“I Can Only Imagine” (Job 2:1-10; 1 John 5:18)

God Will Protect Me?

Recently, I read an interesting research conducted by Chicago Divinity School/AP-NORC. The research finds a majority of Americans who believe in God think the pandemic is a divine message. God is sending a message that humanity needs to change. The research also finds this: 73% (with 43% saying so strongly and another 30% saying so somewhat) of those who identify themselves as born-again Christians believe that God will protect them from being infected with coronavirus.[1] In other words, about two thirds of born-again Christians view “godly protection” as not getting the virus. But in reality, we see both the righteous and the unrighteous are infected with the virus. In the Bible God does promise that He will protect His people and watch over them. But what does it mean by that, since God’s people don’t necessarily avoid infectious diseases, natural disasters, trials and tribulations in life? The Book of Job gives an answer for this question.

The story of Job begins in this way:

“There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1)

So the Bible tells us that Job was a righteous man. But still, he had to suffer greatly. He lost his possessions. He lost his family – his children and his wife. He lost his health. Basically, he lost everything. If we interpret “godly protection” as not getting into trouble, there is no way to explain the problem of suffering in Job’s life.

The Invisible World

The Book of Job explains the problem of suffering in a different way. It takes us behind the scenes of suffering and shows us that there is an invisible world. Job’s friends have never seen this invisible world. All they can see is a visible world – governed by the law of cause and effect. So they firmly believe that those who suffer adversity that it is the result of sin. They believe that if Job was truly upright before God, he would have never had to suffer like this. They falsely accuse Job of being a hypocrite and ask him to repent. Job is greatly shaken. But somehow Job is allowed to see the glimpse of the invisible world. And he accepts the mystery of suffering, even though he doesn’t understand fully why all this is happening to him, saying, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” (2:10)

This past week I read a biography of Billy Graham. There was a time when he almost gave up on the Bible. It was his crisis of faith. In the early years of his ministry Graham had a close friend, whose name was Charles Templeton. Many people thought that Templeton was going to overturn the world with the Gospel. Templeton seemed to be more eloquent, talented, intelligent than Graham. But, Templeton ended up leaving the Christian faith, eventually becoming an atheist. He challenged Graham and asked many difficult questions such as the biblical account of creation, religion and science, the problem of suffering and evil, and so forth. Graham couldn’t find an answer. He struggled. One night he walked out into the woods and set his Bible on a stump and he cried out: “O God! There are many things in this book I do not understand. There are many problems with it for which I have no solution. There are many seeming contradictions. There are some areas in it that do not seem to correlate with modern science. I can’t answer some of the philosophical and psychological questions Chuck and others are raising.” And then, Graham fell to his knees and said, “Father, I am going to accept this as Your Word—by faith! I’m going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired Word!” That’s how Graham overcame his crisis of faith. That’s how Job overcame his crisis of faith. That’s the difference between Job and his friends. Job sees the invisible world by faith, accepts the mystery of suffering, and believes God’s faithfulness.  

God Is on Your Side

As I shared earlier, Job is greatly shaken. He questions. He doubts. But still, he firmly believes God is an advocate, not an avenger. On an ash-pile Job cries out, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” (13:15a KJV). With everything going on, he feels distant from God, but again we hear his cry, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God” (19:25-26 NRSV). His friends rebuke him and condemns him. Again we hear his cry, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold” (23:10 NRSV). Job is sure God knows and cares. Job is sure God is for him, not against him. Actually, that’s the main message of the Bible: “God loves you. He's on your side. He's coming after you. He's relentless.”

In his first letter John proclaims this same message with his language in this way:

“We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them” (1 John 5:18).

John uses the same word “touch” only in one other place, that is, in his Gospel 20:17, where the risen Christ was recognized by Mary. Mary took hold of him. And he said to her, “Touch me not. Do not hold on to me. Don’t keep clinging to me.” In other words, the evil one may tempt us, try us, torment us. He may make us unhappy and miserable and depress. But he will never get hold of us. He will never cling to us. He will never get us back into his clutches. That’s what John is saying here. The evil one can do many things to us, but he will never hold us again. We may be infected with the virus. We may even die from it. But for those who are born of God, even death is a blessing, a direct passage toward heaven. We are safe in the arms of Jesus!

