is really audacious of Paul to say this - in all
things God is able to work for good with those who love God. Judy
and I experienced that 31 years ago in the birth of our son Todd
who showed up with Down syndrome and was the occasion for us to
begin to enter the world of disability awareness and to become
advocates not only for him but for others who are overlooked and
under estimated. And out of our difficult, unusual journey, Judy
is now the president of the largest national organization for
persons with Down Syndrome and is the coordinator for the national
conventions of 1500 people sponsored by that group each year.
In
ALL things God is able to work for good. Novelist William Styron
would not have written his powerful book about depression -
"Darkness Visible" if he had not suffered from severe
depression himself. And now his book is a sign of hope for others
who suffer clinical depression. But Styron had to be able to share
his own very dark and difficult experiences of coming very close
to ending his own life before he would be able to share that story
so others could find help and hope and healing.
In
all things God is able to work for good with those who love God
and who trust God and who are willing to look to God for help and
hope. Let us do that now.
God,
we are willing to think again that Paul just may have known what
he was talking about when he wrote those words out of his own pain
and illness and loss. We lift up to you whatever the hurts are in
our lives and we name them now. Please do in us what you have
promised in Paul - that you will be present in our pain and loss
and that you, only you, will bring out of this something holy and
new and good. Amen.
