The Power To Defy Evil
Sermon
Mysterious Joy
Sermons for Lent and Easter
Every evening the six o'clock news reminds us of the crime, the corruption, and the catastrophies of the world in which we live. It was in such troubled times and in such hopeless circumstances that a young Hebrew mother placed her baby in a basket and set it afloat among the reeds of the river Nile. Even if the baby were to live, she could only see an intolerable existence for him as he would groan under the burden of hard labor and be driven to the point of daily exhaustion by the sting of the slavemaster's whip.
Little did she know that in her desperation to save her child, the hand of God was at work. God had a plan - a great master-plan of redemption - to save not only this child, but through him countless children yet unborn. Neither did the Egyptian princess, who found the boat-like cradle at the river's edge, realize that she held in her arms one of the world's future great religious heroes - one who would one day hold in his arms the will of God's law chiseled into a stone from Mount Sinai.
The youth of Moses also fails to testify to his future greatness. One day, when he saw an Egyptian overlord beating a Hebrew slave, the hot temper of Moses exploded, and he killed the taskmaster on the spot. Fearing certain death because of his rash actions, he fled. No mark of a courageous hero here!
In the country of Midian, he married a wealthy man's daughter, and he became a successful sheep farmer. He was so content and happy in this new land that he did not even think of his own people, who were groaning under their bondage in far-off Egypt. No indication of a fearless liberator here.
Then one day, while tending his flocks, a bush burst into flames, and God called to him, "Come, I will send you to the Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people." You would think that Moses would have been overcome with awe and would have been filled with enthusiasm to take up the cause of his people by leading them to freedom. But, not so. He was too comfortable in his present circumstances. So, he attempted to refuse the call by claiming that he lacked the personal qualifications for such a task. But, God cut beneath this self-deceptive modesty. "I will be with you," said the Lord.
Moses still sought to escape. He argued, "I am not eloquent ... I am slow of speech and of tongue." God answered back, "I will be with your mouth and teach you what you should speak."
Moses was caught. Reluctantly, he left the security of his tranquil rural life and returned to Egypt. God fulfilled his promise and worked with Moses, making him into a remarkable leader. With God's help, Moses won the confidence of the Hebrew people and courageously entered into conflict with the Pharaoh. He uttered the famous words that were to become the battle cry of the Black Freedom Movement in our own age: "Let my people go!"
Egypt's king was not impressed. He saw this demand as a trumped-up excuse to gain another holiday for his troublesome slaves. He closed his ears to the pleas of an oppressed people, and he ignored Moses. Even when Moses brought plagues upon the land, the catastrophies only provoked more obstinate refusals from the mighty Pharaoh.
Moses played his trump card - the death of the firstborn. This struck home to the very heart of the Pharaoh by taking his beloved son from him. The king of Egypt relented and set the Hebrew people free.
God had a plan, and God would not be thwarted. Despite a reluctant Moses, the absolute authority of a Pharaoh, and the cavalry of a first-rate world power, that plan was brought to pass.
The story of the Passover and the deliverance of God's people is the central hub and heart of the entire Old Testament. When we hear it once again, it is obvious that it is a story which is executed according to the mind and the plan of God. This presents us with the sticky question: "Were Moses and the Pharaoh mere figures on a divine chessboard of history where all things are predetermined by God?" If so, what then of human freedom?
Where there is no human freedom, all of our efforts are in vain. Without human freedom, faith is a mockery. At the same time, if we deny the fact that God is totally in control of things, we then question the omnipotence of God. Either he is God or he is not. If he is limited in his control of existence, he then may be a mighty God, but he is not "all-mighty." Therefore, we can hardly confess in our creed, "I believe in God, the Father almighty."
It is a no-win situation. Assert the almightiness of God, and you deny human freedom. Cling to the belief that we are free agents in an open-ended world, and we are left with a mighty God who is not "all-mighty."
When we turn to the Bible, we discover that any rational attempt to understand the almightiness of God is overcome by an acceptance of the distinction between God hidden and God revealed. For the people of God in the Bible, the God who revealed himself to be in control of the world was a hidden God. God comes to this world and works in this world, but he always masks himself. In an angelic vision, in a voice from a burning bush, and in a night visitor God speaks to his people; but, they are never permitted to look upon his person or to behold his face.
The God of both the Old and the New Testaments reveals himself to us only where, when, and how he wills to be known. He neither throws open the gates of heaven, nor does he invite us in for a guided tour which is narrated by a celestial Barbara Walters. He does not do an intellectual striptease, and he does not show us the "behind-the-camera" workings of his inner mind. He does not take us up to heaven at all. He comes down to earth.
Even when we humbly seek for answers and cry out for insights and understandings, he directs us to see him only where he desires to reveal himself. He directs us to a cattle crib in Bethlehem, to the river Jordan, to the hills of Galilee, to an upper room, and most decisively, God directs our attention to a cross and an open tomb. Ask no more. Seek no more. God is almighty. God is in control of all things, and nothing happens that is not according to his plan; but, for us, the details of that total plan of redemption is still God's sacred secret.
What, then, do we say about evil? What do we say about all the demonic things that fill the tragic drama of our daily lives? The bloated bellies of starving children, the countless graves of unknown soldiers, the newborn entering into this world blind and crippled, the mentally retarded, the innocent victims of violence and disease, the suffering, the torture, the greed, the trail of blood and the broken lives left by a sadistic killer, the plague of AIDS - what do we say about these things? Are they also the result of God's will?
To this perplexing problem of suffering and evil in our world there is no answer except in the hiddenness of God. There is no neat theological solution. But, before we turn away in disdain and disgust, be cognizant of the evidence of experience that theological solutions and rational answers to evil are of little comfort when we actually face tragedy, sorrow, and suffering. When the circumstances of life really deliver the knock-out blow, it is not answers that we need. We need strength!
When Moses asked God how he could possess the personal power to challenge the might of the Pharaoh of Egypt, God simply answered him, "I will be with you." This is not just an answer; it is an assertion - an assertion that the presence of God is our power. So it is that we are to affirm life and to believe, even in the face of all evil, that God is good. Despite the negative evidence, God is in control of all things. God is present and his presence is our power.
The real issue is not what we can say theologically about evil; rather, the real issue is what can we say to evil. The ultimate test is whether or not we can stand bloodied and bruised by our struggle with suffering and evil and still be able to cry out, "I believe!" This is not a solution to the problem of evil. It does not explain where evil came from, how it started, or where it gets the power that it possesses. But, it is an answer - not an answer about evil - rather an answer to evil. It is the answer that God gave to Moses. It is the answer of God's presence, and his presence is power. This is a defiant answer. This is a daring answer. This is the answer of him who hangs on the cross and of us who stand at the foot of it.
Here at the cross, for one brief moment in history, we catch a vision of the strange secret - the sacred mystery of the almightiness of God revealed in humiliation. Here evil and all the demonic forces, armed with the power of darkness, encounter almighty God, and God conquers. God is victorious. God wins out over all evil. He does so because he is almighty, and he is in control of all things.
