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November 20, 2005
Disappointment with God?
Psalm 43 / Isaiah 64: 1-7
John 11: 1-21
November 20th, 2005
This coming Wednesday evening we will gather in this place to say thank you to God. It has been the custom in this land to celebrate the fourth Thursday of November as a national day of Thanksgiving since President Lincoln declared it so in the midst of the Civil War. I had not realized this coincidence that at a season of great disappointment with our fellow Americans this wise president realized we needed to give thanks to God.
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies . . . In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict.
“Except in the theatre of military conflict.” How many mothers and wives in our land must have wept their prayers to God, as they realized their sons and husbands were fighting to the death against uncles and cousins, “Lord, how long will you let this conflict go on?” They knew that on the other side of the Mason Dixon Line other Americans were calling on the same God to help in defeating their armies.
But in the midst of this time of great disappointment President Lincoln said to us, “Let us give thanks to God.” Thanksgiving may be an antidote to disappointment, but disappointment with God is not an inappropriate response to God.
The Bible shows us a God who causes the rise and fall of nations, who is so concerned with the small details of His creation that He knows when a sparrow falls, and who invites us to pray to Him in time of need and He will answer our prayer. But how often the prayer of faith seems not to have enough faith lofting it before the throne of grace. The heavens remain silent when we cry out to God. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina destroyed the homes of a lot of people who prayed to God to spare them.
I am aware how delicate a thing it is to propose that disappointment with God is not a fault. But Jesus called us who obey Him friends. Friendship is a delicate relationship. I wonder if there is a person here who has not had ups and downs in her friendships with anyone. We say that true friendships stand the tests of disappointment. And so it is with God.
In fact, I believe that the Scriptures tell us our duty to love our neighbor as well as our God because we learn much about loving God from loving our neighbor—who disappoints us. John asks, “How can you love God whom you have not seen if you do not love your brother whom you see?” Why are we tempted to stop loving our brother and sister whom we can see? Isn’t it because they disappoint us. Do we not respond the same to God?
God tells us in His Word, “You cannot love God whom you do not see unless you love your brother that you see.” And you want to say back to God, “It would be a lot easier to love my brother and sister if they weren’t so infuriating!” Jesus’ beloved disciple is getting at something at the very heart of faith. We are afraid to admit our disappointment with God because we think it is a sign of lack of faith. But maybe disappointment with God is as appropriate as disappointment with your brother or sister in Christ.
I found the diary my father kept during the years immediately after our family returned to India in 1951. Many of you know my folks were missionaries in India. Reading my Dad’s diary is a bit like reading the diary of David Brainard, one of Dad’s heroes, who was an 18th century missionary to Native Americans. It seethes with the same longing for God. After coming back to India for a second term of service my dad taught in a seminary in central India. But he also did village evangelism. He would ride his bike out from the small city where we lived and in his excellent Hindi, speak to people in the villages of Jesus.
But this was a very dry period in his life. Though Dad was extremely devout and disciplined, his diary reflects his disappointment. Few people responded to his earnest village preaching. Once he was chased out of a village by men brandishing canes. There was conflict within the seminary where he taught. How discouraging the ministry can be. Every now and then, however, I read that Dad praises God. The praise always comes after something good happens. And when good came it was good from people.
Dad’s diary was like any number of letters I have received from missionaries who persist in their work in the face of continuous difficulty. Financial worries, health concerns, the extreme difficulty of the work itself, separation from their children, hard times getting on with fellow missionaries are all part of the life for missionaries. But when light breaks through as a result of some unexpected good, a word of praise to God erupts on the page. How much nearer and more gracious God seems when we see His hand at work through someone.
Is it any different for you and me? Maybe things are tough at home. Maybe you’re desperately lonely. When your home life suffers, when work is tedious and you hear little thanks from your employer, when bills stack higher than your income, and you’re plugging along as hard as you can, do you ever wonder why God isn’t giving you a smoother road to walk? It doesn’t really help when you’re told to think how much better you have it than folk have it in Rwanda.
Someone said to me this past week, and I’m paraphrasing because I probably shouldn’t use his words from the pulpit: “Life is really tough, and then you die.” And the one who said this gave up on God some years ago though born into a Christian home.
Disappointment with God is one aspect of the life of faith. This is a hard thing to say because it seems impertinent. Paul tells us, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ concerning you.” But within the Bible itself those who are closest to God do not hesitate to express disappointment.
After admitting that it was Israel’s sin that brought God’s judgment the prophet Isaiah writes, “There is no one that calls upon thy name . . . for thou hast hid thy face from us.” Moses told Aaron to bless Israel with these words, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you.” It was a prayer that God would not hide His face from Israel. But God did hide His face from Israel.
