Deuteronomy 30:19-20
Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw
SMASH! (I had a small mirror, about 8” X 8”, in a baggie and I smashed it with a hammer.) What was that about? Why did I do that? Does the destruction of this mirror make you wonder about me? Are you feeling any shock or dismay about the loss of a good mirror or the senseless destruction? Multiply that about a hundred times to sense the shock and dismay and horror of what people have lived through and lost in Dallas, TX, and other places recently where violence has taken human lives. If you can sympathize with that, now multiply it a gazillion times and you still can’t even imagine what God must feel like, and how he felt the moment it all started when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
When our ancestors, in the Garden of Eden, Heaven on Earth, decided to believe the satanic lie and try for something they thought might be even better than what God had already given them, in that one moment they destroyed God’s perfect creation, just as surely as I have destroyed this mirror. And in the same way that I cannot put this mirror back together, neither could Adam and Eve restore what they had broken.
Even if I could jig saw fit all the pieces back together and glue them in place, you would still see the cracks, it probably wouldn’t be flat, and it would never be the same as it was before I broke it. I really just can’t fix it. Only God could. And the same thing happened with the created universe. Mankind broke it and we can’t fix it. Only God can. That is why we need a Savior like Jesus. That is why we must be as grateful as we can possibly be for the fact that our God is good and loving, kind and merciful.
Our text this morning, Deut. 30:19-20, says, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
That is a good God, a merciful God who gives us many second chances to make the right choices, the choices that Adam and Eve should have made. Good choices, that rebuild good into the broken world, even though we can’t ultimately fix it. God gave us free will and responsibility to do well by obeying his wisdom. And yet our world is still so broken. People continue to be led by sin.
On Facebook I personally responded to the latest shootings in Dallas by posting this: My heart is breaking today more than ever for how much violence is erupting in our nation. It’s not me! It’s not a picture of humanity I want to be part of! And yet I cannot escape being part of it. The murderers are just as human as me and the victims. I do not understand and have never felt the depths of despair and frustration that can lead people to do such desperate and evil things. It must be the root cause of all war. And what is happening in our land seems to me to be an undeclared war between two groups of people.
It is undeclared and unorganized, but seems to be run by a simple drive to exert power over others, whether it is racism, or retaliation for racism, or retaliation for retaliation. That drive is of the devil. It is also in all of us. Most of us can stop ourselves from acting on such impulses. Some of us, tragically, give it free reign, especially under stress.
I know the only real solution is the effect of the gospel upon the hearts that find forgiveness in Jesus Christ. That’s why I pray for revival. I felt I had to say something today. But I also feel woefully inadequate to say what really needs to be said, or even to know what that is. I pray also for REAL justice, not excuses or explanations, but real justice that will result in action to produce culture change, reduce frustration, and promote God’s shalom. It will never be perfect until Jesus comes. But from time to time we manage to do better than this. We have to try.
One of the comments came back at me with this line: “Gregory.....these things must happen...it is all bringing His return closer.”
I did not find that to be a very comforting or encouraging response. Even though it is quoting Jesus right out of the gospel, it fails to acknowledge the pain and suffering and the evil motives behind the murderous acts. Jesus was talking in general terms about the fact that evil will persist until he comes again. But in each specific case when I person plans on taking violent action, it doesn’t have to happen. How many of you have ever said something like, “Everything happens for a reason,” when you were trying to comfort someone? Let’s think this through.
Today I begin a sermon series called Half Truths. We will take a look at 5 of these modern sayings, clichés really, that people think should be in the Bible but are really not and actually represent distortions of the gospel truth. Have you ever said, “God won’t give you more than you can handle?” Or, “God helps those who help themselves?” Or, “God said it, I believe it and that settles it.” How about, “Love the sinner but hate the sin?” These are all pretty common statements people use either to minister to the suffering, encourage the weak or end a conflict or argument. We need to talk about these things so that we don’t make the mistake of using them inappropriately.[i]
Since we are students of the Bible as was said last week, I have decided to devote the next five Sundays to these half-truths, with the aim of getting at the whole truth so that you and I are better equipped to minister in today’s world. This is very practical.
Today, I ask you, if everything happens for a reason, does that mean God causes everything that happens? Everything happens for a reason means there is cause and effect. But that does not mean God is always the reason that something happened. Since God has given humans free will sometimes we do things that cause events. Sometimes something happens and the reason it happened is that we sinned. Some of the things that happen in our world are just the general fall out of unforeseen consequences of Adam and Eve’s original sin. They broke the world and we suffer the consequences. Then again, we aren’t very good at fixing the world, so we often add to the brokenness.