This does not satisfy the intellectual or the rational thinker. This does not convert the agnostic or convince the skeptic. They call it madness, and the world calls it foolishness; but, for us, who are being saved, it is the power of salvation. This is God reconciling the whole world to himself.
The six o'clock news still blares forth its headlines of blood and tears. What can we say about all this evil? Nothing. But, there is much that we can say to it. We can point to the babe in a basket, floating hopelessly among the reeds of the Nile, and to a helpless baby born in the feed trough of a cow barn. We can point to a young boy at a carpenter's bench and to a rabbi teaching, healing, and blessing as he walks the dusty roads of Palestine. But, most of all, we can point to a stark hill outside the walls of Jerusalem where a young man hangs naked on a cross. His innocent body is stained with spit, tears, and blood. His flesh is torn open by a spear. His brow is pierced by thorns. Yet, faced with this horror - this greatest of all evil acts - we can cry out, "Thou art the King of Glory!"
In the victorious light of the cross, the issue of human freedom fades into the shadows. The problem of evil is not answered or solved - it is conquered. Rejoice. God is with us. God made the promise of his presence to Moses. God fulfilled the promise of his presence for us on the cross. Rejoice. The presence of God among us is power!
Joshua 5:9-12
The Fourth Sunday In Lent
The Secret of Survival
Most of us will agree with the familiar adage, "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." We all need a place where we can go to be secure, wanted, and loved.
When God promised to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, he also promised them a new homeland - a plot of ground that they could call their own - a land - a good fair land flowing with milk and honey.
After the miracle of their deliverance from Egypt, God's chosen people wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Finally, weary and travel-worn, they arrived at the river Jordan. The Promised Land was in their sight, but a raging river prevented them from entering. Once more God intervened. As he rolled back the waters of the Red Sea for their escape from Egypt, he now rolled back the turbulent waters of the river Jordan. The God-chosen people entered into the God-promised land.
This historic crossing of the river Jordan has been romanticized in hymns and in funeral sermons. It has become an image for the experience of crossing over the river of death into the safe haven of heaven. In reality, for the Israelites, the Promised Land was no paradise. Rather than being a land flowing with milk and honey, Palestine was a bare and a povertystricken country. It was a country of contrasts. The land was scarred by deep gorges and desolate wilderness. In many places, colossal erupted masses of volcanic rock provided the only shade; and, sources of water were scarce. Here and there, an oasis or a plateau appeared where various forms of vegetation thrived. The Promised Land was certainly not the lush garden of Eden that we commonly associate with heaven.
Moreover, to imply that God gave to the Israelites the gift of the Promised Land, neatly gift-wrapped and topped with a silk bow, is far from the truth. The gift of the Promised Land was more like a crated child's toy that must be laboriously assembled - attaching piece A to side C - with a special tool - that does not come in the kit. When the Israelites arrived in Canaan, it was already occupied by warring rulers, fortified cities, and belligerent inhabitants. The Promised Land was not a Utopia to be enjoyed. It was a pagan country to be conquered. It was not a gift as much as it was a conquest. If the land was to be theirs, the Israelites would have to work and to fight for it. And, so they did.
It took many generations - probably two-hundred years of victories and defeats, successes, and setbacks - before the Promised Land could be fully occupied by the Israelites. And even when Israel had formed a nation in the Promised Land, it was still no paradise. Sandwiched in between major world powers, Israel continually had to fight to secure her rights to the land. Again and again, the Israelites were captured by their enemies, enslaved, and driven from their land. Again and again, Israel made an exodus from exile and returned to the homeland to rebuild the nation. The whole history of Israel is the story of persecution and enslavement, exile and exodus, defeat and deliverance. When Jerusalem finally fell before the mighty political and military power of Rome, the Jews were scattered into the four corners of the earth. Historically, the Jews can be characterized as "a pilgrim people wandering in the wilderness of the world."
Recently, the Jews have returned to their homeland. But modern Palestine is still no paradise. The Promised Land is still not very promising. Today, the land of the prophets is an armed fortress threatened by radical terrorists. Daily, the Jews struggle to survive in the caldron of clashing countries that currently compose the Middle East.
Now, what is it that we can learn from the secret of Israel's ability to survive? Possible solutions to this secret are many, and they are varied. Our First Lesson today suggests several reasons for the survival of God's chosen people. We shall look at two. The first reason is that, even though the Jews suffered, they never surrendered their belief in the one, holy, and transcendent God. At times, they argued with God.
They challenged him with their complaints. They disobeyed him. They hardened their hearts against him, and they turned away from him. They even openly rebelled against him, and they cursed his blessings. They disobeyed God; but, they never really disbelieved in him. When their faith faltered, a prophet was raised up among them, and they were called back to God.
Israel's relationship to God was both vertical and horizontal. God was, for Israel, "the great holy other"; but, at the same time, God was active as the Lord of history, and Israel's story was God's story. God was a faithful God, and he always heard his people's cry for mercy. Through all adversity, the Israelites held firm to the belief that their God had the power to intervene into history and to save them - to save them from their enemies and to save them from themselves. Their belief was based on their cultural experience. That experience was marked by many marvels and miracles - mighty acts of God done for them.
That is why, when the Israelites crossed the river Jordan and first set foot on the Promised Land, they called the place Gilgal, which means, "rolled away." In our text, the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I have removed from you the disgrace of being slaves in Egypt." God had rolled away the disgrace of being enslaved. God had rolled away the waters of the Red Sea. God had rolled away the waters of the river Jordan. Just as for us Christians, God rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb, and he released his son - and us - from the slavery of death.
The Israelites believed in a dependable world order. They were the people of the law - the law which had been chisled indelibly into stone. But, at the same time, they were convinced that over all creation, over all laws, over all order - their God reigned as supreme Lord and Master. He was not just a God who revealed himself in history; he was Lord over all history. He could intervene at any time and alter the course of their lives. He could even change the direction in which history would move.
Did you ever stop to consider why it is that you can turn on a faucet in an upstairs bathroom and still have running water? Water appears to flow upward in our homes even though the law of gravity states that water will only flow down hill. If you go out of your house and search various locations in your community, somewhere you will find a hill, and on top of it will stand a huge water tank. Most communities boldly display the name of their towns on these storage tanks. The water in your plumbing defies the law of gravity and flows up hill because the water stored in the tank of your community is higher than your house. The law of gravity has not been broken; it has simply been engineered - altered to serve our needs.
The life-flow of power into the Israelites defied the limitations of their moral character. This transcendent power within them enabled them to defy the overwhelming odds of their enemies' armies. Their strength to survive flowed from their faith-relationship with a transcendent God - a God who was behind them and in front of them; but, most of all, above them. This vertical relationship to God gave them the courage to challenge the impossible odds arrayed against them, and it also enabled them to persevere until they had won.
