Where Is God?
Pastor Mathew Magera – 11/12/17 – Sermon 252
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
“1 Hasten, O God, to save me; come quickly, Lord, to help
me.
2 May those who want to take my life be put to shame and
confusion;
may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.”
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
One of the first people to
reach out to me when we moved here to Michigan was actually a new Pastor who
had just started a call up toward Alpena the same week I started here. We
have since connected very closely, both Lane and I with this Pastor and his
wife. They had come from a call in North Carolina and before that had
served a congregation in Texas, about a Greenville's
drive away from Sutherland Springs, which has been in the news since last
Sunday in the aftermath of a deadly shooting. Having lived there, this breaking
news was of great horror to them. For one thing, one of
their children regularly attends that Baptist church. Fortunately, they were
not in attendance that morning. Still, both of them knew each one of
the victims of this tragedy.
Whether events like these be
terrorist attacks, acts of mindless stupidity or mental illness, the motive
cannot change the outcome. While these events may be happening miles away from
us the truth is that we live in a small world and the violence and its effects
are not going away. They are coming closer and closer to us and before we know
it, those effects will reach Trufant. We have too many connections with people
around the country and around the world that an attack just about anywhere has
the potential of completely changing one of us and in a domino effect, this
entire community.
Whether intentional or
accidental, the Christian church is being made to suffer. Whether the church is
seen as heretical or judgmental or too much to handle. Whether the church is just
seen as a large grouping of innocent people. Whether the church is the target
of a political statement, the church will remain an easy and deadly target for
anyone who wishes harm on another human being. The place where someone should
feel safest is quickly becoming a place that is surrounded by and infiltrated
by fear. How can we continue to meet on Sunday mornings if it puts a target on
our backs?
It is becoming more and more
difficult to be a Christian in the 21st century. Why would anyone want to make
themselves so vulnerable when they can just stay home in the safety and
security of their own home? What leverage does our message of hope carry when
people don't see the church as a place of peace and hope?
To some, God is not even in the
Church. God cannot be found in church. Why would God let this happen in such a
sacred space of worship? Why would God let innocent children be slaughtered on
his turf? Why would God let that good news be overshadowed by news cameras and
reporters talking about the tragedy that takes place within the safest place in
the world?
How can we continue to explain
that our hope lies in the Church when we can't even explain why church isn't
safe to attend anymore? How can we invite people in, claiming this is a place
where they can find safety, security, refuge, when the church is quickly
becoming the exact opposite? It’s as if we are saying, “Here, come and stand on
these railroad tracks for an hour and don’t move. No, trains don’t usually come
by, but it’s possible one might.” No thanks.
So many questions. This
cannot be the time that the body of Christ shrugs its shoulders. This must be
the time we rise up and answer the questions. The world is in need. We must
share the Gospel. We must answer the question, "Where is God right
now?"
So, where is God? The simple
answer is God is here because he promised to be here. God is not absent in our
tragedy. But, why can't we see him? The trouble may be because we are confused
on where to look. We've been trained to see evidence of God. We look at
sunrises, sunsets, gorgeous scenery, people being blessed, good works,
birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms. We take selfies with our families, feet up
on a beach chair, overlooking peace and solitude. Hashtag blessed. We look at
these parts of life that make us smile and we say, "now isn't that just
how God works in the world? Isn't this a sure sign of God's presence?"
When these things are ripped and torn from us, it is as if God has disappeared.
If we are to believe the words Jesus speaks at the close of Matthew's Gospel
when he says, "and surely I am with you always, even to the end of the
age" then we must believe that God remains with us when the signs
"WE" associate with God have disappeared. It is hard to find God, to
find the words to speak, to find the right thing to do in the face of such evil
in the world. When the violence takes the lives of adults and children. When
the violence itself breaks into a worship service, a place of refuge. In a
world where peace may soon become the minority, we must hold to hope by finding
God in the wickedness of our existence.
Like us, Jesus was not
immune to such evil. Bring to mind the story of his life after Palm Sunday.
Remember him sharing the Last Supper with his disciples in the upper room.
Remember after that supper he went out to the Mount of Olives, a solitary
place, a sacred space for him, and remember that he went there to pray. In the
brokenness that was within his heart, Jesus went to his safe space to pray to
the Father, to find refuge and safety. Yet, it was in that safe space where
Jesus was arrested, taken to trial, beaten and killed. While not the same as a
gunman storming into a worship service, we must remember that not even Jesus
was spared from evil in his place of refuge.
Evil overtakes and sometimes
even tramples on God's people that even God's very own Son didn’t escape it. We
tend to gloss over this part of the story and go straight to Easter and the
story of resurrection. This, again, is because we see more evidence of God in
the Easter story than we do in the Good Friday story. We can't deal with the
reality of Good Friday but Good Friday was not the end. Violence, pain and
death is never the final answer. The nails in his hands and his feet were not
the end. Resurrection and new life had become the end.
In the story of Good Friday,
where was God? God was the broken one on the cross. He was the one gasping for
air. He was the one offering hope to the suffering criminal on the cross
adjacent to his. In our reality of sin, violence and death, where is God when
we feel like we are hanging on our cross? God is in the broken hearts. God is
in the broken hearts because he was broken in order to heal them. God is in the
broken hearts because that's who he came to bring good news. God is in the
broken hearts because brokenness can never have the last word. Jesus had been
and continues to be the one who makes broken hearts whole once again.
Last Sunday as we celebrated
All Saints Day, Jesus offered a blessing to those who were lacking in the
world. Four times he gave that blessing. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst for righteousness. Jesus blesses those who are without good news. He
blesses those who are broken. God is in the brokenhearted because he is filling
them up. Think about how Jesus phrases those words. The blessing is not for
those who have experienced being poor in spirit at one point or those who have
mourned at another point. He’s saying blessed are those who are currently in
these states. He says, if you are broken, I’m putting you back together. If you
are empty, I am filling you up.
Jesus never glosses over the
broken ones during his lifetime. He spends a majority of his time with them.
This does not change for us. Jesus continues to be with those who are broken
and hurt, with those who don't have answers. It's horrendous that sin and evil
would cause someone to open fire in a sacred space. Still, Jesus is with the
brokenhearted because he suffered so that they would have hope that their
suffering is not the final answer. The very Good News, the very Gospel itself
says that the evil in our world has been overcome by Christ and his promise of
new life in the resurrection. Without faith, this news is worthless. With
faith, it may very well be what we need to get out of bed the morning after.
Where is God? God is there.
God is here. He is a listening ear. He is a shoulder. But God is also a
reminder. God is a reminder of the resurrection and his promise to us that
trusting in Jesus as the one who bears our burdens, as the one who gives us his
glory in exchange for the cross, and as the one who gives us life in exchange
for his death, that trusting in this truth brings comfort to a broken world and
to our very broken hearts. The Gospel reminds us that evil has been overcome by
Christ. That is the story that Bible tells us, even if we can’t see it with our
eyes when we look outside, turn on the news or go to worship. Nevertheless, the
truth of the Gospel remains intact and unchanging: Evil is not the end.
Will the truth take away
pain right now? I can’t answer that. But, if it doesn't, that doesn’t mean the
promise is any less real for you. Pain is not the absence of promise but within
the pain, only the promise has hope of removing it. This truth is the very
reason we can baptize Wendell this morning. This truth is the very reason we
can baptize Elijah next week. This truth is the very reason we can remember
each of our baptisms, gather at His table and be fed with His body and blood,
all reminders of this hope that by faith we can see God when we grieve, when we
suffer, and that it is but only for a little while until that which is
eternally good fully snuffs out that which is temporarily evil. Trust in the
Lord. Lean on Him and even in tragedy, know that he is with you. To God be the
glory, now and always. Amen.