The Best Is Yet to Come

We know the end of the story of Job. Job’s fortunes are restored twofold. His health is restored. His family is restored. Here the point is not that God wants us to be healthy and wealthy. No! The story of Job teaches us that the day will surely come when each of us must give a personal account to God. For those who endure and trust and stay faithful, that will be the day of vindication and restoration. And for those who don’t, that will be the day of judgment. In Hebrews 11 we see faithful ones, those who lived by faith, not by sight. The Bible testifies about them in this way:

“All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland…. They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:13-16).

Our hope is not in this world. Our hope is not in a vaccine. Our hope is in God and His everlasting kingdom. Some of you may have heard a story about an old missionary couple who had been working in Africa for years, and they were returning to New York City to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken; they were old now and afraid. They discovered they were booked on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of his big-game hunting expeditions. When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there, but no one noticed this missionary couple. They slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East side. That night, the missionary’s spirit broke. He poured out his heart to the Lord. He said, “Lord, I can’t take this. You are not treating us fairly. The President received this tremendous homecoming, but no one met us as we returned home.” But when he finished it, God simply said, “My son, you’re not home yet!”[2]

Yes, we are not home yet! May the Lord open our eyes, that we may see an invisible world. May the Lord open our eyes, that we may see Jesus who loves us and watches over us. May the Lord open our eyes, that we may know that the best is yet to come. Amen.  

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[1] Source: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, quoted from Christian Century (June 17, 2020), p. 19.

[2] Ray Stedman, Talking To My Father (Barbour & Co. 1997).

“All the Days of My Life” (2 Samuel 18)

David: Son, Husband, and Father

It’s Father’s Day. On this special day we say “Thank you” to our earthly fathers. On this special day we also say “Thank You” to our heavenly Father who formed us in our mother’s womb, rescued us from darkness to light, has led us with his tender and strong arm up to this day. 

This morning I would like to invite you to join me in listening to the story of David, who was a son, a husband, and a father. In many ways, David was no role model. He was a poor parent and unfaithful husband. But the emphasis of David’s story is not on the person David, but on God’s grace and God’s faithfulness in David’s life. Throughout all the seasons of his life – spring, summer, fall, and winter – we see God’s merciful, loving, and powerful hand is upon him. Interestingly, we find no miracles in David’s story. But somehow we see David experience God in his everyday life – in his highs and lows, in the ordinary, the sordid, and the tragic. So David’s story is both earthy and godly. In his book Leap over a Wall, Eugene Peterson writes, “David’s is a most exuberant story. Earthy spirituality characterizes his life. Earthy: down-to-earth, dealing with everydayness. Spiritual: moved and animated by the Spirit of God and therefore alive to God.” David’s story is the story of ours who want to experience God in our everyday life.

My prayer is that as we listen to David’s story, may God give us a consuming desire to know Him, experience Him, and love Him all the more.

Spring: The Shepherd Boy

David is the 8^th and youngest son of Jesse from Bethlehem. He is a kid from nowhere. He is so forgotten that when Samuel comes to pronounce a great prophecy over one of Jesse's sons that his family doesn’t even bother to call him back in. David is a forgotten shepherd boy. The good news is: he may be forgotten by people who look at outward appearance, but he is never forgotten by God who always looks into the heart (1 Sam 16:7).

