BELIEVE- chapter 2 “God cares”
Reinbeck UMC
9/4/16
(First slide is
introductory video)
I imagine most of you
know the story of the three blind men and the elephant.
1. You know
the first Touched the side and said and elephant is LIKE A WALL
2. The
second wrapped his arms around a leg and declared that an elephant is like a
TREE TRUNK.
3. The third
touched the Squirming trunk and said “No, and elephant is more LIKE A SNAKE.”
What you probably haven’t heard is the story of the three
blind elephants who were discussing what men were like. After arguing for a
while, they decided to find a person and determine what it was like by direct
experience. The first blind elephant took felt of the man by taking his big
foot and pushing down as hard as he could to feel what he was like. Immediately he declared that a man is like a
pancake. After the other blind elephants felt the man in the same way, they all
agreed.
All were partly right, partly wrong.
But isn’t that typical? Especially when it comes to God,
people experience or read about one thing and assume that defines the wholeness
of God’s nature. Just as an elephant is not a rope, or a tree, or a wall, and
just like human beings like pancakes, God is more than most of us think or
imagine.
Last week we started
this series called BELIEVE. We started not with whether God exists, but which
God we will serve. We declared “I BELIEVE THE GOD OF THE BIBLE IS THE ONLY TRUE
GOD, FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT.”
The question this
week is, “What is the nature of that God?” We know that God is creator. God is
bigger than we can imagine. God is more than we can describe. God is eternal,
and all-powerful, and ever-present, and all-knowing, and all-encompassing, and
all that doesn’t even begin to describe God. We already know that. What we are
really interested in this week is, “Is God good. And if God is good is he
involved in my life?” In other word, “Does God care about me?”
I want you to hear
three things today.
• God is
good
• God does
Care
• God cares
for you
Some of you are convinced that God is not good or God does
not care because your life has been pretty messed up. There has been sickness,
and death, and cancer, and accidents, and addiction, and jail, and divorce, and
car wrecks, and failed businesses, and unfair job terminations. I can see that.
My life has been messed up too. Our lives are not that different. And I
understand because sometimes it feels as though God doesn’t care. That feeling
does not mean it is true. Our messed up lives are not evidence that God is not
good or that God does not care.
Still others look at the condition of the world: terrorism,
wars, famines, earthquakes, shootings, and all the rest and say, “Obviously God
is not good or God does not care.” Again, none of those problems disproves
God’s goodness or God’s caring.
Through history, Christian theologians have struggled with
this. Some claiming that one of two things is true. Either
1. God is
good and doesn’t care what happens to us or creation,
2. Or God
cares about us but is not good enough (or powerful enough) to do anything about
it.
We all have stories like this… When amber was about 4 years
old, she fell down the steps of the Geneseo church and cracked her head open on
the doorframe. I picked her up and determined it was more then we could handle
so we went off to the emergency room.
Since Robyn and I had a deal that if she did the vomit, I
would take care of the blood, it was my job to hold Amber still and comfort her
while the doctor stitched her up.
Robyn went all the way to the other end of covenant hospital
trying to get away from her screams of “Owie, he’s pulling my hair, Owie, he’s
pulling my hair.” Of course, what Amber was feeling was the suture thread being
pulled through her skin. In her four-year-old mind, however, Amber believed the
Doctor either was good and didn’t care, or if he cared, he wasn’t good. I knew
that the doctor was good, that he cared, and he was doing everything he could
for Amber.
Sometimes a doctor has to lead a patient through pain to
bring them to health. Pain does not prove that the doctor isn’t good. Pain does
not prove that the doctor doesn’t care.
Similarly, our messed up world does not prove that God is
not good. Your messed up life does not prove that God does not care for you.
CS Lewis wrote
If a thing is, free to be good it is also free to be bad.
And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free
will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing
that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of
automata—of creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating.
What this means is that because God is a God of
relationships, there must be freedom to choose or refuse that relationship.
This is one of the ways in which God is good. Evil, injustice, and suffering in
the world do not come from God. They do not prove that God is not good and they
do not prove that God does not care.
