God's Risk, Our Hope

 God’s Risk, Our Hope

Responding to Extreme Heat?

 

July 30, 2022

Larry R Evans

 

Introduction

 

What a fascinating study we have this quarter.  It is so needed! I must also say as, with any truth, there are myriads of untruths about God that can emerge if we aren’t careful.  As you might imagine, I am especially drawn to a question Jesus was asked by His own disciples in John 9:1 about a blind man, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” They thought in paradigms of strict cause-and-effect.  Jesus broke with traditional thinking when he answered,

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:3-5 (NIV)

Jesus was saying that not only did they have the wrong options but the options they had chosen turned off the very light He had come to share – the hope and a ministry that goes need not be limited by blindness.  

 

Wrong options and wrong conclusions can pull us away from Jesus, the Light of the world, and from our purpose for living regardless of our present abilities. Dr. Richard Rice of the Loma Linda University Religion Department wrote, “Suffering may not have meaning, but nothing can take away the meaning in our lives.”(Suffering and the Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain)

 

Like the disciples of old, we can easily draw the conclusion that suffering is a result of our sinfulness and therefore the cause is because of our need to be purified.  By going through physical, mental, emotional, or even spiritual crucibles of suffering, one clear point to be learned is that we are all sinners and, yes, we all certainly need to be transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus.  While God can work through suffering to refine us, it is not the same as saying God causes suffering.   Today’s study of Job has some important insights regarding that.

 

A few years ago, I invited the author of a book entitled Same Lake, Different Boat, to speak to the leaders of a new movement we were about to launch.  As you know that movement is now called Adventist Possibility Ministries.  The author, Stephanie Hubach, presents three different but common views of disability. For our study purposes today, I believe we could insert the word “suffering” where she speaks of disability. They are:

 

1.     “The Historical View: Disability (Suffering) Is an Abnormal Part of Life in a Normal World.

 

People with disabilities have through the generations been seen as aberrations and seen as an abnormal part of life in a normal world.  The principle of such thinking is that we establish a baseline by which we determine what is normal and those that don’t fit our definition are abnormal while we are the normal ones.

 

2.    The Postmodern View: Disability (Suffering) Is a Normal Part of Life in a Normal World.

 

In example number one, a disability was labeled abnormal, but Postmoderns are annoyed with that distinction.  They want to redefine the language of disability. Abnormal and disability are taboo. Instead, they wish to celebrate “disability” as a “difference” and not as a deficiency. They say that now is the time “to recognize and celebrate disability.” As Hubach says, the postmodern approach “confuses everything and solves nothing.”

 

3.    The Biblical View: Disability (Suffering) Is a Normal Part of Life in an Abnormal World.

 

Disability is indeed a normal part of life as we know it. It is unpredictable but occurs with a degree of regularity. When we recognize that disability is a normal part of life in an abnormal world, we can begin to make sense of it—and of ourselves.

 

When we begin with the biblical account of creation, we realize that everything God created was good, and mankind was deemed very good. Human beings were God’s crowning act of creation. Being created in God’s image means we are to reflect in multiple ways God’s infinite reality. The tragedy of sin struck this world hard. It focused on altering and demeaning God’s character and His ultimate plan for us and the world. We were fashioned to experience purposeful and blessed lives. With the presence of sin “The whole creation has been groaning.” (Rom. 8:22). The human experience is affected by the fall. Many people that I have spoken with over the years tell me that their disability has produced blessings in ways that they would have thought to be impossible.  Isn’t that what Jesus had in mind when he told his disciples who had sinned for the man to become blind – the man or his parents, “this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”  This is no intended cause-and-effect response but rather what can come from the abnormal situations that happen in an abnormal world. As the American Christian songwriter, Morgan Harper Nichols, wrote, 

There is a reason the sky gets dark at night. We were not meant to see everything all the time. We were meant to rest and trust even in the darkness. 

It is time we face the reality of the world in which we live. Disability and suffering are normal parts of life in an abnormal world. We are all recipients of the blessedness of creation and the brokenness of the fall, but our life’s story does not end there.  We have this hope that burns within us, the hope of the coming of the Lord!  Life will be restored to God’s original purpose and plan for each of His children.  In the meantime, Richard Rice says it well in reference to Romans 8, 

Christianity provides the assurance that there is something that is stronger than anything, even death, and that is a love from which nothing can separate us.”  (Suffering and the Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain--https://a.co/aIBLl9n)

We can read, memorize, and share John 3:16 almost mechanically yet not stop to realize the risk God is taking in those first few words, “For God so loved the world. . .” The risk of loving was not only in giving His Son.  Loving the unlovely is always risky yet such love is our only hope! While on earth Jesus was often misunderstood by the very ones He is trying to save.

 

QUESTION: Can you name ways in which God has been misunderstood?

a.     In the OT?

b.    In the NT?

c.     Today?

 

QUESTION: Have you ever misunderstood God and then had your understanding corrected?