The heart matters to God. Everyday life matters to God. David’s heart is not shaped by one “aha” moment, but by his daily walk with God. In early morning David would lead forth the flock from the fold to green pastures. There he would watch them all day long, taking care that none of the sheep strayed. When predators appear – lions, bears, and wolves, he would protect the sheep and fight back. When his day is done, he would bring the flock back into the sheepfold and sleep across the door to protect the sheep while they sleep. On the next day he would repeat his daily routine all over again. Probably David would repeat the same routine over thousands of times. But in the ordinary and routine, keeping on doing those small things, David experiences the living God personally and profoundly. So when he is challenged by Goliath, with confidence he says to King Saul in this way:

… Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God. David said, "The LORD, who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of this Philistine!" (1 Sam 17:36-37a, NRSV)

Where does David’s confidence and courage and strength come from? His daily walk with God! His daily experience with God! David does not expect to conquer Goliath by some miracle of divine intervention. He expects to win with skillful hand which he learned in the ordinary and routine and with upright heart shaped by his daily walk with God. God meets us in the ordinary. And God honors the heart shaped by our daily walk with Him.

Summer: The Great King

David is now no longer a young unknown shepherd boy. Now he has become an armor-bearer for King Saul, then a commander of a thousand, then Saul’s son-in-law, and eventually he has become a king of Israel. As soon as his kingdom is established, the first thing he does is to bring the Ark of God to the heart of his kingdom, Jerusalem. This is his spiritual act of worship, saying, “God, we enthrone you. We put you first. We welcome you, we honor you, we worship you. You are King of kings, Lord of lords!” God is pleased with David, saying, “You are a man after my own heart. I will do all my will” (cf. Acts 13:22). And God makes a covenant with David, promising that Messiah, the Christ, would come from his lineage and would establish his eternal kingdom:

“… I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…” (2 Sam 7:12-13)

And David replies, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?” (v. 18) I think that could be the highest moment of David’s life. But the Bible says, “So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Unfortunately, when everything seems to go well, David falls – falls hard. He commits adultery with Bathsheba, a wife of David’s loyal servant, Uriah. To make things worse, he plots to kill Uriah to cover up his adultery. Murder and adultery – David commits two grave sins. His heart is still hardened. But God is not done yet with David. With love God sends the prophet Nathan and convicts David of his sins. And David repents:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love… Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight… Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:1, 4, 10)

David is forgiven. Though Bathsheba’s first child dies as a consequence of sin, God gives another child whose name is Solomon, or Jedidiah, which means “Beloved of the Lord.” Here God is saying to David, “You are still so loved! You are beautifully broken. You are my beloved son.” David experiences God in the valley as well as at the top of the mountain. Our God is the God of the mountain, and the God of the valley.

Fall: The Heartbroken Father

Now David is going through a midlife crisis within his own family. Amnon, David’s oldest son, loves his step-sister Tamar. And he rapes her. In his indignation Absalom kills Amnon. David keeps thinking he has just hit the bottom and can sink no lower. But he is wrong. While he is still grieving, he hears even more shocking news that his son Absalom turns against him, revolts and seizes the throne.  Though few in number, David and his men are experienced and disciplined. Absalom and his army are defeated; Absalom is killed in battle. David’s sorrow is beyond description. There is no psalm of David in the Bible eulogizing Absalom, no beautiful song lamenting his death. David has no energy even to pray! All he can do is just weep bitterly: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” (2 Sam 18:33)

There are times when we feel like we hit the bottom and then sink even lower. There are times when we feel like our strength is all gone. No strength to bear. No strength to love. No strength to pray. At the very moment someone is praying for us – the Holy Spirit. “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” (Rom 8:26). The Spirit prays for David, sustains him, upholds him. In the same way, today the Spirit is praying for you, delivering you from the pit of despair and hopelessness!

Winter: The Old Man Dying  

King David is now very old. He’s cold, cold all the time. No matter how many blankets covers him, he cannot keep warm. He lays in bed, dying. And now he reflects on all the seasons of his life. He realizes that God was with him when he was so forgotten, God was with him when he was standing before Goliath, God was with him when he sang and played the lyre before King Saul, God was with him when he was mourning and grieving over the loss of his two sons. He realizes that God was with him all the days of his life.

Many scholars believe that Psalm 23 is written by David in his last years as he looks back on his life. To many, this psalm is considered a psalm of trust:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:

for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

 thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

At the center of Psalm 23 we find these four words: “You are with me.” This is David’s personal experience with God. And this is God’s promise to all his people: “I am with you.” In our faith journey, we will face all kinds of life challenges. We will say goodbye to our loved ones. We will face fear of dying process – getting weak, ill, forgetful, wasting away. But through it all, one promise is most important: God is with us all the days of our lives. So let us trust, trust, trust. Amen.

