April 22 sermon The problem with evil
Psalm 23
Revelation 21:1-8
32 people shot dead at Virginia Tech last week. A teenager in
In a world where the economy has been so strong for so long that it’s calling into question the very idea of any type of economic cycles;
In a world where we have more ways to distract ourselves (Ipods, internet, TV, PlayStations);
In a world where we get up at 5am, get to work (usually doing the same thing we did last week), get home and pull out our home-work, wondering what’s for dinner when you realize little Tommy had a baseball game tonight. You throw on your casual “let’s go out to the ball game” clothes and rush out the door. You get to the park just in time to catch the last inning. You grab snowcones on the way home for the family. Get back to get the kids in bed.
You kiss your spouse on the way to bed and (maybe) tell them you love them. Roll over on your side of the bed with your back to the rest of the world. Finally you fall asleep between 11 and 12 to start the day all over again the next morning.
In that sort of world we easily become insulated from what’s really real (or what really matters). The padding of all this “stuff” muffles the sounds and softens the edges.
What happened in the last week and all the things that happened in the past year, are life. Real life. This is the real thing. There is nothing like the sudden death of the young child to punch a hole in our paper-mache reality. When things like these do happen, it makes us yell out questions.
What is this world coming to? How could something like this happen? Could it have been stopped? God, why do bad things happen to good people? It’s enough to make you want Jesus to come back on his white horse, wipe out all evil in the world, and reign as king.
There are so many questions swirling around in our heads, and so many questions we won’t have answers to; ever. I’ve heard more about this kid with the guns in
Evil can permeate our lives so much it’s not really noticeable. He didn’t talk to anyone. Didn’t have any friends. Just a few years ago when he was in school and the teacher forced him to read, the kids in his class laughed at the way he talked.
Why do humans who have the capacity to do so much good commit such wicked acts? The Apostle Paul says it really well in his letter to the Romans. “I need something more. If the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.
My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something (and this is important) something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?”
Then Paul in his own unique way answers his own question, “The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”
Paul says he desires to do good. He wants to follow the way of our Lord. Paul says that his “flesh”, that is not his earthly body but his earthly human self, desires everything opposed to the Spirit. In Galatians he holds up a mirror to us and says “Look at yourselves. See if any of these works of the flesh are in you.”
In a modern translation, they are loveless cheap sex, an accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, small-mindedness, the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival, uncontrolled addictions, I could go on (he says).
He goes on to bring in the “fruit test”. Do you know what the fruit test is? When you go to buy peaches or cantelope, you smell the fruit to see if it’s good. That’s kind of what the fruit test is. Paul says we can look at your Spirit and see what fruit you produce. If it’s rotten, we will be able to smell it a mile away.
Paul tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love (love of others and love of yourself), joy (joy to be alive and to serve to risen Lord), peace (peace and reconciliation with others), patience (not jumping to conclusions based on perceptions), kindness, generosity (not just monetary, but also with your time and love), faithfulness (faith and reliance upon Christ), gentleness (excellence in character and demeanor), and self-control. There is no law against these things. God wants you to do these always.
Paul tells us that those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap what we sow (Galatians 5-6).
Evil permeates our lives and the world around us. Sometimes it comes in like a flash of lightning shocking us back to reality. Other times though it comes in silently creeping. Have you ever heard of Kudzu?
………Kudzu is a creeping vine brought in from
It takes over everything in your life. It kills. And all conventional means of trying to get rid of it don’t work very well. Snakes and other creatures like to hide in the cover of darkness it creates so they can strike out.
Evil feeds on ignorance. Nobody knew the Kudzu would take over like this….or more likely they believed they would be able to control it.
The Apostle Paul was the same way. When he died he was know as a gentle affectionate man who unselfishly was in service to his Christian brothers and sisters.
But earlier in his life, when he was known as Saul, he was “breathing threats and murder” against the same group”. Why would Paul have perpetrated such evil in his past? He says he had a “zeal for God; but not according to accurate knowledge.” “He was ignorant.” Many sincere people today do evil acts believing they are doing God’s will, but they are ignorant.
But these school shootings, the road rage, the insults, the twisting of the truth…these are not a misrepresentation of God’s will. Jesus told the religious leaders who were intent on killing him “You are from your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father.”
Satan whispered in the ears of Adam and Eve to eat the apple and disobey God. Satan whispered in King David’s ear to take Bathsheba. Everything was his to own. Cain killed Abel. The Nazis killed the Jews. Saddam Hussein killed his own people. This kid at Virginia Tech. Was this kid deranged and need psychological help? Yes of course.
