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Sermon Date:	May 6, 2007
Sermon Text:	John 16:12-22
Church Calendar:	5th Sunday in Easter
Delivered By:	Rev. Brian Roberts

"Living in the 'Little While'"

A couple of weeks ago, my 5-year-old daughter told me that a fire truck was coming to visit the preschool. She was excited because they were going to have a chance to climb on the truck and even get squirted by the fire hose.

Well, I saw a chance to impress my daughter. So, I told her that I was once a fireman. And, I used to ride on fire trucks and I would go to houses that were on fire and put the fires out.

I expected her eyes to get wide in admiration, and for her to say something like: “Wow!” Instead, she looked at me for a moment, and then said, “Why?”

Well, I didn’t expect that. I didn’t think I was going to have to defend what I had said.

“Why” is a tough question. Rarely is “Why” easy to deal with. Very often, there is nothing fun about “why.” Why do I have to work so hard? Why are people so inconsiderate, these days? Why does my teacher give me so much homework? Why does God let so much trouble happen in the church? Why can’t I ever get a good night’s sleep? Why do I have cancer? Why? Why? Why?

One of the biggest “Why” questions that we often deal with, goes something like this: “Why does a kind and loving God allow terrible things to happen to good and faithful people?” Have you ever found yourself asking that question, or something like? I think the Gospel lesson leaves us asking the “Why” question today.

In verse 16 Jesus says, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” And later on, Jesus says, “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come… so with you: Now is your time of grief…” And I find myself wanting to ask, “Why, Lord? I’m a faithful servant. Why do I have to have a time of grief?”

That’s what the disciples were thinking. In verse 18 they say, “What does He mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what He is saying.”

By the way, that might make an interesting confirmation verse, don’t you think? Since we sometimes seem to spend a lot of our Christian life confused about things, maybe it’s appropriate. “What is your confirmation verse?” “It’s John 16:18. ‘We don’t understand what He is saying.’”

Speaking of “I don’t understand…” according to a London newspaper last month, the sister of a man who is dying of leukemia is refusing to donate bone marrow to her brother. The British man, Simon Pretty, who is a father of three, told the Daily Mail that his sister Helen Pretty would not donate her bone marrow, which is a perfect match and could save his life.

Without the donation, Pretty could be dead by the end of the year. He would leave behind his wife Jacqueline and his children: Rebecca, 8, Jack, 6, and Benjamin, 3. Pretty is receiving aggressive chemotherapy treatments in hopes that in the meantime another match may be found. The national bone marrow register did not provide any matches and doctors are now looking in international databases, the Mail reported.

“I am on death row,” Pretty told the Mail. “I can’t believe that she would let my three children lose their father so unnecessarily by her actions.” Helen Pretty declined to comment for the story.
Fox News 3/25/07

Why won’t she help? I don’t understand this. But this is an example of the kind of world we live in. It is a world that is consumed with itself. How often have you watched the news, or read the paper, or witnessed events that cause you to ask “Why?”

Since Adam and Eve’s fall, sin has turned human desires inward. Whenever something happens, humanity’s first inclination is how it affects ME. But that’s what sin does. It infects our hearts. It infects our attitudes. It infects our thinking. It infects our actions. It causes us to think first about ourselves.

Too often we measure our actions by what is most convenient for me, or what is most comfortable for me, or what has the most opportunity for me.

An example of just how lost people can become in themselves is an organized attempt in Japan for husbands to treat their wives better. On Jan. 31, several hundred Japanese husbands recognized the second annual “Beloved Wives Day.” This is an effort to get Japanese men, who are notorious for their deeply ingrained indifference to their spouses, to treat their wives better.

Among the husbands’ vows: be home from work by the unusually early hour of 8 p.m.; actually look into your spouse’s eyes and say “thank you”; and try to remember to call her by her name, instead of, as many apparently do, simply grunting at her.
Taipei Times-AP, 2-1-07

You don’t have to look very far or hard to see how thoroughly sin has taken hold of the human heart. Evil, hatred, violence, abuse, selfishness, tragedy, sadness, illness, cancer, death are all around us.

