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Sermons

"ETERNALLY GRATEFUL"
EPISTLE SCRIPTURE TEXT:
ROMANS 8:18-25, 28-31

DR. DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, April 22, 2007

Scripture: 18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Message: It had been a long time since George last opened a Bible. Twenty-five years, or more probably thirty. There hadn't seemed to be any need. He and his wife had gotten along well, with hardly an argument during their 17 years of marriage. Their two kids, one 10 and the other 13, were normal, outgoing, healthy. His little backyard hobby to make extra money had proven to be more profitable than his regular job, so five years ago, George had gone into business for himself. Now he had six full-time employees, and it looked like another bumper year for profits. Everything was right -- perfect -- luck had smiled on him uninterrupted for as long as he could remember.
Until tonight. There hadn't been any warning -- at least nothing that he had sensed. He'd come home from work at the usual time -- 7 PM -- and there it was. A note. "Found someone else. The kids are coming with me. Don't bother trying to find us. Goodbye. -- Jan."

And now, here he was -- dazedly leafing through that dusty old Bible. There was supposed to be comfort here, answers -- hope. If only he could remember where. He'd found faith as a child -- where was it now, now that he really needed it?

George's story -- a true one, by the way -- is typical of what passes for "Christianity" among the majority of Americans today. Ask 100 adult Americans on the streets, randomly, if they are Christians, and 84 will quickly reply, "Of course." Even in the first decade of the 21st century, when the reality of most people's lives is "post Christian," generic Christianity remains a more or less assumed background to our society-at-large. We try to maintain a legal separation of church and state, but even that gets blurred at times -- such as having an official national holiday of Thanksgiving to God every fall. And certainly, I'm not arguing against such. It's at least a minor step in the right direction that most of the people in this country, whether they know what it means or not, still think of themselves as "Christians" -- it's much preferable to many lesser alternatives.

Unfortunately though, what is considered Christianity by most of American society today is, in two words, "not much." Whether they brand themselves Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, non-denominationals, Methodists, Lutherans, or even that recently-invented oxymoron --"unchurched" Christians, the actual variety of Christianity subscribed to by millions in the U. S. today can most appropriately be described as "crisis" Christianity. As long as things are going well -- on an even keel -- in our lives, religion is passe. God's in His heaven; all's right with the world. He's doing His part, and I'm doing mine. I'll maybe send a dollar, or even ten, to the charity of my choosing on occasion. And if nobody pushes too much, I might even attend a worship service at Christmas or Easter in gratitude.

OK. But let something go wrong in our lives, and then, oh boy, look out God! Here I come, storming the gates of heaven! Call the preacher, wake up the priest, open wide the doors of the Church. Why, God, why? Why did my kid start taking drugs? Why did my mother come down with cancer? Why did I lose my job and my financial security? Why don't you make everything "right," God, the way it's supposed to be?

This morning, I'm going to attempt to provide some authentic, Biblically-based answers to the "why's" that "crisis" Christians -- who include more than a few of us -- raise when something goes "wrong" in their lives. I'll give you a "fair warning" before I begin, though: You probably won't like the answers I'll be offering. You'll find them somewhat different, I suspect, from what you'd like to hear -- and from what you probably have heard from some of the cheap grace, instant health and wealth, rah-rah radio and TV evangelism that is popular with a significant segment of the American populace today. But these answers, I believe, are solidly based upon Biblical truth.

Why do things go wrong in our lives and our world? Why can't everything be hunky-dory, peaches and cream, all the time? Doesn't the Bible say that "all things work together for good for those who love God...?" Yes -- that's true. It's part of what we read as a text for this message this morning -- to be precise, it's one clause out of Romans 8:28. So it's the Word of God, and the Word of God is always true. But it's most true when it's not lifted out of context, but considered together with the rest of the same passage of the Word of God.

That same chapter, Romans 8, also says, "...the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the One who subjected it, in hope..." In other words, God has deliberately set limits upon this world -- limits that make it less than perfect. It's a good world as God designed it, but it's not an ultimate, unlimited, perfect one.

What does that mean to us? It means that those natural, God-placed limits can, at times, cause us problems. For example, when we come to realize that we are rapidly pumping out the last of the deposits of oil which God has placed beneath the surface of planet earth, we've got a problem. When we abuse our flesh-and-blood bodies with excess alcohol, tobacco, and exotic chemicals in the water we drink and the air we breathe, we've got a problem. And most of all, when mortality -- death -- stares us in the face, we've got a problem.

