THE PROBLEM OF PAIN

Sermon Summary (8/13/17) “The Problem of Pain” (Lam 3: 21-24; Matthew 27:45-46)

The Central Temple, London’s major Methodist Church was destroyed in the Blitz in 1940.  The war was up close and personal to the people of Great Britain and they sought answers, “Was this the will of God?”  A few months later, Rev. Leslie Weatherhead gave a series of sermons, “The Will of God,” which remains in publication today.

When our son, Jeff, died, now 37 years ago to day, we suffered for years.  I think 6 years later, we sat with a pastor and his wife who had just tragically lost a son.  A few days later, he mailed us a copy of the Weatherhead’s book.

We often say with best of intentions, harmful things to those grieving.  “Everything happens for a reason.’  “It was part of God’s plan.” “It must have been the will of God.”

Weatherhead hits these dead on.  A doctor valiantly strives for months to save his wife who passes away. “It must have been the will of God.” Does that mean all of his efforts were counter to the will of God?

A man loses a son over Berlin.  “I must come to grips with the inscrutable will of God.“ It may have been Hitler’s will, certainly not God’s.

A woman loses a baby and says, “It must have been the will of God,” but quickly adds “If the doctor had made it here on time, he could have saved my child.”  Does that mean if the doctor had arrived that he would have been working against God’s will?

Adam Hamilton tells of a couple would struggled to conceive.  After years they did, but with weeks the child died.  “I believed that if I was good and if I prayed, God would reward me”  The woman could not cope with this and rejected a God who would take her child.  She happened to be a Methodist pastor.

Too often we think the bible describes a Pollyanna world for those who believe.  Instead, it is a stark reality of the problem of pain (Ge 3:16-19; Ps 22; Lamentations; Job; Mt 27).  “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me.”  One man may have said it best: “The biblical narrative is best described as a whole lot of things happening that God doesn’t like and God coming along behind to clean up the mess.” 

If we believe that God is coming along behind to clean up the mess, that may be the ultimate reason for hope.  We believe in eternal life, not as a consolation but the God turning the problem of pain into glory.  CS Lewis says “Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn [every] agony into glory.”  He will give us the life we always wanted.

And we get glimpse of that glory today.  The couple above adopted three little girls.  They received the life they always wanted; and the girls received a life they couldn’t have imagined.  “Therefore I have hope.”