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“When Good Things Happen To Good People”
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Mark 10:46-52

October 29, 2006 - Kim M. Henning

A few years back, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book that has made its way to many of our bookshelves. “When Bad Things Happen To Good People.” Rabbi Kushner is a great communicator and he was not afraid to respond to a question that many of us think about: “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

Life is not always fair. Personally, Rabbi Kushner and his wife suffered the death of their own son, Aaron, who was still very young when he died of a rare disease. His death brought sorrow. Being people of faith, turning their back on God the Author of Life was not an option. Instead, they drew upon God for strength even though life did not turn out for them the way they hoped it would.

Whenever bad things happen—you and I always have a choice to make: shall we run away or shall we run toward God? Shall we harbor the pill of bitterness or shall we choose the path of healing? When life tumbles in, shall we make a vow to never hurt like that again or shall we open ourselves to the merciful arms of God? When bad things happen, there is always a choice to be made.....

The story of Job often gets classified in the category of: “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Job had been a good man. The Bible says and I quote, “Job was blameless and upright, he feared God and turned away from evil.” But then one day, Job’s life collapsed—an army came and killed the servants, fire from heaven came and consumed his flocks, and then a great gale of wind collapsed a building that housed all of Job’s children.

That is the story of Job, in Job, chapter one. Now the next thirty chapters attempt to answer the question: Why did this happen? What went wrong? Is Job as righteous as he appears? Why does evil seemingly prosper? Is Job as good as he seems to be or does he have some dark closets that he has not talked about?

The book of Job is popular with a lot of people because we see so much unexplainable suffering. We know of children who are not loved, and the consequences of that. We see of the poor in Africa dying of hunger because nations are warring against nations. We hear stories of high school youth who are terribly angry. And we....we in the area of Wisconsin are approaching the first anniversary of that grisly murder of Theresa Holbach. People like the book of Job because it reflects the human condition that is all to real.

This morning, I would like to shift our focus. Instead of continuing with Kushner’s theme, I would like to promote an alternative this morning. My alternative: ‘when good things happen to good people.’

Kushner’s theme is easy to talk about because it happens every day. I was cleaning up the leaves around our home yesterday afternoon....it took all of two hours. And it happened. It happened yesterday. Just as I finished picking up all the leaves on the side of our home, a gust of wind came along and in the matter of ten seconds, it looked like I hadn’t done anything at all. Vanity of vanities..... “When bad things happen......”

There is a place for this conversation, but I propose that some are entirely caught up in the whirlwind of ‘when bad things....’ Every day, something bad. Every day, something to grieve. Every day, something to complain about..... And in no time at all, our world is shaded in colors of brown, gray and black.....no hope.

Let me push: “when good things happen to good people.” I am not ignoring the world of ‘bad things’—I am promoting the kingdom of God and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am not belittling the hurt and the suffering of many, I am confessing the power of God to lift the human soul. And yes, I do know that Jesus commanded us to ‘take up our cross’ and that cross can be heavy and tedious, but Jesus also said, “Take my yoke upon you for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Jesus also said, “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.”

Let’s return to the story of Job. For thirty chapters Job has three friends who attempt to offer him pastoral care, but cannot rise themselves above the suffering that has been afflicted upon Job. And then, finally, we get to Job 38—when seemingly God cannot remain silent any longer and we hear these words, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.....”

And with that something dramatic happens. God speaks and says to Job, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Who determined its measurements—surely you know? Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?”

Chapter 38, chapter 39, chapter 40, chapter 41, God reminds Job of God’s Almighty power. Verse after verse, God tells Job the details of his creation, the wonder of this world, and the intricacies that hold it all together. God invites Job to behold—that this whole world is more, much more, much, much more than a Big Bang theory—and it has splashes of God all around.

And then in a wonderful moment, Job responds, “See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you.” “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.... I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.....”

It is a wonderful moment and I cannot capture it entirely. Job, through all of his suffering, never abandoned God. Job, though he did not understand, kept believing, he kept trusting, and then in a beautiful moment he beholds the power of God greater, more majestic than all he has endured.

The Apostle Paul said something of the same in Romans, chapter 8 when he said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us....”

When good things happen to good people. Paul understood that faith always pays its dividends. Good things happen to Good people who believe in a Good God. Understand that one of the great promises of our faith is when Paul proclaimed, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God who are called according to his purpose.”

In another place Paul says, “we are being transformed (into the image of our Lord) from one degree of glory into another.”

Good things happen to good people because we are being transformed, we are being changed, we are learning to let go of this body of flesh that we may take on–more and more–the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I heard something and I just have to share this with you. I was speaking with our Conference Minister two weeks ago, Pastor David Moyer, and he learned something that he passed along to me. Pastor David Moyer attended an event on stewardship, and he shared with me the results of a study that has recently been completed.

The study says this. This is amazing. The study that did a person by person research of people and their giving to the church discovered that people who are anxious, burdened, scared, frightened give half of people who tend to me trusting and secure in their relationship with God.

Or, to say that the other way around.....people of faith who are convinced that all things work together for good......have evidence of being twice as generous with their lives as opposed to those who live in fear. Now, I suspect that money is just the tip of the iceberg, but money at least is the part we can measure.

Good things happen to good people who believe in a Good God. That is the witness of our faith. That is our testimony. That is what we believe.

Our faith proclaims God who is ‘all in all.’

Our faith proclaims in the words of the 23^rd Psalm, ‘surely goodness and mercy shall follow us....”

Our faith promises that the dark night of the soul will always be comforted by God.

Our faith is convinced that neither life, nor death, 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.