John 2:13-22 "Jesus and Reformation"

I. Luther’s Reformation

About 500 years ago there was a problem in the church. People did not have access to God’s word and basically took the church at their word. And people in power in the church took advantage of this. And Martin Luther entered into this story by seeing that the church was abusing its power and doing what he could to put an end to that abuse. Martin Luther didn’t want to break off from the Catholic Church, at least initially, he wanted to see that church reform and take back the truth that they had once held to.

But truths that seemed obvious to Luther as he studied scripture were not as obvious to those in charge and the Catholic Church decided that it wasn’t in need of reform. And therefore Luther broke off from the Catholic Church and began a pattern that has continued for 500 years that when people disagree with what the church says about something, they leave and start over.

I actually find this kind of sad. On the one hand, Luther’s complaints about the church were real and needed to be heard and the changes he suggested were changes that needed to be made. It was more than necessary for people to have access to Scripture in their own language so they could learn from it themselves instead of relying on others to tell them what it meant. And the horrible idea of indulgences, that you can buy forgiveness from your sins, is definitely something that needed to fall by the wayside. But it is sad that the church had to fracture. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could say that there is one church and we are all a part of it together? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could disagree about some of the things that the Bible talks about without feeling the need to exclude those around us because they don’t agree with us?

Luther brought reformation to the church, which it needed, but in the process he fractured the church. And I believe that there has to be a better way. The Covenant Church is also a church that separated from the church that went before it. It separated from the Lutheran church, specifically the Swedish Lutheran church. It separated from the Swedish Lutheran church because at the time Swedes were born Lutheran and you didn’t have to do much more than be born to consider yourself a Christian. The early Mission Friends believed that faith needed to be something more than this. They believed that the Swedish Lutheran Church had fallen away from truth much as Luther believed the Catholic Church had fallen away from truth. They believed that personal relationship with Jesus was necessary to faith and to religion. And again, they were right. Most Lutherans I know today would agree with that, just as most Catholics I know today agree that indulgences are wrong.

But one thing I love about the Covenant Church is that we don’t exclude others. We don’t try to teach that we are the only ones with access to truth. We see ourselves as a part of the bigger, greater church of God. And yet, as individuals, I fear that we sometimes forget this. I fear that we sometimes do think that we might have a tighter rein on truth than other churches around us. We might look down on them for their inaccuracies or problems. This is a dangerous place for us to go. This is not where reformation should lead.

II. Jesus’ Reformation

During his ministry, Jesus saw problems with the way that God’s people were worshipping God. He saw problems in their understanding of their faith and their practice of their religion and he was troubled by this. People were often too focused on following the letter of the laws instead of catching the truth behind the laws that God had given them.

It is funny because often when I hear people talk about the spirit behind a law they are doing so to explain why they did not choose to follow the law. They say that though they did not follow the letter of the law, their actions were in line with the spirit of it. Very few of us follow the letter of the law when it comes to driving the speed limit. But many of us will follow the spirit of that same law by being sure that we are driving safely and in control of our vehicle.

But when Jesus teaches people about following the spirit of the law, he doesn’t use this as an excuse to sin. No, the spirit of a law, for Jesus is more important and often harder to follow than the letter of that law. And the spirit behind all of God’s laws is to love God and love others. If you truly follow this way of life you will find yourself keeping God’s commandments in every way.

But this wasn’t the only problem that God’s people had in Jesus’ day; that they were too interested in being legalistic about God’s laws. They also weren’t worshipping right. In today’s scripture we see Jesus clearing out the temple with a whip. He is upset because he came to the temple hoping to find a place where people were worshipping God in truth and love and instead he found a marketplace. He was hoping that it would be a place where God was exalted but instead he found it to be a place where money and profit were exalted. Those in power, the religious leaders, instead of wanting to make God and worship available to everyone, were interested in figuring out how they could profit from the people’s faith. When people are trying to profit from other’s faith, there is a problem. This is obvious in today’s story, when Jesus saw people selling animals for sacrifice in the temple grounds. But it is also something that happens in other ways. Politicians on both sides of the isle use the faith of the voters to encourage them to vote for them. They are profiting from people’s religion. The Christian music industry has had the same problem. It started out being people who wanted to allow music to worship and serve God and in some places it has turned into a place where musicians can be discovered, their faith is serving their desire to be famous. They are profiting from their faith.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t allow people to make money in Christian enterprises. God put together a system in the Old Testament for the priests to be able to lead in worship without having to find other work so that they could dedicate their lives to him. But when our religion tries to combine with something else, one always ends up serving the other; be it money or politics or music or power. And unfortunately the case is that people head into the arena with the idea that power or politics or money will serve their faith and it gets turned around somehow and they end up selling out, not intentionally, not even realizing it sometimes, and their faith ends up being second to them after whatever else it is they are serving.

