Hope When My Questions Go Unanswered

There is Hope is the name of our series this spring here at Twin Lakes Church. Hi, my name is Renee. I'm one of the pastors here. In this series, what we're doing every single week is we're looking at another story from the Bible of how people were in a situation that seemed absolutely hopeless, but found that in fact, there is hope when we put our trust in the Lord.

Now, before we dive in to today's story, I want to really invite you to stay tuned. Don't tune out before the very end of the service because we are going to show you a beautiful video that Twin Lakes Church was a part of. Worship leaders representing black and white and Latino and Asian churches from all around the Bay, affirming our unity in Christ and our empathy for one another. That's gonna come up at the end of the service today. You won't want to miss it.

And what better weekend than Pentecost weekend to remember how the Church of Jesus Christ started when people from all ethnic groups in Jerusalem heard the gospel proclaimed in their own language. What better weekend than that to stand against racism and for our unity and our brotherhood and sisterhood in Jesus Christ. And then in two weeks, our guest speaker will be Ricky Jenkins, pastor of Southwest Church down in Southern California. Ricky is one of my all-time favorite speakers. I cannot wait.

But first, let's talk today about hope when my questions go unanswered. And I'm talking about tough questions like, why do you let evil go on in this world? Many people asking this about racism this week after the killing of George Floyd. Lord, why do you let the bad people win? Why do you let the innocent suffer? Why are you allowing this? Many people asking this about the COVID crisis and all of the consequences coming from that. Do you have any of these questions tonight? I know I do.

And I have had for many years. In fact, I'll just tell you this on a very personal level, as I've shared with some of you before, I have asked God many times, exactly why did you choose to let cancer take my father? Why did you choose to let a heart attack take my stepfather when he was still young? Why did you allow my mom, after she went through all of that, to get Alzheimer's disease? All of these are questions we have and questions that are asked in the book of Job in the Bible.

This book is all about how are you supposed to make it when there are unanswered questions all around you? Because that is life. In life, you don't get answers to all your questions. And the answer of the book of Job is so surprising and so profound and so poetic that many people miss it. Because you really have to sit in this book a while to get it.

Because the answer of the book of Job to these questions is not the standard kind of cliché, churchy, religious answer, nor is it the standard secular kind of atheist answer. It's something completely different and unexpected. So let's dive right into the book of Job right now. It opens with a very strange prologue. It says one day the devil and God are having a conversation. And Satan tells God, you know, you realize that none of those human beings down there on planet earth really love you, Lord. They just love the stuff you give them.

You're nothing but a good luck charm to them. Things go wrong and they'll abandon you. And God says, no, not everybody, not people like my servant Job. And Satan hisses, yes, even Job. You've been protecting him. You've been blessing him. You take away those blessings and he will run from you like all the rest. And God allows Satan to torment Job.

Now, that little weird prologue between Satan and God is not in the Bible to explain why all suffering exists. The point of that scene is that we as readers know why Job suffers. But Job doesn't know, and in fact, he never knows. All he sees are the losses, and they are severe. One messenger after another runs to Job with some more bad news. A storm kills all 10 of his adult children in a series of three disasters. He loses all of his business, all of his wealth.

He gets a severe skin disease, disfigures him so much that even his best friends have a hard time recognizing him. His own wife says, you know what you should do, honey? Just curse God and die. And how does Job respond? Job 13:15. Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him." In the classic King James version, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him." You know, this is kind of a difficult book of the Bible to understand.

So in my prep for this sermon, I watched and listened to many other sermons. I read a couple of great books, and I put all those references at the end of my notes. I'm going to be quoting from all of them extensively today. But the stickiest thing I heard came from Martin Luther King Jr. I want you to listen to how he summarizes the lesson of the Book of Job for us. You see, there is what you may call an if faith. And there is a though faith. And the permanent faith, the lasting, the powerful faith, is the though faith.

