Real Life, Real Solutions

Rev. Rick Haverly
July 24, 2005

Real Life, Real Solutions

Knowing the outcome changes how we look at events. When Red Sox fans go back to rewatch the American League Championship Series last year, as they watch the first few games, they are feeling very differently now. The emotions watching it now are one of patience and even joy, where it was worry, anxiety and failure last year. Watching your favorite movie, after you know the outcome, you may notice different things but there won’t be the same tension there with the plot.

Our outlook on life can change as we hear these words from Paul’s letter to the Romans today. This portion of the chapter contains some of the most hopeful words for our lives. We hear first in verse 28, “All things work together for good for those who love God.” If we can remember that verse and live by it, we can be filled with incredible courage. It is so positive that we may dismiss it as unrealistic or just a false claim. To understand it properly, I would encourage you to read it carefully and know what it doesn’t say as well. I would add two disclaimers to this interpretation that add to its truthful understanding. First, it does not say that “all things are good.” We should not try to define every experience as good. The reality is that some of the things that happen to us are bad, but these bad things do not contradict the statement. My second disclaimer is, “Not all things are God.” By that I mean that all our experiences are not sent by God. I have seen to many things to believe that the loving God that we encounter in Jesus Christ would send us these bad things. They are not sent by God to teach us a lesson. As I have shared with families who have experienced the suicide of a young adult, or others who have lost a young mother in a car accident, leaving her children parentless, I have to say first off that God did not do this. This was not God’s intention for these lives. God is present with these families in their grief and God is mourning these losses.

But having made these disclaimers, I believe I t is true and hopeful that all things do work for good for those who love God. Now I can say that no matter what we experience, God can work with us and our experiences to bring good out of it. That is the miracle that God can work in our lives. Even in the midst of our hardship, God is working to bring good to us.

I read recently the experience of Randall Wallace.¹ He is a graduate of Duke Divinity School, but his ministry is in movies. He directed “The Man in the Iron Mask” and wrote the screen play for “Pearl Harbor.” He is working on an epic historical novel that included Catherine the Great. He likes to go investigate the lives and surroundings of his characters so he went to Tsarskoe Selo which was the summer palace and favorite residence of Catherine the Great. He was with the curator who led him to the balcony of Cobalt Chapel and said this is where Catherine the Great would stand for mass, right where you are standing. Wallace noticed the crumbling paint and the curator explained that after the revolution in 1917 worship was outlawed and the chapel was not used. During World War II the German army used the chapel for a garage for bicycles. When Wallace noticed him crying he offered to tell his story. So over quickly replenished shots of vodka the curator told Wallace of the infertility problems he and his wife had suffered for years. He had hoped just to have children and to leave them a modest amount of money, but after years of consults with doctors and priests they remained childless. The curator was called to Moscow to oversee the restoration of a museum which was far behind schedule in time for a visit from Pres. Clinton. As a result of the successful completion, President Putin gave him a $2,500 bonus. Having no children he decided to donate the money to the restoration of the Cobalt Chapel. On the day he wrote the check, his wife called him to tell him se was pregnant. His daughter was the first baptism in the Cobalt Chapel since 1917. It is incredible that God can work in ways that brings good things even out of very difficult situations.

It is trust in this knowledge that can allow us to face our lives with confidence and to do incredible things. We can move beyond being victims and respond to all of life as God’s servants. So if we face anxiety because our marriage is breaking up or because we don’t know if we have a job next week, we need to remember this scripture. These are not good things, but God can use them for good and we may look back later a think of them as good in hindsight

Even as God works with us for good not all things have happy endings. I am reminded of Alex, a young girl with cancer. She decided to open up lemonade stand to raise money for the pediatric cancer department at the hospital where she received treatment. Her stand gained great publicity and she received generous individual and corporate donations for work in pediatric cancer. She raised almost $1million when she died almost a year ago at the age of 8. Now the totals are close to $2.5 million dollars for treatment and research for pediatric cancer. Now there is no way I would call either her disease or her death good. But God entered her life and her experience to bring about good for her and for others.

This should not surprise us because we follow Jesus. We know that Jesus faced death on the cross. A cruel, torturous death. And a death that according to Old Testament scriptures that removed him from God’s love. But we know that God took that awful experience and redeemed it, made it effective for our salvation and for our eternal lives by following it with the miracle of the empty tomb. We may face crucifixions in our lives but we can trust God to bring about the resurrection.

We will sing a hymn based on these verses next. It is written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a minister and a war protestor. As a result he was sitting in jail on New Years and wrote this hymn. Just four months later he was executed by the SS in 1945. Even in the midst of the horror of World War II Germany and his imprisonment he could write these words of trust and hope. And even after his execution he is considered one of the great theologians and pastors of the 20th century.

We do live lives that are filled with experiences that are good and bad. God can use them all to work good for us. We may even see it in hindsight when we look back. But in the midst of them we may have to just trust the truth of the words. More importantly we need to remember God’s presence even in the midst of our greatest horror. The chapter ends reminding us that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Even in the midst of the worst, God is with us. Nothing that can happen to us can deny God’s love for us. We know the ultimate outcome, that in all things we are more than conquerors and from that vantage point we view our lives differently. We see with hope and courage in all things.

¹ “In Catherine’s Cobalt Chapel” by Elisabeth Stagg.