In his cleansing of the temple Jesus spoke very clearly against this. He made it clear that God’s house wasn’t to be a means to an end, but rather an end in itself. What is interesting is that later in the New Testament we are told that our bodies are temples to the Lord, that we are God’s house. When we realize this Jesus’ cleansing of the temple takes on a whole new meaning. By clearing out all that is turning the temple away from focusing on God, Jesus is showing what he does in each of us when we allow ourselves to be his temple. It’s a powerful image, and one we need to pay attention to; as individuals and as a church.

III. Reformation Today

You see, even though we have the Holy Spirit, for some reason the church and God’s people continue to get away from the truths that God has. In Jesus’ time it was related to money. People were using worship to make money. In Luther’s time part of the problem was also money. The church wanted to make money from their people and so came up with the horrible idea of indulgences. But money isn’t the only thing that has turned God’s people away from truth. People in power often do everything they can to hold on to it. And corruption happens.

The fact is that sin can be just as strong in and among God’s people and God’s church and we should be on guard to keep our church from getting off track. Reformation happened when Jesus tried to tell the people of his day how to worship God in truth. It happened 500 years ago when Martin Luther saw that the Catholic Church was heading the wrong direction. It happened 130 years ago when the Mission Friends saw that the Swedish Lutheran Church was only a husk of what it was supposed to be and formed their own denomination, the Covenant. And reformation happens today each and every time that God’s people stand up for truth instead of letting those in leadership over them tell them what to believe and how to worship.

Reformation has this protestant, old, sound to it. It sounds a bit stuffy, even. And we don’t always like to focus on the parts of our faith and our faith heritage that sound stuffy. But reformation is important in the church. It is the time when the church refocuses on what’s important. It is the time when the church gets back on track. It is the time when God’s people decide to be serious about following God in their worship and in their whole lives. And God’s people are in constant need of reformation. But perhaps we need to have a different term for it. Instead of calling it reformation, maybe we need to look at it as revival. Revival is when God’s people get back on track, back to the basics, back to loving God and loving others. Often when we think of revival, we think of tent meetings and we think of people becoming Christians. But that is not what revival is. Revival is when the church is revived. It is when those who are already Christians get on the right track, when they get back to what is important.

This is what Martin Luther wanted to see the church get back to in his day. This is so much what the early Mission Friends were about when they started meeting for their Bible studies. And this is what Jesus was about as he taught throughout Judea and Jerusalem and when he cleansed the temple, trying to get God’s people and their leaders back on track. This is what we are called to be about as well. And we need to look at ourselves and see if we are fulfilling the purpose that God has called us to. If we are, then that is wonderful and we need to continue on the path we are headed. But if we are not centered on loving God and loving others, then we need to have our temple cleansed, we need revival among ourselves, we need to be reformed into what God has called us to be.

Genesis 32:22-30; Luke 18:1-8a “Struggling with the Lord”

I feel like I’m being a bit bi-polar in my last three sermons. I’m moving from one extreme to the other. Two weeks ago I spent time talking about finding God in the bad times. I talked about how sometimes bad things happen to good people and this can help us to grow closer to God. And then last week we looked at the importance of being thankful for all that God has given us. And now this week I’m looking again at struggling with God as we read about Jacob as he wrestled with God and the woman who pestered the judge until she received what she wanted.

I must explain that the reason I’m going from one extreme to the other has nothing to do with me. Rather, I have been following the church lectionary and preaching on passages that are suggested to preach on each Sunday. And so, it is not necessarily my fault that we are going from extreme to extreme. And yet, it is not the lectionary that tells me what to preach out of the scripture, it just suggests what scripture to preach from. So it is partially me who is seeing such divergent things in the scriptures week to week.