Now, the if faith says, if all goes well, if life is hopeful, prosperous, and happy, and I'll go to church and I'll have faith in you. You know, a lot of people have the if faith. There is a though faith, though. And the though faith says, though things go wrong, though evil is temporarily triumphant. Yes, sir? Though sickness comes and the cross looms-- Yes? Nevertheless, I'm going to believe anyway, and I'm going to have faith anyway.

And old Job got to that point, and he had a though faith. He looked out, and everything that he had had been taken away from him. And even his wife said to him, now, what you ought to do, brother Job, is to curse God and die. God has been unkind to you. But Job said, honey, I'm sorry, but my faith is deeper than that. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. My faith is a though faith. Man, that is just so brilliant.

What a great way to summarize the message of the book. But the question for you and me is, do you have an if faith or a though faith? Now, I want to clarify something. Having a though faith instead of an if faith does not mean that you have to pretend you don't have any questions. It does not mean you have to pretend that you don't have any doubts. It doesn't mean you have to pretend that you're fine, that you don't hurt.

Job himself does not end with this sentence. In fact, this is just the first half of that verse of the Bible. Look where Job finishes this statement. He says, though he slay me, yet will I hope in him. But I will surely defend my ways to his face. You see, frustration with God is not incompatible with worship of God. Belief in God is not even incompatible with doubts about God.

Job says, I have a though faith, not an if faith. And yet, I still have a lot of questions for God. And for the next 38 chapters of this book, you and I have a front row seat as we watch Job wrestle with his questions. And in what unfolds, we learn three important truths about surviving suffering when my questions go unanswered. How do you keep your hope alive when you can't find the answers to your most pressing questions? Well, number one is this. Confession is healthier than repression.

We learn that confession is healthier than repression. Watch this. Job says, if I say, I'll forget my complaint, I'll change my expression and smile. I'll still dread all my sufferings. In other words, I can put on a smile, but I'll still hurt inside, so I may as well be honest. In fact, he says, I can't be quiet. I'm angry. I'm bitter. I have to speak. You know, verses like this show me that there is nothing wrong with venting before God. In fact, the Bible encourages it.

Let me ask you a question about your childhood. When you were little on long road trips, did your parents ever try to get you and your siblings to play the quiet game? Do you remember the quiet game? Here's the way the quiet game was played. Ready? Here's all the rules. Just be quiet. Two words, that's it. And whoever's quiet for the longest wins the game. Now, this only works on real competitive kids who will do anything to win anything.

I'm not saying that's me, but I once stayed quiet halfway to Disneyland just so I could win a single candy bar from my sister. Well, in church, I think we sometimes encourage people to play the quiet game by pretending that life doesn't hurt. But God never asks you to play the quiet game. The God of the Bible is not threatened in the least when people express their anger and their grief about this coronavirus or about racism or about anything else.

Look at Moses. Look at David. Look at Jeremiah. Look at Jesus. They were all very honest with God. And this means if your friends or your family or your neighbors are feeling frustrated about something, let them vent. Don't try to explain away all their sorrow. Just listen. And that's actually point two. Presence is better than advice. Your presence is better than your advice.

And in this shelter in place era, when physical presence can be so hard, this means your presence through a call or through a text, telling people that you stand with them is so powerful. And this is true especially when a friend is in grief. And right now, we're all going through different phases of grief, grief over the thousands dead or sickened because of COVID-19, grief over the growing disunity in our society, grief over the very real continued racism problem, and so much more than that.

And so I want to urge you today, right after this church service, if possible, write a note, make a call, send a text to somebody, and ask them how they are doing. And then let them talk if they need to talk. You don't need to offer explanation. You just need to offer consolation. And this is something that Job's three best friends apparently never learned because they show up and the Bible says all they do is talk for chapter after chapter after chapter.

And finally, Job says, miserable comforters are you. Will your long-winded speeches never end? And then I love how Job even gets sarcastic. What advice you have offered to one without wisdom? What great insight you have displayed? Who has helped you utter these wonderful words? And then he's honest. Your maxims are proverbs of ashes. What's he talking about? Well, in your notes, which you can download at TLC.org/notes, in the discussion questions at the end, I listed some stupid but familiar answers from Job's friends.