 

Hosea and God’s Rescue Plan 

 

At first reading the story of Hosea is one strange story. He is married to Gomer who runs away and has children with other men. That’s bad enough but then God tells Hosea to bring her back by showing her his love all over again.  There is an inherent danger when reading of this story. We want to stand, be the teacher and tell Gomer that what she did was wrong. When God tells the story we no longer become the teacher. We sit silenced by the absurd story and by so doing we listen just as others did in the New Testament. 

 

The relationship that God asks Hosea to have with Gomer becomes a dramatic life parable of His steadfast love for unfaithful Israel.  We want to make Hosea or Gomer or ourselves the focal point but not so.  The book presents a conflict between Baal and the Lord and its impact on those the Lord loves.  The Lord is unwilling to let Baal have Israel!  Baal worship involved gross immorality, including cultic prostitution, as part of worship.  It’s no wonder God had to use the extreme behavior of Gomer to illustrate His love for Israel. Despite all the trouble they were to go through they were to see the “Valley of Achor” (the valley of trouble) as a “door of hope.”

“Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the wilderness

and speak tenderly to her.

There I will give her back her vineyards,

and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

We can get so caught up in the details of the story that we miss two important principles or truths.

 

1.     Because of the trouble we experience we may not recognize that God is at work.

2.    We risk misunderstanding God when He is at work because we don’t like the way He is going about His work.

 

Finding Joy in Suffering

 

During the pandemic families around the world were torn apart. Many lost their loved ones. Not long before the pandemic began Adventist Possibility Ministries had formed a special task force which is now called “Taskforce for Bereavement for Spousal Loss.”  When the pandemic hit, we decided that we needed to step forward.  I asked Dr. Ann Hamel, a psychologist the General Conference uses to minister to our missionaries, to help me address the obvious global need. Ann and her husband had been dedicated missionaries. While on a needed vacation they had a horrible accident. Ann was unconscious for several days. When she came to, she was in a different country and learned that her husband had been killed in the accident. The recovery was difficult physically, emotionally, and to some degree spiritually.   We created a video in which I interviewed her, and she told her story. Included in the video are the testimonies of others from around the world who shared their stories as well.  Trained specialists also shared. The title of the video is “Finding Joy in Suffering—Grieving for a Loved One” (https://www.possibilityministries.org/resources/bereavement-for-spousal-loss-ministry-resources/)  Ann and others tell how joy can be found despite the suffering. 

 

QUESTION: What kind of joy can be found in suffering? Or is it possible?

 

In chapter 1 of Job we discover Satan walking the face of the earth. Implied is that he is looking to do harm. Job is identified as someone who stands firm in his faith and loyalty to God. Satan challenges that and from there Job, faithful Job, is hit with an array of troubles and sufferings. Job is oblivious to the conversation between God and Satan. He can’t see the whole picture.  He struggles—suffering can do that to the most faithful, but such struggle is not a denial of faith.  Sometimes we simply don’t have adequate answers based on what we can see.  However,  in pain, suffering, and the loss of family, Job’s faith reaches out in Job 16:19,20,

Even now my witness is in heaven;

my advocate is on high.

My intercessor is my friend

as my eyes pour out tears to God;

Throughout the book,

1.     Job accepts his helplessness

2.    Job recognizes that ultimately God is in control

3.    Job worships by reasserting his belief in the righteousness of God, ”May the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21) and in Job 19:25, “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.”

 

How Craig’s Suffering Changed the Lives of Ohers

 

The “brethren” at the conference office rewarded my hard work in my first pastoral district by sending me to a place where there was no church.  I was told to start one on the south hill of Spokane. I could not see the wisdom of the call at the time. That is a long story but that’s not my point. While there I met Craig and little did I know that years later my experience with him would be a reminder of why we needed to do more for those whose lives seemed to take a tragic detour.   I don’t remember where I met him. I remember he had a beard and his hair was long, his language was rough, and he had some pretty bad habits. 

 

While fighting in Vietnam he had been shot in the back severing his spinal cord. Never again would he walk. What was amazing about Craig, however, was his ability in wheelchair sports. Other health complications developed later.  It wasn’t long before he and I had Bible studies.  Craig was baptized. Despite his disabilities, Craig never stopped praising Jesus. His disability amplified his witness. Everywhere he went he was known for his kindness and thoughtfulness toward others. He later met Julie and I had the privilege of performing their marriage. They adopted a son from India who so admires his father. 

 

Yes, Craig had a crucible experience because those things are normal in our abnormal world. A few years ago, Craig died but he left behind a legacy of faith that can survive the debilitating effects of suffering. Like many others, Craig learned to live with the heartaches of this world with the faith described by Isaiah,

 

But now, this is what the LORD says—

he who created you, Jacob,

he who formed you, Israel:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

 

Yes, the way God works to save us is a risk for Him. He can be misunderstood but it is a risk He is willing to take  for us so that we might live with the hope that is greater than what Satan may throw at us.

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. –James 1:12