The secret of Israel's survival is that their God was not a prisoner in his world. Their God was a living, transcendent God. Because he was the Lord over all other gods, he could use nature and history to serve his purpose for his people. The secret of Israel's survival was the strength that they received from God, together with their unswerving belief that their God could do the impossible.
How big is your God? Is he the Lord over all of history? Does he hold the whole world in his hand? Or, is your God so small that he is confined to the church? Is your God so small that he can be contained in the limitations of a creed - or the description of a doctrine? Is he so small that he can be compressed, like a flower, between the pages of the Bible?
Or, is your God big enough to stand in judgment over the politics of all nations? Is your God big enough to move you to fight poverty and privation? Is your God big enough to strengthen you to stand up against injustice and intolerance? Is your God big enough to empower you to serve and to sacrifice your time and your talents willingly for others?
Is your God the God of Gilgal - the God who can roll away the Red Seas of this world and set people free? Is your God big enough to roll away the waters of Jordan and to deliver believers into the Promised Land of eternal life? Is your God big enough to work miracles and to perform marvelous and mighty acts?
If your God is not that big, then, he is not the God of the Israelites - nor the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joshua. Either your God is Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all.
The second insight that our text gives to us concerning the secret of Israel's survival is that they not only believed in an almighty God who could do the impossible; they also constantly remembered and celebrated God's mighty acts in history. The people of Israel never forgot the impossible things that God had done for them. When it appeared that God was doing nothing, the people of Israel remembered and celebrated the events of their past - when God had done everything. To endure and to survive, Israel stood steadfast in the present while celebrating the past.
Our Lesson today states that one of the first things that the Israelites did when they arrived in the Promised Land was to celebrate the Passover - the liturgical feast of their deliverance by God. Think of it! They were invading a foreign country with the wilderness behind them - the threat of hostile enemies all about them - the great battle of Jericho and a seemingly endless series of wars ahead of them - not knowing where their next meal was coming from. In such a critical crisis situation, the Israelites paused, took the time to worship, to celebrate the Passover, to pray and to praise God for what he had done for them in the past.
One Hebrew scholar has said that the Jews have been able to survive the darkness of the present because they live each day by the light of their past and in the light of their future. For the Jew, the past, the present, and the future are all one in God.
A little girl went on vacation with her parents to see the mountains for the first time. When they were driving in the mountains, their car entered the first tunnel of their trip. The little girl was frightened by the sudden darkness. Her mother leaned over and said to her, "Look. Look back at the entrance. See that light? Well, that same light is at the other end of the tunnel."
Later that day when the mother asked her daughter what had impressed her most about that first day in the mountains, the little girl answered, "I learned not to be afraid of the darkness in the tunnels because there is light at both ends."
What sustained the Israelites was that every time their history entered the darkness of a tunnel, they knew there was light at the other end. In every serious situation of persecution, enslavement, and suffering the Jews were able to sing and to dance before the altar of the Lord because their Lord was the Lord of light; and, he had created light at both ends of every tunnel.
Many times our lives enter into tunnels of darkness. It may be the tunnel of boredom, when life is dull and has no meaning. It may be a tunnel of disappointment, distress, and depression, when life seems hardly worth the effort. It may be a tunnel of sickness and terminal illness, when we feel hopeless and helpless. It may be a tunnel of family or financial problems that never end. It may be a tunnel of loneliness and death that seems to be the end. However, in all these trouble-tunnels of darkness, the witness of historic Israel to us is that there is light at both ends of the tunnel.
God is the God of the past, the present, and the future. Trust in him. Have faith in him. He is the Lord of light. In every moment of darkness, no matter how long the tunnel may be, God is with us. He can and will console and comfort us. He will sustain and strengthen us. Our God will rescue and redeem us.
When Christ was born, the light of a single star shone in the heavens. Saint John, in his gospel, proclaims to us that the darkness has never been able to put out that light. When Christ suffered and died, all creation moved into a tunnel of darkness. On Easter, the morning light of God flooded the tomb. Christ made a tunnel of the tomb, and for us that tunnel possesses no fears - there is light at both ends of the tunnel. Rejoice in that light. Rejoice in it and survive!
Isaiah 43:16-21
The Fifth Sunday In Lent
Praise God For Adversity
Praise fills the pages of the Bible and dominates our hymnals; but, it is often difficult to find it in us as Christians. Praise is not easy to define. Most Bible dictionaries include it under the general classification of prayer, and it is frequently associated with the act of thanksgiving.
In our First Lesson today, the author of Second Isaiah presents praise as the only response that a faithful people can make; because there is nothing else that God requires or desires.
God is about to do a great deed. It is deed before which all that God has done in the past fades into the background of redemptive history. Even the exodus from Egypt, so sacred in the memory of Israel's salvation, will be forgotten in the light of this new and mighty act. A new pathway through the waters of a new sea, a new way in the wilderness, a new river in the desert - all this God is about to accomplish in the process of fulfilling his promise to the people he has created and chosen. A new rescue, a new act of liberation, a new demonstration of God's continuing care for his people is about to surprise and to startle the whole of creation. Even the wild beasts and jackals and ostriches will bow down and give praise to the Lord.
This message from Isaiah is appropriate as we observe the last Sunday in Lent, and as we prepare to enter, through Palm Sunday, into the solemnities of Holy Week. Get ready to cut the palm branches from the trees, shed your coats, and fling them on the royal road to Jerusalem. Join the crowd of Passover-pilgrims. Shout with them their hallelujahs of praise to the Lord. God is coming: God is coming to turn history upside down, inside out, and right side up.
In our Second Lesson Paul writes, "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
The Gospel for today, despite its bloody parable of rejection, violence, and murder, rises to the heights of the holy promise as it proclaims, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner."
This Fifth Sunday in Lent is not a time for repentance and penitence; it is a time for praise! God declares that all that he has done, is doing, and will do for his people is directed to but one end - Praise! As our lesson tells us, "... that they might declare my praise."
Praise is easy when we have been blessed. It is easy to sing a stately and exultant doxology when we are in a comfortable church, surrounded by an affluent and a friendly congregation. It is quite another thing to praise God when we find ourselves in a family where there is constant friction. It is not easy to praise God when we are numbered among the unemployed, or the divorced, or the physically crippled, or the mentally handicapped. It is not easy to praise God when our life is truncated by a terminal disease. It is not easy to praise God when we are old and alone - in a lonely rest home, forgotten by family and friends. It is not easy to praise God when our waking life is more like a nightmare than a dream. Yet, the Book of Isaiah, from which our text comes, is a delicately woven tapestry where lament and praise, adversity and blessing are mingled together into one harmonious pattern. The design is clear: we are to praise God, not only for our blessings, but for our adversities as well.
Our First Lesson, which calls upon us to praise God, was written in a time of disaster and adversity. The cities of Judah had been left desolate by their enemies. The holy temple had been reduced to ruins. The people were in Babylonian exile. The Jewish nation had been robbed, ravished, and nearly eradicated from the face of the then-known world.
