"Where Is God’s Love?”

Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – July 15, 2012

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 24; Mark 6:14-29

 

    The drama surrounding the death of John the Baptist has all the ingredients of a modern movie, ingredients that provide the standard menu of seduction, adultery, the manipulation of an intoxicated ruler, the abuse of political power and the senseless murder of a news reporter.  What gives readers pause is that those responsible for John’s death did not experience any visible consequences.  There was no justice. They got away with murder.  This result could cause some believers to wonder why God was absent from intervening in some way.  

    Even from a casual review of Hebrew theology in the Old Testament, readers can learn that God frequently helped the Hebrews to become victorious over their enemies.span style="mso-spacerun: yes">   (Joshua 3:9-11)  We can read the Lord’s instructions to the Israelites on how to gain entrance into the city of Jericho.  (Joshua 6:2-5)  There are so many stories of God’s use of destructive power that we wonder if these early writers were ever in touch with the nature of God that Jesus revealed.

    Something definitely happened to the image of God during the writing of the New Testament texts. God was no longer active in routinely entering into the affairs of the Jews.   The Jewish historian, Josephus, once wrote, “Before the arrival of John the Baptizer, The Word of God had not been heard in Israel for over 400 years.”  No matter how important it was that John was preaching about the coming Kingdom of God, he was still frivolously murdered.

    When we learn that all of the disciples, but John, were martyred and how Christians were killed in Rome’s coliseum for sport, it is clear that the understanding of later writers had shifted.  Rather than believing that God intervenes on behalf of his chosen people, God was portrayed as allowing the human drama to unfold on its own strengths and weaknesses.

    Consider what happened to the thinking of Jewish theologians and scholars during World War II.  The Jewish community world-wide was deeply troubled with God’s absence from their history while millions of their people were senselessly murdered in Hitler’s death camps.  The question they asked was, “How could our loving God stand by and do nothing?”  Jesus never asked that question when he learned the news of John’s death.  

    Think about events in our experience that have tested our faith and patience.  There have been numerous heart-wrenching episodes during my career where I had to minister to people that could not reconcile a loving God with what happened to families.

    Imagine a two-month old baby boy developing a cancerous tumor in his brain that eventually took his life.  Imagine a young boy that was maturing beautifully, having been blessed with intelligence, character and ability, eventually dying of leukemia at the age of nine.  Imagine an extremely popular high school girl, captain of her high school cheerleader squad, dying in a car accident, when five other occupants in that car walked away without a scratch. 

    When people have certain expectations of God, they can become so bitter and angry that they have walked away from Christianity and the church.  When we play the blame game we are desperately trying to find some answer, some reason why, out of nowhere, something happened to us that was as horrible as the senseless beheading of John the Baptist. 

    We love repeating the mantra that “Everything happens for a reason.”  Personally, I have never subscribed to that understanding of life because there are so many random events that happen during the course of a day that have no discernable purpose.

    From the tsunami in Japan to the recent total destruction by fire of 356 homes in Colorado, events do not need a purposeful reason for them to occur.  There is no evidence in the Gospels that Jesus ever struggled with why events happen.   It is hindsight that often supplies the reason for which we were looking.  Perhaps such reasons that we assign to events help us to heal.

    After the UMW luncheon the other day, Lois and I took Irene Nobel home.  When we arrived, her hidden external house key was missing from its hook.  She was locked out of her house.  I immediately found an opened bathroom window that with some effort would have given me entrance to the house.  However, before we could decide on what to do, Christopher’s wife, Lucy, pulled up in the driveway on her motor scooter.  She had a key because she lives there.  The timing could not have been more perfect.     

    There are friends that would tell us that God intervenes in their lives like this all the time.  For example, we have heard people say, “I have bad knees, so God always provides a parking spot for me in front of the store where I intend to shop.”  Or, “We were having a large group of people for dinner and, wouldn’t you know it, there was a fabulous sale on the meat we intended to serve.  Isn’t God good?”  

    There is nothing wrong with this understanding, but life is never smooth sailing for anyone, even for people who know that God surrounds them with love every moment of their lives.   Remember our scripture lesson this morning -- John the Baptist was ruthlessly beheaded.  Indeed, our friends die.  Accidents happen.  Loved ones can suddenly be swept from our lives because someone decided to drive their car with an exceedingly high blood-alcohol level.  We have moments when our bodies no longer serve us as they once did.

