Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8 (1)
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your
sight, O God. Amen.
Sooner
or later, most people of faith will meet up with a wall. Whether they, or we,
find a way around, over, under, or through that wall, depends largely on how we
understand God’s love and grace. Some,
by way of faith, and with God’s help, may even tear down that wall. The walls we meet, the crises we face, come
in many forms. Yet, for many of us, the
height of the wall is our lack of self-worth, and the width of the wall is our
misunderstanding and misrepresenting the greatness of our God.
I
do not believe in a testing God. That
is, I don’t believe you can look at a difficult time in your life, like the
wall standing between you and wholeness, and say this is a test of my
worthiness by God.
This
could easily be one of those times where you are concerned about my
qualifications as a pastor. After all,
right there in the reading from Corinthians it says; “God is faithful, and he
will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will
also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.” That sounds like a testing God, right? Yes, perhaps it does.
But
this is a time to look deeper into the nature of God. It isn’t God who thinks in terms of testing
but we, as human beings, who are inclined towards such terms.
God
does not cause the bad things of the world to happen. Some bad things, like racism, mass shootings,
lies and distortions, cruelty, and abuse, those are caused by sin. Other bad things, like tornadoes, floods,
draughts, etc. are natural disasters.
These things are not created by God, nor are they intended to be
punishments of God. Bad things happen, but to say they are happening because God is
testing the faith of those who suffer, that is merely our human way of trying
to make sense of it all.
“God
must be testing me.”
Think
about that for a moment…
Does
that fit your understanding of a grace filled and loving God? That you and people you love would experience
so much pain and suffering so that you can learn something? And what of the fact that some people who do
very evil things never seem to suffer?
Yet other people, good people, face trial after trial. Is it really useful or helpful in any way to
think that a child died of cancer before their third birthday to test or teach
their parents something? Whom does it
benefit for a teen to die in a car accident?
A lesson for others? Then why THIS
teen and not THAT teen? Why her and not
him?
Thousands
of people die in a Tsunami and are we to believe they are less worthy of God’s
love and grace than those who live? No.
The
first message is this, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my
ways,” says the Lord. “For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thought than your thoughts.”
Isn’t
that the God we thirst for? A God we do
not and cannot fully understand. We
cling to that God, our soul thirsts for that God. That God is not bound by human pettiness and
limited by human concepts.
That
God longs for a relationship with us. A
relationship built on love and generosity.
A relationship based on grace and forgiveness. And it is love and grace far beyond human
understanding.
We
get it but we don’t get it. That
is: We receive it, even if we don’t
understand it.
When
Jesus tells his parable, some people are inclined to think God is the landowner
but others, myself included, see God as the Gardener. It is the Gardener who takes on the
responsibility of the tree. I will tend
to it. I will love it. I will nourish and nurture and help make it
grow. It isn’t God who threatens to cut
us down.
David
Lose presents the idea that it may be that the landowner, the one wanting to cut
down that which does not bear fruits, is us.
Who is more results-oriented than people? Do you see any other creature or creation on
God’s great earth trying so very hard to accomplish something in the midst of
all the other living things? Certainly
an animal may gather for the season of shortage, a mama animal eats more to
feed her child, a plant takes root and grows with the light. But do they think and plan and worry so over
the product of their labors as do we? Do
they constantly question their own worthiness?
Do they ask themselves: Is this a test?
No.
“The
height of the wall is our lack of self-worth, and the width of the wall is our
misunderstanding and misrepresenting the greatness of our God.” We don’t think we are worthy of God’s love,
we still think we must earn God’s grace and we put walls around ourselves. God didn’t build that wall.
God
sent his son, his only son, out of the fullness of God’s love and grace. Jesus came to live among us so that, living
and suffering and dying just as each of us do, God could know the whole human
experience, even to the frailness and weakness of death itself.
It
is love, not pain or punishment or sin or testing, that is the cause of God’s
great sacrifice. Love and love forever
that God promises. Love that makes us
grow and flourish and thrive.
If
you are lost, if you are at a loss, if you or someone you know has lost
someone, trust this: God is not testing you.
God is loving you in every minute of your grief and pain and loss. Know that God has felt it, too.
Amen.
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