Despite the disappointment of losing their homeland, the Jews, in their captivity, did experience some social and economic opportunities. They actually prospered in this foreign land. However, a serious problem confronted them. As they prospered, their religious faith began to fade. Torn from its historic moorings, their faith was slowly being drowned in the sea of Babylonian culture. The country that imprisoned them possessed a thriving agriculture and teeming industries. Even the Temple of Jerusalem paled into insignificance before the marvelous temples of Babylon. The Jews were frustrated and plagued with doubts. Why were the pagans so prosperous? Could the pagan gods be better and more powerful than the God of Israel? Babylon basked in blessings while they - the chosen people of God - had only a long history of suffering to look back on, and only the continuing judgment of God to look forward to. But despite their doubts, there was deep within the Jewish people a longing to go home. Their heritage had an irrestible hold on them. Palestine was their native land; and, for better or worse, Yahweh was their God.
Into this situation came the prophet Second Isaiah. He was a prophet of comfort. He proclaimed that divine judgment had already taken place. Israel had received double punishment for all her sins. Now, a new day was dawning. Yahweh was coming to release Israel from her bondage and to restore the shattered foundations of her homeland. Though the past was bitter, the future would be sweet. God was working good out of evil.
Helen Keller testifies in her autobiography, "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I found myself, my work, and my God." So, the people of Israel, having been blind and deaf to their God in the time of their blessings, heard and saw God at work in their suffering and adversities. Charles A. Beard, the historian, says that one of the profound lessons of history can be summarized in the proverb, "The bee fertilizes the flower it robs." Israel's history of judgment, punishment, exile, and suffering was the fertilization of a renewed faith which was to give birth and nourishment to a new experience with the Lord. So, the prophet cries out to the people in their adversity, "Praise the Lord." Actually, the prophet was directing the people to praise God for their adversity as well as for their blessings.
Today, as the people of God, we are to praise God not just for the good things in life, not just for what is beautiful, or what is noble, or what is pleasing to us; rather, we are also to praise God for the ugly things in life, the ignoble, and the displeasing. We are to praise God for our troubles and heartaches, our pain and our suffering, our disappointments and our difficulties.
Now this may sound strange - and it is. It is strange in our success-oriented, pleasure-seeking culture. Yet, not only do we hear it from Second Isaiah, we also hear it from Paul, who thanks God for his weaknesses, which include his puzzling "thorn in the flesh." In Ephesians, Paul writes, "Always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ ..."
John Wesley, in his Notes On The New Testament, writes, "He that always prays is ever giving praise, whether in ease or in pain, both for prosperity and for the greatest adversity. He blesses God for all things."
Why is it that these great persons of the faith praise God for adversity? It cannot be better answered than by quoting Paul as he writes to the Christians in Rome, "God works everything for good with those who love him ..." (Romans 8:28)
Praising God for adversity may at first sound strange; but, when one thinks about it, it does make sense. What are the alternatives to praising God in times of adversity? We could be indifferent and simply ignore adversity; but, it would still be there to plague us. We could become angry and resent adversity; but, that would only produce ulcers and cause heart attacks. We could judge ourselves and others by saying, "You only got what you deserved;" but, that would only leave us bitter and burdened with guilt. We could complain, grumble and gripe about adversity; but, that would only make us even more unhappy. Or, we could blame God for adversity; but, that would only rob us of all hope and would separate us from the one and only source of transcendent help that we all need in order to endure adversity.
When we praise God for adversity, we place our adversity into the hands of a loving and caring God who alone has the power to transform evil into good. That does make sense. Experience confirms in us that this is the only answer to adversity that can and will work.
To praise God for adversity does not mean that we assume that God is the author of all evil, all suffering, and all disasters. God does not punish us with adversity. God is not a stern-faced tyrant reaping his revenge on his renegade rebels. God is a loving and a forgiving Father. He is a patient creator who is in the process of forming and fashioning a people of faith - a people who freely and willingly praise him. They will praise him not just for his good and mighty works; rather, they will praise him for himself and for himself alone. God is a good God, and all that he gives to us is intended to be a good gift.
It is we who make evil out of good. It is we who pervert love into lust, plenty into poverty, differences into intolerance, and progress into oppression. It is we who make society into a seething caldron of crime, corruption, and combating forces. It is we who take a paradise and turn it into a pigsty. It is we who rape and ravage the natural resources of our world and turn gardens into garbage dumps. It is we who are the causes of our own adversity.
However, even though God does not cause adversity to be given to us, we can give our adversities to God. We can place all of the problems that we have created for ourselves into the hands of a recreating, renewing, and redeeming God. This is why we praise God for adversity; because in so doing we present to God our adversities that he might transform them into good.
Do you recall the phrase that came out of World War II: "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition?" Originally it meant that we were to have both the dedication of faith and the determination to fight. However, with a slight alteration, this familiar phrase could be used to express the reason why we are able to praise God in the midst of adversity. The reworded version would be "Praise the Lord and he will provide the ammunition." When we hand over our adversities to God, and when we praise him at the same time, he will give to us the ammunition that will enable us to face our troubles and to fight them until they are defeated. There is no problem too big for God. His arsenal of weapons is sufficient to defeat the Devil and to destroy hell.
Particularly are we aware of this in Lent. The cross on Calvary was an ugly and an evil object of demonic hate and devilish revenge. It was created by society to crucify criminals and to eradicate rebels. Its intention was not just to kill but also to torture. The Gospels tell us that Christ went willingly to the cross and died for us. He permitted his innocent body to be nailed to that cross of suffering. Nails of iron were driven into his warm flesh. Sharp thorns pierced his bowed head. A pointed spear tore open his unblemished body. His parched lips cried out for a drink. The shock of this sacrifice shook the very foundations of existence. Darkness covered the land as if all creation were hiding its face in shame. But, through the dark clouds of this desolate scene, God the Father reached down and touched the cross - the ultimate sign of our human sinfulness - and it became the eternal sign of our salvation.
We praise God for the cross. We praise God for the death of our Lord. We do this not because we possess a perverted fascination, or a morbid attachment to gore; we do it because we see the glory in the cross and the glory of God incarnate in the crucified Christ. We see beyond the blood-stained wood - we see beyond the twisted, tortured body of a victim - to the victor. We see the crucifixion as God's supreme act of transformation, whereby he changes and redeems a fallen world and makes of it a risen kingdom.
As we come to the end of Lent, we raise our voices in praise. We praise God not only for our blessings but for our adversities as well. We know that praise is the appropriate response to God for both pleasure and pain. All praise, under any conditions or circumstances, brings us into the presence of God, and in his holy presence all evil is transformed into good.
This strange and mysterious act of praising God in adversity, as well as in times of blessing, could be summarized in one memorable sentence: "If you are dismayed with a problem that never ends, be encouraged by a strength that never fails." God is the only strength for us that will never fail. God, and God alone, can give us the tools to accomplish any task. God, and God alone, can give us the stamina and the courage to endure any suffering. God, and God alone, can give us the light to find our way in the most dense and most dread-filled darkness. God, and God alone, can give us the key that will unlock any door - even the door to the Kingdom of Heaven - the door to a new life that will never end.
