I was in my office at Takoma Park church, and, as so often happened, someone stopped by to ask for help. The story was very much like most of the stories I had heard. He said that he just needed a few dollars to get by. Tomorrow there would be a job and, “Pastor, if you’ll just give me transportation money, just a few days’ bus fare...” I asked a few questions. I heard more pleas. I at least attempted to talk with him about Christ. Then a moment of prayer, and finally some dollars changed hands. Five minutes after it was all over, a church member said, "Did you see the car that fellow left in?" I was surprised. “He left in a car? He said he needed transportation money, bus fare." My church member told me the terrible truth: "Well, pastor, I would need transportation money too if I were driving a big, shiny, new Mercedes, the one with the large engine and the extra bronze trim."
There is very little justice in this world. We established that last week. Last week we talked about that age-old problem of what you do with your feelings when bad things happen to good people. We thought about how, when good people get into tough times, it just feels as though they are not being treated fairly. But that is old news now and it was old news then. We didn’t waste time trying to figure out why that happens. It just does.
Today we are turning over to the other side of the coin. What about when good things happen to bad people? The exact opposite of last week. When good things happen to bad people, when the goodies come down on people who have done nothing to deserve them; when showers of blessing rain abundantly on folks who have lied, cheated, and stolen, and again there just doesn’t seem to be any justice. The Bible says that God makes His rain fall upon both the just and the unjust. But somebody has put it like this: "The rain, it falls upon the just and unjust fella; the trouble is the unjust took the just’s umbrella."
So when the scoundrels get the goodies, how do you feel? The cheats and the thieves figure out ways to keep their wealth and make the rest of us pay for it; are you angry? Some corporate hotshots market high-risk securities or unsustainable mortgages, run the economy into the ground as their house of cards falls down, and then award themselves and their cronies multiplied millions in bonuses. What do you say to all of that?
About the Mercedes driver, I have to tell you, I lost it over the extra bronze trim! I just lost it when I realized what luxury he had given himself. Why should such a good thing as the church’s charity, money given by ordinary clunker-driving people, be lavished on a bad person? Why should we be taken in by such a rogue? Let’s get down to it: why does God let good things happen to bad people?
Well, as with last week, we are not going to waste time speculating about why that happens. It’s just there. Good things do happen to people who do not deserve them. And we cannot figure out why. But I will give you a clue right now to something we will look at today. It’s not about what we deserve. It’s about grace. It’s always about grace.
Now for a moment back to last Sunday: thinking about what we are to do with our feelings when bad things happen to good people – we noticed that we must pray. We must pray not so much to ask God to put everything back together. We pray to pour our very hearts out to God. When bad things happen to good people, God will hear the cries of anguish. And then we found that when we pray honestly and passionately, God brings forward reserves of memory that help us get through. We remember the grace of God in the past and that helps us build hope for the future.
And in addition, last week, using Psalm 22, we also discovered that sometimes God is silent until we find out how much we need Him. He wants us to acknowledge that we are not as good as we think we are. It’s only when we depend upon Him that we win our victory. It’s only when we throw ourselves on His mercy that we will be satisfied; it may not be today, nor yet tomorrow, but ultimately we will be satisfied. The awesome cry of the psalmist, the terrifying cry of Christ Himself, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Let that cry assault the heavens. And we will find that we can survive when bad things happen to good people.
Now this week, turn it around. Moving from bad things happening to good people to the question of good things happening to bad people, the answer is much the same. It’s once again rooted in prayer, once again about knowing what God is doing, once again about grace.
The great Shepherd Psalm, beloved for generations, speaks to us about good things happening to bad people. The 23rd Psalm is the prayer of a person who has seen injustice but can deal with it when he looks out from his ordinary life and sees that very good things do happen to some very bad people. But he is able to be all right with that. He is able to accept that. How?
The 23rd Psalm is the prayer of a soul that is satisfied. Satisfied no matter what others get. Because it’s all about grace and not about what we deserve.
I
You see, when good things happen to bad people, and we just don’t seem to be getting our fair share, prayer helps us discover that we don’t have any deficits. We do have good things. We have good things, and, if we but recognize them, they are the better things. In prayer, we find that what we have is enough. We don’t want anything else. We don’t need anything else.
Let me test you. I have been speaking about “things”. Good “things”, bad “things.” Have you been thinking about material goods while I’ve spoken about good things coming to bad people? I’ll bet you have. I led you down that path. I spoke about corporate bonuses and welfare cheats. I snookered you into thinking about material goodies. Good things, material things, happening to those bad people out there.