And frankly, they sound uncomfortably like what we Christians tend to say, like, this happened because you sinned. You did something wrong in Santa Cruz Ease. This was bad karma. Philip Yancey says in his book Disappointment with God, if there's one idea the book of Job nails a coffin lid on, it's that every time we suffer, it's because God is punishing us. Or if you just have faith, you'll be healed. Listen, I absolutely believe God does heal, and I pray for healing. But God is God, and I am not. God cannot be manipulated.

Or this is just a lesson. Or if you just live right, then you'll be prosperous, and on and on and on. So they give all these religious clichés. And then at the end of the book, God twice says to Job's friends, you have not spoken the truth about me as my servant Job has. Now, wait a second. I understand how they did not speak the truth about God because of those religious clichés. But he says, as my servant Job has? What did Job do that God liked so much? What truth has Job spoken?

Apparently, just that he's upset. But God seems to prefer that. Apparently, God prefers an honest argument to a religious cliché. Apparently, God likes that Job never makes his faith into a formula. His faith is a real relationship. And any real relationship is going to be full of tension and passion and arguments and conversations and questions. Job says, God, why? God, why? God, why? Why? Why? And chapter after chapter goes on, and there is silence from heaven until finally, in chapter 38, the silence is broken, and God answers.

So what's God going to say to Job? The suspense has been building. Is he going to say something like, you know, Job, I'm really sorry for all you had to go through, but here's the purpose in it. Let me explain this to you. And Job, you passed this test with flying colors. I'm really proud of you, buddy. That's not at all what God says. But he says something better. Hang with me here. What does he say?

Well, it says that Job sees a storm building over the horizon. And then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. And he said, who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me. And watch where he takes Job. Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundation? Tell me if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring line across it?

Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment, when I fixed limits for it and said, this far you may come, and no farther. Here is where your proud waves halt. Have you ever given orders to the morning or shown the dawn its place? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen?

Or can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you? Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane? Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread his wings toward the south? Does the eagle soar at your command?

And for the next four chapters, God talks about these kinds of amazing scenes from nature. And Job is transported to the place that you and I are when we look at the Gwyn or our local redwood forests. We stand next to a waterfall somewhere, and you sense this awe at the power and the beauty. Many people say things to me like, I love worshipping in nature because it gives me such a sense of perspective. And that's what this is all about.

Ultimately, point three, perspective is more helpful than answers. Perspective is really much more helpful than answers. See, when we're downers, a crisis of some sort happens. The first question that comes to our minds is, why? And we want answers. Why did this happen? But behind every why, there's another why. Why did my friend die in a car crash? Well, the other driver was drunk. Why? Why was he drinking? Well, because his best friend had just died. Why did he die? Well, because he had a disease. Why? Because of his genes. Why did he have those genes? And on and on and on.

Some of you know I greatly admire Johnny Eareckson Tada. I've worked with her. Johnny became a quadriplegic after a diving accident when she was just a teenager. It severed her spinal cord, and she has such credibility to speak about suffering. She says, the first two years, I was consumed with unanswered questions, like Job. I concentrated so much on cause that I got stuck emotionally. Slowly, though, my focus changed from demanding an explanation from God to humbly depending on him.

And listen to how she still experiences this in her own life even now. And I think wisdom is not the ability to find all the puzzle pieces and put them back together so that your life makes sense. But real wisdom is trusting God even and especially when the puzzle pieces don't fit. And even though I look like a veteran in this wheelchair, even after 50 years, please don't be thinking I'm the expert. There is still so much about my life, about my chronic pain, that doesn't make sense.