Now most often, when we say, “Everything happens for a reason,” or, “These things must happen,” we are trying to respond meaningfully to someone who is suffering from some tragic loss or other disaster. We want even bad events to have some meaning. But if it is really true that everything happens for a reason, that could lead to some difficult conclusions, but more than that, is it really a comfort anyway?
In Dallas, TX, on Friday night, a man killed five police officers, wounded seven others and wounded two civilians. What was the reason? He said he was upset over the recent police shootings of black men and wanted to kill white people. He chose to do that in the middle of what was supposed to be a peaceful protest in downtown Dallas Thursday night over the recent fatal shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. The police were there to protect the people who were exercising their right to protest unjust police brutality.
So what does it mean to say, “everything happens for a reason?” The sniper gave his reason. Is that a good reason? Did God put that in his heart? Is it really a comfort to say at this point, “Everything happens for a reason” as if that might make this sort of ok because God has a plan for making something good come from it?
When someone dies unexpectedly we hear or say things like, “It was meant to be.” It must have been their time.” “It must have been God’s will.” We are seeking to console—and others seek to console us—by saying that God has a particular purpose or reason for bringing about, (or at least allowing) situations in which people suffer. We may assume that while we don’t yet understand why it had to happen, all events in our lives unfold according to God’s predetermined and unchangeable plan.
But if we extend this logic, we can arrive at some extremes that seem pretty silly: “God meant for my team to win (or lose) the World Series.” I like this one: “Honey, I am sorry I forgot your birthday. It must have been God’s will.” Oh yeah, that will make her feel better![ii]
It can also lead to some troubling questions: “Why would God will millions of Jews to die in the Holocaust?” “Does God really want little children to die in a school shooting.”[iii] Is it really God’s idea to cause or allow the new version of a race war, the new forms of violence and murder we are experiencing in our nation in which people are taking vengeance into their own hands for whatever reason? Whatever the reason, is it really God’s reason?
We must acknowledge God’s sovereignty. But if we give him total responsibility for everything that happens, then we end up excusing ourselves. If everything happens according to God’s unchangeable plan, then whatever anyone does must have been God’s will. There used to be a joke going around in which people made an excuse for bad behavior by saying. “The devil made me do it.” But it’s much worse for us, and for the world, if we have to say, “God made me do it.” God does not cause evil. He responds to evil with the grace and love of Christ crucified on the cross.
So what’s the truth about why things happen? The truth is, God is not the only cause. God is not the only reason things happen. God has given his human creatures dominion over the earth. He has given us a lot of responsibility for making good choices. As our text shows, Moses preached to his people, “Choose life!” God put people in charge of what happens on earth. Adam and Eve were fully responsible to tend and keep the earth. But when they disobeyed God they handed it all over to satan in a ruinous catastrophe with disastrous consequences that are still cascading around us today, like the pieces of a shattered mirror taking all the time they need to get to the floor.
We see this bestowal of responsibility again when Jesus tells his disciples, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” That is a troubling verse! Only God can forgive sins! No Lord, we don’t want that much responsibility! But there it is.
As the church, we have this awesome responsibility to talk about God’s forgiveness and express it by doing it. Jesus sent us into the world and put us in charge of his mission! It’s not an automatic. We have to choose to accept that responsibility. That way we get to participate in the repair of the broken world. Even though we can’t ultimately fix it, it is like we get to help God pick up the pieces. Sort of like when your own kids broke things and you said to them, “Come on. Help me clean this up.”
One of our own missionaries, Janet George Ziegelbaur said this about it, “This downward spiral of fear and violence has to stop. And the only ones fully equipped to stop that spiral are those whose actions are motivated by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the God who IS LOVE and in whom there is no fear. Follow the crowd or follow the Shepherd. Whose voice are you listening to today, Church, Christian, Jesus Follower?
So from now on, as we face the evils in our world and in our own lives. Let’s be careful not to make excuses for evil by blaming it on God saying, “These things must happen,” or, “Everything happens for a reason.” Instead, let us weep with those who suffer, grieve the loss of innocent life, lament the presence of evil in our world and in our own hearts too. And love the broken people in this broken world.
Amen.
