church

INI
22nd Sunday After Trinity
November 8, 2009
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

WHAT DOES GOD HAVE AGAINST ME?
I Kings 17:17-24

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has
made us kings and priests to God and His Father, to Him be glory and
dominion forever and ever, Amen. This morning's text is found in the Old
Testament Book of I Kings, chapter 17, beginning with the 17th verse, as
follows:

Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the
house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath
left in him. 18 So she said to Elijah, "What have I to do with you, O man of
God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my
son?" 19 And he said to her, "Give me your son." So he took him out of her
arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on
his own bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God,
have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her
son?" 21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to
the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back
to him." 22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child
came back to him, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought
him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother.
And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!" 24 Then the woman said to Elijah,
"Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the
LORD in your mouth is the truth." These are the Words.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Who has said, "My thoughts toward you are
thoughts of peace, not of evil," Dear Fellow Redeemed,

"Why me, Lord?" -People often say that in a humorous way. Usually they say it
on those bad Mondays when Murphy's Law comes true: when everything that
could possibly go wrong, does. Imagine a mother, for instance, who has spent
all day managing her kids, wiping up spills, bandaging skinned knees and
frantically trying to keep the house from turning into a shambles. To top it off,
suppertime arrives and she discovers that the pot roast she thought was cooking
at 350 all afternoon was actually cooking at 550, and has now become a
blackened mess. It's easy to picture her rolling her eyes toward the heavens and
saying with a sigh, "Why me, Lord?"

Well, she's not really blaming God for her problems, is she? Just giving vent to
a little weariness and frustration. But there are much more serious situations
that come up in life - times of real tragedy or severe problems. And when you've
suddenly lost a loved one; when the doctor tells you your worst fears are true;
when you're faced with impending bankruptcy -- then that question isn't a joke
anymore. These are times when anybody - even the "best" Christian - could be
tempted to seriously question God's wisdom and the way He governs our life.
The Holy Ghost has given us a timeless example of this in our text for today.
It's the account of the widow of Zeraphath, her son, and the prophet Elijah.
Pay attention - there's a lesson here that, if you don't need now, you will
definitely need some day! Our theme is a question that I hope you'll never ask:

WHAT DOES GOD HAVE AGAINST ME??
I A question that makes too much of yourself!
II. A question that makes too little of God!

Our text begins with the words: " Now it happened after these things...," and
you may ask, "After what things?" Our account for this morning follows an
important miracle that the Lord performed through the prophet Elijah. God had
sent Elijah to the home of the widow and her son during a period of famine,
when they were down to their last bit of food. But, miraculously, the Lord
caused their barrel of flour never to go empty, and their vessel of oil never to go
dry. You might remember the account – we had a sermon on it a while back.

Well, just when the widow might have thought she was out of the woods --
more trouble. Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman
who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there
was no breath left in him.. It was every mother's nightmare come true. You
parents, especially, can imagine the growing fear and helplessness she must
have felt as the child's condition got worse and worse. Finally, the boy died.
Naturally, the mother was wild - beside herself with grief and pain. In her
agony, she turned on Elijah: "What have I to do with you, O man of God?
Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?"
"Elijah," she said, "what do you have against me??"

Her question was spoken to God's prophet, but you don't have to read much
between the lines to see that she was actually questioning God Himself. Faced
with this horrible tragedy, she asked the question that all of us have been - or
will one day be - tempted to ask ourselves: "What does God have against me??"
And that's a question that a believer should never ask, for at least two
important reasons. In the first place, it's a question that makes too much of
yourself.

I wonder if you're like me - when you hear an unexpected sound in your house,
do you drop whatever you're doing and go investigate? I do that. No matter how
faint or brief the sound, if I can't explain it I just have to go check it out. And
that's natural, because we human beings are creatures of reason. We don't like
mysteries. We like to have explanations for the things that happen in our lives.
That's why it's so hard for us to accept when something goes wrong and there
doesn't seem to be any logical explanation. When the doctor tells you you've
contracted a deadly disease, you want to know why. When you've been
scrimping and saving to make your family finances work, and then the bottom
suddenly falls out, you want an explanation. When a loved one dies, you want
to search for a reason. And if you can't find one, it's very tempting to make one
up.

That's what the widow did. She made up an explanation for the tragedy that
had befallen her. She automatically jumped to the conclusion that God must be
angry with her for her sin, and that's why He killed her son. In doing so, she was
making way too much of herself. She was, in effect, saying, "I'm wise enough to
know why this happened, and I'm wise enough to know that, in my case, God
has made a mistake."

Think about that - what towering presumption it takes for a mere human being
to place himself or herself above the almighty God! And yet that's what the
widow of Zeraphath did. And it's not such an uncommon occurrence, either.
You remember that the same thing happened to the patriarch Job; when he was
struck with tragedy, he complained that God was punishing him unfairly for his
sins. He said, If I called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was
listening to my voice. 17 For He crushes me with a tempest, And multiplies my
wounds without cause. 18 He will not allow me to catch my breath, But fills me
with bitterness. -- Job 9:16-18. It was the same agonized cry - "What does God
have against me?"