Therefore, in all times, and in all places, and under all circumstances, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Little did she know that in her desperation to save her child, the hand of God was at work. God had a plan - a great master-plan of redemption - to save not only this child, but through him countless children yet unborn. Neither did the Egyptian princess, who found the boat-like cradle at the river's edge, realize that she held in her arms one of the world's future great religious heroes - one who would one day hold in his arms the will of God's law chiseled into a stone from Mount Sinai.
The youth of Moses also fails to testify to his future greatness. One day, when he saw an Egyptian overlord beating a Hebrew slave, the hot temper of Moses exploded, and he killed the taskmaster on the spot. Fearing certain death because of his rash actions, he fled. No mark of a courageous hero here!
In the country of Midian, he married a wealthy man's daughter, and he became a successful sheep farmer. He was so content and happy in this new land that he did not even think of his own people, who were groaning under their bondage in far-off Egypt. No indication of a fearless liberator here.
Then one day, while tending his flocks, a bush burst into flames, and God called to him, "Come, I will send you to the Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people." You would think that Moses would have been overcome with awe and would have been filled with enthusiasm to take up the cause of his people by leading them to freedom. But, not so. He was too comfortable in his present circumstances. So, he attempted to refuse the call by claiming that he lacked the personal qualifications for such a task. But, God cut beneath this self-deceptive modesty. "I will be with you," said the Lord.
Moses still sought to escape. He argued, "I am not eloquent ... I am slow of speech and of tongue." God answered back, "I will be with your mouth and teach you what you should speak."
Moses was caught. Reluctantly, he left the security of his tranquil rural life and returned to Egypt. God fulfilled his promise and worked with Moses, making him into a remarkable leader. With God's help, Moses won the confidence of the Hebrew people and courageously entered into conflict with the Pharaoh. He uttered the famous words that were to become the battle cry of the Black Freedom Movement in our own age: "Let my people go!"
Egypt's king was not impressed. He saw this demand as a trumped-up excuse to gain another holiday for his troublesome slaves. He closed his ears to the pleas of an oppressed people, and he ignored Moses. Even when Moses brought plagues upon the land, the catastrophies only provoked more obstinate refusals from the mighty Pharaoh.
Moses played his trump card - the death of the firstborn. This struck home to the very heart of the Pharaoh by taking his beloved son from him. The king of Egypt relented and set the Hebrew people free.
God had a plan, and God would not be thwarted. Despite a reluctant Moses, the absolute authority of a Pharaoh, and the cavalry of a first-rate world power, that plan was brought to pass.
The story of the Passover and the deliverance of God's people is the central hub and heart of the entire Old Testament. When we hear it once again, it is obvious that it is a story which is executed according to the mind and the plan of God. This presents us with the sticky question: "Were Moses and the Pharaoh mere figures on a divine chessboard of history where all things are predetermined by God?" If so, what then of human freedom?
Where there is no human freedom, all of our efforts are in vain. Without human freedom, faith is a mockery. At the same time, if we deny the fact that God is totally in control of things, we then question the omnipotence of God. Either he is God or he is not. If he is limited in his control of existence, he then may be a mighty God, but he is not "all-mighty." Therefore, we can hardly confess in our creed, "I believe in God, the Father almighty."
It is a no-win situation. Assert the almightiness of God, and you deny human freedom. Cling to the belief that we are free agents in an open-ended world, and we are left with a mighty God who is not "all-mighty."
When we turn to the Bible, we discover that any rational attempt to understand the almightiness of God is overcome by an acceptance of the distinction between God hidden and God revealed. For the people of God in the Bible, the God who revealed himself to be in control of the world was a hidden God. God comes to this world and works in this world, but he always masks himself. In an angelic vision, in a voice from a burning bush, and in a night visitor God speaks to his people; but, they are never permitted to look upon his person or to behold his face.
The God of both the Old and the New Testaments reveals himself to us only where, when, and how he wills to be known. He neither throws open the gates of heaven, nor does he invite us in for a guided tour which is narrated by a celestial Barbara Walters. He does not do an intellectual striptease, and he does not show us the "behind-the-camera" workings of his inner mind. He does not take us up to heaven at all. He comes down to earth.
Even when we humbly seek for answers and cry out for insights and understandings, he directs us to see him only where he desires to reveal himself. He directs us to a cattle crib in Bethlehem, to the river Jordan, to the hills of Galilee, to an upper room, and most decisively, God directs our attention to a cross and an open tomb. Ask no more. Seek no more. God is almighty. God is in control of all things, and nothing happens that is not according to his plan; but, for us, the details of that total plan of redemption is still God's sacred secret.
What, then, do we say about evil? What do we say about all the demonic things that fill the tragic drama of our daily lives? The bloated bellies of starving children, the countless graves of unknown soldiers, the newborn entering into this world blind and crippled, the mentally retarded, the innocent victims of violence and disease, the suffering, the torture, the greed, the trail of blood and the broken lives left by a sadistic killer, the plague of AIDS - what do we say about these things? Are they also the result of God's will?
To this perplexing problem of suffering and evil in our world there is no answer except in the hiddenness of God. There is no neat theological solution. But, before we turn away in disdain and disgust, be cognizant of the evidence of experience that theological solutions and rational answers to evil are of little comfort when we actually face tragedy, sorrow, and suffering. When the circumstances of life really deliver the knock-out blow, it is not answers that we need. We need strength!
When Moses asked God how he could possess the personal power to challenge the might of the Pharaoh of Egypt, God simply answered him, "I will be with you." This is not just an answer; it is an assertion - an assertion that the presence of God is our power. So it is that we are to affirm life and to believe, even in the face of all evil, that God is good. Despite the negative evidence, God is in control of all things. God is present and his presence is our power.
The real issue is not what we can say theologically about evil; rather, the real issue is what can we say to evil. The ultimate test is whether or not we can stand bloodied and bruised by our struggle with suffering and evil and still be able to cry out, "I believe!" This is not a solution to the problem of evil. It does not explain where evil came from, how it started, or where it gets the power that it possesses. But, it is an answer - not an answer about evil - rather an answer to evil. It is the answer that God gave to Moses. It is the answer of God's presence, and his presence is power. This is a defiant answer. This is a daring answer. This is the answer of him who hangs on the cross and of us who stand at the foot of it.
Here at the cross, for one brief moment in history, we catch a vision of the strange secret - the sacred mystery of the almightiness of God revealed in humiliation. Here evil and all the demonic forces, armed with the power of darkness, encounter almighty God, and God conquers. God is victorious. God wins out over all evil. He does so because he is almighty, and he is in control of all things.
This does not satisfy the intellectual or the rational thinker. This does not convert the agnostic or convince the skeptic. They call it madness, and the world calls it foolishness; but, for us, who are being saved, it is the power of salvation. This is God reconciling the whole world to himself.