So getting back to the “Why” question – Why do bad things happen? It’s because there is sin and evil in this world. It’s because there is sin in our own hearts. And if you live in this world you will be affected. You cannot live here without being harmed. It’s impossible.

It happened to Jesus and He was perfect! He lived here, and even though He was holy, He suffered. He was harmed. And He died. That’s actually what Jesus was referring to when He told the disciples in verse 16, “In a little while you will see me no more…”

The “little while” began with His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and lasted for the three days He was crucified, dead, and buried. For that period of time the disciples did not see Jesus. For that period of time the disciples experienced what Jesus forecasted in verse 20. “I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.”

While Jesus’ enemies rejoiced, while they jeered and cheered at His death, while Satan, himself, celebrated the downfall of the Son of Man, the disciples hid, and wept, and mourned.

But, Why? Why did the disciple have to “weep and mourn?” Why did they have to suffer? Why do I have to suffer? Why, as Christ’s follower, does life have to be so hard, and sad, and sometimes empty? I trust the Lord; I serve the Lord; Why does He let me hurt?

Dear Christian Friends, nowhere in the Bible does Jesus say you aren’t going to hurt, or suffer, or sorrow. Nowhere does God promise that He will take suffering away from us while we are still here on this sin-stained, evil-plagued, and broken earth.

We Christians will share in the suffering of our fellow humanity – just like everyone else does.

Have you ever thought about the fact that the unbelieving world does not have that big a problem with suffering? It’s a normal part of life, and they know it.

Unbelieving people who feel wronged by life’s injustices, do not look to the universe and complain, “Why, Universe?” – unlike Christians, who will call out, “Why, God?” Without God, there is really is no surprise about suffering. It is understood:

• There is evil and injustice in the world – “Who said life was fair?”
• Life in this world means that there is suffering,
• If you live in this world, you will suffer,
• No one avoids suffering – some suffer more, some suffer less – but that’s just how life is.

Now, for Christians, for you and me in the face of suffering, we have it BETTER and WORSE. We have it better because there is a God that we can turn to. But, we have it worse, because frequently, we don’t understand why God lets us suffer. Often, we Christians believe that BECAUSE we are Christians, we should not have to experience the suffering that everyone else in the world experiences.

We think that God should take evil and suffering away from us. And, do you know what? God DOES promise to do that. God promises that He will remove all evil and suffering from us – in heaven.

But, not here. He doesn’t promise to do that here on this earth in this life. That’s why this life is OUR “little while,” that Jesus talks about in the Gospel lesson. “Now, is your time of grief,” Jesus says in the last verse. In Acts 14:22, the Bible says, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

That’s why the real message of this Gospel lesson is not that the “little while” you are here on earth will include suffering. We already know that.

The real message is that through it all, the Lord is with us. Through His suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus has opened the way for us to live this “little while” of life with His constant love, forgiveness, and power.

In the opening verses Jesus speaks about the Holy Spirit coming to encourage and empower us in the face of troubles. And then Jesus gives the example that life is like a woman in childbirth. At first there is the pain and suffering, but after the birth – the pain is forgotten.

“So it is with you,” Jesus says. “And when YOUR birthday into heaven occurs, the sorrows of this life will forever turn to joy.” But “Now is your time of grief,” Jesus tells us, “but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

Mirroring that thought, Paul writes in Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

In verse 20 Jesus promises to turn our grief to joy. But more than that, Jesus promises that while we are here on earth, He will turn our sufferings into something that has meaning and purpose.

Rather than random evil and pain, the Lord promises to use you and the troubles and pain you experience to bring about His plans. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose,” Paul declares in Romans 8:28.

And Isaiah, understanding that God’s plans are always good, writes these amazing words in chapter 38:17: “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.”

And finally, through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord says don’t doubt that I only have the best in mind for you. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

The clouds may hide the sun, but it is still there. Troubles may hide Jesus’ face, but He is still there. The message of Jesus for you today – indeed the message of the whole Bible – is the Lord telling you, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

Amen.

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