But I like to believe that I am not writing my sermons by myself, but am speaking words that the Holy Spirit has given me. I believe that as the Holy Spirit convicts me and helps me to see God’s Holy Word in new light, I can share this with you.

And when I look at these diverse scriptures I see that though I am talking one week about what to do when bad things happen, the next week about thanking God for his gifts and provisions, and then the third week talking about struggling with God; in the midst of all this, God’s word does not contradict itself. Instead, we see God at work in different ways at different times. We see that God reaches out to his people in a way that they can understand and he meets them where their needs are. And so, today, let us pray that God meets us wherever we are and whatever our needs are.

Let us open in prayer

I. Fighting God

Have you ever felt that life was really a struggle? Have you felt that you were fighting an uphill battle and the world around you seemed set to keep you from succeeding?

What do you do when you find yourself in this kind of situation? Do you give up and stop struggling and let the forces around you decide your fate? Or do you fight on and attempt to overcome?

Often, when I find myself in this sort of situation; when ends aren’t meeting and everything seems to be set against me; I turn to God and ask for his help. Often it is when I am struggling against the impossible that I realize that it is God that I need to rely on, not myself.

But there are times where this is not possible. These are the times where my struggle isn’t against the world, but rather is against God himself. Now you can look at me and say that I’m a pastor so I don’t struggle against God. But this is not true. I think we all, at times, find ourselves in a struggle against God. We all, at times, find ourselves seeking our own desires and our own wants instead of truly trying to live as God has called us. We all find ourselves desiring control over our own lives instead of allowing God to be our pilot. We want Jesus sitting next to us in our car as our co-pilot, telling us where to turn, but we have the choice whether to turn where he tells us. But God doesn’t want to be our co-pilot, he wants us to hand the keys over to him so that we are allowing him to take us where he wants.

There’s something about the way we are as humans. Some might like to call it a part of human nature. I think a better description is that it is a part of our sin nature. But in the end, we like to be in charge. This gives us strength. It allows us to do things and go places that we wouldn’t necessarily be able to do if we just went with the flow. But when we are constantly trying to be in charge we forget that Christ is not only our Savior but also our Lord and King. And when we spend our whole life struggling, we will find ourselves growing weary, much like Jacob.

II. Being in Charge

Jacob, in today’s first scripture, was someone who liked to be in charge. He spent his whole life fighting with people. He spent his whole life scheming against those around him. He didn’t necessarily do this because he wanted to fight with people, though sometimes it might feel that way. No, he struggled because it was the only way he was going to make it in the world. The world is a difficult place and if you aren’t looking out for yourself, no-one will. This is what he believed and this is how he lived. He was the second born of two brothers and so the inheritance and the blessing that his father had to share was destined to go to his older twin brother, leaving him with nothing. And so he schemed and plotted and made sure that his father blessed him and his brother sold him his inheritance rights.

His father-in-law tricked him by having him marry the wrong daughter after seven years of work so that he could marry the love of his life. Jacob had to deal with the fact that his father-in-law was scheming to get the best of him and so he had to always be one step ahead of him to make sure that he wouldn’t be taken advantage of again.

Jacob’s second wife, the one he loved, schemed to steal idols from her father as Jacob and his family left to head back to his homeland, putting Jacob and his family at serious risk of dangerous retribution from her father. Life was not easy for Jacob and he had to struggle just to make it.

And so, one night, Jacob was by himself, having sent his family ahead to meet his brother from whom he had stolen his birthright. And that night was spent wrestling with God. And most people might go ahead and give up and stop wrestling. But not Jacob. He wrestled through the night and would not yield. And as daylight came, God, or an angel of God, the Bible isn’t clear, cheated in the way that only God can. He caused Jacob’s hip to be wrenched as he fought. But still Jacob fought on. He didn’t know how to do anything else. And in a way, Jacob won the fight. For God, or the angel, or whatever it was, wanted Jacob to let him go, but Jacob refused unless he received a blessing. And God blessed Jacob with a new name, Israel.

In hearing this story from the Old Testament, my first thought is to belittle Jacob for continuing to fight with God, for continuing to wrestle. Couldn’t life have been so much easier for him if he had just let God win on that night in the desert? But he is blessed and God seems to think that the struggle is worthwhile.