Paul writes, “For we
know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill
our hearts with his love. When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just
the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing
to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die
for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by
sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
God is very good and God cares for us more than we can
imagine.
But you might say,
“I’m not important enough for God to care about me.” I know. Neither am I. The
Psalmist felt the same way, if you turn to page 33 of your books and look at
the bold type, you see the Psalmist saying exactly the same thing. “When I
consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon & the stars,
which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?”
The truth is we aren’t important enough for God to love us,
but that doesn’t stop him! Why? Because he wants to. That’s all God wants; to
care for us.
Going back to the
Gospel reading, If God cares for the silly bird that kept flying into our
bedroom window this spring… if God cares for the flowering weeds that grow in
the ditches. Do you really think that does not care for you? Are you less
important than they are? Of course not… God cares for you too.
Too often, we use this passage to beat up on ourselves for
worrying. Even though many of us might deserve that, is that what the passage
really teaches? NO. It is about God’s goodness // about God caring // and about
the fact that God cares for each and every one of us as though we are the only
one in the world.
That seems hard to comprehend, but it really isn’t so hard.
Randy Frazee tells
about an app on his iphone called “RUNKEEPER” that tracks everywhere he has
run. He says that it is pretty amazing. It keeps track of every step he takes
and he can go back and see his everywhere he has been. What is even more
amazing is that it is doing the same thing for 10 million runners
simultaneously. Really? That is a man made computer program. If a person can
make that, is it really so hard to believe that God who is so much greater than
any human or any iphone app, can keep track of a measly 6 billion of us.
More than that, God goes one-step further… the app just
keeps data it doesn’t care about anyone… GOD CARES.
Why does God care about me? Why does care about you? As hard
as it is to grasp, the answer is simple: He cares for us because he chooses to.
Just because he wants to.
• When Adam
and Eve sinned - did God care? God found them hiding in the Garden and he cared
enough to bring them clothes and a promise of a fresh start
• When the
world was disgusting, - evil beyond imagination - did God care? God found a
good man named Noah - and cared enough to give a sinful world a fresh start!
• When
Goliath intimidated the children of God in valley of Elah - did God care? God
cared enough to use David, a shepherd boy, to slay a giant, and rescue a
nation!
• When a
woman arrived at a well, at midday, embarrassed by her circumstances, disappointed
with the men in her life, and discouraged by her choices, - did God care? He
cared enough that he came as Jesus for a private visit and he gave her water so
she would never thirst again!
• When Mary
was heartbroken, sitting in the garden wondering where they had taken Jesus,
did God care? He cared enough to stand in front of her and speak her name. He
cared enough to take her by the hand and restore her hope.
• When
Peter failed the Lord 3 times in one night - did God Care? He cared enough to
invite Peter for breakfast and asked him three times - Do YOU care!
• When
Amber had her heart surgery and I was beating my head against the wall
wondering if we made the right decision. God cared enough to send Dr Bubbles to
make her laugh and here she is today.
• When I
was broken and hopeless, and so mad at God that I thought I would never step
foot in a church again, God cared enough to be patient with me and gently
brought me back into ministry
• When my
dad was dying and I wanted more than anything else, to hear his voice one more
time, God spoke “This is the day that the Lord has made.” As he received my
father into his loving arms of eternal life.
• When I
have been at my lowest, and wondered why God would care for me because I
certainly didn’t, God has always cared enough to walk with me through those
darkest times and use someone (usually Robyn) to remind me how much he cares
and show me a glimmer of hope.
Those things would
not have happened if God were not good.
Those things would not have happened if God didn’t care
Those things would not have happened if God didn’t care
deeply and personally for me.
How about you? I’ll bet if you think for a moment you can
find places where God has stepped in and surprised you by showing you and your
family:
• That God
is good
• God cares
• And God
cares for you.
Think for just a moment and think of a time when God who
cared for you more than you imagined. If you can’t think of one… watch for one…
maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon you will experience God’s care.
Will you say the key idea with me?
I BELIEVE GOD IS INVOLVED IN AND CARES ABOUT MY DAILY LIFE.
AMEN
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