June 2018

Lay Reader = Job 1:13-22

¹³One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest brother’s house, ¹⁴a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were feeding beside them, ¹⁵and the Sabeans fell on them and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁶While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁷While he was still speaking, another came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, made a raid on the camels and carried them off, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; I alone have escaped to tell you.” ¹⁸While he was still speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, ¹⁹and suddenly a great wind came across the desert, struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; I alone have escaped to tell you.”

²⁰Then Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” ²²In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong-doing.

Introduction

We are continuing our series looking at some of the questions people most commonly ask about our faith. We have asked if life has a purpose, and does God really exist. This week we are asking the age-old question – Dear God, why do you allow pain and suffering?

Of course, this question has been definitely answered by the great theological treatise known as “The Matrix.” In the movie, humanity lives inside a computer simulation called The Matrix so that the artificial intelligence civilization can harvest humans for their heat and energy, and one of the artificial intelligence characters has captured one of the free humans and says this to him.

“Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered, where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program, entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world, but I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.”

So there you have it – we live in a computer simulation, and we won’t accept a perfect world. Case closed. Didn’t even need the Bible. We’re going to beat the Baptists to lunch today!

You don’t look like you’re buying it.

OK, then, on the off chance that we aren’t living in The Matrix, let’s take a look at what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

This is Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, and it comes about a year after the first one. In the meantime, Paul continued his church-planting efforts around the Mediterranean. And he continued to face opposition, persecution, even seemingly bad luck – he was shipwrecked, not once, not twice, but FOUR times! That is dedication! How many shipwrecks would it take to get you to stop getting on boats? Go ahead – call it out. How many shipwrecks before you’re landlocked? The smart people in the room just said “once.”

So the church in Corinth got the ministry reports. They heard about how many times Paul had been beaten in Christ’s name. They heard about the shipwrecks. They heard about Paul being thrown out of towns. He was wanted by the law. How could this man possibly be a representative of God? How could this man possibly be the way Jesus chose to reveal himself to cities around the Mediterranean?

Clearly his pain and suffering and trials and bad luck were evidence that God opposed what Paul was doing, right? Here’s how Paul responded.

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

⁷But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹²So death is at work in us, but life in you. ¹³But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke” —we also believe, and so we speak, ¹⁴because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. ¹⁵Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. ¹⁶So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Is God Punishing Me?

In 1988 a researcher decided to look at cancer rates among four different religious groups to see if the lifestyle patterns encouraged by the religion had a measurable impact. So, for instance, the Amish, who live simply and communally, had very low cancer rates for lungs and anything oral. Why? The strong community pressure against smoking accounts for that. Also, lower cervical cancer rates. Being Amish is good!

But the researcher also found that the Amish have “unusually high rates of breast cancer and juvenile leukemia,” and even looking at every known risk factor couldn’t explain why. In fact, sometimes the cancer rates went directly against the normal predictors. So being Amish is bad, right?

So let’s ask the question. Is God mad at Amish women, thus giving them breast cancer? Or is God especially displeased with Amish children, deeming them deserving of leukemia? Is God punishing the Amish for some transgression? Can we all agree that the overwhelmingly most likely answer is “no” to those questions?

Or let’s go to our partner churches over in Zimbabwe. One of the main leaders just suddenly died, leaving a giant void. Their communities can barely afford food. Some of the churches can’t get access to water. Is God punishing them? Of course not! In fact, we could learn a lot from their faithfulness and joy in the midst of that.

I think it’s relatively easy for us to see that God isn’t punishing a group – like the Amish, or the churches in Zimbabwe – I think that’s relatively easy because everyone’s in the same boat. But when it’s our own suffering, or the suffering of someone we know, for some reason it’s very easy to go down the road of asking, “is God punishing me?”

Anyone ever thought that? Anyone ever wondered, “Is God punishing me?”

Jesus’ disciples wondered about that. There was a man blind since birth, and they asked Jesus who sinned to deserve this punishment – the man himself or his parents. And Jesus said, “His parents, they are responsible.”

NO – that’s NOT what Jesus said! Thank GOD that’s not what Jesus said.

Jesus said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned. This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” And then Jesus heals him. But the key is that Jesus strikes down the idea that God is sending a plague upon you because of your sins (or those of your parents).

God Healed Me Because I Prayed So Hard

And lest we think that God is only with you if you’re healed, in Luke 4 Jesus points out a bunch of times when faithful people weren’t healed.

So, “is God punishing me?” Probably not. And “I’m praying hard, but I’m not healed! Has God abandoned me?” Definitely not!