Could anything have been done differently to stop what happened? Recently I don’t think there is much that could have been done. The school could have gone on lock down, and that was a decision they made not to do. But this kid has had problems for years. It’s unfortunate we as parents have to do this, but we have to toughen up our kids.
This shooter was harassed and made fun of for many years. In the last couple years, I saw kids in Julia’s school and living around us being mean kids. It would not be hard to describe it as evil. I’m sure Shara Backus being Assistant Principle can tell us many horrible, many sad stories in her school.
I’m not saying all these kids are evil. However, mankind has experience a surge of evil in this world because of human imperfection, human ignorance, and also the result of Satan.
If you have not read C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, I highly recommend it. It’s a book of correspondence between a chief demon and a trainee. The trainee, Wormwood, is assigned to a man to urge him, nudge him, to keep him from becoming (or staying) a Christian.
In the beginning of the book, the chief demon is talking about how he almost lost his patient to the other side. Knowing that an argument about Truth (you know, like scripture) would not work for his side, the demon moved the man from reading about God to thinking about lunch, then the bus then traffic; And that God stuff was all gone in just a few moments.
Where does Free Will come into all this? Free Will is our choice. It’s our choice to do good or our choice to do evil. Free Will is our choice to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior or to accept ourselves as our Lord and Savior. Free Will is our choice to love other people as Jesus loves us, or to reject others. That is our freedom.
And it comes into play with God. You see, God gave us the Free Will to make a choice. We can choose him or reject him. God will not drag someone kicking and screaming into heaven. He will always be a perfect gentleman.
But sometimes in His infinite wisdom, when bad things happen to us, he will act. Lee Stroebel describes it this way in his book. Let’s say a hunter comes upon a bear caught in a trap. Suddenly he gets a conscience and decides to let the bear go. He tries to communicate with the bear, he tries to reason with the bear, and he tries to make nice with the bear all to no avail.
Then he starts to shoot the bear full of tranquilizers. The bear, thinking he is being attacked again, starts to fight back. The bear doesn’t understand that what is painful now and what seems like an attack is, in the long run going to help him.
Does that mean God caused the kid to shoot others at Virginia Tech? No. God doesn’t cause trials like that. Will he use what happened to bring people closer to him? Yes he will. It’s times like this your paper mache reality will be shredded and you wonder if God is real and if he cares about the world, about the kids, about you.
You think to yourself, “What am I supposed to do to try and stop this from happening again?” Tragedy happens when good people stay quiet and do nothing. First, like I said before, we need to toughen up our kids. Teach them to not let other kids push them off their mountain. 2nd, remember that Kudzu I talked about before? Do you know what the best environmental solution was to get rid of it?....sheep! Sheep will eat the stuff and take it all the way down to the ground.
Who are we as Christians? “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We can cut through all the evil in this world to make it a better place. We are here on earth for a reason. The salvation we have is not only salvation from the Hell after death, but also the hell on this earth. When that reality is totally blown away and there is no bedrock foundation to land on, it will be like going over the hill on a rollercoaster and realizing the track is not finished. By ourselves, we will never be able to conquer evil or Satan. But when we walk through the darkest valley, we will fear no evil, for God is with us.
Then, like the John, we will see a new heaven and a new earth. And the holy city coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And a loud voice cried out “…he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more, morning and crying and pain will be no more.” And Jesus will say, “see I am making all things new. To the thirsty I will give water from the well of life. Those who conquer, those who triumph over evil and resist the temptation, will inherit these things.”
He says, “I will give the Fruit Test. If your fruit is fresh, you will stay and I will be your God. But if your fruit stinks, your place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur.”
I can’t tell you why this kid went shooting at Virginia Tech or why the Columbine shooting happened. It is evil in this world. I can’t tell you why the bonfire tower collapsed or why there was a car roll over on I35 the other day that killed a family. Bad stuff happens in this world.
But we are Christians…we are the sheep of the Shepherd and must do what we can. Last Monday there was a call @ the church. A family was stranded in
They pulled out the
I went and picked them up and brought them back to the church to eat bar-b-que with the men. Then I took them to the Best Western in
I have a friend in
We can’t help everybody, but we can help those who are presented before us. We can make sure our Fruit is nice and fresh. The love of Jesus can do great things and a helping hand might break a heart of stone to bring out the tender child of God that has desperately wanted to be seen.
In your time this week, don’t look past the outcast and the others. Don’t ignore a silent cry for help. Show love to those you feel are unlovable. At one time in your life, you were unlovable too.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
revelation 21:1-8
The New Heaven and the New Earth
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’
And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.’
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