The psalm we read together this morning concludes with David’s sadness: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?” He answers his own question, “Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my help and my God.” For a moment David stopped praising God because he was cast down in spirit. But he knew he would again praise God when this time was past.
The story we just read of the death of Lazarus presents us the interesting moment when Jesus’ dear friend, Martha of Bethany, comes to him with her face scored with tears, disappointment with Jesus oozing out of her eyes. She blurts out, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Then, perhaps because Mary was more deeply disappointed in Jesus than Martha, she came to the Lord after he finally arrived. She had waited as her sister darted out the front door to confront Jesus after hearing that He was approaching their house. Mary, who had sat at Jesus’ feet, looking up into his face as He spoke, said those stinging words that intended no hurt, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.”
It’s not as though Jesus didn’t know Lazarus was very sick. He stayed where he was two days after he was told Lazarus was very ill. Then, as though it was just another friendly visit, Jesus ambled to Bethany—perhaps enjoying the beauty of the countryside, the vista of colorful birds and flowers along the way.
But this family had showered on Him the utmost care and affection. He owned them better than this. Once when he was their dinner guest Mary kneeled at His feet and anointed them with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. What kind of a friend waits two days before setting out to do something that needs to be done right away—for people who have loved Him so well? Remember the Gospel of John begins by letting us know this Jesus was God made flesh. Jesus was acting as God acts because Jesus was God.
And thus Scripture presents to us a view of interaction with God that includes the way we feel when we interact with one another. How many friendships have you had that ended when someone disappointed you? I’ll never trust her again,” perhaps you’ve said, your feelings very hurt. In the Bible just such responses come from believing people toward God.
Disappointment with God is part of the give and take of the life of faith. If we were to make a graph of how faith works we’d see it looks like a wavy line. Faith goes up, rising when we are encouraged, and it may go down when we are discouraged. It may dip nearly to the point of seeming to be unbelief. But this fragile thing called faith keeps on; it rises again after it is down. God does not expect omniscience out of us.
What God does expect out of us is that we participate in His work of grace in behalf of one another. You and I would not be so disappointed with God, often enough, if we were not disappointed with one another—and show it. In the 42nd Psalm David remembers how he used to go “with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God.” But something happened. “I say to God, my rock; ‘Why hast thou forgotten me?” The answer comes, “Because of the oppression of the enemy. As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, ‘Where is your God’?” It was people in church who taunted David. Part of the painful fallout of theological differences is that we belittle others with whom we disagree. Fellow worshipers inflicted David’s deadly wounds. The most painful wounds of all are those that come from those we think we have reason to expect the best from—our Christian friends.
So here’s one antidote to disappointment with God. Let’s not tempt others to be disappointed with God because of how we are to them.
A second antidote to disappointment with God is determining to be thankful. “When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”
How do I merit such a study flow of ordinary blessings each day? Name the ordinary blessings of each day and see how long the list becomes. Include in that list the names of others who are agents of God’s blessing.
When I was in Zambia one of the strongest impressions the students made on me was how happy they were. Dirt poor. Living in tiny, cramped little flats with a monotonous diet of enshima, a paste-like mush made of maize, and a few vegetables, they were happy people. And when they prayed they overflowed with gratitude that began with, “I just want to thank you for waking up this morning.” In a land where malaria and AIDS don’t make waking up in the morning automatic, they remembered to give thanks for waking up. How near God seemed in that chapel when the students prayed.
You and I have been given the privilege of creating in our congregation an environment in which God does not seem to be far away. We bolster each other’s trust in God when we radiate thankfulness, and when we apply our shoulders to the burdens others are carrying. They notice and their faith is nurtured at a time when it needs nurturing. Disappointment with God is remote when you and I love one another with a pure heart, fervently.
Let us come this Wednesday evening to thank God for His many blessings. But let us very intentionally make this place such a center each Lords’ Day, indeed each time we are here, where others can feel the tender regard of God because we here notice His goodness, and because of how tender is our regard for one another. Disappointment is inevitable in this troubled life. But disappointment does not have the last word in the life of faith.
I’m convinced that when we determine to be grateful and when we nurture love in our hearts for one another, through the ups and downs of our life together, we are learning how to love God through the ups and downs of life—which we trust is in God’s hands. This is part of the immense role of the local Church, where we meet to worship God, to learn to love Him, and where we nurture and love one another. I pray we may all see how this is so, and make of this community a sanctuary of blessing, of God’s blessing and of ours.
Let us pray: O Lord, we trust in You through the ups and downs of life, trusting that You do all things well. Grant to us the grace to prove to one another how this is so. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Stuart D. Robertson, Pastor
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at November 20, 2005 09:30 AM