And let me go even further on this. I’ll say that it’s a good thing that God doesn’t tie our behavior to his decision about intervening on our behalf. It’s a GOOD THING that we can’t earn miracles from God. Why? Well raise your hand – get ready here – raise your hand if you have lived a perfect life in God’s eyes. Raise your hand. Any perfect people around here? I’m not seeing any hands.

If our healing, if our rescuing, if our good fortune were tied to our behavior, none of us would earn a thing! The fact that God does sometimes intervene gives humanity a better batting average than it deserves. That’s why it’s considered a gift, not a wage for good behavior.

But that’s how we think, right? Have you ever listened to Christian radio? They’ll share stories sometimes. And inevitably it’s a good story. “I had cancer and the doctors gave me two months to live, but I prayed my heart out and God healed me!” That’s wonderful! But that last part – “I prayed my heart out and God healed me,” that’s where we maybe go off the rails a little bit.

Have you ever prayed your heart out for something that didn’t happen? And I’m not talking about praying for the Broncos to win the Super Bowl – I’m no fool – I know you did it! Admit it! I’m talking about praying for something that you know is in God’s heart. “God, please heal this person.” “God this person is suffering, help them find peace.” Or what about, “God show your power through this ministry?”

There are plenty of people praying their hearts out and not getting what they want – even if it’s something that seems like God would want it, too. But we only tend to tell the good stories.

Our son Charlie has hundreds – maybe thousands – of people praying for his seizures to go away. God doesn’t get a break from that, because I’ve got people praying for him across multiple continents – different hemispheres even. The sun literally does not set on prayers for Charlie. My strategy is to annoy God into doing something about it, and I think I have pretty good coverage on that strategy. I even have the Pacific Ocean covered! I’m a little sparse on Antarctica, so if you know anyone help me out.

And Charlie has improved when many do not. Thanks be to God. But he still has seizures. He still has significant developmental delays. Now, I have to believe that out of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of people across multiple continents and hemispheres – surely ONE of them has faith! Maybe I don’t have the faith. Maybe no one in my family has the faith. Maybe. But surely someone around the world has faith, right?

So I don’t think God chooses whom to heal because of their faith. Paul writes later in this letter that he has a thorn in his flesh that he has prayed for God to remove, but God never did it. Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, “Lord may this cup pass from me, but not my will but thine be done.” The cup didn’t pass from him.

In our text today, Paul says, “we have the same spirit of faith.” In other words, you can have strong faith and still suffer. God doesn’t rank our prayers and then heal the top five for the day. If you’ve been healed or rescued, it wasn’t because you prayed harder than everyone else – God gave you a gift, not a wage. And if you haven’t been healed or rescued, it’s not because you need to pray harder or better.

Why?

So why, then? Why does God allow pain and suffering? Why doesn’t God heal everyone – or at least everyone who says they’re a Christian? That would make for really good conversion material, right? Believe in Jesus – get healed! We could open up a drive-through window for the double pack – conversion + healing for the simple price of the sinner’s prayer. Church attendance would skyrocket!

But that’s not how God works. That’s not what Jesus did – he healed a lot of people, but not everyone. One time he even snuck in and healed one person out of hundreds gathered at a pool – all of them hoped for healing, but only one received it.

But to quote our almost-three-year-old… “Why?”

The whole book of Job, which we read from earlier, is asking that question. Job is set up as a man without blemish. He is faithful even in his suffering. The text goes out of its way to establish that he doesn’t deserve ANY of the suffering that he experiences. His friends spend many, many, many chapters going through all of the ways people try to explain suffering. And I’m going to save you some time here. After 38 chapters exploring this question, God finally answers.

And God essentially tells Job, “It’s not your place to know why. You don’t have my perspective. You don’t know my purposes.” That is not a great payoff for 38 chapters of reading, but there it is. We won’t know why. There isn’t an easy answer for why some people suffer and why some people don’t . There isn’t an easy answer for why some people are healed and some people aren’t. There isn’t a bullet point summary. There isn’t a little quip that can fit on a postcard. It can’t even fit in 38 chapters apparently.

That’s not satisfying, but it’s the truth.

The Promise of Faith

So what are we supposed to do? If we don’t get to know “why,” what does our faith have to say about pain and suffering? If it’s not praying the right prayer with the right fervor, what are we supposed to do?

Well I would say that God expects one thing from us when we are suffering, and God promises one thing to us when we are suffering. And they are related.

Psalm 94 shows us what God promises us: “¹⁷If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. ¹⁸When I thought, “My foot is slipping,” your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. ¹⁹When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.”

Or to get it straight from the horse’s mouth, Jesus says, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I will be with you always, even to the cross. I will be with you always, even to the grave and beyond. I will be with you always, even as you suffer. I will be with you always, even in your pain.

