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Romans 5:1-5 NRSV Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 8:26-28 NRSV Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:35; 37-39 NRSV Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let us pray. Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove; descend on us, reveal your love. Word of God and inward light, wake our spirits; clear our sight. Surround us now with all your glory; speak through me that sacred story. Take my lips and make them bold. Take hearts and minds and make them whole. Stir in us that sacred flame; then send us forth to spread your name. Amen.

In recent weeks, we’ve been dealing with the problem of suffering. With a lot of help from Phillip Yancey and Adam Hamilton, in several recent sermons, I’ve been trying to challenge and deconstruct some commonly held ideas about God’s role in human suffering.

Very quickly, I want to review some of the things that I’ve said.

First, we’ve challenged the commonly held belief that God is behind every event that takes place. I said that it is inconceivable to me that God would be behind things like a student at Northern Illinois University who shoots more than 20 and takes five lives, or the guy at Virginia Tech who took 32 lives, or the mother who went out on New Year’s Eve leaving her two children alone to perish in a fire. For as I look at Jesus, who reveals the heart and mind of God, I cannot imagine God being behind such things.

Last week, I talked about how I believe that things like tornadoes and tsunamis have been misnamed “acts of God.” I said I don’t believe that God causes such things or causes accidents or gives us diseases like cancer. Just like you would not inject cancer cells into your child to teach your child a lesson, God does not do that to God’s children.

Also, I talked about two big ideas: on one hand, deism, and on the other, determinism. Deists believe that God is the clockmaker who created the laws that govern the universe and wound up the clock and walked away. They see God on the outside looking in, but not involved.

And then we looked at determinism, the opposite pole. A determinist says that God is in control of everything and everything that happens is somehow God’s doing. This view, which is most commonly held by Muslims and Bible-belt Christians, holds that everything that happens – whether it be an earthquake or a tsunami or a flood or an accident or a disease or some evil deed done by someone – happens because God actively wills it to happen.

I said I’m not a deist or a determinist. I stand somewhere in the middle. That left some of you asking questions this week, like “Well, then, what do you believe?” and “How do you pray?” and “How does God work in the midst of our world?” And a few of you said to me, very much with a smile on your face: “You really painted yourself into a corner. I’m looking forward to seeing how you get out of this.” Some of you said, “Rick, are you really just a closet deist?”

And I would say to you, “I am far, far, from a deist.” I believe that God is very active in our world...constantly at work. God is working at every moment in every life, but it is not a part of God’s normal way of working to suspend the laws of nature or for God to do magical things.

God’s primary way of working in the world is not the supernatural, not to be the grand puppeteer who is pulling the strings and making everything happen that happens. But if God is not that, then how does God work?

What I want to do this morning is to lift up for you five bedrock truths upon which I base my life....five ways that I have experienced God at work in the midst of suffering.

Bedrock truth #1: God’s primary way of working is through people.

It’s clear in scripture. For when God wanted to create a nation that would be a light for the world, what does God do? God doesn’t just snap God’s fingers and it’s there. No! God calls a person by the name of Abraham.

And when God wants to set people free from their bondage in Egypt, what does God do? God does not, at the snap of his fingers, make them free, but rather God calls Moses...a stutterer...and says, “Moses, you go to Pharaoh and say, ‘Let my people go.’”

And how about when Goliath is taunting Israel? God chose a scrawny little shepherd boy to go up against the giant. God sent a person.

And when God wanted to speak to Israel at a time when they were going astray, God did not send lightning and thunder, rather God sent the prophets.

And when God wanted to reveal for all time who God is, what God is like...when God wanted to redeem the world, God came as a person. And not just any person, but a baby! (Hamilton)

God works through people! But God doesn’t work through people by coercion; God works through influence. God never forces, rather God is constantly wooing us and inviting us. God has a plan for every life, but we always have the choice whether to pursue that plan or to ignore it.

