Thoughts from Pastor Stan

Sermon Notes

All Saints Day 2009

Good and Bad I

REFLECTION OF MY LIFE (by Marmalade)

(v1) The changing

Of sunlight to moonlight

Reflections of my life

(v4) The world is a bad place

A bad place, a terrible place to live

Oh, but I don't wanna die

OBSERVATION: I have no idea why they thought “The World is a bad place...”

SITUATION

Adversity strikes. When it does, there is a temptation to perceive “The world is a bad place...”

Especially when death strikes unexpectedly (Pollyanna).

PASSING OF THE PEACE

SCRIPTURE: Ecclesiastes 3:2 “A time to die”

QUESTION: If you were God, would things die?

is this world a bad place because there is “a time to die”?

SCRIPTURE: Genesis 6:5

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

QUESTION: How bad is the world?

(not at all, a little, moderately, a lot, completely?)

JOHN WESLEY

John Wesley used the above verse for his sermon on Original Sin. Commenting on the above verse John Wesley said the following:

How widely different is this from the fair pictures of human nature which men have drawn in all ages! The writings of many of the ancients abound with happy descriptions of the dignity of man; whom some of them paint as having all virtue and happiness in his composition, or, at least, entirely in his power, without being beholden to any other being; yea, as self-sufficient, able to live on his own stock, and little inferior to God himself.

QUESTION: Do you agree or disagree?

What is your description of the world?

GOTTFRIED LEIBNIZ

The German philosopher Leibniz said in the 18th century (1710) when observing the world and the problem of evil said that this is the”best of all possible worlds.”

QUESTION: Agree or Disagree?

VOLTAIRE (Francois-Marie Arouet)

The French philosopher Voltaire disagreed with Leibniz and made fun of his position in his book Candide.

Adult Sunday School - Theodicy (8 a.m. in the library)

In the Adult Sunday School we have been wrestling with this issue for the last three months and have a couple more months.

PROBLEM - WE LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE BAD THINGS HAPPEN

Perhaps the worst thing that happens is we all die.

I am not pleased with that

No one makes it out of here alive. we all die. bummer

and the older i get the closer i get to the front of the line and the longer the line is behind me.

REFLECTIONS OF MY LIFE

The changing, Of sunlight to moonlight, Reflections of my life...

The world is a bad place, A bad place, a terrible place to live (A/D)...

Oh, but I don't wanna die

SCRIPTURE: Romans 8:28

And we know that in al things God works for the good of those who love him...”

SCRIPTURE: Ecclesiastes 3: 1 & 2

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die.

QUESTION: True or False: is there a time to be born and a time to die?

If so, then why is it so difficult when it is time to die?

Why does it hurt so much?

OBSERVATION: Death, in some ways, is out of human hands.

We have no choice. We shall all die. Whether we want to or not.

CHOICE: The only choice we have is what we intend to do with the time between birth and death.

SIGNIFICANT CHOICES: honor time and it’s briefness. They focus on relationships (God and others). They do not focus on acquiring. Because significant choices focus on relationships, when the time of death occurs, death becomes more difficult. It brings with it sorrow because the loss of the other hurts because of how deepness of the relationship.

QUESTION: Does this mean to count it (death) all joy (James 1:2) because the sorrow of death indicates that we led significant lives?

OVERCOMING ADVERSITY

STRANGER (Albert Camus)

The opening pages of The Stranger, a young man (Mersault) confronted by the adversity of the death and his mother and his response to her death.

“Mother died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don’t know.”

QUESTION: How does the young man respond to the death of his mother?

The immediate impression of the opening lines of the Stranger is that Meursault does not like the interruption in his world. He is more upset with not being able to work than attending his own mother’s funeral. He is more of an observer of life, instead of living life. Camus is inviting the reader to perceive life as absurd.

POINT: We always have a choice on how to respond to adversity/death.

POINT: The healthier person is the one that recognizes there is both good and bad in life.

JOB

QUESTION: How does Job respond?

SCRIPTURE TO PONDER: I Corinthians 15: 54 - 57

54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55 "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

DEATH BED “TRUTH”

SOCRATES

No one can do evil to you. Only you can do evil by your response.

BOEITHIUS (480 - 525 A.D.)

486 A.D. ROME FEL,

??? Theodoric the Great (King of the Ostrogoths)

Assisted the King (2nd in all of the land, Like Joseph)

Boethius tried to do good

BUT he angered the wrong people

Accused of treason

524 A.D. THROWN INTO PRISON (“death bed”: why did this happen to me?)

DISCIPLES

QUESTION: How did the disciples respond to adversity (the death of Jesus)?

ANSWER: They gave up. They went home. They were afraid.

They thought they were losers.

US

When adversity strikes, what do we do?

When death strikes, how do you respond?

Do you find yourself responding differently to death dependent on age?

Do you respond differently to the death of someone older than you

than someone your age? Or, how about younger than you?

We may be tempted to think the world is a bad place.

We may ask: “Why did this happen?”

US

Or, how do we respond to the drawing closer of our own death?

CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY (Boethius: magnum opus)

Humans are essentially good and only when they give in to “wickedness” do they “sink to the level of being an animal. You can only be evil if you hate. God is good and creates only good. Only good can come from good. One has a choice: respond with evil or love.

VICTOR FRANKYL (near death bed experience)

Held in a German concentration camp, everything can be taken away except the ability to respond, that choice remains.

JOSHUA (on his own “death bed”)

SCRIPTURE: Joshua 24:15

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."

POINT: We always have the right to choose how to respond.

JESUS (on his own “death bed”)

SCRIPTURE: Luke 22: 19 & 20 (the Last Supper)

19 And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."

20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

OUR RESPONSE

Says a lot about who we are and where we are going?

CLOSING

Life is difficult. Death is difficult. Life and death happens to us.

What is important is how one responds to life and death.

CHALLENGE

Respond to the death of a loved one by honoring them with love.