We pray for
blessings. We pray for peace. Comfort for family, protection while we sleep. We pray for healing, for prosperity. We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our
suffering. All the while, You hear each
spoken need. Yet love us way too much to
give us lesser things.
Cause what if Your
blessings come through raindrops. What
if Your healing comes through tears. What
if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near. What if trials of this life are Your mercies
in disguise.
In Pakistan last
year when a radical Muslim mob of about 3000 came to burn the Christian village
of Korian, the Christian families ran for their lives. But 86-year-old Baba Qadar could not run. He could not even walk. The mob found him lying on his bed outside
his house. He told us, “My family wanted
to take me but I could not run. I forced
them to run for safety. I told them,
‘Go! I will remain here.’ About 20 or 30 of the attackers surrounded my
bed. One of them shouted at me, ‘You are
old, so it is better that you accept the true religion. We will not beat you if you say the Kalma
(the Muslim confession of faith).’ I
said, ‘No, no, I will not say this. Burn
me or kill me or do whatever you like. I
have said my Kalma and that is Jesus Christ.’
Then they beat me with their weapons—pistols, Kalashnikovs and big
sticks. They kicked me.
The prophet
Jeremiah was a predecessor to Baba Qadar.
God called on Jeremiah to speak out to those who persecuted him as
well. In today’s first reading, we hear
the prophet crying out to God, “Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous
and incurable? You are to me like
deceptive brook, like a spring that fails.
Therefore, this is what the Lord says: “You will be my spokesman. I will make you a wall to this people, a
fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome
you, for I am with you to rescue and save, “ declares the Lord. “I will save you from the hands of the wicked
and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”
Jeremiah went through many trials, but God delivered him from every one
of them. Imagine the relationship this
prophet must have had with God. Do you
have a relationship like that with your Savior?
The trials of this prophet led him to rely on God, but we so often believe
that our trials and tribulations are actually what pull us away from God.
Don’t you think
that Baba’s family, running away to safety, were praying for their beloved
grandfather to be protected? For his
suffering to end? And how would they
have felt if they saw God allowing their grandfather to be beaten and
kicked? Would they have doubted God’s
goodness? His love? Would they have been angry? Wouldn’t you have been? Aren’t you when God allows cancer to enter
our bodies? Or disasters to strike our
farms? Or hearts to be broken? Or dreams to be shattered?
Baba’s story
continues, “Lying on the ground I looked up at them and said, ‘How can you kill
me? The Master of Life is only one and
this is Jesus Christ. Only he can give
or take life, so do whatever you like because I knkow that it is God alone who
can take my life.’” A group of men
picked Baba up off his bed and hurled him into a thorn bush about 20 feet
away. One of them promised him, “If you
say the Kalma and accept the Muslim faith, we will take you off this bush.” As some of them turned to walk away, they
heard a voice from the thorn bush: ‘Kill
me. Burn me. I will not say the oath.” Imagine if God had saved him from being
thrown into that thorn bush? Would Baba
have still had the strength to speak out to his oppressors?
A reading from 2
Corinthians 12, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these
surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a
messenger from Satan, to torment me.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in wekness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in
weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Baba, the mostly
blind, 86 year old lame man found his strength lying in a thorn bush. I doubt if he ever felt more strong than at
that very moment in his life. I don’t
know what Baba’s life was like before this day.
According to the article, he could not read. We know that he could no longer walk. What his life amounted to up to this time, I
can’t say with any certainty. He
probably doubted his faith at times like you and I do. He probably questioned biblical passages and
wondered how anyone could be expected to live up to the high expectations that
Jesus presents to his disciples. He no
doubt fell into temptation and was ashamed of himself at times throughout his
life. This may have been the single most
faithful act he ever witnessed in himself and it came on the worst night of his
life. What if trials of this life are
God’s mercies in disguise.
As your pastor, I
know that some of you are going through the worst times of your life right
now. And many of those trials may SEEM
to come because you are trying to stand firmly to your faith. Several of you, may be in marriages that are
only hanging on a thread and it would be easier for all of you to just leave
and be done with it, except that God considers you and your spouse to be one
flesh. And so you suffer every day with
no end in sight. But, what if the
healing of your heart, your faith and your marriage comes through this time of
trial?
You may be
struggling with money moreso now than ever before. And it would be easier to steal from your
workplace or steal your church tithe back into your bank account to give you a
little breathing room. Maybe you can
never do the things you want because you never have enough money! And you hate it! And your family hates it! But, what if, the achings of this life—the
desire for a better car, a bigger house, a larger retirement fund—is the
revealing of a greater thirst this world and all the money in it cannot
satisfy? Maybe God desires you to care
more about your relationship to Him than your security on this earth?
You may be dying,
literally dying, of cancer or you may know someone who is . . . don’t we all? And it would be nice if God would just take
that tumor away in a miraculous healing so that you could praise his name and
finally get some reward for being a devoted Christian your entire life! It’s embarrassing isn’t it, to be a Christian
who believes in the power of prayer and the power of healing and to not have it
happen EVERY SINGLE TIME! Why would God
allow this to happen to you or your loved one when there is so much more on
this earth to be done?
Well, as the song
puts it. “When friends betray us. When darkness seems to win. We know the pain reminds this heart that this
is not, this is not our home.” Or, as
Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, “Whatever was to my profit I now consider
loss for the sake of Christ.” This
world, the very breaths we take are not the goal. Sometimes the trials of this life reminds us
that this life, as wonderful as it is, is not the best thing there is. Because of Jesus Christ, there is more than
this life for you. When you place your
trust in Jesus Christ, in his life, death and resurrection for you, these
trials, those achings, the darkness of this world will come to an end for
you. God promises you eternal life away
from suffering and pain—to be spent in his presence for all the rest of
time.
God loves you and
wants to spend eternity with you. He
cares more about your faith than your bank account or how much sleep you get or
whether you feel hunky dory all the time.
And if the trials and storms of this life lead you to seek refuge and
safety in him—if that is what it must take—then how could he not allow them to
occur! How could he not love you enough
to risk your pain, your doubt or even your anger if it meant eternal life with
you in the end.
In the book of
Acts, after jail time, shipwrecks and almost being killed multiple times by
mobs, Saint Paul says, “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is
to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task
of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
Baba, the man from the article, tells that his favorite Bible passage is
Matthew:28-31. He does not fear those
who can kill the body, because they cannot kill the soul. He knows that whatever happens he is secure.
What say you? What will you say? When you are called to confess your face
before an angry mob or just in front of a friend at work? When you must decide to either give into
temptation and enjoy the experience of the moment or struggle against the Devil
and follow what you know is right—what will you do? Where will you go when the storms of this
life smash you against the rocks? Will
you lose faith in the face of these trials or will you see them in a new way
starting today? Not as God’s
punishments. Not as God’s carelessness. Not even as God’s mysteries. Instead, maybe the trials of this life are
God’s mercies. They were for Jeremiah,
they caused him to put his trust in God.
They were for Saint Paul, he saw in them the promise of God’s power and
strength. They even were for Baba Qadar,
who boldly spoke of his faith in the face of persecution. What if the trials in your life are God’s
mercies in disguise? Amen.
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