Sermon for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 22B  Lectionary 27
October 4, 2009
Texts: Job 1:1,2:1-20; Psalm 26; Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Why do bad things happen to good people??

When we see a good person suffer a senseless tragedy
It offends our sense of how we think the world should be.

We would like to believe that logic and rationality prevail in the world.
It would be so much easier if we could believe
That good things always happen to good people
And bad things only happen to bad people.

The “get what you deserve” school of thought,
Is comforting,
If only because it lets us think we understand the world
And that we have some control.

If we are good,
Then we and our families will be safe and protected,
And our life will be predictable.

Yet all around us
We see things that don’t make sense
On the “you get what you deserve” standard.

A man in his prime
Who seems to be living a good, righteous life
Killed in an automobile accident.

The innocent child born with severe handicaps.

Presidents like Kennedy and Lincoln,
Killed by assassins,
At a time when their country needed their leadership.

The pastor of the New London Baptist church,
Who is a talented, sympathetic well-loved pastor,
With high school aged children,
In the final stages of dying from cancer.  

A healthy middle aged man,
Who finds himself the victim of a crippling illness.

Why do any of these things happen?

If we think we understand God,
And that a predictable good God,
Does things according to our standards.
These things shake our foundations.

Rabbi Kushner in his book,
“When Bad Things Happen to Good People”
Writes of his own experience being the father of a child with a fatal illness.

He was a young inexperienced rabbi
When his bright three year old son
Was diagnosed with progeria,
A disease which causes rapid aging
And death by the time the child becomes a teenager.

Kushner had grown up with the idea
Of an all-wise, loving God,
Who gives us what we deserve.

Now, how could he, who had devoted his life to God,
Have a child who would suffer every day of his short life?

How would he be able to watch his son die
At the age when his sons’ peers
Were planning for college, careers and marriage.

All of these seemingly senseless things
Offend our sense of what is right.

After all, we want God to behave predictably, according to our standard.

In some ways, it would be so much easier
To believe that God only doles out bad things
To the people who deserve them.

Then if we saw someone who suffered a tragedy,
We could assume that the person had done something wrong,
And God punished them.

And if that were the case,
Then we could be certain
That our good, righteous, generous God-fearing behavior
Would protect us
And that we would never have to experience tragedy.
Yet, in a world that predictable,
If something bad did happen to us,
Then we would have to deal,
Not only with the tragedy,
But we would have to examine our souls and our behavior
To search for the cause of the tragedy.

The question of Why do bad things happen to good people
Is at the heart of the Book of Job,
Which is introduced in our First Lesson this morning.

This book begins with the words,
There was once a man from the land of Uz…

Uz is not an Israelite location,
And we don’t really know where it is,
It may even be an imaginary place.

We do know that Job, from Uz,
Would be considered a stranger or foreigner among the Israelites.

This beginning is almost like “Once upon a time”
And helps us to realize that this book of the Bible
Is in narrative form, and it is a story that God gives us
To help challenge our comfortable, conventional way of thinking,
About good things and bad things.

We hear from the beginning that Job is blameless and upright
And that he fears God.

The very kind of person,
That if you believe good things happen to good people
Should have only good things in his life.

Things do start that way
Job is wealthy, with fields, livestock,
Servants and wonderful sons and daughters.

Yet as we get into the story,
We hear how ha-satan will test Job.

Do not think of ha-satan, the satan,
As the devil, in the New Testament sense.

In Hebrew, ha-satan is an adversary or judge,
A member of the heavenly court.
He is out there protecting God.
In this story, ha-satan, the judge tests Job,
To see if Job will turn from God.

And tragedy does indeed strike Job and his family.

Yet in the midst of pain and suffering,
Job does not deny God.

Even when his wife tempts him,
By telling him to just curse God and be done with it,
Job refuses.

He asks a key question,
One that strikes at the heart of our question
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Job asks rhetorically “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God
And not receive the bad?”

Job is not saying that God has designed
Suffering for him as a form of punishment,
He is merely acknowledging that bad things do happen.

For many of us, when tragedy hits,
Our first thought is that God hates us
Or that God is punishing us for something known or unknown to us.

How many times have you seen someone,  
In the midst of a crisis,
Strike out and blame God?

“Why did God do this me?”,
Is often the anguished cry
Of someone who is suffering.

And have you ever seen people torment themselves,
Believing that some sin they committed caused the tragedy?

Many of us do become angry at God
When something happens to us
Or to someone we love.

Unlike Job, some of us do walk away from God,
Or even curse God.
When we have trouble dealing with terrible things.
I’ve seen,
And I’ll bet you have, too,
The hand clenching
Table banging,
And condemnation of God
In the midst of seemingly undeserved heartbreak.

By contrast, there is the picture of Job,
The narrator paints for us,
Sitting on a trash heap,
Scratching his skin ulcers
With a broken piece of pottery,
And at the same time,
Declaring his faithfulness to God.

Job does not deny God,
And we will learn that God also remains faithful to Job.

Job has realized
That God does not give
Only good things to good people.

And although it might seem easier to us
If God followed our preferred rule
Of good things for good people,
Think about where that would leave Job,
Or where it would leave us in the midst of suffering.

If God followed our rule,
Which is unlikely in any case,
Job, or even you,
Would have to add self-blame,
To any suffering that you do experience.`

At least Job did not have to question
Whether God had abandoned him
In this midst of his other calamities

Despite the tragedy that had befallen him,
Job was able to remain stalwart in his faith,
And confident in God’s presence with him.

Think what comfort we can find in the midst of tragedy
With the assurance that God is always faithful,
Even when the circumstances of our life
Might lead us to believe otherwise.
Think about the tragedies that have struck your life,
Or the times you have watched a friend or loved one suffer.

Would you rather go through these things alone,
Or with the sure and certain knowledge
That God accompanies you.

The reading from Hebrews this morning
Gives you an additional lens
Through which to view
The support given in the tragedies of your life.

For you who live after the birth, death and resurrection of Christ,
Hear these words.
Long ago, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets.
But in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son…
Through whom he also created the worlds.
He sustains all things by his powerful word.

The God who speaks to you through Jesus,
Is the same God who sustains you
In the midst of whatever happens in your life.

In the middle of cancer, divorce, Alzheimer’s Disease,
Troubled teens or illness that strikes in the prime of life,
You have the promise that God sustains all with his Word.

Sitting on the ash heap,
Suffering unspeakable tragedy,
Job remained faithful without such assurance

We do not have an answer to the question
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”

But you have the words of assurance that God sent Jesus for you.
You do not have to suffer alone.

God promises to sustain you through Jesus,
And God gives you the power of hope,
Known through the resurrection,
God’s powerful Word,
The gift given just for you.

Amen