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Vicar Todd Liefer
September 27, 2009
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Word of God that engages us this day comes from James chapter 5, the Epistle reading for today.
I'd like to tell you a story about a farmer and his family. Some of you might know that I grew up on a grain farm, so stories about farmers are always close to my heart. So here we go...this is a true story.
Well this particular farmer was a pretty well known guy in his community. And he was well known for two different things. One was that that he had a HUGE farm - by far, this was the biggest one in the area. Talk about "Big Business" — this guy had thousands upon thousands of acres of land. He handled more cattle than most farmers could even imagine — literally thousands of animals — sheep, steers, you name it, he had it. Of course, this farmer and his wife couldn't manage all this work himself, so he had dozens of hired hands, and even 10 children. A big family for a big farm! So this farmer was really known as the guy with the big farm.
But this farmer was also very well known for another thing. Yeah, he had a lot of land, but what really made this guy stand out was that everyone knew he loved the Lord. Everyone saw that this farmer and his family were regular worshipers. Everyone knew that though this family was wealthy, they were generous with their wealth. Now this was a family that lived out their faith in their daily life.
You can see that this guy was richly blessed. He had everything he could possibly want: a big farm, a big family, and a big faith in the Lord.
Sadly, though, that's not the end of his story. You see, this farmer's kids had all grown up and moved into homes of their own, but all nearby in the same community. And they were such a close-knit family that they were always with one another, helping fix up a brother or sister's home, throwing parties, and just enjoying being a family. Well, that's what they were doing one Friday evening — all ten children were at the oldest son's house having a party. And guess what Dad's doing? Working back at the farm pinning up the cattle for the night. All of a sudden, the Dad (the farmer) notices that the wind was picking up. The farmer looks at the horizon, and a storm is rolling in. "Thank goodness, he thought. It's been a dry year; we could use some rain." But as the clouds got closer and closer, all of a sudden sky went green. And the farmer realized this was going to be a bad storm. The wind picked up so suddenly, and the storm got so close, so fast, that he and his hired hands didn't even have enough time to pin up all the cattle. His wife was screaming over the thunder: it's time to go into the storm cellar.
So in they went. And they waited. They waited and waited. And almost as quickly as the storm came, it was gone. The farmer, his wife, and his hired hands come out of the cellar, and they're fine. The house is fine. The farm seems fine. But soon they get word that their kids weren't so lucky. A tornado had formed, and hit the oldest son's home. The roof collapsed, and all ten children died.
But that's not even all. Remember how I said it was a dry summer? Well during that storm that night, lightning had struck a dry field — actually the field where the entire sheep herd had been grazing. And the lightning started a field fire — a bad field fire — and this fire TOOK OFF — it spread and spread until it trapped his seven thousand sheep against a fence. And the whole herd died. So that night, the farmer lost his most valuable herd the same night he lost not one, not two, but all of his children.
This is a very sad, but very true story. Actually, it's a pretty well known story — maybe you've heard or read about it before. Actually, James in our text today refers to this story. The story about the farmer, his cattle, and his children is actually the story of a man named Job — a book of the Bible in your Old Testament.
Well if you've read this story before, you know that I've only told a small portion of the story. Because the same night that Job lost his children, and his sheep, he also lost all his other cattle — his oxen, his camels, and his donkeys. Job also lost most of his hired-hands. In one night, Job and his wife lost pretty much everything. And that's not all — a short time later, Job is afflicted with a terrible skin disease. Festering sores break out all over his body — his legs, his chest, his arms, even his face — from head to toe.
Well after all this, Job — a man of great faith — gets on his knees and screams, "WHY? WHY GOD? Why did you even let me be born? Why don't you just kill me now? You taken away everything I have. Why?"
Can you sympathize with Job? Have you asked that small, three-letter question before? Why? Why God? Why is this happening to me? Why now?
Why? Why God?
Why did my spouse have to get cancer...again?
Why did I lose my job?
Why did that car accident have to kill those teenagers?
Have you asked these kinds of questions?
Why did that storm destroy that city?