But these are not problems for God -- because He deliberately set just such restrictions upon our world, and, by implication, upon our lives in this world. Be sure to listen carefully here. Please don't hear this wrongly, nor too simplistically. This Scripture is not saying that God causes wrong or suffering in our lives. It only tells us that God has placed natural, reasonable boundaries upon human existence. How we react to those limits is our business. If six percent of the world's populace chooses to consume 30% of the world's limited food supply, that implies, logically, that 24% of the world goes hungry. Is that God's fault?

Probably not. But then the next big "why" question that "crisis" Christians usually ask is this: Why didn't God make a perfect, unlimited world for humanity in the first place? If life was utopia, then we'd all be able to smile sweetly at each other -- and at God -- forever. Oh, yes -- such an existence would be marvelous, carefree -- and boring. Every day like the one before, every person a clone of every other, every event determined, predictable -- ad nauseam. Most of us certainly wouldn't like it that way, either.

Actually, God started out in the creation with the possibility of unlimited perfection for our world -- in the Garden of Eden. You already know how Adam and Eve rejected that! No -- human beings need boundaries to push against, limits to overcome, challenges to master. We've all heard inspiring stories of how women and men seem to pull out the best from themselves when faced with the most impossible odds. The Bible puts it this way: "...the creation was subjected to frustration -- in hope..."
Hope. Hope encourages us to reach out -- and up -- toward our true destiny. Hope spurs us to seek God, realizing that He is the only key to our fulfillment. Our Scripture text today goes on to say, "For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

"We wait for it with patience." In the contemporary world of 60-minute TV resolutions to every dilemma imaginable, of instant gratification of virtually every human whim, many even sincere Christians, when faced with crisis upon crisis in their lives, are wont to say, "Haven't we waited long enough? Haven't we been patient -- and hoped -- far beyond all reason? After all, it's been more than 2,000 years since Christ came. Things are getting worse all the time. Why doesn't God do something -- ring down the curtain -- rescue us from this mess and take us all to heaven -- now? Christ promised that He would return -- and He said it would be soon, didn't He? Why doesn't he hurry up?!"

The subject of the return of Christ is a sermon -- or two -- or ten -- in itself. I won't try to unpack it today, except to say these brief words: Every generation of Christians, ever since the time of Christ, has had its share of those who felt their world was on the brink of total disaster -- and therefore Christ should rightly appear immediately. The calendar turnover to the new millennium was, as most of us still remember, a convenient milepost upon which to hang such apocalyptic thinking. But the perspective of faith -- and hope -- says this: "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us."

The Apostle Paul, human author of today's text and of a lot more of the New Testament, longed to leave this fallen world and join his Lord in heaven. He said so repeatedly in his letters -- see II Corinthians 5:8 as one example. Paul had ample good reasons for wanting to leave this world behind. Beaten, mocked, imprisoned, shipwrecked, stoned for his faith, Paul probably should have been the most impatient Christian who ever lived, begging to have Christ instantly return and take him away with every breath he drew. But Paul relegated his own personal longings to the background, and submitted to the will of God for his life. And what a life Paul's became -- as he patiently allowed God to direct his steps!

Christians -- "crisis" and all others -- consider: From the perspective of God's will -- and God's timetable -- what are 2,000 years? An eyeblink on the face of eternity? What God has in store for Christians in the course of just the first 10,000 years in heaven will more than compensate for any and all tragedies, crises, and adversities which confront us in the span of an earthly lifetime.
Some of you probably hear that last statement as foolish. There goes another preacher talking "pie in the sky, by and by," and not sticking with the reality of coping with life here and now. But, Christians, I would rather contend that, in the present day, the Church has already grounded itself in earthly concerns quite carefully enough and far more than long enough. It's high time Christians stopped limiting our hope to what can be applied and experienced in the here and now. Heaven is as real as it gets. The Kingdom of God is going to last a lot longer than this world. And from that perspective, we can eagerly embrace Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."

We began this message with George, a backslidden Christian faced with an unexpected crisis in his life. Far too many American Christians today, churched and unchurched, are like George -- rocking along, paying lip service to God -- until a crisis hits. But God is not unconcerned for us -- in the good times, when we forget Him; and in the bad, when we rush to Him for support. God has a plan for each of our lives -- a plan for ultimate, lasting good. And someday, every Christian will be eternally grateful to God, through His Son Jesus Christ. Amen

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