Epiphany 7 / Ordinary 7
Preaching
Hear My Voice
Preaching The Lectionary Psalms for Cycles A, B, C
Some years back, there was a best-selling book that got a lot of attention in the church, one written by a rabbi, Harold Kushner. The book was called When Bad Things Happen to Good People (HarperCollins, 1982). It is an honest attempt to grapple with the problem of evil. Why is it, Rabbi Kushner wants to know, that good and faithful people sometimes have to suffer?
There is another variation of this problem that sometimes troubles us -- in fact, it is the exact opposite of Rabbi Kushner's book title. This alternative form of the question is: "Why do good things happen to bad people?" In a certain sense, that form of the question can be even more troubling: "Lord, I try hard to be a person of faith. I don't always succeed, but I do always want to do the right thing. Just look, though, at that person over there -- that person has never so much as darkened a church door. He lives by lying, cheating, and generally taking advantage of others. What a big car he drives! What a huge boat sits in his driveway! He has so much more of the things of this world than do I. Lord, it doesn't seem fair!"
The author of Psalm 37 struggles with this question as well: "Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb" (vv. 1-2). While evildoers may seem to triumph in the short term, in the long term they are doomed. For when the Lord's final justice comes rolling in, all that lush grass will dry up and die.
The point, here, is not to condemn individual people. In the psalms, the category of "the wicked" is an abstract concept. While we ought to be appropriately cautious about relegating any individual to that category, the purpose of the category is to teach us that moral evil truly does exist, and is a perilous trap for the faithful. The thing that makes faithful believers vulnerable to that trap is the sin of envy, which is always to be avoided.
The antidote is stated in verse 7: "Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him...." The believer's attention is more appropriately directed towards God, not toward evildoers. The word "fret," used in verse 1 and in the second part of this verse, literally means "burn." "Do not allow yourself to be consumed with anxiety over the wicked" is what the psalm is saying. Truly, emotions like envy and jealousy -- that we imagine are focused on others -- are just as much directed at ourselves, and can cause terrible damage.
-- C. W.
There is another variation of this problem that sometimes troubles us -- in fact, it is the exact opposite of Rabbi Kushner's book title. This alternative form of the question is: "Why do good things happen to bad people?" In a certain sense, that form of the question can be even more troubling: "Lord, I try hard to be a person of faith. I don't always succeed, but I do always want to do the right thing. Just look, though, at that person over there -- that person has never so much as darkened a church door. He lives by lying, cheating, and generally taking advantage of others. What a big car he drives! What a huge boat sits in his driveway! He has so much more of the things of this world than do I. Lord, it doesn't seem fair!"
The author of Psalm 37 struggles with this question as well: "Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb" (vv. 1-2). While evildoers may seem to triumph in the short term, in the long term they are doomed. For when the Lord's final justice comes rolling in, all that lush grass will dry up and die.
The point, here, is not to condemn individual people. In the psalms, the category of "the wicked" is an abstract concept. While we ought to be appropriately cautious about relegating any individual to that category, the purpose of the category is to teach us that moral evil truly does exist, and is a perilous trap for the faithful. The thing that makes faithful believers vulnerable to that trap is the sin of envy, which is always to be avoided.
The antidote is stated in verse 7: "Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him...." The believer's attention is more appropriately directed towards God, not toward evildoers. The word "fret," used in verse 1 and in the second part of this verse, literally means "burn." "Do not allow yourself to be consumed with anxiety over the wicked" is what the psalm is saying. Truly, emotions like envy and jealousy -- that we imagine are focused on others -- are just as much directed at ourselves, and can cause terrible damage.
-- C. W.
