7th Sunday After Pentecost
Where is God in this? This is a question I have heard—and asked—many times. Where is God this situation? This illness? This life change? This grief? Where is God?
I have found that in the confusing and painful moments of life it can sometimes be hard in the moment to see where God is, and there may even be moments when we doubt God’s presence and faithfulness. After all, when something bad happens in our lives or in the world around us it can be difficult for us to see a way forward.
I have experienced these questions and wonderings about God’s faithfulness in my own life. A few months ago, I shared with the congregation my past struggles with mental health. There were times I felt lost in a dark place, and I often wondered during those times where God was. Did God care about my suffering? Had God forgotten me? How could God possibly make a way out of this situation? Of course, I can look back now and see that God was faithful and did make a way for me out of my depression, but in the moment, it was hard for me to see God’s faithfulness at work in my life.
In church we often say that God is faithful—and that’s true—but what exactly do we mean when we say this? What does God’s faithfulness look like, and how do we know that God is faithful? Over the next few weeks, we will be talking about God’s faithfulness: where has God been faithful in the past, how is God faithful now, and how God will be faithful in the future.
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The story of God’s faithfulness begins in the Old Testament. Truth be told, not everyone likes the Old Testament. In fact, growing up I often heard descriptions of an “Old Testament God” and a “New Testament God.” The God of the Old Testament was supposedly angry and punishing, while the New Testament God was loving and accepting. Some Christians are tempted to go so far with this idea as to write off the Old Testament as irrelevant and instead focus only on Jesus. When we do that, however, we lose a huge part of the story. The Old Testament makes up majority of our modern-day Bible and chronicles the history of Ancient Israel and God’s faithfulness in human history. It is full of complex and fascinating stories. Some of those stories are challenging and uncomfortable for us to read, but when these various stories are put together, we come away with a deeper understanding of who God is and how God’s faithfulness works. We see more clearly that the God of the past is the same God today, tomorrow and in the future to come.
Now, it is impossible to preach the entirety of the Old Testament in a sermon, but many of the stories are familiar. We start with Adam and Eve, and later we have Noah’s Ark when God saves Noah and the animals from the flood. Generations pass and we hear the story of Abraham and Sarah as God promises to make Abraham the father of many nations, with descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky. God blesses Abraham with his son Isaac, and later Isaac becomes the father of Jacob, who will go on to have twelve sons who make up the twelve tribes of Israel. The tribes grow and the nation of Israel is born.
Eventually the Israelites are enslaved in Egypt, but God remembers God’s promises and sends Moses to bring the people out of slavery. They wander in the wilderness for 40 years until finally after many ups and downs the nation of Israel finds its home in the Promise Land. God makes a covenant with the people that they will be God’s chosen people and God will forever be their God. But in time, the Israelites forgot about God and turned to sin, as people are prone to do, including us. In forgetting God, the people forgot who they were and eventually war broke out and the people were taken captive to Babylon for 70 long years.
Even then though, despite God’s frustration, God still remembers God’s promise and again turns to Israel with love and compassion. God gathers the people together again and renews hope and a future. To make a long story short, no matter what the Israelites went through, time and time again God remained faithful and remembered God’s promises. Again, and again God made a way out of no way, forming a new path forward even when the Israelites struggled to keep up their end of the bargain. We learn that God is faithful not because of the people but because God is God, and that is who God is. In fact, God remained faithful to the point of coming to earth and dying on a cross to make a way for all people.
Now, if God can be faithful to the people of Israel through their dramatic ups and downs across generations, and if God was faithful even on the cross, surely God can be (and is!) faithful in our modern-day world and lives too. In fact, when I look back on modern history, I see examples of God’s faithfulness in countless ways.
I remember my great-great aunt, Doris, telling me about life growing up during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, the challenges her family faced, but also the hope they experienced in the way God always seemed to provide at the right time.
From veterans I have heard stories of God’s faithfulness on the battlefield—survival stories, stories of finding God in their fellow soldier (or even the enemy), stories of hope even in the face of danger, and stories of God’s faithfulness as the soldiers who died are returned home.
I have seen God’s faithfulness in people who stand up for justice, in the people who strive to create a better society where people are treated fairly, and everyone has enough. The journey has been long and continues to have ups and downs, but God is faithful in strengthening those who serve the neighbor.
And I have also seen God’s faithfulness in the resilience of communities after disaster, towns that rebuild after a tornado, or families that rebuild their lives after a house fire. This year at Faith-Lilac Way we have tied blankets for Camp Noah that goes to children recovering from natural disasters, and we have also served as an emergency shelter with the American Red Cross for families in need. These are examples of God’s faithfulness at work through this congregation.
The point is, when we take time to look back on human history—whether from the Old Testament, from a world history book, the nightly news, or even from our very own lives—we learn to see God’s faithfulness in the midst of it all.
Now it is important to remember that God’s faithfulness does not mean that life is easy. Unfortunately, God’s faithfulness is not a forcefield that keeps the bad things out, and we learn from the story of the Israelites that life still comes with its challenges and pains. That is just the way it is in our imperfect world.
But even in the challenges, we can have hope that God’s faithfulness remains, and God’s faithfulness takes many forms. Sometimes we see God’s faithfulness in the way a challenging situation just seems to work out. God’s faithfulness can look like answered prayers and a happy outcome, but not always. Instead, sometimes God’s faithfulness looks like simply making it through a difficult day, and finding the strength to keep going even when we don’t know the outcome. Other times God’s faithfulness is a sense of peace and acceptance for the things we cannot change. Sometimes we experience God’s faithfulness best when all we have left is to put ourselves into God’s hands and trust in God’s promises. God knows what we need, and God’s faithfulness meets us where we are, even when we don’t see it in the moment.
So, in those moments of life when you find yourself asking, “Where is God?”, may you come to experience God’s presence. When you look at the world around you or reflect back on the moments of your own life, may you be able to see where God has been faithfully at work in your life. May you be filled with hope and strengthened in God’s promises, knowing that the God of the past is the same today, tomorrow, and in the future to come. Thanks be to God for God’s past faithfulness, and may we always hold fast to God’s promises still to come. Amen.