God Cries Too

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
The First Presbyterian Church
Washingtonville, New York
May 29, 2005

God Cries Too
Genesis 6:5-22
Psalm 46

Joel Friedland was one of the good guys.
He was my roommate when I was at the Wharton School in Philadelphia.
We were both in the MBA program, both Finance majors,
and we were both passionate fans of Monty Python’s Flying Circus,
the British comedy troupe.
After graduation Joel returned to his hometown of Chicago,
married a lovely woman, had three children,
and was extremely successful in his career as a banker and investor.
Even with his success and the trappings that came with it,
Joel was always down to earth, friendly,
a man who spent his days dealing with company presidents,
yet was most comfortable playing with his children.
So when he telephoned me in the summer of 1998 and told me his news,
I thought, “wait a minute, this isn’t supposed to happen.”
Joel had been diagnosed with cancer a few months earlier.
Joel’s cancer was among the worst: it was cancer of the esophagus,
and that particular type of cancer is almost always fatal.
Joel knew he was going to die and
he was calling because he wanted to know
whether I would lead a memorial service for him after he died.
I said yes, of course, and six months later
I flew to Chicago to lead 300 men, women and children
who knew and loved Joel in a service to celebrate his life.

Joel was only 44, much too young to die.
It made no sense…..It simply wasn’t fair.
He loved his wife and children,
he was honest in his business dealings,
kind to everyone with whom he worked,
and charitable to those less fortunate than himself.
He was one of the good guys.
When Joel died, his family cried,
his friends cried,
his colleagues at work cried.
When Joel died, I believe God cried, too,
cried that one of his children died so young.

One of the many topics we discuss right at the beginning
of Confirmation Class each year
is the fact that life can often seem unfair,
that many things in life don’t seem to make any sense at all.
We talk about the fact that for men and women of faith,
lots of things that we experience or we read about trouble us,
because we wonder how a loving, merciful God
can allow bad things to happen to good people.
After all, if God is just and kind and good,
why do we read about good people dying,
dying from illness, dying by accidents,
or most tragically, dying by their own hand?

We talk about the fact that God does not cause these people to die.
It was not God’s will that Joel died a painful death
from cancer of the esophagus,
any more than it is God’s will that a teenager dies in a car accident
caused by a drunk driver, or that a baby dies from a sudden illness,
or a young man or woman is killed in war.

God’s activity, God’s presence is not in the death,
it is in the comfort, the reassurance,
the love, the strength we need to carry on,
even in the face of numbing grief or overwhelming tragedy.
As the Psalmist reminds us, God is our refuge, our strength,
our sure help in times of trouble.
God is always there for us;
Even as God grieves, even as God cries, too,
God is there for us:
our strength, a source of comfort,
for “underneath are the everlasting arms”
(Deut 33.27)

I believe God cries whenever one of his children dies,
but especially when death could have been avoided,
could have been prevented.
As much as we have learned about cancer,
we still do not understand how many cancers start:
We don’t know what causes cancer of the esophagus.
But we do know that most of those who are diagnosed with lung cancer
are smokers, or tragically, people who have been around smokers
and breathed in their smoke.
Four hundred thousand people will die from smoking-related
illness this year, and those deaths could easily be avoided
by simply throwing away the package of cigarettes.

God will cry twice at each of those deaths:
Once from grief at the loss
and once from anguish over the fact that the person chose
to do something that he or she knew would cause death.

We often choose paths that brings tears to God’s eyes,
because we often choose paths that jeopardize our health.
We eat the wrong foods, we drink too much, we smoke,
we don’t exercise enough, we worry and fret too much.
We choose to jeopardize our lives and the lives of others
by doing things like driving too fast, or recklessly,
the woman who rides the bumper of the car in front of her,
or, as I see too many times, the driver who doesn’t like
the speed limit on Toleman, and will cross a double-yellow line
so he can go 50 or 60
With summer comes motorcycles, both the big, absurdly noisy Harleys,
and now the new breed of European bikes
that seem to be favorites of the young and reckless.
We choose paths that lead us to immoral behavior,
which we tend to shrug off as harmless fun,
because no one gets hurt.
Pat and I had dinner at Hudson Valley Coffee Roasters the other night.
it’s a favorite place,
and as we walked from the parking lot to the restaurant
we followed a man who looked like your neighbor or mine,
but he wasn’t going to the restaurant; he was headed for
an adult video store across the street
apparently for a little “harmless” fun.