“Racial Harmony” (1 John 4:7-12; 19-20)

“Love One Another” 

Love. One. Another. These three words are repeated again and again in John’s letter. And now, we are on 1 John 4. For the third time, John is repeating the subject of love! In today’s passage John commends his fellow Christians to love one another at least three times in this way: 

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (v. 7 NIV).

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (v. 11 NIV).

“The commandment we have from him [God] is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also” (v. 21 NRSV). 

As I was meditating on today’s scripture throughout this past week, one particular question kept coming back, “Who are my brothers and sisters I must love?” I can’t help but to think about my black and brown sisters and brothers. I can’t help but to think about racial harmony and reconciliation from John’s exhortation. 

I Was a Racist 

The Presbyterian Church in America defines racism in this way: “Racism is an explicit or implicit belief or practice that qualitatively distinguishes or values one race over other races.”[1] In other words, racism is a feeling or belief or practice that values one race over other races, or devalues one race beneath others. According to this definition, I was a racist. I grew up in a medium-sized city near Seoul, South Korea. Overall Korean people are quite homogeneous. But in my town there were quite a few foreign laborers from South Asian countries, particularly from Bangladesh and Pakistan. My home church reached out to some of them and invited them to church. Of course, we were nice. Of course, we treated them well. Of course, they were invited to our church’s activities. As long as they “knew their place.” Deep in my heart I had a sense of superiority – Korean supremacy. I said I loved them, but I even didn’t know their names. I didn’t much care about, or honor, or respect their cultures, their languages, and their histories. I wanted them to be more assimilated to my culture, but not vice versa. In that sense I was a racist. 

Race and the Gospel 

I shared my story, not to lay the guilt for the sin of racism to you. But the aim is biblical maturity. The aim is to think and talk and act biblically about race. The aim is to have a biblically sound, balanced, humble, loving, Jesus-exalting, God-centered perspective on race. 

Concerning race and ethnicity, the best staring point would be Genesis 1:27: 

“So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (NRSV). 

The Bible teaches us that all members of all ethnic groups are made in the image of God. Every human being—whatever skin color, hair texture, age, gender, intelligence, health, or social class—is made in the image of God. The implication is this: All members of all ethnic groups are created equally in the image of God. All members of all ethnic groups are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God (cf. Ps 139:14). So there is no place for racism which values one race over another. 

But something tragic happened to humankind. Sin entered. Animosity entered. The animosity between God and humankind, between male and female, between husband and wife, between siblings, between tribes, between ethnic groups. In the midst of all these hostilities Jesus came as the Prince of Peace. Ephesians 2:14 declares this truth: 

“For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups [Jews and Gentiles] into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (NRSV). 

Jesus came to create “one new humanity” and to reconcile both groups [Jews and Gentiles, all of the different ethnic groups] to God in “one body” through the cross. So we are no longer enemies to each other; but instead, we are one people, God’s holy people, members of God’s family. That’s the power of the blood of Christ. That’s the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

That’s not the end. There is more. As Christians, we have a glorious future and hope ahead of us. In Revelation 5:9 the apostle John gives us the glimpse of the future. In his vision John hears the prayers of the saints. They sing a new song:

 “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God, saints from every tribe and language and people and nation” (NRSV). 

By his precious blood Jesus purchased his people from every tribe. In other words, racial harmony and diversity and reconciliation is God’s design, God’s intention, God’s purpose. So we hope in God. We dream in God. We have confidence in God. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this! 

The Time Is Now 

But today we are groaning because of the gap between our “glorious heavenly vision” and our “horrifying reality.” There is a lot of work to be done to make progress toward racial harmony and reconciliation. Concerning racial injustice here in the US John Piper says, “It appears to me that many churches, ministries are more influenced by culture, more influenced by political ideology, more influenced by American nationalism than by the radical demands by Jesus to live as exiles and sojourners and refugees in this alien world called America.”[2]

God reconciled us to himself through Christ. And now God has given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18). We are called to be bridge builders, reconciling people with one another and with God. The time is now. There are three steps that I am personally taking and that I invite you to join me. 