My Grandma is so close to death — God, why don't you just end her suffering now?
Why does that child have to live with a parent who abuses him?
Why did that little infant have to die?
Why? Why God? Just tell me, and I'll be satisfied. Why?
In our text today, James tells us what to do when we're going through suffering, when we ask these kinds of questions. In verse 7, he tells us: BE PATIENT! Well thanks a lot, James! Because when we're going through suffering, being patient is exactly what we DON'T want to do. No, I want this problem solved now. I want answers now. I want God to end this pain, this suffering now.
We struggle with being patient. This is hard because it doesn't seem like our WHY? questions are getting answered. God is silent. You know what happens then? Instead of being patient, we do what's really easy to do. We start answering the questions ourselves. Forget patience; if God's not answering my questions, I'll answer them myself.
Actually, that's exactly what Job's friends end up doing. You see, all that suffering we talked about with Job is really just the first three chapters of the book. In the next 30 chapters, Job's friends come to Job to comfort him. Well, but it turns out his friends aren't very good friends at all. Remember, Job is asking WHY? WHY GOD? And his friends offer answers! "Well, Job, obviously God is doing all this to you because you sinned somewhere, somehow. God wouldn't just do this for no reason. Job, repent and maybe things will get better. Clearly, Job, God wants to get your attention, you did something to provoke him. What could that be?"
Do you see how easy this is to do? To play God? To claim we know why this or that has happened? Why would God flood that town? When God is silent, we offer our own answers: "Well just look at the people! Look at their sin. They had it coming." Why would God let those teenagers die? When God is silent, we offer our own answers: "Well God is just trying to teach the other teenagers, their friends, a lesson. That’s why."
These kinds of answers may make sense to us. They may even comfort us (because WE'VE got it all figured out). But in reality, these answers are empty. They're what WE think, but not necessarily what God is thinking. These answers are just us playing God.
You know, you'll be really happy that you came to worship today, because if you've got any of those WHY? questions, I've got an answer for you. Actually, I have THE answer for you. "Why God? Why this child? Why my grandma? Why me?"
Well here's your answer: I don't know. I don't know. That's all I can say, that's all anyone can ever say. I don't know. In world that's driven by reason and figuring things out, this is a tough thing to admit. Why is God doing this or that? I don't know.
But let me tell you what I do know.
Christ died for you. Christ rose again for you. Christ died for that person you know who is suffering. And Christ rose again for that person, too.
When we go through suffering, asking WHY? is the wrong question. Instead of asking WHY? we need to ask WHO? Who is the answer to all our problems? Who is fixing everything for us? Well that’s Christ. It's Christ that James is speaking about when he says, "The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."
And you might say, well Christ coming, dying on the cross, rising again — that's great. That forgives my sins. That assures me of eternal life. But what does that have to do with what I'm going through now? What does that have to do with my suffering, my pain, my problems?
Everything! The cross has everything to do with what you're going through now. The cross and the empty tomb does forgive your sins — but it means so much more than that, too. The cross and empty tomb declares to you that Christ is working to fix everything awful thing you're going through. Whether it's sadness, sickness, disease, or death — Christ promises that he loves you so much that a day is coming when all that will be gone. Christ is full of compassion and mercy. He promises that a day is coming when he's going to finish what he started on the cross.
Why is our world infected with all this suffering? I don't know. But I do know that because of Christ, because he promises us, there is a day coming when all our suffering will be gone. Members of St. Paul, in this next part, when I point to you, I want the whole congregation to say with a loud voice: GONE!
Because of Christ, there is a day coming when all sickness will be...GONE!
All disease will be...GONE!
All fighting will be...GONE!
All strokes will be...GONE!
All job loss will be...GONE!
All taxes will be...GONE!
Wars...GONE!
Abuse...GONE!
Poverty...GONE!
Pain...GONE!
Tears...GONE!
Sadness...GONE!
Cancer...GONE!
AND DEATH WILL BE...GONE.
Friends in Christ, be patient. Because of Christ, because of the cross, that day is coming. Amen.
© St. Paul Lutheran Church 2009