The six o'clock news still blares forth its headlines of blood and tears. What can we say about all this evil? Nothing. But, there is much that we can say to it. We can point to the babe in a basket, floating hopelessly among the reeds of the Nile, and to a helpless baby born in the feed trough of a cow barn. We can point to a young boy at a carpenter's bench and to a rabbi teaching, healing, and blessing as he walks the dusty roads of Palestine. But, most of all, we can point to a stark hill outside the walls of Jerusalem where a young man hangs naked on a cross. His innocent body is stained with spit, tears, and blood. His flesh is torn open by a spear. His brow is pierced by thorns. Yet, faced with this horror - this greatest of all evil acts - we can cry out, "Thou art the King of Glory!"
In the victorious light of the cross, the issue of human freedom fades into the shadows. The problem of evil is not answered or solved - it is conquered. Rejoice. God is with us. God made the promise of his presence to Moses. God fulfilled the promise of his presence for us on the cross. Rejoice. The presence of God among us is power!
Joshua 5:9-12
The Fourth Sunday In Lent
The Secret of Survival
Most of us will agree with the familiar adage, "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." We all need a place where we can go to be secure, wanted, and loved.
When God promised to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt, he also promised them a new homeland - a plot of ground that they could call their own - a land - a good fair land flowing with milk and honey.
After the miracle of their deliverance from Egypt, God's chosen people wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Finally, weary and travel-worn, they arrived at the river Jordan. The Promised Land was in their sight, but a raging river prevented them from entering. Once more God intervened. As he rolled back the waters of the Red Sea for their escape from Egypt, he now rolled back the turbulent waters of the river Jordan. The God-chosen people entered into the God-promised land.
This historic crossing of the river Jordan has been romanticized in hymns and in funeral sermons. It has become an image for the experience of crossing over the river of death into the safe haven of heaven. In reality, for the Israelites, the Promised Land was no paradise. Rather than being a land flowing with milk and honey, Palestine was a bare and a povertystricken country. It was a country of contrasts. The land was scarred by deep gorges and desolate wilderness. In many places, colossal erupted masses of volcanic rock provided the only shade; and, sources of water were scarce. Here and there, an oasis or a plateau appeared where various forms of vegetation thrived. The Promised Land was certainly not the lush garden of Eden that we commonly associate with heaven.
Moreover, to imply that God gave to the Israelites the gift of the Promised Land, neatly gift-wrapped and topped with a silk bow, is far from the truth. The gift of the Promised Land was more like a crated child's toy that must be laboriously assembled - attaching piece A to side C - with a special tool - that does not come in the kit. When the Israelites arrived in Canaan, it was already occupied by warring rulers, fortified cities, and belligerent inhabitants. The Promised Land was not a Utopia to be enjoyed. It was a pagan country to be conquered. It was not a gift as much as it was a conquest. If the land was to be theirs, the Israelites would have to work and to fight for it. And, so they did.
It took many generations - probably two-hundred years of victories and defeats, successes, and setbacks - before the Promised Land could be fully occupied by the Israelites. And even when Israel had formed a nation in the Promised Land, it was still no paradise. Sandwiched in between major world powers, Israel continually had to fight to secure her rights to the land. Again and again, the Israelites were captured by their enemies, enslaved, and driven from their land. Again and again, Israel made an exodus from exile and returned to the homeland to rebuild the nation. The whole history of Israel is the story of persecution and enslavement, exile and exodus, defeat and deliverance. When Jerusalem finally fell before the mighty political and military power of Rome, the Jews were scattered into the four corners of the earth. Historically, the Jews can be characterized as "a pilgrim people wandering in the wilderness of the world."
Recently, the Jews have returned to their homeland. But modern Palestine is still no paradise. The Promised Land is still not very promising. Today, the land of the prophets is an armed fortress threatened by radical terrorists. Daily, the Jews struggle to survive in the caldron of clashing countries that currently compose the Middle East.
Now, what is it that we can learn from the secret of Israel's ability to survive? Possible solutions to this secret are many, and they are varied. Our First Lesson today suggests several reasons for the survival of God's chosen people. We shall look at two. The first reason is that, even though the Jews suffered, they never surrendered their belief in the one, holy, and transcendent God. At times, they argued with God.
They challenged him with their complaints. They disobeyed him. They hardened their hearts against him, and they turned away from him. They even openly rebelled against him, and they cursed his blessings. They disobeyed God; but, they never really disbelieved in him. When their faith faltered, a prophet was raised up among them, and they were called back to God.
Israel's relationship to God was both vertical and horizontal. God was, for Israel, "the great holy other"; but, at the same time, God was active as the Lord of history, and Israel's story was God's story. God was a faithful God, and he always heard his people's cry for mercy. Through all adversity, the Israelites held firm to the belief that their God had the power to intervene into history and to save them - to save them from their enemies and to save them from themselves. Their belief was based on their cultural experience. That experience was marked by many marvels and miracles - mighty acts of God done for them.
That is why, when the Israelites crossed the river Jordan and first set foot on the Promised Land, they called the place Gilgal, which means, "rolled away." In our text, the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I have removed from you the disgrace of being slaves in Egypt." God had rolled away the disgrace of being enslaved. God had rolled away the waters of the Red Sea. God had rolled away the waters of the river Jordan. Just as for us Christians, God rolled away the stone from the door of the tomb, and he released his son - and us - from the slavery of death.
The Israelites believed in a dependable world order. They were the people of the law - the law which had been chisled indelibly into stone. But, at the same time, they were convinced that over all creation, over all laws, over all order - their God reigned as supreme Lord and Master. He was not just a God who revealed himself in history; he was Lord over all history. He could intervene at any time and alter the course of their lives. He could even change the direction in which history would move.
Did you ever stop to consider why it is that you can turn on a faucet in an upstairs bathroom and still have running water? Water appears to flow upward in our homes even though the law of gravity states that water will only flow down hill. If you go out of your house and search various locations in your community, somewhere you will find a hill, and on top of it will stand a huge water tank. Most communities boldly display the name of their towns on these storage tanks. The water in your plumbing defies the law of gravity and flows up hill because the water stored in the tank of your community is higher than your house. The law of gravity has not been broken; it has simply been engineered - altered to serve our needs.
The life-flow of power into the Israelites defied the limitations of their moral character. This transcendent power within them enabled them to defy the overwhelming odds of their enemies' armies. Their strength to survive flowed from their faith-relationship with a transcendent God - a God who was behind them and in front of them; but, most of all, above them. This vertical relationship to God gave them the courage to challenge the impossible odds arrayed against them, and it also enabled them to persevere until they had won.
The secret of Israel's survival is that their God was not a prisoner in his world. Their God was a living, transcendent God. Because he was the Lord over all other gods, he could use nature and history to serve his purpose for his people. The secret of Israel's survival was the strength that they received from God, together with their unswerving belief that their God could do the impossible.
