We are meeting today after going through another dark valley in American life. In the city of Patriots, another Boston Massacre has taken place killing and maiming many people. My son David lives only a short way from the end of the Marathon. What if he had decided to go and see the finish of the race? Then there was the horrific explosion in Texas killing so many and destroying so much. And we can’t help looking back on the slaughter of the school children in Newtown, CT. My grand-daughter teaches elementary school very near Newtown. What if she had been the teacher in that school, in that room? And we remember so many other shootings and killings across our country. Weapons meant only for the battlefield, never the hunting ground, were used by deranged young men to kill innocent people.

If you are like me – and I suspect you are – the first word out of our mouths was “why?” “Why has this happened?” I guess we missed the first lesson in human life that M. Scott Peck wrote: “Life is difficult.” But, Dr. Peck: Life is not just difficult; it can be awful. Perhaps we should remember the words of wise Rabbi Kushner: “There is only one question which really matters: Why do bad things happen to good people. We want answers to bring some solace to our suffering. Where is the answer?” How can we comfort those who mourn?

I have been reading the Bible all my life. Only this past week did I discover a spiritual conclusion. The Book of Job comes immediately before the Book of Psalms. Job, perhaps the finest book ever written, could just as well have the title “Why.” You know the story: Job, an exceptionally good man, a wealthy man with a large family, suddenly and inexplicably suffers tragedy after tragedy. Thieves kill all his children. A violent story destroys his home and his herds of animals, the source of his wealth. Then Job contracts a terrible disease. He is covered from head to foot with the most painful sores imaginable. If anyone ever had the right to ask “Why, Why God, Why me?” It has to be Job.

In the midst of his agony of heart and body, Job is visited by three friends. The Bible calls them “Comforters” but like so many conventionally religious people they offer Job no comfort at all. They tell Job that he must have done something to deserve what has happened to him. “Confess your sins to God and ask God’s forgiveness and mercy.” But Job tells them: “I haven’t got anything to confess. I haven’t done anything bad enough to deserve this.” But his comforters go on. “Job, God is always just. God doesn’t punish the innocent but only the guilty. By refusing to repent and ask God’s forgiveness, you are undermining faith in God.”

On and on go these unhelpful Comforters and Job becomes more and more angry. What happened to him was bad enough. Now he has to listen to these foolish people with their stock religious answers! Finally, Job had had enough. He shouts at God to give him an answer: “Why, Lord, Why?” Amazingly enough, God does answer. God comes to Job in the form of a hurricane and, in effect, says to him: “How dare you question me, little man? Were you there when I created the worlds?” As we might put it today, God says to Job, “Get over it.” “Grow up!” You wouldn’t understand the reason why even if I told you. I am in everything that happens. I am always with you.”: “Amazingly enough, Job accepts this as the answer to his pain and loss. In spite of anything that has happened to him, God is with him.

Friends that is true religious faith. Regardless of our hurts, our losses, our disappointments, our tragedies, God understands it all and more. Still God is with us. We are not forgotten or alone. We are not tiny little losers struggling through life, whistling in the storm, alone, all alone.

Now I want to share with you another strange thing that happened to me this week. As you know I had planned another sermon. Don’t worry. You’ll hear it next week! These weekly efforts are too precious to throw away! Maybe not for you, but for me!

I was going to preach on a passage from acts, but one of the other passages in the lectionary was, incredibly, the Twenty Third Psalm. The 23rd Psalm, the most familiar and treasured passage in all the Bible. Many of us learned it by heart as children. I did, did you? If you did, please say it with me…

(The congregation says the 23rd Psalm)

We are usually expecting to hear this psalm only at funerals, but, in fact, it is a true reflection on the meaning of life for all our life. This is the ultimate answer to all the “whys” we face. The Psalmist expresses a mature faith that I hope all of us might share. I realize the Psalm is written with many words and images from long ago, so let me bring it up to date for you:

“God is the caring, compassionate one who watches over me. God gives me everything I need to live on. God leads me through all the dangers I face. Even when I am in a dark valley of depression, or despair, God walks beside me. God comforts me as only a loving parent can.

When I face enemies who would destroy me, God fills me with faith, not fear. God is with me in sickness and in health. No matter what may happen to me, God’s goodness, God’s grace, God’s love, God’s mercy is with me all my life and I truly believe that whether I am living or dead, nothing can separate me from my God.”

That’s the faith of the Psalmist. In spite of all the “whys” of life “the pain and loss and tragedies that may come – God never abandon’s us. Friends, God may not change what happens to us, but God changes us so that we can face whatever happens to us.

People of mature faith do not blame God. We don’t seek for answers in the mystery that is life. We believe with all our heart that God is with us and that is enough. Then, with the chorus of martyrs described in another lectionary passage today, we will sing: “Blessing and Glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to God forever and ever.” And like John the Revelator we look to that time when all human pain and sorrow will be gone, when Christ the Lamb of God will guide us to eternal life, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. I believe that and I hope you do, too. Yes, now our eyes are still filled with tears, but in the time to come God will wipe them away. The “whys” of life won’t seem that important anymore. The questions with or without answers won’t overwhelm us. The God of all eternity is with us. And that is all we need to know. Thanks be to God. Amen.