Sermon: Loving God

          Today's lessons are all about faith – having and keeping faith in the depths of despair, heartache, illness, and misfortune.  They are wonderful reminders of the results that faith can bring – happiness, health, joys, treasures untold.

          Let's look at our Old Testament lesson, the ending of Job's tragic story.  Job was beloved of God, blessed with wealth and riches of family, crops and livestock.  Despite this, he was humble and thankful for the blessings he received and credited God for every one of them.  And then one day, the Devil got bored.  He challenged God, and declared that Job was merely a faithful servant of God because he had been so blessed, but that without those blessings, he would curse God's name.

          Job is one of those stories in the Bible that often makes people very uncomfortable.  None of us can explain the concept of a God who allows the testing of His most faithful.  At his very lowest point, however, Job does curse the day he was born.  Despite having done nothing wrong, his three best "friends" counsel him incessantly that he must have done something to deserve this.  And despite being an Old Testament character, Job is the very epitome of the collection of sayings from the Psalms that Paul put together in his letter to the Romans:

There is no one who is righteous, not even one;

    there is no one who has understanding,

        there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;

    there is no one who shows kindness,

        there is not even one.”

          And yet, Job's faith in God never waivers.  He submits himself – his life, his will, everything that he is – to God, to do with as He will.  And God finally ended the tests the Devil had subjected Job to, as Job had never denounced God or denounced his faith.  He had decried his very existence, as he didn't understand the reason for his suffering, but he didn't take his life.  He didn't commit a murder of the image of God that he was.  He submitted to the concept that he didn't understand, but that he belonged to God, to do with as God willed.  And God restored to Job all of the wealth and riches that he had before all the tests.  He rewarded Job for his faith.  He provided to him another family.  And if this were a fairy tale, it would be a happy ending and they would all live happily ever after.

          But this isn't a fairy tale.  And when Job's children died, they weren't returned to life.  Job had faith that they had gone to the Father, but what parent ever gets over the loss of a child – even when they have more children?  There is no substitute.  And perhaps the lesson that Job leaves with us is that there is none righteous, not one – but God's grace will bring His children to eternal life, and that is the faith we must strive to have.

          Yesterday's shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburgh is just such an event that will have so many people asking the question, "How can God let this happen?"  or making the statement, "I can't believe in a God who allows people to die for how they worship."  And the normal answers and arguments include that God gave man free will; that God is there with every one of those who died or were injured, taking them to their eternal life with Him. 

          The United States has so many laws governing free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly – how can something like this happen in our country?  And we often forget that this time it was a Jewish synagogue in the United States, but in other places around the globe, it could be an Islamic mosque, or a Christian church, or a Buddhist temple.  Hatred is not a tool of God – it is a tool of the Devil, designed specifically to make us question our faith.  We can go all the way back to Cain and Abel – and even at that early point in time, God warned against anger and jealousy.  He cautioned us before we even had the commandment not to murder, for to do so was strike down that which had been created in the image of God – and thus was a crime against God Himself.

          Jesus was born to bring God's love to the forefront.  To teach that among the myriad of laws, the most important was to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  Second only to that was to love your neighbor as yourself – to treat everyone you meet, your neighbors, the way that you would like them to treat you.  As Paul's letter to the Hebrews in today's New Testament lesson said, God "appoint[ed] a Son who has been made perfect forever."  And like the sacrifice that Job's friends were told to make in order to repent of their own faults, so that Job could pray for their souls – Christ became the perfect sacrifice for us.  Not just Jews, or Christians, but for the entire world. 

          Like Job, God too lost His Son – for three days, Jesus was dead.  Now Christ is restored to eternal life, but God knows what it is to lose a child.  And I think He mourns with us, even as He cares for those whose lives are cut short.

          We are heirs to the Kingdom of God, with Christ.  As such, and as baptized Christians, we are responsible for carrying on the work of Christ – of spreading the good news of eternal life, and teaching people to love one another as Christ loves them.  We're not alone in this job – not only are all the other baptized Christians out there, spreading the Word, but the Holy Spirit is here to help and guide us to do the right thing, in every situation.  We have to listen.  When we're dismissed today, listen to the commission you receive:  "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord."  With your response of "Thanks be to God", you've accepted that assignment.  What do you intend to do to fulfill it this week?

          Let us pray:  Almighty and merciful God, we ask that you receive into your tender and loving care all those who were killed in the mass shooting in Pittsburgh. Comfort those who mourn. Be with the first responders. Give strength and perseverance to those who work to eliminate bigotry, hatred and jealousy.  Transform the hearts of all who have embraced hateful and bigoted belief systems, so that they may learn love, before others are hurt. And help all people to come to know the truth that if you do not love others, you do not know God. Amen.