Do you recall how God answered Job? The Lord appeared to Him out of a
whirlwind and said, "Who is this who darkens counsel By words without
knowledge? 3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you
shall answer Me. 4 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding. -- Job 38:2-4. In other words - don't talk
about things you don't understand, and don't tell God how to run the world He
created!

And don't think that you are never guilty of doing it. If God hasn't revealed to
you the reason for what happens in your life, don't make one up. I once knew a
man who was absolutely convinced that his sinfulness was the reason his
daughter had contracted cancer. Such explanations are not only wrong, they're
presumptuous. Can you claim to understand what God has in mind for your life
- or anyone else's, for that matter? Don't make too much of yourself! One day a
building in Jerusalem collapsed and killed eighteen people. Jesus asked his
followers, "Those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them,
do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in
Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish." Lk
13:4-5 (NKJV).

Face it - if the Lord really punished us for our sins, we'd all of us have constant
agony here on earth, and an eternity of pain to follow in the next life! The wages
of sin is not occasional trouble or hardship. The Bible says that "the wages of
sin is death." You might well ask, "Then why aren't we all dead? We're certainly
all sinners!" And that brings us to the next point. The question, "What does
God have against me?" not only makes too much of yourself - it also makes too
little of God!

You know, I'm constantly amazed at the number of Christians who can
overlook a thousand yesterdays in their worrying and fretting over a single
tomorrow. We have a number of retirement-aged members in our congregation -
ask them, sometime, whether the Lord has ever failed them in time of need. I've
been your pastor for fourteen years, and I know a lot of your stories. I’ve heard
many of you speak of God's healing, of His goodness and blessing in your lives.
If I ask you to think, right now, of the most devastating crisis that you’ve ever
gone through in your life, none of you would have any trouble identifying what
that was, would you. Now let me ask you another question: did the Lord sustain
you and carry you through that crisis? Did He continue to provide for you and
pour His love into your life? I KNOW He did, because that’s what He
ALWAYS does! As the Psalmist says, The righteous cry out, and the LORD
hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to
those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. 19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of
them all. ” – Psalm 34:17-19 Given the history, can you doubt the future? Can
you really think that the Lord won't continue to stand by you in any and all
troubles that lie ahead? If the widow of Zeraphath needed reassurance about
God's goodness, all she had to do was go look at that bottomless flour barrel --
and yet she questioned God. In the case of her son, she doubted God's wisdom.
She belittled His grace.

It's true that we are sometimes faithless. But God remains faithful. He has His
plan for your life, even if you can't see what it is. Look at Elijah -- he himself
didn't understand why the boy had died, but that didn't make him fold up in a
heap of anger and self-pity, like the widow. Rather, what did he do? He took his
doubts and confusion to the Lord, and placed the whole situation into His
hands. Elijah cried out to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, have You
also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?" 21
And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the
LORD and said, "O LORD my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to
him." 22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child
came back to him, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought
him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother.
And Elijah said, "See, your son lives!" God has never failed His people. He
didn't fail that poor widow woman -- and He will not fail you!

Do you want to see the indisputable proof of God's love for you? Then you
need look no farther than this cross on our altar. It's a symbol of the blood
sacrifice that our Savior made for us. John says, "By this we know love, because
He laid down His life for us." I Jn 3:16. For your sake, Jesus Christ, the King of
all creation, bowed His head and accepted a crown -- not of jewels, but of
thorns. For your sake, His hands and feet were pierced by nails. His wounded
shoulders felt the rough, wooden surface of the cross for your sake, and for your
sake His blood flowed. All this to atone for sinners like us. All this, so that you
and I can be justified, can claim complete innocence in God's eyes. We are
forgiven! We are free from the curse of sin, as Paul says, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed
is every one that hangs on a tree. Gal 3:13.

You see that now the question "What does God have against me?" becomes
meaningless. He can't be punishing me for my sin - Jesus bore the punishment
for my sin! For His' sake, God has only love for us, not anger. Does that mean
that we Christians won't continue to run into trouble in life? Does it mean that
the Lord will never allow hurt to come, or tragedy to strike? No. But don't make
too little of God! He is more than powerful enough to bring triumph even out of
tragedy. "Weeping may endure for a night," says the Psalmist, "but joy comes in
the morning." And don't forget the promise God makes to us in Romans 8:28, a
promise that afflicted Christians of all ages have relied upon with confidence:
We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who
are the called according to his purpose. That means you, dear Christian, so
rejoice! Like all the other promises our Lord makes, this is a promise He will
never break!

In an old country and western song, Chris Kristofferson sings, "Why me, Lord?
What have I ever done to deserve...?" -and up to that point you might think he
was going to complain about his hard lot in life. But he goes on, "What have I
ever done to deserve even one of the blessings I've known?" I hope you'll join
me today in thanking the Lord for the manifold blessings that He's showered on
us, for Jesus' sake. I pray that, when the hard times come, we'll remember with
confidence our Lord's great love for us, love He displayed by sending His Son
to the cross. And I know that we'll never need to ask that (after all meaningless)
question, "What does God have against me?" Rather, let us say with Paul, "If
God is for us, who can be against us?" AMEN.