I think about the times that people point their finger toward the heavens and proclaim, “God, why do you let hunger and poverty happen? Why do you let so much of what is happening happen to people who are poor and hungry?” And when we point our finger toward heaven, there are always three fingers pointing back at us, for God is saying to you and me, “Why do YOU let this happen?” God is saying to you and me that “I have provided enough to provide for all of my people, so why do you consume so much and share so little?” God has provided for the hungry of the world. God has given you and me a call to share.

Jimmy and Jennifer Murphy are here this morning. I asked Jimmy and Jennifer how God has been at work in their lives in the midst of the pain and the loss that they have experienced. They did not get what they most wanted; their baby died after only a few days of life. Yet God drew near to them. They will tell you how they felt loved and fed and prayed for and supported and upheld. Jimmy and Jennifer have said, “We felt awed by what God’s people can do.” And as a result, they felt not the absence of God in their pain, but God’s presence in the love of God’s people. You became the hands, feet, and voices of God. And that didn’t happen because I stood in the pulpit and said, “Now, you ought to do that.” No! It happened because the Spirit of God moved among people saying, “Yes, we can be the instruments of God in this time.”

That leads me to the 2nd bedrock truth about how I believe God works: God works by what is known as the Holy Spirit. God speaks to you and me through the still, small voice.

God never shouts at you and me. God doesn’t coerce or bully or act in ways that take away our free will. God whispers and seeks to influence you and me.

Recall with me, the story of Elijah. Elijah is out in the wilderness. He has experienced the distance of God. He has failed at what he wanted to do. He sensed God absence and he wants to hear from God. There is an earthquake and Elijah says, “Surely God is in the midst of the earthquake.” But God is not in the earthquake. Then there is the fire and Elijah says, “Surely God is going to speak to me in the midst of the fire.” But God was not in the fire. Then there is the mighty wind and he says, “God surely will speak to me in the wind.” But God does not speak in the earthquake or the fire or the wind. What follows is this utter silence. And Elijah hears the whisper. God spoke in the whisper.

I know that you have heard the whisper of God in your lives when God said something to you in that quiet way, like: “Please don’t do this...please don’t go this way.” But you went that way anyway, and ended up making a mess of things.

Last week, I told you about Charlie Graham puling out in front of that big, red dump truck. I believe that God was whispering to Charlie Graham, saying to Charlie -- as God had been trying to do throughout Charlie’s life -- “Charlie, I am with you. I know your life is hard. I know how easy it is to just be so self-concerned, but I love you, Charlie, and I want you to be aware of my love and I want you to be more aware of the world around you. Open your eyes, Charlie, and look.”

But it is so easy to judge the “Charlie’s” of the world. For when I look at my own life, I know how easily I get preoccupied, distracted, so self-concerned and so concerned about what I’m going to say next, that I don’t take the time to be silent and listen for the whisper of God.

I believe God is speaking to us all the time, saying, “Be fully alive to my presence and to the world around you.” Someone said it this way: “The glory of God is a man or a woman fully alive, alive to God and alive to the world, to other people and to creation.” God is whispering. God doesn’t shout.

A few years ago, in a particularly tough time in my life, when I had made a royal mess of things at the church that I was pastoring, I woke up in the midst of a very troubled night. I looked over at my wife, who was sound asleep, and I felt this overwhelming sense of love for her...that she had loved me and stood by me, though I had failed her and failed the church in so many ways, and I thought, “Oh how much I love you.”

The next thought that came to my mind was a voice deep inside that said, “Rick, that feeling of love...that’s how I feel toward you. That surge of affection that you feel towards Jane as you look at her sleeping is just a little inkling of the way that I feel towards you. I look down at you at all times and I see the messes that you’ve made. I see the sin in your life. I see your inadequacy. But I feel so much love for you, Rick. What you are feeling right now is just a little indicator of how much I love you.”

Now, can I prove to you that it was God speaking and not just wishful thinking or an over-active imagination? No, I cannot prove that to you. Am I fallible about recognizing God’s whisper? Absolutely! I know I listen far too little. But I know that God is constantly whispering to you and to me messages of hope and encouragement and direction and correction. (Ortberg)

There’s a third bedrock truth: I believe that God works when we pray.

