GOD'S WILL AND THE PROBLEM OF PAIN

Sermon Summary, 5/20/18, “God’s Will and the Problem of Pain” (Acts 2:1-12; Mt 7:13-14)

How often do you hear this from someone well meaning at an untimely death, the loss of a child, the loss of a spouse, “It must have been the will of God”?  How could you accept a God like that?  Not my God.  My God heals rather than harms, brings peace rather than pain, stills the storms rather than throwing me to the waves.  My God loves me, even more than I know.  It is the will of my God that we will walk with him and him with me through the storm, the suffering and pain.

But if the losses we experience are not the will of God, what then is the will of God?  How do we find it?  How do we discern it?

My friend Ken posted this on facebook.  Ken and Stephanie can relate to this having to raise a severely handicapped child.  In the midst of life’s twists and turns, Stephanie heard a call and become an ordained minister, not part of Ken’s plan either. 

The secular world will tell you that life is the journey and not the destination.  I would argue it is both the destination and the journey.  The destination gives purpose.  The journey gives meaning.  With our destination as God, we invite Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit to walk with us and we find meaning in the will of God.

We enter life through the narrow gate when we choose to follow Jesus, we journey in his will when we walk in his ways.

The disciples experienced changed lives of meaning at Pentecost through the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit used the Resurrection Event to dramatically change all their lives and in so doing gave birth to the Church of Jesus Christ.  In a way, one could say that the Church is proof of the Resurrection.  The Church simply wouldn’t exist today without that foundation.  And it was built by the experience the disciples, Peter, John, Paul, others had with the Holy Spirit.  The Church and the Spirit are the reason that Pentecost is such a big deal.  The disciples walked in will of God and lived lives of meaning and purpose.

We need not be theologians to walk in the will of God.  We are followers of Jesus.  We simply need to ask in everything thing we do, what would Jesus guide us to do?  How would he ask us to love God and neighbor?  It is Jesus that is the center of all things.  The Father has sent us the Spirit of Christ to teach us all things.  We simply need to walk with him.  More next week.  Amen.