Is the struggle worthwhile? Is it okay to fight with God? To better understand the answer to this question we need to turn to the next scripture that we read this morning, Luke 18. This parable by Jesus tells of a woman, a widow, who kept pestering a judge who was not just that she might receive justice. And because she does not give up, because she continues the good fight, the struggle, the judge hears her and gives her what she asks. And Jesus tells us that here is an example of a corrupt judge doing what is right because she continued to struggle with him, how much more will a just God do what is right if we are persistent?

What we discover when we look at this scripture and others that tell of people struggling against God is that God actually does want us to struggle in certain instances. When what we are standing for is just and merciful, he wants us to stand up to everybody, even him. And therefore you have Moses talking God out of destroying the people of Israel, reminding God of his mercy. And here you have the widow asking for justice. Perhaps God wants us to own the issues of justice and mercy more than we do, and so he causes us to have to fight for these things in our world and in our lives.

III. Stop Struggling

But when we are struggling because we want to be in control, then the struggle is not a healthy one. When we are struggling against God because we don’t like where he is taking us or what he is calling us to do, then our struggle is a sin. When we find ourselves struggling with God for control of our lives, we need to turn away from this. This isn’t always easy to do. Sometimes you have to be somewhat creative in finding a way to do this.

A Christian singer knew how much he wanted to have control over his own life and how much he wanted to be in control. He also knew that God was calling him to turn his whole life over to him. And so he did something drastic. He was making good money as a Christian singer and he knew that if he received his paychecks, he would end up using them in an unhealthy way. But if he put himself on an allowance and had a board of trustees decide what to do with the rest of his money, where to donate it, then he wouldn’t find himself struggling with God over his finances. Instead he would be able to obey God and allow God to guide him completely. By taking the opportunity to rebel away from himself, he was able to do what he felt God was calling him to do.

This is just one example of someone making sure that they don’t spend their lives fighting God in areas where they shouldn’t. There are others. Maybe giving God control means removing temptations from your life. Maybe it means giving up things in your life that distract you from your relationship with him. Maybe it just means that you need to lay down your arms and surrender to him. Surrender is never easy. It doesn’t feel very right. When you surrender it feels like you have lost. And yet, when you surrender to God you aren’t losing at all. Instead you will discover that by surrendering to him you will win something greater than the control that you lost. You will win peace of mind and strength to get you through.

In what areas of your life are you fighting God? What parts of your life have you not let go of? Where do you need to invite God in and allow him to have control? Life is so much more work when you spend it fighting God. It is much easier once you give in and allow him control. Ask God for help. Ask him to be more than your co-pilot. Allow him to be your Lord and King. With God in charge you will discover that you don’t need to fight quite so hard. And you will discover that life without the fighting is much simpler. So give over control to him. It is well worth it.

Luke 17:11-19 “Thankful Hearts”

A new book that came out this month is threatening to be the next self-help superstar. The book is entitled Thank You Power and argues that the secret to life, the secret to success and blessing, is saying “thank you.” In the book we are told that by focusing on the things that are going well and being thankful about them, we will begin to see life as a more positive experience and by seeing the world as more positive, we will find more to enjoy and therefore be thankful for.

Now, I am usually fairly critical of the self-help craze and every scheme that someone comes up with that ensures good living. Self-help books have come and gone and this one is just going to be one in a long line of books designed to help people have more positive thinking.

But looking at the theme of the book and some of the basic things it says and realizing that I have not read it, only read about it, I find the truth here to be an important one, though it is definitely not a new one. You see, the concept of being thankful for what you have is a concept that goes way back throughout the history of the world. And it is an important part of the Christian faith.

Now you may wonder what makes being thankful an important part of being a Christian. If I asked a large group of Christians what it meant to be a Christian, I am sure that none of them would put being thankful up on the top of the list of things that show that someone is a Christian. Actually, Christians often have the stereotype of not being very thankful. But it is central to our faith and our belief that we live lives of thanksgiving. When we realize that life is a gift from God we then realize that we do truly have much to be thankful for. And even when things don’t seem to be going as well as we’d like, there is still much to be thankful for. So, today we are going to give thanks to God, for he has done marvelous things and is worthy to be praised.