    What is so amazing is that we have a Creator that has equipped us with so much ability, stamina and vision that God’s will is done when we polish, develop and use those assets.  If we leave this life prematurely, we died doing exactly what we enjoyed doing.  God wants us to use our creative abilities for as long as we can.  John the Baptist announced the coming of the Kingdom of God.  He died preaching that message.  His death literally launched Jesus’ ministry and Jesus’ announcement that the Kingdom of God was already here. 

    A foundation of our faith is the knowledge that none of us die when we leave our bodies.  Certain beliefs are not required for us to experience this reality.  Our leaving the earth alive and well is as automatic as the sun rising each morning just as it has for billions of years. We enter this life to see how we do at harnessing and expressing our creative powers.  When our spirits can master the material challenges and distractions of our world, we will be able to assume even greater responsibilities beyond this life. (John 14:12)

    When we remain frustrated on the sidelines of life, hoping that God will throw us a crutch during some difficult and challenging moment, we can almost hear God patiently whispering to us, “You don’t need one!  Let me work through the responses that you make.”  This is where God’s love shows itself.   

    There was a time when I was preaching in Darkesville United Methodist Church in West Virginia.  My words were not connecting very well with the congregation.  There are moments when we preachers feel as though our words are dying two feet from our mouths.  The congregation looked spaced out as though they were thinking, “When is this guy finished?” Most of them were probably looking forward to Sunday dinner.

    When the service was over a young man came through the greeting line that had Down’s Syndrome.  He had tears in his eyes and he put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Thank you, pastor, for your message this morning.  You allowed God to speak to me.” I will never forget the feelings that coursed through my body as I listened to his words.  His response taught me that even in our poverty God can touch people’s lives.  Jesus taught us that it does not take much effort to make God’s love visible.  (Matthew 10:42) 

    Think of the ministry of John the Baptist.  Maybe his preaching lasted a year or two.  Think of the ministry of Jesus that did not last much longer than that.  Both men died abruptly in the midst of their mission, perhaps believing that few people would ever remember what they taught.  Jesus even told his disciples that each of them would run away leaving him alone.  (John 16:32)  His seeds, however, were sown.  What happened to those seeds was the work of God’s spirit.

    What we have learned about life has not come directly from God, at least not like Moses receiving instructions while standing in front of a burning bush.   What we have learned has come from the promptings of people who have shown us through their lives that it is better to be helpful and cheerful every day while making our contributions to the world. This is how God’s spirit moves through what we do.

    It was a hot August day with high humidity when I was driving on the beltway around Washington, D.C. in my VW Bug. The only air-conditioning was coming from rolled down windows.  Suddenly, the engine began to lose power.  My red dashboard light came on, signaling that my engine had stopped working.  I managed to drift on to the shoulder.  My first response was to think, “I am really stuck.  No one ever stops to help drivers on the beltway, not in this heat and not when they are traveling at break-neck speeds planning their next lane change.” Cell phones at this time looked like tennis shoes and few people had them.

    I decided to get out and see if I could diagnose the problem.  As soon as I popped the hood in the back of the car, I discovered that my fan belt had shredded.  Fortunately, I had a spare belt, but I had never installed one.  I struggled to get the belt over the pulley that drives the engine and found the task impossible.  There I stood in a white shirt and tie just staring at the engine.  I had just come from an area hospital after visiting one of our church members.

    Suddenly a car pulled in behind me and stopped. “Ah, a miracle,” I thought. To my chagrin a woman got out of that car and walked toward me.  She was dressed like she had just come from a corporate executives’ meeting.  I thought, “What does she want?”  She introduced herself as Rebecca and proceeded to tell me that she used to own a Bug.  Not many cars like mine were still on the road and she stopped to see if she could help.  Her dad had taught her how to work on them. 

    After noticing that the problem was a broken fan belt, she instructed me step by step on how to install the spare. I was amazed at the skill with which she remembered every step.  I learned that the pulley splits in half making the installation of the new belt an easy task. As I turned to thank her, she had already gotten back into her air-conditioned car and was ready to re-enter the beltway traffic pattern.  I mouthed, “Thank you!” as she drove past me with a big “You’re welcome” smile on her face.

    If we ever wonder where God’s love is, we need to remember that it is our joy to reveal it.  Each time we show compassion, patience, tolerance, helpfulness and we do so with a smiling spirit, God says, “See, I told you, ‘You never need a crutch.  You’ve got everything you need to make visible with what I have given you.  You can teach the world to sing by singing yourself.’” 

    Our mission in life is to do what others have done before us – make God’s love visible.  When more of us become angels in the flesh, perhaps more people in our world will sing while we are alive to hear them.