When Bad Things Happen

11th Sunday after Pentecost – C (Proper 16)                                                LSB #’s 915, 758, 746
Text – Hebrews 12:5b-6
 
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him.  For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, & chastises every son whom He receives.
 
WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN
 What do you think of  when you hear the word discipline?    Do pleasant thoughts come to mind,  or,  is your reaction something less  than that?    Discipline is a difficult word  for sinful creatures.   As a case in point, we’ll consider the book of Job. Coming to chapter 2, Satan had already taken Job’s property & children, but Job did not flinch.   Then,  God allows Satan to inflict suffering upon Job himself.  The devil caused sores to break out from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.  It’s then  that Job’s wife takes the occasion to speak: “Do you still hold fast your integrity?   Curse God   & die.”  (2:9 ESV)  For me,  that is a classic sinful reaction  to discipline.  Many chapters later, after Job had begun to complain, “…the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind… ‘Who is this that darkens my counsel by words without knowledge?’”  (38:2 ESV)   You & I  can probably come up with an example or two  of times  when we darkened God’s counsel  by words without knowledge. 
That easily happens when you’re living in a sin-filled world  with a heart that is naturally blind  to truth.  Our Lord & Creator is at the opposite end of that spectrum.  He is the truth, & His very words bring & sustain life,  not only in good times,  but especially during our struggles. Nevertheless, Jesus knows what it is to live through the struggles we endure.  He took on human flesh & blood so He could learn obedience to His Father & perfectly relate to us in our struggles.  Now,  He understands what it’s like to be tempted by hunger & thirst, by anger & hatred from human beings,  & by the despair that results from sin’s damage to all of His creation. Jesus also understands how the discipline of our heavenly Father  can appear to us as something that is ‘bad.’   When children are disciplined,  they naturally look at that as a bad thing.  They even question the love of their parents because of it.   And Satan is right there with them, promoting those very questions & encouraging our angry response,  to what God knows is best for us.  It is an act of faith when we humbly accept God’s discipline as good. Sin has corrupted our understanding of discipline.   Our sinful nature hates the mere thought of it,  & considers discipline to be a bad thing.   That corrupted reaction to the word complicates our understanding of the sermon text from Hebrews 12.  The word translated as discipline can also be translated as instruction  or guidance. Here’s a translation with that in mind: “My son, do not belittle the instruction of the Lord or become slack when rebuked by Him; for the Lord instructs the one He loves & chastises every son whom He receives.”  (Hebrews 12:5b-6) 
We tend to view instruction in a more positive light  than we view discipline.  Yet, God’s discipline  always involves instruction as well.  Learning, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit is a good thing,  but in this world, that still involves hard work, effort, overcoming failure & persevering through the entire process.  It takes self-discipline to learn well. Discipline is necessary in this world because of what sin has done to it.  In heaven, discipline will not be needed.  There,  we will perfectly know,  think & do  all things in line with the will of Father, Son & Holy Spirit.  No one in heaven will ever stray  outside of what is perfectly good, right & salutary.  There, the Law will not condemn anyone. In this life, a sermon that faithfully preaches the Law will give instruction & it will feel like discipline.  One purpose of the Law is to kill our sinful nature.   Fortunately, a faithful sermon will also apply the Gospel.  That too  is instruction,  but it doesn’t feel like discipline.  Instead, the Good News lifts us up  & restores the life within that God’s Spirit endowed through Baptism & His Word.  The Good News of Holy Communion imparts the very body & blood of Christ in order to recreate us into the image of God  that we lost  when Adam & Eve sinned. 
All those times that we, like Job’s wife, wanted to curse God & die while under His discipline, mean that we need to be forgiven & recreated.  All those times that we, like Job, complained & darkened God’s counsel by words without knowledge, mean that we need to be forgiven & recreated.  When God’s Spirit is at work in us  we feel the need for His mercy. In last Sunday’s sermon we considered that God has called us to run the race of faith with endurance,  yet due to sin,  we also need to consider if we are running the right race.  Satan, & our ungodly culture, place many false races in front of us.  We may be striving & enduring with all we’ve got  & still  be on the wrong course. In those verses, just before today’s reading from Hebrews, God is encouraging us to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, as we run the race, as we endure the discipline of the Lord.  Hebrews encourages us to see discipline, instruction & suffering differently than we naturally do.  God is good, & all that He does is good, right & salutary for us.  When bad things happen to us,  Satan is right there tempting us to believe that God does not love us.  He tempted Adam & Eve to believe that God’s command not to eat of that one tree was somehow harmful to them.  The Word of God in Hebrews teaches us that in His discipline God is actually treating us as sons. Hebrews acknowledges that discipline & instruction seem painful, rather than pleasant. Yet, it tells us that being trained by discipline will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness.  What does that mean?  What is the peaceful fruit of righteousness?  It’s a clean conscience that believes Jesus has paid the price for all our sin.  That He has removed the shame & guilt of sin. When we confess our sins, knowing & believing that God will forgive them, we do so with confidence that Christ’s blood will cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  So, earlier in the service we spoke these words, “Together  as His people  let us take refuge in the infinite mercy of God, our heavenly Father.”  (LSB p. 203)   We can speak those words with confidence because Jesus hung in our place on the cross. 
When bad things happen,  we sometimes fail to recognize the hand of God  in what is happening.  As His disciples saw that Jesus was crucified, it was a horrible experience to endure.  They were enduring God’s discipline that they might appreciate the resurrection of their Lord completely.  Only after the resurrection did His disciples realize the eternal implications of it. Someone put it this way: “In all the Father’s chastisements & crosses He ‘sends His love-letters in black-edged envelopes’ – they seem like announcements of bad news, but are actually good tidings of a plan for restoration.”  We rarely feel good about being disciplined,  but faith enables us to see that it is for our eternal good. The encouragement to Christian discipline is not an encouragement to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps or give it the old college try.  The encouragement to Christian discipline is no more  nor less than to keep the Jesus of the cross constantly in view.  The author is saying that sharing in God’s holiness (the goal of discipline) is sharing in the cross of Christ. And, in a way we can only understand by faith, that brings us the peaceful fruit of righteousness.  Amen. 
  
The will of God is always best  & shall be done forever;  & they who trust in Him are blest:  He will forsake them never.   He helps indeed  in time of need;  He chastens with forbearing.   They who depend on God, their friend, shall not be left despairing.     Lord, this I ask,  O hear my plea,  deny me not this favor: When Satan sorely troubles me,  then do not let me waver.   O guard me well,  my fear dispel, fulfill Your faithful saying: All who believe  by grace receive an answer to their praying.  Amen.  LSB 758:1, 3.