Just a short while ago, my husband Ken was driving me to the office of Johnny and Friends down the 101 freeway. And I had awakened that morning in unusual pain. I'm a quadriplegic. I don't feel on the outside, but I wish I could explain how it is I experience such deep pain on the inside. And so as I am driving to work near tears, I am so close to asking Ken to please turn around at the next exit, take me back home, lay me back down. But often, bed is not a relief for me. I'm still in pain.

And so Psalm 119:50, I said in the van out loud, right Ken? Psalm 119:50 says, "My comfort in suffering is this, that your promises renew my life." You said that, and I believe it. So Jesus, right now, out loud in this van, as my husband's driving, I'm going to recite as many promises as I possibly can. And I'm going to believe that you are going to renew my life. You're going to help me in this, because I can't do it.

And so Jesus, you are my ever-present help in trouble. You promised me that. You promised me you'll never leave me or forsake me. And finally, we get off of the exit to Johnny and Friends. I wheel out of the van through the front door of the ministry office, and I'm still in pain. But I've got courage. And I've got such sweet endurance and perseverance. I can do this through Jesus. It was almost better than being healed of pain that day, because I felt, I sensed, I almost tasted the goodness of God in helping me persevere. And that is true perspective.

Somebody said that what Job's friends offered Job was just a dead orthodoxy. But what Job found in his encounter with God was a living faith. Perspective, that kind of perspective, is even better than answers. You know, the Bible says the ending of Job's life was better than the first. He did find happiness in this life. But Job also found perspective for his sufferings even beyond this life.

Watch this. Job said, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end, he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh, I will see God. I myself will see him. With my own eyes, I myself and not another, how my heart yearns within me. Isn't that fascinating? Some scholars think Job may be the earliest book composed that's part of our Bible. Yet even back then, he's talking about, he's giving these hints of the Resurrection, that one day God will give him a new body with no more pain.

And that is the message that was fulfilled in the cross and the empty tomb. Jesus took on himself when he was on the cross much more than just our sin. That was big enough. But he also took on our suffering. And then he rose again so that we can know that our Redeemer lives, so that we can know that in the end, he will stand upon the earth, a new heaven and a new earth, that he renews so that there's no more disease, no more virus, no more violence, no more racism, no more death, no more suffering, no more sorrow.

That'll happen when he returns to make all things new. And those who trust in him will rise in our resurrected bodies and that new world in our flesh. We will see him. And when you combine the perspective that God gives Job by showing his power in creation and this promise of new creation, that perspective can give you and me unquenchable hope, even through the unanswerable questions.

So a few years ago, somebody found some old documents about our family and some stuff that they were going through. And there were a lot of things I'd never seen before, like this photograph. This is my father taking me on the car ride. That's me when I was almost four. And this is the old car ride at the old Frontier Village amusement park in San Jose.

Well, with all this stuff was a letter written by my mother the week after my father passed away, just shortly after this picture was taken. I was about four years old. Here's another picture of me that was in that stuff from about that time. But this letter was a letter that she wrote back to her family in Switzerland. And she describes how she and my father's brother broke the news to me when I was that age. And of course, I don't remember this at all. And so this was a revelation to me to read this letter.

She writes, "Well, this afternoon we sat down with Rene and told him that his daddy was dead." And then she writes down my response, which was in Swiss German. That was the language that I spoke when I was a little kid. This is what I'll translate. I said to her, well, now daddy is one of the saints with Jesus in heaven. And when Jesus comes back, he'll bring daddy with him too. And I will hold your hand when Jesus comes back, mommy, and we will go to heaven together. And are there horsies in heaven?

Childish? It's interesting. I was thinking about this. Every adult I know who has come to terms with great losses in life, after all the tears and all the questions, has eventually come back to something like this. A childlike faith in Jesus and a delight in his creation, like horsies, just like Job. My father is buried at this grave over in Los Gatos. And I'll never forget the week that I was given that letter and I read it, I drove over the hill to my dad's grave.

