Sermon 6/20/2021 “God is good… all the time”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection, 2800 Hope Way, Alexandria, VA
Text: (All of them)
Day: 4Pentecost, Proper 7, Year B
There is a certain call-and-response better known in congregations of other churches than The Episcopal Church. “God is good,” the preacher proclaims, and the congregation responds, “All the time!”
This call-and-response works the other way around, also. “All the time,” I would declare, and your response would be, “God is good.”
This might seem like a trivial exercise, but this is not the case. Perhaps we Episcopalians aren’t as familiar with this affirmation that “God is good” <……> because our lives are so good, relatively speaking, compared to those whom our culture has “marginated” that we don’t need to be reminded so often that “God is good…” <……> “All the time!”
But what about during a pandemic? Is God good then? Why would God even ALLOW a pandemic to exist, anyway? Who is God punishing?
And, since we are asking WHY questions today, “Why would God allow my child to die?” and “Why would God require ANY OF US has to die?” Why, why, why!
ALL our lessons today speak to this question we ask of God. Theologians call this the “theodicy question,” which is why a good and all-knowing and all-powerful God would permit bad things to happen to us. Let me tell you the answer to the this question: <…..> “We don’t know.” But we don’t let that keep us from speculating. Because WE WANT TO KNOW, “Why, God?”
The story of Job, who is in conversation with God in our first lesson today, explores the question of why bad things happen. In ancient Israel people thought that God rewarded good people and punished bad people. Job was a just person who had a lot of horribly bad things happen to him. The question was, “why?” Why had God allowed bad things to happen to a good person?
As Job was stripped of everything good about his life, Job still praised the Lord. Three of Job’s friends came to visit him. They were a help at first because they simply sat with Job silently, keeping him company in his ordeal. This is an important part of Job’s story because we humans think we have to SAY or DO something for a grieving, ill, or depressed person, when what is required is our presence.
After seven days, though, Job’s friends began speaking. Scholars suggest that each of Job’s three friends argued a popular theological idea of the time. One of the friends, for example, was convinced Job had done something terribly wrong and that God was punishing him.
Job’s second friend, recognizing Job’s essential goodness, suggested that it was Job’s ancestors who had grievously sinned. We know from the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John that Jesus himself later disputed both of these theories. When Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Think about THAT a second: Bad things happen to good people to allow God to shine through.
In the end, none of Job’s friends truly helped because they turned to searching for who was to blame. And eventually, Job began pestering God with the WHY question. Today’s lesson is God’s answer. “Were you there when [I created all there is?],” God asked Job. In other words, God reminded Job that “I am God, and you are not God.”
That’s the lesson we must learn, that “God IS God, and we are not God.” And the test we are given in life, if we are given any divine tests at all, is to praise God for our creation and our existence NO MATTER WHAT happens to us in life, even if we proclaim the goodness and greatness of the Lord through tears and clenched teeth. Because “God is good!” <……> “All the time!” even when we don’t feel blessed by life.
Our psalmist today takes up the issues from Job with the only answer that God ever gives to our great woes in life, “I am right here with you,” God says, “and I love you beyond measure.”
Our psalmist says this a different way, though. He says, in essence, that when we are at our wits’ end, then we cry to the Lord in our trouble, and he will bring us out of our distress. The psalm suggests that, in our adversities, what is required is for us to call out to the Lord, who is always with us.
At this point, we think, “But I called on God and my situation didn’t change.” In other words, God did not (pick one) heal me, save my loved one, put my marriage back together, restore my fortunes, or whatever I cried out to God about.
That’s the thing about exploring the question of divine justice: Not only do we not get our WHY question answered, we don’t always get the answer we desire. Our epistle lesson addresses this by telling us ANY answer we get to prayer, even if not the one we had hoped for, is through God’s grace. Even a “no” answer is acceptable, the apostle Paul says, because God has listened to the prayer of our heart, and God saves us.
Our gospel lesson today tells of a time these lessons got put into action. Jesus’ followers were in a boat with Jesus when a storm arose that threatened their lives. And, because Jesus slept through the storm, they blamed Jesus for their situation. They asked, “Don’t you care, Lord, that this bad thing is happening to me?”
Jesus saved them, demonstrating his great love for them and for us—demonstrating his presence with us in our distress and fears—even as he chided his disciples for being afraid in the first place.
What are you afraid of? Despondent about? Given up on? Asking God “WHY?” about? Cry out to Jesus, and here’s what I recommend you say, “God is good!” <……> “All the time!”