Let us open in prayer

I. Healing

We all know that Jesus heals throughout the gospels. He sees people in need and he reaches out to them with his healing hands. When people ask for help, he offers it. Jesus shows us God’s love again and again throughout his ministry by touching someone’s life with healing where they need it most. I believe that this doesn’t end at the end of the gospels, but rather it continues to present day. I believe that Jesus is still in the business of healing people. But, I’m not sure that Jesus is quite as obvious about healing as he was when he walked the earth.

Actually, I need to take that back. Jesus never made a big deal about healing people. Often, as he healed people, he told them not to tell anyone what had happened to them. He tried, back when he was walking on the earth, to keep his healing quiet, and I believe that the same is true today. Though Jesus reached out in love and compassion towards people in need, he didn’t want healing to be the center of his ministry. He had something more important to bring the world. And so Jesus did heal, but he kept it quiet and he focused more on his teachings than on his healings. He actually got upset with people when they focused too much on the signs and wonders he did, he would much rather have them focus on his words. And yet he continued to do signs and wonders and he continued to heal throughout his ministry and life, and I believe, ever since.

I also believe that the healings that Jesus does today aren’t always the way that people expect to be healed. Sometimes Jesus reaches out his healing hand and heals broken relationships or brings peace to people in times of crisis. Healing doesn’t necessarily have to be physical to be healing.

The scripture we read today is one of many stories about healing. It is a story about Jesus reaching out in compassion to a group of men who were suffering from leprosy. They cried out for him to heal them and he did. Often this is where the stories of Jesus’ healings ended. Jesus healed people and then went on his way. But this time someone does something unusual. One of the men who was healed came back to Jesus. This man came back to Jesus and thanked him. We are told that when he saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him.

We are also told that this man was a Samaritan, someone who the Jews of Jesus’ day did not get along with and whom they did not think much of. For a Samaritan to do something right was unusual to say the least. But this Samaritan did something right. He came to Jesus and thanked him for healing him.

II. A Thankless Society

It seems like such a minor thing, coming back to Jesus and saying “thank you.” It seems so minor that only one of the ten people Jesus healed felt the need to do it. Were the others grateful? I’m sure they were. But they didn’t think to come back and show their gratitude to Jesus. Instead they got caught up in the excitement of their newfound health and focused on that. They had just been healed, they needed to share this with friends and family; they needed to get on with the life that Leprosy had taken from them. And in the process they forgot to thank Jesus for what he had done for them.

I truly believe that this is a central part of the problem that faces our society today. We are too busy working for what we want and then enjoying it all so much that we forget to thank God for all that we have. I remember when I was ten I traveled with my parents to the South Pacific. We spent some time on the Island Kingdom of Tonga. We had the opportunity to worship with the people of Tonga and we went home with a man and visited his house. I was shocked by the house that he and his family lived in. It was a one room hut with some rolled up mats for the floor. That was everything they owned. It was everything they had. And the people of Tonga had a joy about them, a thankful, grateful spirit that I have never seen in America. Whereas here in America people continue to complain about the problems in the world and long for more than they currently have, and as they complain and grumble they miss out on the many things that God has gifted them with. The people of Tonga know that they have much to be thankful for because they rely on God to meet their daily needs and give them their daily bread. And when the daily bread was more than they expected, they would feast and celebrate. And when it was less than they needed they would pray and ask God to step in with more.

I wonder if this sounds familiar to you. This way of life is what God prescribed for the people of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness, learning to rely on God for their needs, and sometimes finding joy in the small gifts that God gave them.

But we rely not on God but on ourselves. We convince ourselves that we are the ones responsible for the good things that happen to us as well as the bad things that happen to us. And so when someone is down on their luck, we say that it is their own fault and when someone is truly blessed, we credit it to them. But the truth is that we are less masters of this world than we’d like to believe. And when we realize that by giving thanks we will break through this and begin to see that God is a good and gracious master, the King of Love, the Gifting Giver.

III. Thank You

But what does this saying “thank you” look like? How can we practice it? The author of the book, Thank You Power says that she had a notebook which she takes around with her everywhere she goes and she writes down three or four things each day that she is thankful for. This actually is a good start. But it is only a start.

Do you spend much time in your prayer life saying “thank you” or do you just get to the things that you want from God? Do you remember that life and love and relationships are a blessing from God and therefore thank him for them? I believe that one small step to healthier families, healthier relationships, healthier marriages, is remembering that they are a gift from God and thanking God for our loved ones. When you begin thanking God for those around you, you will discover that your attitude will change toward them and you will begin to see the blessing that they are instead of all the troubles they bring.

