Suffering 2 – How? - Dennis Mullen - 8.26.7

                (CBS/AP) A 7-month-old infant was found dead in the heat of a parked car Thursday near the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, authorities said…

The infant's name has not been released. Her father is a research analyst at the nearby medical school. Her mother is a staff pediatrician at St. Louis Children's Hospital.

On a day when the temperature reached the upper 90s, a woman spotted the baby girl, called 911 and broke the car window, police Capt. James Gieseke said. The child was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The child had been in the car for three hours, Gieseke said. It's believed the mother left the child in the back seat of the father's car, but that the father thought the mother had taken the child and didn't realize it was his turn to drop her off at daycare. “           "There was a horrible, devastating mix-up as to who was going to take the child to day care," Gieseke said. "It's one of the car seats that have to be in the back seat and faces to the rear."

Details were still sketchy because the couple were too distraught to give complete statements, Gieseke said.

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On any given week, you can take your pick of stories that are frighteningly evil, that remind us that awful things happen and people suffer and we have a lot to praise God for every day. 

Recap: Last week we began this series on suffering by asking “Why?”, and from Scripture we found that…

            Sometimes people suffer as punishment for sin.  1 Corinthians 11 gives us an alarming example pertaining to THIS Lord’s Supper:  29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.  (He means DIED!) 

            But without a clear word from the Lord, it generally is unfair to tell someone that “the reason you sprained your ankle is that you cheated on that test”.  (Unfair and WRONG!)  More commonly observed are the times when…

            People suffer as a consequence of poor choices.  I admire you skateboarders, but I think if I were to take it up at my age and break my leg, you might even laugh at me if I cried out “Why, Oh Lord, has this happened to ME?”  Philip Yancey tells about an actress he saw interviewed on TV after her boyfriend had gotten drunk and fallen off a boat and drowned, and she said:  “Why does God allow such things to happen?”  And yet I sympathize with her feeling because many of the people in this room have been drunk at one time or another and nothing too bad happened, so why HER boyfriend?  He paid for his own actions, and the proper question might be “Why did I get off so easy?” but it still hurts.

            Sometimes people suffer for the sins of others.  Someone commits adultery and his family suffers the consequences.  Or someone commits a crime and gets sent to jail and her kids are left without a mother and without financial support. 

            Now if we could classify all suffering into those neat categories we’d feel a whole lot better about it, and we DO try….

            But when it comes down to it, there are plenty of folks who suffer for no apparent reason.  Last week we talked about Job and we know how he suffered and remember the first verse of the book of Job says JOB 1:1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.  And then he suffered.  A whole lot.  In John 9 we walked with Jesus and the disciples up to a man who had been born blind, and the disciples said:  “Rabbi, who sinned to cause this?”  And Jesus said:  “No one, in this case.  He was born blind so that today God’s power can be revealed.” 

            Last week we talked about all of that and though we tried to ask “Why?” we soon came to see that a better question when we suffer is:  “To what end?”  Or:  “In what way can God show his glory through me in this?”

            Today we move on to a related question:  “How?”  How should a Christian suffer?  How can I be faithful in hard times, in grief, in suffering, faithful to the extent that people see Christ living in me? 

            I have enjoyed watching 24 for the past few years.  If I could, maybe I would make Jack Bauer my model for suffering.  He has lost his wife, lost a lot of good friends, and suffered though a broken relationship with his daughter.  He was hauled off to China and tortured for 18 months.  He’s been stabbed, shot, beaten…and even fired several times.  How does he respond to all the pain in his life?  He bottles it all up as rage and kills bad people!  That sounds good sometimes, but maybe I don’t have to point out the unhealthy nature of it…  So HOW should I face suffering?

            I recently heard about a family who, when the mother died, they had the funeral and then according to the father’s wishes, they were never allowed to speak of her again.  Maybe that was his idea of moving on, or facing death with strength, but it isn’t how God expects us to handle loss.  So HOW?

            But wait a minute:  In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul says:  Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  Doesn’t that mean I’m not supposed to grieve?  It means that when you have ultimate hope in Jesus Christ, you GRIEVE differently.  But you still grieve.  So again, the question “HOW”? 

            I find four good answers in Scripture.  Three are four today, and next week’s lesson will be about the fourth.

            How does FAITH respond to loss?  The surprising first answer is…

 Lament

            To lament means to express sorrow, regret, to put your pain into words.  It’s the exact opposite of the family who said “Mom’s dead, so we shall speak no more of her.”  It’s the opposite of Jack Bauer’s approach of “Just focus on NOW and get the job done.”  Lots of people lament.  But for a believer, lament has an added dimension:  I can express my worst thoughts and feelings to a GOD who is THERE, who hears, who has promised not to leave me or forsake me.

            After Job lost all ten of his grown children, and all of his material wealth, and then his physical health, his three friends came and grieved with him and actually sat silent in his presence for seven days.  And then Job began to speak the words of his lament:

JOB 3:1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:

   JOB 3:3 "May the day of my birth perish,
    and the night it was said, `A boy is born!' 

  JOB 3:4 That day--may it turn to darkness;
    may God above not care about it;
    may no light shine upon it… 

  JOB 3:11 "Why did I not perish at birth,
    and die as I came from the womb?...

  JOB 3:20 "Why is light given to those in misery,
    and life to the bitter of soul,

  JOB 3:21 to those who long for death that does not come,
    who search for it more than for hidden treasure,

  JOB 3:22 who are filled with gladness
    and rejoice when they reach the grave?

            If you went to someone’s house after a funeral and heard them talking like that, things would go crazy.  You’d call for the preacher, the psychiatrist and the Prozac.  

            Compare what Job says here to the inane chatter that takes place in the lobbies of funeral homes, or at post-funeral dinners in church fellowship halls.  Generally people want to talk about the same small stuff they always talk about, but for those who want to mention the deceased, it’s OK to say things like:  “He was a great guy” and “He’s in a better place”.  But if someone says:  “Boy, this hurts so bad I wish I’d never been born!” we say “Maybe you’d better have a drink and go lie down”. 

            In the Bible, though, you’ll find people talking the time to lament, and not just for death, but for financial loss and persecution and criticism and injustice and just about every kind of ordinary old suffering you can name. 

            Remember Psalm 13, from last week?

Psalm 13

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

  PS 13:1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?

  PS 13:2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and every day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

  PS 13:3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

  PS 13:4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall…

            Nearly a third of the Psalms contain enough lament that they’re called Lament Psalms.  That doesn’t mean they’re just a bunch of whining.  Most of them circle around to faith, as does Psalm 13…

  PS 13:5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

   PS 13:6 I will sing to the LORD,
    for he has been good to me.

            It’s remarkable that the hymn book of God’s Temple, the Psalms, contain so much lament.  (Let’s all sing Hymn #307, God, where were you last night?)  Yet the Bible shows by example that it is perfectly appropriate to come before God with lament, because lament expresses our discontent with the world as it is, and it shows that our hearts long for His Kingdom to come, his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

            There’s a song by Third Day, called Cry Out to Jesus, which is at least partially a model for Christian lament.  Listen…

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
And love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

 For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
They've lost all of their faith in love
And they've done all they can to make it right again
Still it's not enough

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
You try to give up but you come back again
Just remember that you're not alone in your shame
And your suffering

There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
And love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are

Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus

 When you're lonely and it feels like the whole world is falling on you
you just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus

Cry to Jesus.

                                By Mac Powell and Third Day.  2005 Consuming Fire Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

             So maybe not everyone needs to lament.  You probably do.  So if you’re devastated because he died, or she filed, or they left, or the tests came back with bad news, or the foreclosure notice arrived…lament.  And if you can’t find your own words, open the Psalms and read a little and you’ll find your words there. Don’t think you need to bury that feeling under a sheen of Christianity and be a shiny happy Christian…  And if your role is to comfort someone in distress, don’t think you have to make it all better with some wise insight you got off a church sign (“If God feels distant, guess who moved…)  Give space to lament.  God does.  Page after page of it.

            But you don’t want to be in lament 24/7 for the rest of your life.  That’s why the second response, which is more of a discipline than the first is…

 “Worship”

            I’ve got it in quotes because I don’t mean “singing”. Singing is a fine way to worship, and many of us find music very useful when we want to lift up God and celebrate him.  But all singing isn’t worship, not even in church (which is another sermon).  By “worship”, I’m talking about orienting your perspective on the truth you know about God, even when life stinks.  I’m talking about recounting his faithfulness, remembering again his goodness and wisdom, reminding yourself of the truths about God that Scripture reveals. 

            At the end of Job 1, after Job gets blasted by Satan, losing his possessions and his children, it says:

1:20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head (formal actions of lament). Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:

   "Naked I came from my mother's womb,
    and naked I will depart.
  The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
    may the name of the LORD be praised."

            That’s what I mean by worship – not necessarily singing or dancing for joy, certainly not pretending to have a joy that really isn’t there – just a simple returning to the truth that God can be trusted and his loving kindness is a fact, even when he seems absent or unconcerned.  Worship is more a discipline than lament.  With lament, you may need to just let it out.  Worship takes a decision to not turn bitter, but to refocus on the truth.

            The book of Job is a long record of poetic speeches, a drama in which various characters expound on the meaning of suffering.  Job has a lot to lament about and he does lament.  But right about the midpoint of the speeches, he says this:

  19:25 I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
  19:26 And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God; 

            That’s what I mean by worship – stating in faith what we know to be true about God.  It isn’t a warm and fuzzy sentiment that Job is expressing.  Part of his meaning is that he knows he’ll have the chance after this life to talk to God, and then he’s going to ask for some ANSWERS.  Still,  this is the kind of remarkable focus on God’s faithfulness that you hear from Job, from Paul, from David, even from Jesus. 

            The reason we have weekly worship, in addition to simply obeying the Scriptures, is that if we are willing to give ourselves to it, if we come in here and say the words of these songs and agree with the prayers that are led publicly, and listen to the teaching, then our minds are being confronted with the truth about God, and our hearts are being reminded, and so even though last night we wanted to pull away from God and run, today we remember again that he is the only shelter we can count on. 

            The best reminders about God are in Scripture.  If you read in the Psalms to find words for your lament, you’ll find your words for worship there also.  For example, Psalm 22 is a lament Jesus called on from the cross.  David says:

 PS 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from the words of my groaning?

  PS 22:2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, and am not silent.

But then…

  PS 22:3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
    you are the praise of Israel.

And he winds up with…

PS 22:29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him--
    those who cannot keep themselves alive.

  PS 22:30 Posterity will serve him;
    future generations will be told about the Lord.

  PS 22:31 They will proclaim his righteousness
    to a people yet unborn--
    for he has done it.

            So when we suffer, we lament because God hears.  And we worship because we need to recount who God IS.

            The third response, which we’ll just mention is…     

Continued Faithfulness

If we think suffering isn’t going to be part of our lives, who do we think we signed up to follow?  Jesus prayed “Father if it is possible…”  but also “Nevertheless, not my will but Yours.”  In 1 Peter 2:19-23, written to slaves, it says”  19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

   1PE 2:22 "He committed no sin,
    and no deceit was found in his mouth."

1PE 2:23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

            Sometimes I keep following God faithfully because it is a joy.  It just feels right.  But there are times when I have to say what the disciples said in John 6:68, “Lord, where else can I go?  Only you have the words of life.”  But in those times for me, I say it with resignation.  I would go somewhere else, but there IS nowhere else.  Faithfulness through pain, through dry times, through difficulty, through suffering…it’s the only way to really learn what God can do. How can you know that he will sustain you until you have been sustained by Him?  Continue to be faithful.

The fourth thing that is distinctive about how Christians face suffering is actually the topic for next Sunday - Help – Romans 12:15 - Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

            We are a community.  If we can rejoice together, we must suffer together and we ought to know how to walk with each other through suffering…

 Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205