Go just 6 chapters into the very first book of the Bible
and we find that God’s tears for his children have worn him out.
He has watched with dismay how his children have shown
how quick they are to make bad choices,
to choose paths that steer them away from God.

And so we read,
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great on the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts
was only evil continually.
And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth,
and it grieved him to his heart.” (Gen. 6:5-6)
A literal translation of that last line tells us that humanity’s behavior
“hurt God’s heart”, it gave God a heartache
and brought tears to God’s eyes
as God wondered, “Why do my children behave this way?
This is not what I wanted for them,
not what I expected from them.”

Over the centuries theologians have tried to rationalize
the fact that we humans tend to choose actions and words
that lead us away from God,
more often that we choose actions and words
that lead us closer to God.
We have been told for centuries we do these things
because of “original sin”, that somehow because
of Adam and Eve, we have all been infected with sin.
But the term “original sin” was one coined by Augustine
almost 400 years after the birth of Christ.
Our Lord Jesus never used any such term,
never made any such assumption.
Jesus knew we humans always had choices set before us,
choices we could make:
if we followed God’s commandments and Christ’s teachings,
we’d make choices and decisions that would lead us closer to God;
and if we substituted our own will, our own desires,
and gave in to the temptations that are always around us,
we’d make decisions and choices
that would lead us away from God.

When God created us God expected that we would spent our days
in loving relationship with him,
and with each other.
With God because he is our Creator and the one who gives us life,
and with each other
because we were supposed to see,
supposed to recognize God’s image in each other.
But we don’t.
We go our own way;
we ignore God
and when we look into the faces of others
we first size them up, judge them,
determine whether we like them or not,
determine whether we should like them or hate them,
call them friend or enemy.

We don’t do this because some sinister force
we might call Satan or the devil
seduces us and puts bad thoughts in our minds.
C. S. Lewis once wrote that if he were asked,
the Devil would tell us,
“It is funny how mortals always picture us
as putting things into their minds;
in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”
(C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 4)
No, we do these things because we are selfish,
we want our own way.
And so we make choices that surprise God,
stun God, dismay God
We do things that bring tears to God’s eyes.

On this Memorial Day weekend as we honor those
who fought for our country,
we will shed tears as we remember family and friends
who gave their lives so selflessly.
But even as we shed our tears,
we must remember that God cries over the death
of every man and woman killed in war.
Over the past two years almost 2,000 young America men and women
have been killed in the war in Iraq and God has cried over every death.
At the same time, more than 10,000 Iraqi men,
women and children have died,
and God has cried over their deaths, too,
for Christians and Muslims worship the same God,
and those people are also God’s children.

God has cried over the death of every one of his children
who has given his or her life in war for this country.
But God cried over the death of all his children
and so God cried over the deaths of his children
who once wore uniforms of German or Italian soldiers.
When this church was only 20 years old God shed his tears equally
for men in Union Blue and Confederate Grey.
Abraham Lincoln observed that in any war,
both sides pray that God might be on their side,
but the more important question he thought was,
whether we are on God’s side.

If we are causing God’s heart to hurt,
causing God to shed tears for any of his children,
then we have to ask ourselves whether we are really on God’s side.

The Psalmist reminds us that we always have God as our source of strength
our ready refuge in any bad situation.
But who comforts God in his sadness?
Whose arms are underneath God in his grief?

You and I can wipe God’s tears away,
take away his grief and his sadness
by working to eliminate those things in life that cause God to cry.
We can work for peace,
for that is what our Lord Jesus calls us to do,
“blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called
children of God.”
We can work for reconciliation of all God’s children,
for our Lord Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray
for those who persecute us. (Matt. 5:43ff)

You and I as obedient children, faithful disciples
can wipe away God’s tears
We can cure his heart-ache
By living in obedience, by following his commandments
and his teachings more faithfully
You and I can cease God’s crying
when we “behold God’s works,
when we quiet ourselves, still ourselves
and know that our Lord is God.
AMEN