The same, I believe, can be true about our work. No job is wonderful all the time. All jobs have their ups and downs. But when we thank God for our work, and the way that he has blessed us, we remember the good things in our job and it makes the bad just that much more bearable.

With thankful hearts we discover that God is at work in the world around us. He is continuing to heal. He is continuing to make a difference. And when we focus on thanking him for these things, when we live lives of gratitude, we will find that we will enjoy life all the more. We will also find that our relationship with God will grow.

Jesus healed ten men of leprosy that day. They all had an amazing miracle in their lives that Jesus brought to them. But only one of them really connected with Jesus in relationship. And that is the one who came back to say thank you. That man, a Samaritan, was able to connect in relationship with Jesus in a wonderful way. And in the end, that is what saying “thank you” really does for us. Yes it helps adjust our attitude so we might not be as cynical and troubled about the world around us. But more importantly, it connects us to God, to Jesus in a powerful way. It deepens our relationship with God by giving us an opportunity to communicate with him. It reminds us of who it is that is responsible for all we have and all we are.

So I encourage you today to give it a try. Try remembering who it is who is responsible for the good in your life. Try going before him and saying “thank you.” You will be blessed through this and your relationship with God will grow through this.

Lamentations 3:19-26; 2 Timothy 1:8-12 "Faithfulness & Suffering"

Sometimes life surprises you with wonderful things. Sometimes you find that there is so much to enjoy and celebrate you don’t know what to do with yourself. Sometimes everything seems to be going right and you truly feel blessed.

But sometimes it seems that someone’s got it out for you. Sometimes life just doesn’t go as you plan. Sometimes, it seems that no matter how hard you try, things just don’t seem to be going right and you are at a loss of how to fix it all.

Sometimes you find yourself asking, “Why, God? Why me, why this, why now?” And sometimes you begin to wonder if God is really answering you at all. If you have had times in your life where you have experienced this, you know how difficult it can be.

My parents have been going through a difficult year and a half. Without getting into specifics, part of their yard, a part of it that they had been taking care of for the last 30 years, was surveyed and it was discovered that it belonged to their neighbor; a neighbor who they don’t particularly get along with. They have been in the process of a lawsuit trying to reclaim this land for almost a year and a half. They have been stressed out and fed up and really upset through this whole process. I spent this last week visiting them as the case went to court…

Did this bad thing happen to them because they were bad people? Or did they just find out that God sends the rain on the righteous and unrighteous alike?

You know, there are pastors in churches and on television who tell us that God doesn’t want bad things to happen to us. And they tell us that if we have enough faith and believe the right things and pray the right way, we can all find ourselves enjoying life all the time. Suffering is a sign that you aren’t right with God, they will say.

Well, I say, and more importantly, the Bible says, that this is just not true. Suffering, though it can be hard, is a real part of life that we have to deal with. Because there is sin in the world the world now has suffering in it and we all have to deal with it at certain times in our lives. But there is hope for us in our times of suffering. The hope is in God’s faithfulness. He will deliver us. He will protect us. He will give us the things we need spiritually, emotionally and physically, to face the difficult times as well as the good times in our lives. God is faithful, in spite of our suffering, and sometimes, even because of it.

Let us open in prayer

I. The Judges Cycle

There is an interesting pattern that plays out again and again in the Old Testament. It shows up particularly strong in the book of Judges and is hard to miss. It particularly stands out for me because I remember having to learn the pattern of it in school and in confirmation and then in college. This pattern is a cycle that the people of Israel went through again and again. And the cycle wasn’t a good one. In the cycle the people would turn away from God. They would get distracted by the things around them. They would start worshipping the gods that their neighbors worshipped. They would quit worshipping and following the one living God.

Because of their turning from faith and obedience, God would deliver them into the hands of their enemies. They would be terrorized or attacked by nations and peoples around them who were stronger than them and who would steal their crops and destroy their villages. And the cycle would continue. The people would, in their time of crisis and desperation, turn to God and seek him out. God would hear their cries for deliverance and send a judge, someone who would deliver them from their bondage. The judge would then rule over them and they would prosper, but then the judge would die and the whole cycle would begin again.