If you have been abused and you wonder where Jesus was, he was there with you – weeping.

If you have cancer and you wonder where Jesus is, he’s there to hold you as your hair falls out from the chemo.

If you have a child who is sick and you wonder where Jesus is, he’s right there at the dinner table and at the hospital with you.

In our text today Paul says “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.”

This is literally the only thing that has sustained me over the years with Charlie – and even then only by the skin of my teeth.

God sometimes changes the circumstances we suffer, but Jesus is always there to give us hope that overcomes despair, inner strength that exceeds the crushing burden, peace even when no human words will help. That’s what we have because of our faith.

In another one of Paul’s letters he says, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Inexplicable peace. Inexplicable inner strength. Inexplicable ability to continue on. That’s what we have because of our faith. That’s the promise.

The Expectation of Faith

And the expectation of our faith is just that – faith. Maintain a conversation with God even if you’re mad. Take a look at the Psalms. Almost half of them are called Psalms of Lament. The Psalm we read to start our worship service is one of them, the one Jesus quoted on the cross – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If the Psalms can shout and shake their fist at God and say, “Wake up, O God. Rouse from your slumber!” Then we can, too.

If Jesus can pray “Why have you forsaken me?” Then we can, too.

But do you know what’s interesting about those Psalms of Lament. They’re conversations WITH God. They are maintaining a relationship, even if it’s an angry one. Maintain the line of communication, even if you’re shouting at God. That’s a faithful lament. The second you stop talking to and listening to God, you’re going to start missing that inexplicable peace, that inexplicable inner strength, that inexplicable ability to continue on. We can’t receive the promise of faith if we shut down our faith.

So the expectation of faith is to maintain a dialogue with God through prayer.

Summary

Sisters and brothers, I can’t tell you why God allows pain and suffering. Go read Job for yourself if you want to. Go read Lamentations if you’re really feeling zealous. We aren’t meant to know why, because we don’t have the mind or perspective of God.

But we do have a promise that Jesus will always be with us. Sometimes weeping with us. Sometimes holding us up. Sometimes strengthening us. Sometimes lifting our hearts. Whatever it looks like, he’s always there. And that gives us the ability to persevere when we shouldn’t be able to. But we can only feel that and access that if we maintain a dialogue with God through prayer.

So however you or those you love have suffered, don’t wonder why God abandoned you. He didn’t. Jesus is right there with you. What does that mean to you? Amen.

Lay Reader = Psalm 19

¹The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. ²Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. ³There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; ⁴yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun, ⁵which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. ⁶Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and nothing is hid from its heat. ⁷The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure, making wise the simple; ⁸the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes; ⁹the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. ¹⁰More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb. ¹¹Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. ¹²But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults. ¹³Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. ¹⁴Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Introduction

We are in the second week looking at some of the most frequently asked questions about our faith. Last week we asked if life has a purpose, and we learned from Solomon that the only way to fill that void in your heart that longs to be fulfilled is to seek God’s purposes alongside others. Solomon tried everything else and it didn’t work.

This week we are asking what is fundamentally the foundational question – does God exist? Most cultures throughout human history have assumed that answer is yes, though there are very different ideas on who God is. But we can’t ask who God is unless we first determine that God does, in fact, exist.

So we’re going to get to some of the reasons people believe God doesn’t exist in future weeks. For instance, suffering is one of the frequent reasons people give for believing God doesn’t exist. That gets its own sermon. We’re not going to tackle that too much here because suffering actually doesn’t tell us anything about God’s existence or non-existence. After all, maybe God does exist but allows suffering for some reason, right? Maybe you don’t like God, but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t exist. Again, we’ll take on that one next Sunday. Stay tuned!

This week, we are just looking at one question – is there a Creator? In other words, are we designed or accidental? And since I’m a geek, get ready to get your science on! Some of you just perked up at that and some of you I think just decided to embrace narcolepsy. I’ll try to make this approachable even if you don’t care if light is behaving as a particle or a wave at this particular instant, even if you don’t know who Schrödinger was and why he had a cat.

We’re going to look at Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. In this section he’s taking up some questions that were being debated by the Roman church. Was God the God of the Jews, or the God of all? Is being born into a Godly home enough to be saved? What about those who have never heard about God as we know God? Why should we care what God thinks about our life choices?

Romans 2:1-16

¹Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. ²You say, “We know that God’s judgment on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.” ³Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgment of God? ⁴Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. ⁶For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: ⁷to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; ⁸while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. ⁹There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁰but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.¹¹For God shows no partiality. ¹²All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but the doers of the law who will be justified.¹⁴When Gentiles, who do not possess the law, do instinctively what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves.¹⁵They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them ¹⁶on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ, will judge the secret thoughts of all.