Listen Link: http://www.firstcovenantcadillac.org/#!this-weeks-sermon/c20mw
SMASH! (I had a small mirror, about 8” X 8”, in a baggie and I smashed it with a hammer.) What was that about? Why did I do that? Does the destruction of this mirror make you wonder about me? Are you feeling any shock or dismay about the loss of a good mirror or the senseless destruction? Multiply that about a hundred times to sense the shock and dismay and horror of what people have lived through and lost in Dallas, TX, and other places recently where violence has taken human lives. If you can sympathize with that, now multiply it a gazillion times and you still can’t even imagine what God must feel like, and how he felt the moment it all started when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
When our ancestors, in the Garden of Eden, Heaven on Earth, decided to believe the satanic lie and try for something they thought might be even better than what God had already given them, in that one moment they destroyed God’s perfect creation, just as surely as I have destroyed this mirror. And in the same way that I cannot put this mirror back together, neither could Adam and Eve restore what they had broken.
Even if I could jig saw fit all the pieces back together and glue them in place, you would still see the cracks, it probably wouldn’t be flat, and it would never be the same as it was before I broke it. I really just can’t fix it. Only God could. And the same thing happened with the created universe. Mankind broke it and we can’t fix it. Only God can. That is why we need a Savior like Jesus. That is why we must be as grateful as we can possibly be for the fact that our God is good and loving, kind and merciful.
Our text this morning, Deut. 30:19-20, says, “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
That is a good God, a merciful God who gives us many second chances to make the right choices, the choices that Adam and Eve should have made. Good choices, that rebuild good into the broken world, even though we can’t ultimately fix it. God gave us free will and responsibility to do well by obeying his wisdom. And yet our world is still so broken. People continue to be led by sin.
On Facebook I personally responded to the latest shootings in Dallas by posting this: My heart is breaking today more than ever for how much violence is erupting in our nation. It’s not me! It’s not a picture of humanity I want to be part of! And yet I cannot escape being part of it. The murderers are just as human as me and the victims. I do not understand and have never felt the depths of despair and frustration that can lead people to do such desperate and evil things. It must be the root cause of all war. And what is happening in our land seems to me to be an undeclared war between two groups of people.
It is undeclared and unorganized, but seems to be run by a simple drive to exert power over others, whether it is racism, or retaliation for racism, or retaliation for retaliation. That drive is of the devil. It is also in all of us. Most of us can stop ourselves from acting on such impulses. Some of us, tragically, give it free reign, especially under stress.
I know the only real solution is the effect of the gospel upon the hearts that find forgiveness in Jesus Christ. That’s why I pray for revival. I felt I had to say something today. But I also feel woefully inadequate to say what really needs to be said, or even to know what that is. I pray also for REAL justice, not excuses or explanations, but real justice that will result in action to produce culture change, reduce frustration, and promote God’s shalom. It will never be perfect until Jesus comes. But from time to time we manage to do better than this. We have to try.
One of the comments came back at me with this line: “Gregory.....these things must happen...it is all bringing His return closer.”
I did not find that to be a very comforting or encouraging response. Even though it is quoting Jesus right out of the gospel, it fails to acknowledge the pain and suffering and the evil motives behind the murderous acts. Jesus was talking in general terms about the fact that evil will persist until he comes again. But in each specific case when I person plans on taking violent action, it doesn’t have to happen. How many of you have ever said something like, “Everything happens for a reason,” when you were trying to comfort someone? Let’s think this through.
Today I begin a sermon series called Half Truths. We will take a look at 5 of these modern sayings, clichés really, that people think should be in the Bible but are really not and actually represent distortions of the gospel truth. Have you ever said, “God won’t give you more than you can handle?” Or, “God helps those who help themselves?” Or, “God said it, I believe it and that settles it.” How about, “Love the sinner but hate the sin?” These are all pretty common statements people use either to minister to the suffering, encourage the weak or end a conflict or argument. We need to talk about these things so that we don’t make the mistake of using them inappropriately.[i]
Since we are students of the Bible as was said last week, I have decided to devote the next five Sundays to these half-truths, with the aim of getting at the whole truth so that you and I are better equipped to minister in today’s world. This is very practical.
Today, I ask you, if everything happens for a reason, does that mean God causes everything that happens? Everything happens for a reason means there is cause and effect. But that does not mean God is always the reason that something happened. Since God has given humans free will sometimes we do things that cause events. Sometimes something happens and the reason it happened is that we sinned. Some of the things that happen in our world are just the general fall out of unforeseen consequences of Adam and Eve’s original sin. They broke the world and we suffer the consequences. Then again, we aren’t very good at fixing the world, so we often add to the brokenness.