Listen 

The first step is to listen, really listen. Our brothers and sisters identified as black and brown have another history, another narrative of life in America. Are we willing to listen? In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. led peaceful demonstrations to raise awareness about the struggle for civil rights. As a result, Dr. King was put into prison. While incarcerated, he received a copy of a local newspaper that included an open letter written by eight ecumenical White pastors, titled “A Call for Unity.” In that letter they urged Black leaders to be more patient and wait, and criticized that these demonstrations were unwise and untimely. In response, Dr. King wrote what has come to be called “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The following is part of his letter: 

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society;

. . . when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

So are we listening to these voices? Are we willing to listen? From the voices of the first enslaved Africans to the ones of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. 

Confess 

The next step is to confess. Now is the time to mourn. Now is the time to lament. Now is the time to repent. Perhaps some of us may say, “I’m not a racist.” You may be right. But that is not enough. As Christians, we bear a burden of guilt for the collective sins of our nation. We all have a tendency to rationalize and gloss the sins of our own. Jesus said to those who thought they had progressed out of sins into greater righteousness, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, and you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets” (Matt 23:29-30, NRSV). This is a sobering warning for all of us. 

In the book of Ezra, we read about how the people of Israel had become unfaithful to God. They practiced detestable customs of their neighboring countries. Ezra, a priest and scribe, was personally innocent of the sins committed by the people, but he still felt the weight of guilt and shame. He prayed, “O my God, I am utterly ashamed; I blush to lift up my face to you. For our sins are piled higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached to the heavens” (Ezra 9:6 NLT). May God open our eyes, so that we can feel our collective sin of racism and repent like Ezra! 

Reparate 

The third step is to reparate. But what does it look like to make reparations? The answer would be different for each of us. But I think the story of Georgetown Alumnus gives us a good insight. In 1838, a prominent Jesuit institution, which ultimately became Georgetown University, was struggling with a heavy debt. At that time the school received donations in form of money and also slaves from wealthy parishioners. The president of the school negotiated a deal with the owners of Southern plantations. He’d send them slaves; they’d send him cash. As a result, 272 slaves – black men, women, and children, including the 2-month-old baby – were loaded, locked away like animals, and transported for sale to plantations across the South. One Georgetown alumnus discovered this and determined to take steps to reconcile the history. With the help of a Georgetown history professor, he tracked down the descendants of those slaves who had been sold and was finally able to discover one person, a distant relative, Maxine Crump. He contacted Ms. Crump and shared the history, the truth with her.[3] 

What will the school offer in exchange for all that was lost? We don't know the answer. But that’s not really the point. The point is to make personal efforts. The point is to take one step from where we are toward reconciliation – the restoration of relationship. That’s the work of reparation. That’s the work of the gospel. 

A Call to the Church 

As I close, I would like to share Dr. King’s call to the church from his letter from Birmingham Jail: 

There was a time when the church was very powerful—in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. . . . But the judgment of God is upon the church [today] as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century. 

His prophetic voice still rings as true today as it did in 1963. So sisters and brothers in Christ, in humility love let us listen, confess, reparate. Let us love one another. Amen. 

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[1] “Committee on Mission to North America, Pastoral Letter on Racism, Approved at the March 2004 MNA Committee Meeting as the Committee’s Recommendation to the Thirty-Second General Assembly.” http://www.pca-mna.org/churchplanting/PDFs/RacismPaperFinal%20Version%2004-09-04.pdf. 

[2] “John Piper Breaks Down Where Reformed Christians Have Gone Wrong With Racial Injustice,” https://relevantmagazine.com/god/john-piper-breaks-down-where-reformed-christians-have-gone-wrong-with-racial-injustice/ 

[3] Latasha Morrison, Be the Bridge (p. 185). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.