OK to Doubt?

Children are great. Not all the time. But they’re great sometimes. And they are especially great when they’re asking questions that adults are too afraid to ask anymore. For instance, here are some letters children wrote to ask God some questions.

Dear God, I read the Bible. What does “begat” mean? Nobody will tell me.

God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it.

Dear God, are you really invisible or is just a trick?

And here’s child with some advice for God. Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel wouldn’t kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.

I love it!

Last week I shared how our society has changed so much that we can no longer assume people know what our faith has to say about life, and death, and everything between (and after). But I also believe it’s useful to ask these questions together because even people of faith doubt and wonder and debate.

Every once in a while I am gripped with the terrifying thought, “What if God doesn’t exist and I’ve given my life to a lie?” Now I’ve seen enough and experienced enough in my life that the terrifying thought only lasts about one second, but it still happens every year or two. Hopefully the Personnel Committee doesn’t dock my pay for that.

I think it’s OK to have doubts. To still be in process instead of having arrived in faith. “Weep With Me,” the song I just sang, says “You know I believe. Help my unbelief.” That’s taken from Mark 9 where a father is out of options. He says his son has an evil spirit that causes seizures. As you might guess, this is a part of the Bible I have become VERY familiar with since Charlie developed seizures.

So not even Jesus’ disciples can cast out this spirit. He begs Jesus, “if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us!” Jesus replies, “If you are able?!? All things can be done for the one who believes.” And the father cries out helplessly, “Lord I believe; help my unbelief!”

Jesus doesn’t chastise him for that statement. Jesus doesn’t ignore him for that doubt. Jesus doesn’t punish the child because his father doesn’t know if there’s really any hope left. No, Jesus commands the spirit to leave and never come back, and he takes the boy by the hand and lifts him up to stand on his own two feet. It’s OK to doubt. It’s OK to cry out to Jesus, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

But how do we really even talk about whether God exists or not? God can’t be seen. Jesus was tempted to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who he was, but he declined the option and asked us to have faith instead. How do we have a conversation about whether God exists or not?

Only What I Can See – God is Invisible

Well why don’t we take this in reverse? Let’s look at some of the reasons why people say they don’t believe in God.

One common claim is that we should only believe in what we can observe and measure. If my senses or the senses of our technical instruments can’t observe it, it doesn’t exist. That seems compelling, right, because God can’t be seen directly.

I can say that I infer God’s existence from his impact on me and the world around me. When a name pops into my head and I text them and it turns out they’re going through something difficult right then, is it God or coincidence? And those who believe in the non-existence of God have us on that to some degree – we can’t prove it was divine intervention. It requires faith.

But the whole idea that we should only believe what we can observe and measure – that worked better before 1998. You know how people who were alive when Kennedy was assassinated know exactly where they were when they found out? Or on 9/11 I bet you remember where you were – so shocking. Well for physicists and astronomers, they know where they were in 1998. That’s when they were flabbergasted to hear that the Hubble Space Telescope had discovered that the universe was expanding more rapidly today than it was in the distant past. This would be like throwing a baseball, and instead of falling back to Earth it just kept going higher and higher and faster and faster until it escaped Earth’s atmosphere and zoomed off to Mars. That’s how shocking this was.

So the hunt was on to explain it. Now I’m going to quote NASA on where we are today: “Theorists still don’t know what the correct explanation is, but they have given the solution a name. It is called dark energy. More is unknown than is known. It turns out that roughly 68% of the universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest – everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter – adds up to less than 5% of the universe. Come to think of it, maybe it shouldn’t be called “normal” matter at all, since it is such a small fraction of the universe.”

Why do I share all of this? Because someone who says they only believe in what we can observe and measure only believe in 5% of our universe according to science. If you say that you believe there are things that are inexplicable going on, unobservable, unmeasurable? Well 95% of the universe is inexplicable, unobservable, unmeasurable since that discovery in 1998.

And if someone wants to say, “well we infer the existence of dark energy and dark matter from their effects on what we can observe and measure,” well that’s what we do to infer God’s existence as well.

Marilyn Adamson was a long-time atheist who was inspired to rethink her belief in God’s non-existence because of the faith of one of her very intelligent friends. Over a period of years she observed her friend’s very real faith, and its very tangible value in her life.