How big is your God? Is he the Lord over all of history? Does he hold the whole world in his hand? Or, is your God so small that he is confined to the church? Is your God so small that he can be contained in the limitations of a creed - or the description of a doctrine? Is he so small that he can be compressed, like a flower, between the pages of the Bible?
Or, is your God big enough to stand in judgment over the politics of all nations? Is your God big enough to move you to fight poverty and privation? Is your God big enough to strengthen you to stand up against injustice and intolerance? Is your God big enough to empower you to serve and to sacrifice your time and your talents willingly for others?
Is your God the God of Gilgal - the God who can roll away the Red Seas of this world and set people free? Is your God big enough to roll away the waters of Jordan and to deliver believers into the Promised Land of eternal life? Is your God big enough to work miracles and to perform marvelous and mighty acts?
If your God is not that big, then, he is not the God of the Israelites - nor the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joshua. Either your God is Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all.
The second insight that our text gives to us concerning the secret of Israel's survival is that they not only believed in an almighty God who could do the impossible; they also constantly remembered and celebrated God's mighty acts in history. The people of Israel never forgot the impossible things that God had done for them. When it appeared that God was doing nothing, the people of Israel remembered and celebrated the events of their past - when God had done everything. To endure and to survive, Israel stood steadfast in the present while celebrating the past.
Our Lesson today states that one of the first things that the Israelites did when they arrived in the Promised Land was to celebrate the Passover - the liturgical feast of their deliverance by God. Think of it! They were invading a foreign country with the wilderness behind them - the threat of hostile enemies all about them - the great battle of Jericho and a seemingly endless series of wars ahead of them - not knowing where their next meal was coming from. In such a critical crisis situation, the Israelites paused, took the time to worship, to celebrate the Passover, to pray and to praise God for what he had done for them in the past.
One Hebrew scholar has said that the Jews have been able to survive the darkness of the present because they live each day by the light of their past and in the light of their future. For the Jew, the past, the present, and the future are all one in God.
A little girl went on vacation with her parents to see the mountains for the first time. When they were driving in the mountains, their car entered the first tunnel of their trip. The little girl was frightened by the sudden darkness. Her mother leaned over and said to her, "Look. Look back at the entrance. See that light? Well, that same light is at the other end of the tunnel."
Later that day when the mother asked her daughter what had impressed her most about that first day in the mountains, the little girl answered, "I learned not to be afraid of the darkness in the tunnels because there is light at both ends."
What sustained the Israelites was that every time their history entered the darkness of a tunnel, they knew there was light at the other end. In every serious situation of persecution, enslavement, and suffering the Jews were able to sing and to dance before the altar of the Lord because their Lord was the Lord of light; and, he had created light at both ends of every tunnel.
Many times our lives enter into tunnels of darkness. It may be the tunnel of boredom, when life is dull and has no meaning. It may be a tunnel of disappointment, distress, and depression, when life seems hardly worth the effort. It may be a tunnel of sickness and terminal illness, when we feel hopeless and helpless. It may be a tunnel of family or financial problems that never end. It may be a tunnel of loneliness and death that seems to be the end. However, in all these trouble-tunnels of darkness, the witness of historic Israel to us is that there is light at both ends of the tunnel.
God is the God of the past, the present, and the future. Trust in him. Have faith in him. He is the Lord of light. In every moment of darkness, no matter how long the tunnel may be, God is with us. He can and will console and comfort us. He will sustain and strengthen us. Our God will rescue and redeem us.
When Christ was born, the light of a single star shone in the heavens. Saint John, in his gospel, proclaims to us that the darkness has never been able to put out that light. When Christ suffered and died, all creation moved into a tunnel of darkness. On Easter, the morning light of God flooded the tomb. Christ made a tunnel of the tomb, and for us that tunnel possesses no fears - there is light at both ends of the tunnel. Rejoice in that light. Rejoice in it and survive!
Isaiah 43:16-21
The Fifth Sunday In Lent
Praise God For Adversity
Praise fills the pages of the Bible and dominates our hymnals; but, it is often difficult to find it in us as Christians. Praise is not easy to define. Most Bible dictionaries include it under the general classification of prayer, and it is frequently associated with the act of thanksgiving.
In our First Lesson today, the author of Second Isaiah presents praise as the only response that a faithful people can make; because there is nothing else that God requires or desires.
God is about to do a great deed. It is deed before which all that God has done in the past fades into the background of redemptive history. Even the exodus from Egypt, so sacred in the memory of Israel's salvation, will be forgotten in the light of this new and mighty act. A new pathway through the waters of a new sea, a new way in the wilderness, a new river in the desert - all this God is about to accomplish in the process of fulfilling his promise to the people he has created and chosen. A new rescue, a new act of liberation, a new demonstration of God's continuing care for his people is about to surprise and to startle the whole of creation. Even the wild beasts and jackals and ostriches will bow down and give praise to the Lord.
This message from Isaiah is appropriate as we observe the last Sunday in Lent, and as we prepare to enter, through Palm Sunday, into the solemnities of Holy Week. Get ready to cut the palm branches from the trees, shed your coats, and fling them on the royal road to Jerusalem. Join the crowd of Passover-pilgrims. Shout with them their hallelujahs of praise to the Lord. God is coming: God is coming to turn history upside down, inside out, and right side up.
In our Second Lesson Paul writes, "Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
The Gospel for today, despite its bloody parable of rejection, violence, and murder, rises to the heights of the holy promise as it proclaims, "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner."
This Fifth Sunday in Lent is not a time for repentance and penitence; it is a time for praise! God declares that all that he has done, is doing, and will do for his people is directed to but one end - Praise! As our lesson tells us, "... that they might declare my praise."
Praise is easy when we have been blessed. It is easy to sing a stately and exultant doxology when we are in a comfortable church, surrounded by an affluent and a friendly congregation. It is quite another thing to praise God when we find ourselves in a family where there is constant friction. It is not easy to praise God when we are numbered among the unemployed, or the divorced, or the physically crippled, or the mentally handicapped. It is not easy to praise God when our life is truncated by a terminal disease. It is not easy to praise God when we are old and alone - in a lonely rest home, forgotten by family and friends. It is not easy to praise God when our waking life is more like a nightmare than a dream. Yet, the Book of Isaiah, from which our text comes, is a delicately woven tapestry where lament and praise, adversity and blessing are mingled together into one harmonious pattern. The design is clear: we are to praise God, not only for our blessings, but for our adversities as well.
Our First Lesson, which calls upon us to praise God, was written in a time of disaster and adversity. The cities of Judah had been left desolate by their enemies. The holy temple had been reduced to ruins. The people were in Babylonian exile. The Jewish nation had been robbed, ravished, and nearly eradicated from the face of the then-known world.