Some of you wondered, as I was giving those earlier messages, if God doesn’t do everything and allows bad things to happen, then how do you pray? Let me be very clear with you. I always pray for miracles. Always! If you are sick...even if you do not believe that God works miracles, I pray for God’s miracle in your life. But I know, and I have experienced, five very distinct miracles of God...all of them good and all of them gifts of God.

Some of you have heard me speak about these five miracles, but let me quickly rehearse them with you, especially for those who haven’t heard them, or those whose memories are like mine!

The first miracle of healing is the most used and least celebrated of all God’s miracles. It is that God has marvelously crafted your body so that most often it protects itself against disease and it repairs itself.

A wonderful doctor and author, Dr. Paul Brand, said it like this: “I have been through medical school and was trained in surgery. I know about anatomy, physiology, and pathology. I’ve studied germs and cancer. I know what to do when someone is injured; yet, I have come to realize that every patient of mine...in every cell of their body, (deep below all consciousness, every human cell) has a basic knowledge about how to heal that exceeds anything that I, as a physician, will ever know.”

Why? God has miraculously crafted your body with elaborate and intricate systems that fight off infection, that repair lacerated tissue, that mend broken bones, and heal diseased organs. The first miracle!

The second miracle is the miracle of the partnership of God and medicine. Like the first miracle, we often take this miracle for granted. God works in partnership with science and medicine: guiding us to a remedy, discovering causes and treatments, equipping physicians, researchers and nurses. We’ve become so accustomed to this miracle that we only recognize the wonder of this miracle in its absence.

Then there is that third miracle: the one that we usually think about when we use the word “miracle.” It is the miracle of dramatic, instantaneous divine intervention. Those are rare, but they happen. I’ve had maybe four or six times throughout my ministry that I have seen that happen...where something happens instantaneously, where the death was imminent, but somehow, something happened and that person is alive today. Such miracles happen, but they are the exception rather than the rule, and that’s why I think we use the word “miracle” for them. But such miracles do occur!

Then there is the fourth miracle. It’s the one that comes at the times when disease and difficulty don’t go away...when our bodies don’t repair themselves...when there is no medical solution...when instantaneous miracles don’t happen and suffering and disability have to be endured. Paul spoke about this miracle as the sufficiency of God’s grace. God draws near and gives grace and strength beyond what is naturally our own so that we can bear what we thought was unbearable.

And there’s a fifth miracle. No matter how many times you or I have been physically healed, finally the day is going to come when we die. Our bodies finally wear out and the ultimate form of healing is the healing that comes through death and resurrection. It is a profound thing to see someone so trust in God’s promises that they die with a faith that is ablaze...wide-eyed with wonder...in anticipation of the gift of eternal life with God. (Morris)

So, yes, I believe in miracles! I pray for them! But while I might prefer one miracle over another, I pray for any miracle that God wants to give.

The fourth bedrock truth: When I suffer or when you suffer, I am absolutely convinced that God cares.

Now, how do I know that? I know because of Jesus, and I know Jesus because of the witness of Scripture. While Jesus never gave you and me a philosophical answer to the problem of pain, he gave us an existential answer, a living answer. Jesus came as a man. He lived the life that we live. He suffered the suffering that we experience. He died the death that we die. And though I cannot learn from him why a particularly bad thing happens, from him I learn how God feels about it. Jesus gives God a face that is streaked with tears and shaped by compassion. God suffers with us. If I ever wonder how God feels about suffering, I need only look at the face of Jesus. (Yancey)

But there is one final bedrock truth that I want to lift up: God is able to make all things, even the worst of things, to work for some good.

When we are going through a tragedy, when we are experiencing pain in our lives, it is difficult for us to see this. I know that I am blind to it in the midst of my struggles. But I also know that God is always at work seeking to bend even evil to serve him.

Now, understand me! God is not the cause of evil or pain or suffering. But when bad things happen, God can bend those things to work for some good. God is able to bring joy and triumph out of tragedy.