So Marilyn decided to search for her own answers. She studied the great philosophers, attempting to synthesize the perfect life philosophy to give purpose and direction and guidance just as her friend experienced in her faith. But there was a big difference between how she studied the philosophers and what she experienced when she searched guidance from the Bible. When she sought direction and purpose from the philosophers, she had to study and cross-reference and search for the right sections. Whenever she prayed to God and then searched the answer from the Bible, she always found herself in the right place at the right time inexplicably. Ever experienced that? I have thousands of times. Her experience seeing how searching for God seemed to be so different than searching for truth in philosophy convinced her that God must exist. There was no other plausible explanation to fit her experience. Like Marilyn, we infer God’s existence through his impact on our lives and our world – subtle though they may be.

The psalm we read earlier says, “the heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” – all of Creation points us toward the Creator.

Evolution – The Bible isn’t Scientifically Accurate

Another knock on God comes from the story of creation in Genesis. When we look at the fossil record here on earth, the order in which organisms seem to develop is different than the order of creation listed in Genesis 1. And how about the calculations that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, and earth is 4.5 billion years old, and that humans didn’t exist for much of that, and probably we’ve been around for something like 300,000 years? But if you add up all the years in the Bible and compare it with what we know in history, the earth should be about 6000 years old. How do you square that?

Well we can admit that those calculations of the age of the universe, the age of the sun, the age of the earth, the age of human fossils – all of that could be wrong. If 95% of the universe can’t be explained yet, let’s entertain that possibility. It’s not like we have a tree with 4.5 billion tree rings on it we can count. That would be awesome, by the way. Those numbers aren’t directly observed, they’re based on assumptions that could be wrong. True enough.

But I don’t care. Because it’s missing the point. Did you know that Genesis 2 also gives an order of creation. And guess what? It’s a different order than Genesis 1! Did the Jewish scholars just fail to notice that two chapters right next to each other differ in their details of how God created? I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure they noticed.

So, to me, that shows us that Genesis 1 and 2 aren’t meant to be a scientific treatise on Creation. It’s not about the “how.” It’s about the “who.” In both accounts, God created. That’s what’s important. Whether it took seven literal days or a 13 billion year process isn’t the point.

And speaking of time, Psalm 90 says “a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by.” So maybe we can take the six days of creation and get to 6000 years. Excellent math! But that’s not the point!

What if I told you there were a million reasons to love Colorado. Would you expect me to produce a tabulated list? No – it just means “a lot.” Many – not all – but many – most even – of the numbers in the Bible are meant to show scale, not the exact amount. In Revelation do you believe there will literally only be 144,000 people saved? Or was that meant to show 12, which means complete, times 12, so completely complete, times one thousand, meaning many. So will there be 144,000 people in heaven, or a great multitude that is completely complete in God’s eyes? It’s dangerous to do math in a sermon, so hopefully you’re still with me. Don’t get narcolepsy again.

Most of the numbers, and especially round numbers like 1000, are meant to make a point, not to be scientifically accurate. The point of Genesis 1 and 2 is that God created, not how or how long it took. If you want to believe in a 6000 year old earth, you can do that. But to say that everyone has to believe that and therefore that any scientific claim that disputes that is in opposition to God – that’s just not true. People of faith can believe that the age of the universe and the method of creation are just implementation details, and Genesis 1 and 2 show that there is a Creator who happens to love us.

Saying that the Bible isn’t scientifically accurate is a fair point. But it’s not trying to be. That says absolutely nothing about the existence or non-existence of God. I like to say that Genesis shows us the “who” of the universe – God created. Science is our attempt to discover “what” God actually made and “how” it works.

Right and Wrong – A Perfect God Wouldn’t Allow…

So that’s the science angle. But let’s go after God where it hurts. If God is perfect, and God is all-powerful, and God loves us, why do so many things in this world stink – figuratively and literally? Again, we’ll cover this in more detail next week, but let’s look at right and wrong. There are wrong things going on in our world, so can God really exist?

Dostoyevsky once said, “If God does not exist, everything is permitted.” In other words, there’s not a concept of right and wrong apart from the concept of a Creator with some kind of purpose or design. If there isn’t a direction to the universe, there’s no way to define right and wrong. It’s arbitrary.

In our text today, Paul talks about God’s judgment. He talks about God showing no partiality. He talks about God wanting to lead people to repentance. He talks about a day when all of the right and wrong will be sorted out by Jesus.

Given that humans in general desire to define what is right and what is wrong, and given that basically every religion has something to say about the right and wrong ways to live, I would say that we are designed to crave rightness. And that only makes sense if there is a Creator imparting a design and a direction on the universe.

This is an unanswered problem in science – why do people cooperate rather than just compete? Why do people have a conscience? There are scientists trying to answer that, but the papers I’ve read mainly just show the benefits and thus posit that they may have been selected for in our genetics because of the benefits. Maybe, but why don’t we see that in other creatures then? If it was genetically selected for in our evolution, it happens to be a pretty rare genetic road because humans don’t have a lot of company on that track.

So does God exist? I would say that the fact that almost every person on the planet has a sense of right and wrong is evidence of God. Paul says that non-believers can instinctively do what God desires because God has written it on the hearts of every person. There isn’t a need for that in an evolutionary sense. It has benefits, but plenty of creatures exist without it. That’s evidence for a Creator and a design for the universe.

Fathers’ Day

Since today’s Fathers’ Day, let me close with an encouragement and a challenge to the fathers in our midst. I’ve spent our time this morning making the case that it’s OK to doubt, it’s OK to explore our questions rather than bury them or just accept dogmatic answers, God won’t disappear just because you aren’t 100% sure. We can say like the father who approached Jesus in desperation, “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

You know, the Bible talks about God in a lot of ways, but one of the most frequent images is “Father.” And because of that, a lot of people have their views of God somewhat intertwined with their views of their earthly father. I would rather have Charlie and Caleb not tie me too closely with God, because I’m not perfect. I’m sure I’m doing things that will make Caleb have to seek therapy some day. Not sure which things yet, but I’m sure it’s there.

But that means we as fathers have an opportunity and a burden. The burden is that our children are watching our faith very closely. The opportunity is that our children are watching our faith very closely. What will they observe from you?

If they observe that faith is all about knowing the right answers, what will happen when they have doubts?

If they observe that faith is something best left to the pastors, what will happen when they have to have faith on their own outside of your house?

What will your children observe from you? What will your children see about the nature of God and faith from you? How can you show them how to seek answers rather than spout them off by rote? How can you show them that it’s OK to doubt and wonder and still remain connected with God?

This challenge and opportunity actually applies to moms, too, but because of the number of times God is called “Father,” our experiences with our earthly father help or hinder us a ton of times when reading the Bible.

Sisters and brothers, I have walked through why I don’t buy many of the arguments made by those who believe God does not exist. But here’s something to think about this week. Why do you believe God exists? How have you observed him in your life and in this world? Why do you believe? If you don’t have a ready answer, I encourage you to actually write that down this week. You’ll be glad you did.

Lay Reader = Matthew 6:25-34

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? ²⁸And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ ³²For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Introduction

We are starting a new sermon series looking at seven of the most common questions people have about the Christian faith. And maybe some of these questions seem too basic if you’ve been hanging around churches for a long time, but let me share why I think this is important. A little societal context for you courtesy of the benevolent overlords over at Google.

I looked at the online searches over the last year worldwide. The most-searched phrases that contain the word “God” in them. Throw out some ideas. What do you think is on that list of most-searched phrases that contain the word “God?” <PAUSE> Well actually they are all variations on the phrase “God of War.” Which is the name of a very popular video game series.

The Beatles’ John Lennon might have taken some flak for saying “we’re more popular than Jesus,” but fifty years later a random video game can prove it’s more famous than God. Times have changed.

So I don’t think we can just assume everyone knows the basics. In fact, we should assume the opposite – that what people think they know about our faith and about our God is mostly based on clichés and caricatures.

You can see at the top of the image on your bulletin all of the questions we’ll be looking at for the next seven weeks. But I do want to give a little asterisk here. I am not the “Moses with the 10 Commandments” guy. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t want you to just listen to me and assume I’m right. I want to equip you to look at the Bible for yourself, to wrestle with your faith yourself, to talk with God yourself, and I’ll give you some ideas and pointers along the way.

So this series isn’t about you listening to Cody’s answers. This series is about helping you to find your answers in conversation with the Living God through prayer and the Bible. Paul writes in his letter to the church in Philippi – “continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” That’s what we’re going to try to do together for the next seven weeks. If you or someone you know is wrestling with one of those questions, the schedule is on the back of the bulletin so you can make sure to come or bring that friend on the right Sunday.

This week we are asking God, “Does life have a purpose?” And there’s actually an entire book of the Bible dedicated to the search for that answer: Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes is in the Old Testament – the first 2/3 of the Bible – and it takes place during the height of the kingdom of Israel. It is written by King Solomon, known as the wisest and richest and most powerful king Israel had ever known. Other kings and queens came from thousands of miles away to consult Solomon on their own domestic issues.

And near the end of his life, he pens his ruminations on life’s purpose – everything he has tried, every way he could think of to find purpose, reflections on power and wealth and influence and faith. It’s good stuff. A bit long-winded, but good stuff. We’re near the beginning of the book, where he calls himself “the Teacher.” In other words, he’s writing all of this down so future generations can learn from his experience, his knowledge, his wisdom, his reflections. So let us learn from the Teacher about the purpose of life.

Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:11

¹²I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, ¹³applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. ¹⁴I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. ¹⁵What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. ¹⁶I said to myself, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a chasing after wind.¹⁸For in much wisdom is much vexation, and those who increase knowledge increase sorrow.

^2:1I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But again, this also was vanity. ²I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” ³I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, until I might see what was good for mortals to do under heaven during the few days of their life. ⁴I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; ⁵I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. ⁷I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. ⁸I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, and many concubines. ⁹So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. ¹⁰Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. ¹¹Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Vanity

Well wasn’t that just uplifting? Who knew Solomon was such a Debbie Downer, right? The phrase he uses over and over again is “all is vanity, and a chasing after the wind.” What does that mean?

When I think of vanity, two stories come to mind. When I was growing up, my parents ran a business where they leased offices to businesses and my parents employed the receptionists and typists and had the copiers and all of that – this was before the computer and cell phone revolution really took hold, so there actually were jobs in receptionists and typists and a need for big copiers instead of desk printers.

And they decided to take their best receptionist to the national convention in Washington DC. She was very beautiful, “glamorous” was the word my mom used. And one night to reward her my parents gave her $200 to go have fun on the town – and that’s $200 in the ‘80s. And the next morning she showed up to breakfast with the results of the previous night written on her face – literally. She had shaved her eyebrows and gotten tattooed eyebrows instead. But they were a little too dark so they didn’t match her hair. And they were a little too arched so she looked surprised all the time. And they were slightly crooked. But other than that it turned out great.

Side note – getting a tattoo on your face on a business trip using your employer’s money is probably not the wisest move. But luckily she was still their best receptionist, but now everyone wondered why she was looking at them funny.

If you want to know what vanity means and what it gets you, that story’s all you need. Chasing perfect beauty no matter the cost and winding up worse off. That’s vanity.

And it doesn’t have to be about beauty. I know someone who spent the first several decades of his life saying that if he could only get $6 million saved up, he would have everything he needed forever. And after a whole life of pinching every penny and taking every possible avenue to make money, I think he actually got there – I know he got close at least. And when he got there did he do a happy dance and rest easy? Of course not! Now he needed $10 million! Chasing a perfect bank account no matter the personal cost and finding yourself unhappy when you reach the goal. That’s vanity.

Solomon has us all beat. He says he applied his mind to knowledge and wisdom, he sought to impose justice, he sought out levity and partying, he tried drink, he tried sex, he built buildings – including the Temple of God – he accumulated wealth, he sought out respect of the rich and the powerful, he even tried gardening! And what does he discover? “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.”

I went on my own Solomon journey in college. I made money as a computer programmer. I made good grades. I took interesting classes – I still remember a lot from my class with a local weather man, and in rhetoric of satire I got to write reports on Mel Brooks movies and South Park episodes. I spent a whole summer breaking down video of Dirk Nowitzky’s basketball shooting form and became a decent shooter myself. I created impressive projects – one of which landed me my eventual job at National Instruments. I wrote articles and learned to do two-dimensional animation and created a cartoon for a humor website. I even had a minor bit of fame – someone in the choir saw me out in the congregation and recognized my face from that humor website even though we had never met. I took up fencing for a while – as in swords, not post holes. I got my scuba license. And like Solomon, it felt like I was chasing the wind. No matter how much I did, no matter how much I learned, no matter how much acclaim I garnered, I was never filled. There was always a void within me.

Ernest Hemingway wrote, “Life is just a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness to nothingness.” Hemingway and Solomon would’ve been fast friends. But that’s how it felt as fulfillment slipped through my fingers as if I were chasing the wind.

Friends

But that’s all that I DID. What is missing from that list and Solomon’s list? How many friends appeared on that list? Well to address that, let’s look at our wedding invitation list. There were people from my high school days. People from my working young adult days. People from my seminary days. People from my growing up days. No one I wanted to invite from my college days.

For all that I accomplished, I didn’t have that many meaningful relationships. That was one of the biggest source of the void in my life. Solomon came to the same conclusion. Later on in a very famous part of Ecclesiastes he wrote, “Two are better than one…pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up…if two lie down together, they will keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone…a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

For all the things that Solomon discovered aren’t fulfilling, deep and meaningful relationships are worth something. Not just Facebook friends or Instagram followers or “hi how ya’ doin’” neighbors over the fence. Deep relationships. People who can pick you up when you’re down. People who can stand back to back with you when you’re threatened. Those are worth something. Deep relationships are part of life’s purpose.

It doesn’t have a to be a large number. An introvert might only need one or two deep relationships. Someone else might feel empty without five or six or more. But think about your own spirit, your own heart. When you think about your relationships – do you feel relationally filled? If not, then no matter how much you accomplish you’re going to still feel a void inside.

Faith

But that’s only half of life’s purpose. I was listening to an interview on NPR with a woman who had explored the impact of faith in some kind of afterlife versus faith in the non-existence of an afterlife. She looked at how different people reacted to life over a period of time and reflected on that in the book. And at the end of the interview she was asked, “Well, I’ve gotta ask. What do you believe? Do you believe in God, or an afterlife?”

And her answer was absolutely fascinating. She said something like, “Well, I wish I could convince myself to believe in an afterlife – to believe in God. I’m almost there but I just can’t quite convince myself. But my friends and family who do believe, they go through life with a sense of hope I don’t have. They think they have a purpose and destination. If they’re wrong, they still benefited in their lives.”

In our first text today, Jesus said, “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” In other words, when we seek God’s purposes in our life, we find our own life filled with purpose. It’s one of those strange things – seeking to fulfill yourself like I did and like Solomon did leaves you empty. But seeking to fulfill God’s purpose leaves you filled. It’s kind of like in your dating years where desperately searching for someone to date chases away the dates, but the second you decide you’re not looking that’s when you get a date. As a side note, that doesn’t work as a date-finding strategy. Somehow the universe knows if you’re faking your non-interest in dating. Just a public service announcement on that one.

What’s interesting about faith is that it doesn’t always change your circumstances. Notice that the woman interviewed by NPR didn’t say that her believing friends had less bad stuff happen. She said they just handled it differently.

With our VBS kids this week we showed them these life preservers or floaties. They’ll keep you above water, but they don’t pull you out of the water. That’s what faith is like – it keeps your head above water when you would otherwise sink.

To illustrate, let’s imagine that you were going to crush me underneath three times my body weight, shake and rattle me around for twenty minutes, and then drop me from a very high place and my stomach would be queasy for the whole time falling. I would probably decline that offer.

But if you told me that all of things would happen because I was riding a rocket to the Space Station, well I’m ready to go right now. Hopefully the Deacons can help my family out with meals for a few days while I’m gone.

Solomon writes near the end of Ecclesiastes, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone.” Our faith, and how we seek God’s purposes in our lives – that’s the second part of life’s purpose.

When we seek God’s purpose, it’s like me riding a rocket. I can endure a lot if I know I’m going to space. When I’m seeking God’s purpose, I can endure a lot more than if I’m just seeking my own.

How’s your faith life? How are you striving for the kingdom of God, not just your own little fiefdom? If you feel a void in your heart or you feel empty, take a look at your faith life. Maybe check out an online emailed devotional. Or join one of our Bible studies. Or go serve at the Community Dinner or the Pastor’s Breakfast or as an usher or greeter or bring food for hospitality. How’s your faith life?

Summary

When I was in high school I acted in and helped with quite a few plays. And the last play I did I was the main actor. Even if you’ve never been in a play, you’ll be able to answer this: how many people does it take to setup and perform a play? Depends, right? But is it usually greater than one? Of course – it takes friends to pull off something as grand as a play.

And sometimes our role isn’t being the main actor. Actually the last play I did I was the main actor and even won an award for my acting. But you know what I’m still most proud of from that play? I was supposed to be a songwriter in the play, and in rehearsal we had always skipped over the part where we were supposed to perform my hit song. But then a week or so before the first performance, the director realized we didn’t actually have a song. Whoops.

So that night I took a piano chord progression I had been working on, and my mom helped me turn that into a song that fit with the play. And even though it was performed by someone else in the play, that’s my proudest contribution to the effort, not my acting. Sometimes the most important thing we do is a little more behind the scenes.

Seeking God’s purposes in your life might not mean you’re the headliner. In fact, I’ll drop the might. You and I AREN’T the headliner in God’s purposes – Jesus is. But you may not even be on stage. You might be part of the behind-the-scenes crew. But the play can’t happen without you.

We are part of the still-unfolding story of God redeeming all of Creation. That’s a pretty grand purpose. When we play our part in that faith story, and when we play our part alongside people we have deep relationships with – that’s life’s purpose right there.

Be a part of something grand. It means you can’t be the main actor in your play. You may not even be on stage! But being a part of Jesus’ story alongside others will keep your head above water when you feel like you should sink. Being a part of Jesus’ story alongside others will keep you grounded when the earth is shaking. Being a part of Jesus’ story alongside others will fill that hole you feel in your heart. Nothing else will. Take it from Solomon. Nothing else will. Amen.