Despite the disappointment of losing their homeland, the Jews, in their captivity, did experience some social and economic opportunities. They actually prospered in this foreign land. However, a serious problem confronted them. As they prospered, their religious faith began to fade. Torn from its historic moorings, their faith was slowly being drowned in the sea of Babylonian culture. The country that imprisoned them possessed a thriving agriculture and teeming industries. Even the Temple of Jerusalem paled into insignificance before the marvelous temples of Babylon. The Jews were frustrated and plagued with doubts. Why were the pagans so prosperous? Could the pagan gods be better and more powerful than the God of Israel? Babylon basked in blessings while they - the chosen people of God - had only a long history of suffering to look back on, and only the continuing judgment of God to look forward to. But despite their doubts, there was deep within the Jewish people a longing to go home. Their heritage had an irrestible hold on them. Palestine was their native land; and, for better or worse, Yahweh was their God.
Into this situation came the prophet Second Isaiah. He was a prophet of comfort. He proclaimed that divine judgment had already taken place. Israel had received double punishment for all her sins. Now, a new day was dawning. Yahweh was coming to release Israel from her bondage and to restore the shattered foundations of her homeland. Though the past was bitter, the future would be sweet. God was working good out of evil.
Helen Keller testifies in her autobiography, "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I found myself, my work, and my God." So, the people of Israel, having been blind and deaf to their God in the time of their blessings, heard and saw God at work in their suffering and adversities. Charles A. Beard, the historian, says that one of the profound lessons of history can be summarized in the proverb, "The bee fertilizes the flower it robs." Israel's history of judgment, punishment, exile, and suffering was the fertilization of a renewed faith which was to give birth and nourishment to a new experience with the Lord. So, the prophet cries out to the people in their adversity, "Praise the Lord." Actually, the prophet was directing the people to praise God for their adversity as well as for their blessings.
Today, as the people of God, we are to praise God not just for the good things in life, not just for what is beautiful, or what is noble, or what is pleasing to us; rather, we are also to praise God for the ugly things in life, the ignoble, and the displeasing. We are to praise God for our troubles and heartaches, our pain and our suffering, our disappointments and our difficulties.
Now this may sound strange - and it is. It is strange in our success-oriented, pleasure-seeking culture. Yet, not only do we hear it from Second Isaiah, we also hear it from Paul, who thanks God for his weaknesses, which include his puzzling "thorn in the flesh." In Ephesians, Paul writes, "Always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ ..."
John Wesley, in his Notes On The New Testament, writes, "He that always prays is ever giving praise, whether in ease or in pain, both for prosperity and for the greatest adversity. He blesses God for all things."
Why is it that these great persons of the faith praise God for adversity? It cannot be better answered than by quoting Paul as he writes to the Christians in Rome, "God works everything for good with those who love him ..." (Romans 8:28)
Praising God for adversity may at first sound strange; but, when one thinks about it, it does make sense. What are the alternatives to praising God in times of adversity? We could be indifferent and simply ignore adversity; but, it would still be there to plague us. We could become angry and resent adversity; but, that would only produce ulcers and cause heart attacks. We could judge ourselves and others by saying, "You only got what you deserved;" but, that would only leave us bitter and burdened with guilt. We could complain, grumble and gripe about adversity; but, that would only make us even more unhappy. Or, we could blame God for adversity; but, that would only rob us of all hope and would separate us from the one and only source of transcendent help that we all need in order to endure adversity.
When we praise God for adversity, we place our adversity into the hands of a loving and caring God who alone has the power to transform evil into good. That does make sense. Experience confirms in us that this is the only answer to adversity that can and will work.
To praise God for adversity does not mean that we assume that God is the author of all evil, all suffering, and all disasters. God does not punish us with adversity. God is not a stern-faced tyrant reaping his revenge on his renegade rebels. God is a loving and a forgiving Father. He is a patient creator who is in the process of forming and fashioning a people of faith - a people who freely and willingly praise him. They will praise him not just for his good and mighty works; rather, they will praise him for himself and for himself alone. God is a good God, and all that he gives to us is intended to be a good gift.
It is we who make evil out of good. It is we who pervert love into lust, plenty into poverty, differences into intolerance, and progress into oppression. It is we who make society into a seething caldron of crime, corruption, and combating forces. It is we who take a paradise and turn it into a pigsty. It is we who rape and ravage the natural resources of our world and turn gardens into garbage dumps. It is we who are the causes of our own adversity.
However, even though God does not cause adversity to be given to us, we can give our adversities to God. We can place all of the problems that we have created for ourselves into the hands of a recreating, renewing, and redeeming God. This is why we praise God for adversity; because in so doing we present to God our adversities that he might transform them into good.
Do you recall the phrase that came out of World War II: "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition?" Originally it meant that we were to have both the dedication of faith and the determination to fight. However, with a slight alteration, this familiar phrase could be used to express the reason why we are able to praise God in the midst of adversity. The reworded version would be "Praise the Lord and he will provide the ammunition." When we hand over our adversities to God, and when we praise him at the same time, he will give to us the ammunition that will enable us to face our troubles and to fight them until they are defeated. There is no problem too big for God. His arsenal of weapons is sufficient to defeat the Devil and to destroy hell.
Particularly are we aware of this in Lent. The cross on Calvary was an ugly and an evil object of demonic hate and devilish revenge. It was created by society to crucify criminals and to eradicate rebels. Its intention was not just to kill but also to torture. The Gospels tell us that Christ went willingly to the cross and died for us. He permitted his innocent body to be nailed to that cross of suffering. Nails of iron were driven into his warm flesh. Sharp thorns pierced his bowed head. A pointed spear tore open his unblemished body. His parched lips cried out for a drink. The shock of this sacrifice shook the very foundations of existence. Darkness covered the land as if all creation were hiding its face in shame. But, through the dark clouds of this desolate scene, God the Father reached down and touched the cross - the ultimate sign of our human sinfulness - and it became the eternal sign of our salvation.
We praise God for the cross. We praise God for the death of our Lord. We do this not because we possess a perverted fascination, or a morbid attachment to gore; we do it because we see the glory in the cross and the glory of God incarnate in the crucified Christ. We see beyond the blood-stained wood - we see beyond the twisted, tortured body of a victim - to the victor. We see the crucifixion as God's supreme act of transformation, whereby he changes and redeems a fallen world and makes of it a risen kingdom.
As we come to the end of Lent, we raise our voices in praise. We praise God not only for our blessings but for our adversities as well. We know that praise is the appropriate response to God for both pleasure and pain. All praise, under any conditions or circumstances, brings us into the presence of God, and in his holy presence all evil is transformed into good.
This strange and mysterious act of praising God in adversity, as well as in times of blessing, could be summarized in one memorable sentence: "If you are dismayed with a problem that never ends, be encouraged by a strength that never fails." God is the only strength for us that will never fail. God, and God alone, can give us the tools to accomplish any task. God, and God alone, can give us the stamina and the courage to endure any suffering. God, and God alone, can give us the light to find our way in the most dense and most dread-filled darkness. God, and God alone, can give us the key that will unlock any door - even the door to the Kingdom of Heaven - the door to a new life that will never end.
Therefore, in all times, and in all places, and under all circumstances, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