And I wept there and I cried and I laid flowers. And I also laid something else down. I laid down all my questions about his death at the feet of God. Because I realized those will be unanswerable and unanswered questions for the rest of my life. I will never get an answer to those questions in my life. And so I just laid them down there and I touched dad's tombstone and I actually said out loud, dad, the hope that I had as a four-year-old is the hope that I am now reclaiming as an adult.

That one day in my flesh I will see Jesus and I will again see you and I will again hug you. And then I got in my car and started driving out of the cemetery and I was crying, of course. And then suddenly a cloudburst happened. Suddenly there's rain falling all over my car. And then-- this was just incredible-- a beautiful red-tailed hawk just glided right over the hood of my car and just plunged into some bushes on the side of the road.

And I braked suddenly and I watched as he just erupted out of those bushes with a snake in his talons. And he went soaring off. And not a moment later I put on the brakes again for a mother duck leading her tiny, tiny little ducklings in a row across the road. And you know what? I really felt as if God was speaking to me, kind of how he spoke to Job, through the cloudburst and the raptor and the mama duck, behold my handiwork and the rain and the hawk and the hatchlings.

And I felt peace that didn't come from answers. It was peace that came from perspective. And that's where Job goes. He says to God, I had only heard about you before. But now I have seen you with my own eyes. Now what's interesting is he doesn't really see God. He sees all these clues to God's majesty, the skies and the stars and the seas all around him. But what he's getting at is that his religion had been important to him, yes, but it wasn't really personal.

What he was discovering at the end of all his unanswered questions was something better than answers, a personal relationship with God. I started with a clip from Martin Luther King Jr. And I want to end with him too. At the end of the sermon, he tells his church about a time when he was under so much stress because of the hateful and violent racists all around him that he felt he couldn't take it anymore.

And so he prayed and said, God, I just want to give up sometimes. And I think his prayer is being prayed again by people in our nation today. Now he didn't really find any answers. But he found something even more profound. I never will forget one night, very late, the telephone started ringing and I picked it up. On the other end was an ugly voice. That voice said to me in substance, we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren't out of this town in three days, you're going to blow your brains out and blow up your house.

I've heard these things before, but for some reason that night it got to me. I turned over and I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't sleep. Then I started thinking about many things. I pulled back on the theology and philosophy that I had just studied in the universities, trying to give philosophical and theological reasons for the existence and the reality of sin and evil. But the answer didn't quite come there.

Something said to me, you can't call on daddy now. He's up in Atlanta, 175 miles away. You've got to call on that something and that person that your daddy used to tell you about. That power that can make a way out of no way. I discovered then that religion had to become real to me and I had to know God for myself. I bowed down over that cup of coffee. I never will forget.

Oh yes, I prayed a prayer and I prayed out loud that night. I said, Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right. Seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And Lord, I will be with you even until the end of the world. I tell you, I've seen the lightning flash. I've heard the thunder roll. I've felt sin break a dashing trying to conquer my soul.

But I heard the voice of Jesus. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. I'm going on in believing in Him. You better know Him and know His name. Know how to call His name. Don't be a fool. Let's admire your dependence on God. Yes. And I want to invite you now to know Him and to call on His name even when there are unanswerable and unanswered questions still in your life.

To call on the name of Jesus because that is where there is hope. Let's pray together. Would you bow your head with me? Father, we are going through tough times. And many of us are feeling confusion and anger and fear. And we just honestly tell you that right now. We need your peace even when we don't understand. And if anybody wants to call on the name of Jesus and receive you as their Lord and Savior, I pray that they would do that even now and begin that relationship with the one who said, I will never leave you.

No, never leave you. No, never alone. Never alone. And Lord, we pray again for those sick with COVID for healing. For those on the front lines, the clerks, the first responders, the health workers, for strength. We pray for our leaders. Lord, give them strength and give them courage and wisdom. And we pray for our nation, God. Grant us peace. Heal our nation. Give us the courage to boldly learn how we can all play a part in repenting, not only from personal sin, but from national sin too.

As your people prayed in scripture, Lord, have mercy on us, not just me, on us. And may we as a nation turn to you. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.