We see this cycle play out again and again through judges, and in many ways, it plays out throughout the whole Bible, though not always with the same specifics. Now, there are certain parts of this cycle that make a lot of sense to me and there are other parts that I don’t really like. I don’t like the fact that as we look through this cycle we see that God is continually turning over his people to destruction because of their sins. On the other hand I do like that they call out to God for help and he always finds a way to deliver them. But one aspect of this cycle I don’t think gets enough focus is where we start it and end it. We start with the people turning away from God. And we end it with the people prospering. For it to be a true cycle, we need to see that the prospering leads into the turning away from God.

Here is a truth that I don’t think we always pay enough attention to. It is when we prosper; it is when things are going well for us that we sometimes find it easiest to ignore what God is doing in our lives. Doesn’t that seem backwards? It is when God is providing for us and meeting not only our needs but also our desires and wants that we tend to forget about the very God who is meeting those needs.

I believe that this was true in the time of the judges and I believe that this is true in today’s world as well. When things are going well, when we are making ends meet, when life is going along as we want it to, we often find ourselves forgetting about God.

When everything is going fine, we maybe go to church but we allow ourselves to be caught up in the busy world around us and forget about the God who provides for us. But when troubles arrive, when life becomes difficult we then turn to God in our time of need. This is a sad state of affairs, but unfortunately it is very much the way we are built. And God continually is trying to break through it.

People ask why there is suffering in the world, especially for good people, and I know it is a bit more complicated than this, after all we need to understand how sin has destroyed the natural order of things, but one reason there is suffering in the world is that it keeps us reliant upon God.

II. Lamentations

The book of Lamentations can be a hard book to read. It is a book where we see someone at their bitter end. It is a book where we see someone at times in despair because of the way the world has treated him and his people. He is crying out in agony and pain because all seems lost, but then in chapter 3, in the midst of the pain and suffering, the Lamenter mentions hope. “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

In the midst of the pain and suffering the writer of Lamentations finds hope. In the midst of trial, the Lamentations look forward to God’s deliverance. Hope is found because though it doesn’t seem so at the moment, God is faithful and just and will bring salvation and deliverance.

One of our great hymns is born out of this scripture. “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” was written by Thomas Obediah Chisholm and first published in 1923. Thomas Chisholm wrote the lyrics of the song having experienced difficult times in his own life. He had poor health and was having to regularly give up what he was doing, quit his job or his ministry because of his health. And he realized that he had to rely not on his own strength but on God’s faithfulness. And thus a great song of Christianity was born.

Eventually we realize that it is through suffering that we come in contact with the faithfulness of God. It is through suffering that we are able to see that it is God’s provision that gets us through and not our own strength or perseverance.

III. A Step Further

Paul takes the idea of rejoicing in suffering a step further. He encourages us to suffer on behalf of God. He reminds us that God not only helps people in their times of suffering and is faithful to them through their suffering, but he sent Jesus to suffer on our behalf and to reveal grace through this suffering. Paul tells us that suffering is not something to be ashamed of. And again, I must point out that Paul knows what he is talking about. He is spending the end of his life in chains, a prisoner because of his faith. Paul is taking this a step further because he isn’t just saying to believe despite your suffering, he is saying that sometimes when you believe it will cause suffering. Paul is telling us that sometimes we have to suffer, not despite our faith but because of it.

This is a different message than much of what I hear in Christian circles today. Often I hear about how God wants to bless us (which he does) and prosper us and we should expect life to go well for us because of our faith. Often I hear that God is going to bring hard times on unbelievers but believers are going to experience God’s protection against evil. And yet, here in Paul, we get a different message. Here the message is that sometimes we will suffer for our faith. Sometimes life will take us horrible places because of what we believe. Sometimes it will seem that God is not protecting us but is allowing us to be fed to the wolves. When that happens we can learn from Paul who finds something powerful in suffering for God. We can learn from Lamentations, which reminds us to hold on to God’s promises and God’s faithfulness. And we can learn from the judges, who remind us that it is in suffering that we have open and teachable hearts and it is when we suffer that we are most willing to be changed by God and grow in him.

So let us learn from our suffering. Let us grow closer to God. And let us remember that God is a faithful God whose blessings are new every morning, even when we cannot see them. Amen.