We cannot control whether or not bad things happen. But we can control how we respond to the bad things. “We can get bitter, or we can get better,” as one author says. We can stay angry at life and at God and never move on. We can get stuck in our loss and in our grief, or we can give our pain to God and allow God to do something with it and something with us.

God is nearer to us than we can ever imagine!

Phil was dying and Tom, his pastor, received a call from Phil’s wife. She said, “Tom, Phil is very sick. He is dying. But what worries me most is he is so very angry. He is bitter at the world and bitter at God. Pastor, will you come and visit with him for awhile?”

Tom said, “It will be a few hours, but I’ll be there.” When he arrived, he was received by Phil’s wife and daughter and they exchanged a few pleasantries and Phil’s wife said, “Phil is upstairs in the bedroom on the right. The door is open. Just go up and go in.”

When Tom arrived at the top of the stairs, he said, “Phil...it’s me...Tom...your pastor. May I come in?”

He heard a grunt from inside the room. Tom walked in and walked over to the window and took a chair that was by the window and brought it beside the bed and sat down next to Phil. Tom said, “Phil, let me cut to the chase with you. I know that you are very, very ill. I know that you are very angry and I want to help you. Tell me what is wrong.”

Phil said, “Tom, I am dying, but that’s not what’s killing me! What’s killing me is that I can’t pray anymore. When I was little, my grandmother taught me all of these wonderful prayers, and I felt like my prayers could soar like eagles. God always seemed to hear my prayers, but that stopped some time ago. Now they are just like empty words and I throw them up and they crash against the ceiling. God doesn’t hear my prayers anymore. I’m dying and I don’t even know how to pray.”

Tom stood and went over to the window and took another chair and brought it over next to the bed and said, “Phil, if you really want to pray, I don’t need to hear your prayer, but God does. What I’d like for you to do is just pretend that Jesus is in the room...that he is here, because he IS here; and pretend that Jesus is sitting in this chair right next to you, because he IS, and just pour out your heart to him. Tell him everything. Talk to him and tell him what you’ve told me. Shout at him. Curse at him. Be angry and frustrated. Tell him your fears. Pour out your heart. He wants and needs to hear that.”

Then Tom got up and started toward the door and said, “I’ll leave the two of you alone. You’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

Tom went downstairs and said goodbye to Phil’s wife, got in his car, and drove home. About the time he got home, the phone was ringing. It was Phil’s wife. “Pastor, it happened. Phil died just a few minutes ago.”

“I’m so sorry,” Tom said. “Tell me what happened.”

She said, “Well, we had just gotten a bite to eat and we went upstairs to check on him. When we walked into the room, he was gone.”

“I’m so sorry,” Tom said. “I can come back!”

Phil’s wife said, “No, it’s not necessary. Thank you. But maybe you can help me understand something. We walked into the room and he was lying in his bed but there was a chair that was seated right next to him. I guess just before he died, he had somehow inched his way over to the side of the bed and positioned himself so that his head would be resting on the seat of the chair next to him. What does that mean?” (from a sermon by Tom Tewell)

You know what it means, don’t you? It means that God is near. That God is always at work. That God is at work through his people. That God is whispering constantly to you and me and to Phil, words of hope and encouragement and direction. That God is near to us when we suffer. That God is closer than we think and always wants to hold us whenever we hurt.

Let us pray. O God, like Phil, we don’t know how to pray. We are so darn polite with you, God. We think we have to do it with a formula. We think we have to say pious words. We don’t know how to pray. So forgive us, God, and when we suffer, when we feel your distance, teach us to cry out to you as did Paul, as did the Psalmists, as did Jesus, that you might hold us in the midst of our pain. For we pray in the name of the crucified one, Amen.

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Endnotes: This sermon is based, in part, upon material from the following sources:

1. Adam Hamilton, “Providence”
2. Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray
3. Danny Morris, Any Miracle God Wants to Give
4. John Ortberg, “One Ordinary Day with God”
5. Charles Rebb, “I Wonder Why Bad Things Happen to God’s People?”
6. Phillip Yancey, The Bible Jesus Read
7. Phillip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts?