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Submit Your Own! What we do know is this By Rev. Susan Sparks, Madison Avenue Baptist Church Thank you for a wonderful sermon on a very difficult topic. The only sermon I ever preached on suffering that made some sense was a few weeks after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. (I guess it's a bit easier to preach on suffering when you are in the midst of it.) I told the story of when the nurse came in to tell me it was cancer. She said "don't you worry honey, the Lord will take care." I looked at her and said "well, I sure do wish that the Lord had started a couple of years earlier." She frowned and said "HE will take care." I said "but, HE has never had breast cancer!" And that was the end of that. We all need a bridge to get us over the anger and resentment and fear and back to faith. Or to realize as you so beautifully said, "God is not merely watching us from a distance. God is with us, heart aching from love, hands busy to help us." For me it was humor. That was the tool that grounded the words of Habakkuk in real life. Thank you for your sermon and your ministry. What We Do Know Is This By David von Schlichten Thank you to Rob Elder for his thoughtful and sensitive response to my sermon (scroll down to read it). I invite others to pour a cup of coffee and join the chat (Actually, I'm more of a tea-man.). Yours in Christ, David von Schlichten, poedifier What We Do Know Is This By Rob Elder In his satiric work, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis’ imaginary senior devil wrote to his demon-in-training, “Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him [God] seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” I collect other people's sermons, and I have four sermons in my file on this section of Habakkuk. Of the four, three were written by people in response to deep suffering in their own or their families' lives. At the end of this little book, Habakkuk declares, in essence, even though we all starve to death waiting, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. It is a hard word, but I think until our faith develops to this point, we are all kidding ourselves, riding on beds of roses that will one day fail to support us in times of deep need. I have preached on it at Thanksgiving services and received a mixed response, as you might imagine -- preaching about starving at a time of feasting. But what time is better? Donald Gowan wrote a book back in the 1970s, The Triumph of Faith in Habakkuk, John Knox Press, 1976, part commentary, part personal reflection (I notice there are three used copies available on Amazon... for around $7). I have gone to that little book dozens of times in my minstry. I commend it to you. When a day dawns, as it always does, that the faith we share is hard to maintain in view of hardships we face. it will be good to have practiced faithfulness in good times, to see us through the ones that aere void of any visible goodness.. What We Do Know Is This (Sermon for October 7) By David von Schlichten What We Do Know Is This (Word count: ca. 909) Texts: Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4, 2 Timothy 1:1-14, and Luke 17:5-10
Why is it that sometimes people who seem evil appear to have a prosperous life? Why is it that sometimes people who try to do everything right appear to suffer endlessly? The drunk driver hits and kills the sweet-hearted five-year-old daughter of a man and woman who are active in their church and volunteer at a nursing home. It's not fair. It's heart-breaking, infuriating.
It is this very struggle that our first reading deals with. Habakkuk is a short book in the Old Testament, toward the back. In this book, the writer is bewildered and bereaved because an evil nation is destroying his own, Israel. He says, “Lord, I know we have our flaws, but these people attacking us are even worse. Why are you letting them prosper while hurting us?” That's what the writer of Habakkuk wants to know. So do we.
A fully satisfying answer to this question we just do not have. We have partial answers. We know that suffering is in part as a result of our sin. We commit sins, and, consequently, people suffer, including good people. We also know that it is illogical to jump to the conclusion that a person's suffering is a punishment from God. Both Scripture and experience teach us that God, in his mercy, is not up there zapping people every time someone commits a sin.
So we have some answers to this ancient “Why” question, but we lack a complete answer. We behold and endure suffering. We ask God, “Why?” but the screen seems blank. No explanation.
While we may not receive an explanation, we do receive God's powerful, caring love. God is not merely watching us from a distance. God is with us, heart aching from love, hands busy to help us.
Our second reading, 2 Timothy 1:1-14, tells us about God helping us. The letter of 2 Timothy was for people dealing with persecution, pain, and death. 2 Timothy says, “I know it's tough. I remember your tears. But don't forget your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. Recall their faith, and find strength in that.” Then the writer says, “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline [ . . . ] Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us” (vv.8, 14).
Do we have suffering? We sure do. Do we always understand the why of suffering? No. Does God answer all our questions? Not in this life. But what we do know is this: God helps us cope with and even triumph over suffering. God has given us, the Church, the baptized, a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. The Holy Spirit lives within us, so we have potent love.
Further, in the gospel reading, Luke 17:5-10, Jesus assures us that, even if we have a tiny bit of faith, we have great power. Do you have even a tiny bit of faith? Then you have tremendous power, more than you realize.
If you have no faith, there is hope. God still loves you and wants you back. He's crazy about you, and the Holy Spirit has given us around you the power to help you. We will help you, by the Spirit's power.
God also has given us Scripture to teach and comfort us. God serves us Holy Communion to feed and strengthen us. God has given us prayer, sermons, hymns. Still we suffer and still some of our questions go unanswered, but God does declare, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end.”
Finally, when we do arrive at the end, God will press delete and thereby erase all suffering and evil. No more will drunk drivers kill children. No more will terrorists crash into us. No more will good people get sick and die; doctors and funeral directors will have endless free time to praise God. We will live in perpetual joyful partying with God in the new Jerusalem, not because we earned a place there, but because Christ embraced suffering and death, thereby transforming them into eternal, exhilarating life.
Habakkuk 2:4 promises us, “[ . . . ] [T]he righteous live by their faith” (2:4). God the Trinity gives us faith, hope, love – strength – to help us endure suffering and to help one another do the same.
Thanks be to God that God has given us each other in the Church. We are a world communion of saints. In our many denominations, countries, languages and disagreements, we are still one Church, and God calls us to help one another. We don't have to agree with each other on everything to help each other and to work together to help the world.
God has snapped the chains of death off our wrists and ankles. Thank God Almighty we are free at last from the eternal, infernal tyranny of death, sin and the Devil. Now we serve as slaves to God and one another. In doing so, we help each other cope with and triumph over suffering
We do not fully know why we suffer. What we do know is this: someday God will snuff out all suffering, and we will bask in eternal light. We will forget what pain felt like. In the meantime, which can get pretty mean, we serve as God's freed slaves, loving God and one another, putting aside differences, one Church, to help each other through the suffering. The seed from the Spirit makes us grow strong against evil. David von Schlichten, poedifier Suggestion By David Howell Post your sermon here! And your peers will offer their suggestions. It would be helpful to your peers to offer a brief summary for the setting/audience for the sermon. Don't worry we'll be kind... we struggle too! Have a cup of coffee and enjoy. [First Page] [Prev] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 Return |