Now most often, when we say, “Everything happens for a reason,” or, “These things must happen,” we are trying to respond meaningfully to someone who is suffering from some tragic loss or other disaster. We want even bad events to have some meaning. But if it is really true that everything happens for a reason, that could lead to some difficult conclusions, but more than that, is it really a comfort anyway?
In Dallas, TX, on Friday night, a man killed five police officers, wounded seven others and wounded two civilians. What was the reason? He said he was upset over the recent police shootings of black men and wanted to kill white people. He chose to do that in the middle of what was supposed to be a peaceful protest in downtown Dallas Thursday night over the recent fatal shootings of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. The police were there to protect the people who were exercising their right to protest unjust police brutality.
So what does it mean to say, “everything happens for a reason?” The sniper gave his reason. Is that a good reason? Did God put that in his heart? Is it really a comfort to say at this point, “Everything happens for a reason” as if that might make this sort of ok because God has a plan for making something good come from it?
When someone dies unexpectedly we hear or say things like, “It was meant to be.” It must have been their time.” “It must have been God’s will.” We are seeking to console—and others seek to console us—by saying that God has a particular purpose or reason for bringing about, (or at least allowing) situations in which people suffer. We may assume that while we don’t yet understand why it had to happen, all events in our lives unfold according to God’s predetermined and unchangeable plan.
But if we extend this logic, we can arrive at some extremes that seem pretty silly: “God meant for my team to win (or lose) the World Series.” I like this one: “Honey, I am sorry I forgot your birthday. It must have been God’s will.” Oh yeah, that will make her feel better![ii]
It can also lead to some troubling questions: “Why would God will millions of Jews to die in the Holocaust?” “Does God really want little children to die in a school shooting.”[iii] Is it really God’s idea to cause or allow the new version of a race war, the new forms of violence and murder we are experiencing in our nation in which people are taking vengeance into their own hands for whatever reason? Whatever the reason, is it really God’s reason?
We must acknowledge God’s sovereignty. But if we give him total responsibility for everything that happens, then we end up excusing ourselves. If everything happens according to God’s unchangeable plan, then whatever anyone does must have been God’s will. There used to be a joke going around in which people made an excuse for bad behavior by saying. “The devil made me do it.” But it’s much worse for us, and for the world, if we have to say, “God made me do it.” God does not cause evil. He responds to evil with the grace and love of Christ crucified on the cross.
So what’s the truth about why things happen? The truth is, God is not the only cause. God is not the only reason things happen. God has given his human creatures dominion over the earth. He has given us a lot of responsibility for making good choices. As our text shows, Moses preached to his people, “Choose life!” God put people in charge of what happens on earth. Adam and Eve were fully responsible to tend and keep the earth. But when they disobeyed God they handed it all over to satan in a ruinous catastrophe with disastrous consequences that are still cascading around us today, like the pieces of a shattered mirror taking all the time they need to get to the floor.
We see this bestowal of responsibility again when Jesus tells his disciples, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” That is a troubling verse! Only God can forgive sins! No Lord, we don’t want that much responsibility! But there it is.
As the church, we have this awesome responsibility to talk about God’s forgiveness and express it by doing it. Jesus sent us into the world and put us in charge of his mission! It’s not an automatic. We have to choose to accept that responsibility. That way we get to participate in the repair of the broken world. Even though we can’t ultimately fix it, it is like we get to help God pick up the pieces. Sort of like when your own kids broke things and you said to them, “Come on. Help me clean this up.”
One of our own missionaries, Janet George Ziegelbaur said this about it, “This downward spiral of fear and violence has to stop. And the only ones fully equipped to stop that spiral are those whose actions are motivated by the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the God who IS LOVE and in whom there is no fear. Follow the crowd or follow the Shepherd. Whose voice are you listening to today, Church, Christian, Jesus Follower?
So from now on, as we face the evils in our world and in our own lives. Let’s be careful not to make excuses for evil by blaming it on God saying, “These things must happen,” or, “Everything happens for a reason.” Instead, let us weep with those who suffer, grieve the loss of innocent life, lament the presence of evil in our world and in our own hearts too. And love the broken people in this broken world.
Amen.
[i]
Hamilton, Adam, Half Truths. Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN. 2016.
[ii]
Ibid. p. 18-19.
[iii]
Ibid.
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