But, you see, when you pray the prayer of the Psalmist, you go to a whole different place. You move to a whole new level. The issue for the Psalmist is not a need for material stuff. The issue is that because he has opened his eyes to see what the Lord has already given him, then "I shall not want." I shall not want. I am not going to need anything. I have everything that I really need. And it’s all from grace.
You see, our problem is not with how much or how little stuff we have. Our problem is with how much we want. Our wanting hearts work overtime. If we see it, we want it. If it’s new, we have to have it. If it’s the latest thing, it needs to be my thing. Anybody here every stood in line overnight to buy the latest electronic wizardry? Don’t answer that question; I don’t think I want to know!
But if wanting takes hold of us, we will never be satisfied. Never! There is no such thing as enough, no such thing as satisfaction if it is things material you are after. If you get one million dollars, you want two. If you get two, you have to have four. And ten. And a hundred. It becomes a huge game of competing, and if you are caught in that you will never be satisfied, never.
But the Psalmist! Look at the gifts he had. "[The Lord] maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters, he restoreth my soul." Green pastures! Still waters! God’s gentle gifts. If, in prayer, I discover that God’s best gifts are the gentle ones, the quiet ones, then what somebody else has and why they got it won’t be an issue. I’ll just be focused on gratitude for a quiet heart and a centered soul. I shall not want, because I already have God’s gentle gifts.
Years ago, when our children were small, our family was invited out this way to a home in Fulton to visit some friends for an evening cookout. It really wasn’t all that far from here, but it was far enough that as the sun went down and the stars were revealed, we were all taken aback with the brilliance of the starry heavens. We paused to look up. My little daughter said it best, "Daddy, why didn’t you tell me there were so many stars up there?" Well, Daddy hadn’t told her about the moon and the stars which God has ordained because you can’t see the stars back in the city when the city’s lights are shining. And Daddy had been looking at the glare of the world’s lights, he had been blinded and had forgotten about all the light that was out there.
So it is with many of us; we want money and property and prestige and power. But we are so fixed on those things, we have missed the gentle gifts, the gifts of grace. These things God has given us: love; the glory of the morning; the calm of the dusk; the one who sits across the table from you, day by day and year after year, accepting you and loving you as you are. Books to read and music to sing. The chirp of the birds and the flickering grace of a butterfly. These things are ours. They are of grace. Discern them and want no more. When I see God’s gentle gifts, I shall not want anything more.
Let good things happen to bad people, all kinds of people. We have other gifts, God’s quiet gifts, His there-every-day gifts, and we shall not want. We shall be satisfied. Because it’s all about grace.
II
But now, I must admit that sometimes the green pastures and the still waters are not quite enough. I must admit that even the most contented and prayerful of us gets caught in that web of jealousy that just makes us angry when others do so well and we do so modestly. I must admit that when I have more month than money because somebody sold me something shoddy and I have to replace it, I don’t like it. And I am angry at those who get over on me.
Several years ago we decided we wanted to have some work done on our house. The kitchen floor needed to be replaced, some decking needed to be added, and the gutters were tumbling down. So we got a contractor, he agreed to everything, and we put $400 down on that job. That contractor promptly disappeared; phone calls were not answered, letters were not responded to, nothing happened, except that the check was cashed. I even drove out to his address, only to find a locked door. Well, I went into orbit. I called the county Consumer Affairs agency. I got a friend who is an attorney to help me beef up my demanding letter. I talked with the Maryland Home Improvement Commission. I photocopied contracts, I sent in canceled checks, I did it all. I went after that guy! Why? In pursuit of $400 and satisfaction. Satisfaction; he was now my enemy and I went after him.
Guess what? They finally sent me the money, but I really didn’t feel satisfaction. I really did not feel vindicated. Because the 23rd Psalm shows us that getting even is not where satisfaction comes from. Satisfaction comes from the life of God entering our hearts, even in the presence of enemies. Getting over on someone else is not the source of satisfaction, nor are we going to get any real pleasure out of seeing somebody else’s misery compounded. Our real satisfaction comes when we quiet down, in the heart of God. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me … Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies."
I got my $400 and bought the floor from another contractor. I thought I wanted to see the scoundrel prosecuted. But maybe, just maybe, there would be no satisfaction unless and until I can seat him at my kitchen table and listen to his heart. “A table in the presence of mine enemies.”
For life is all about grace. "Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over." It’s all grace! It’s not about what I deserve or he deserves! It’s about grace. And when we take hold of that, it will be enough. It will be more than enough. It will be a cup running over with satisfaction.
Never mind that too many goodies land on the bad guys’ plates. You and I have a table set before us by the Lord Himself, and it will be enough. Let go of the resentments, let go of the enmities, and it will be enough. We will be satisfied. Satisfied because our needs are supplied by a gracious God. And we will fear no evil. None. It’s all about grace.
III
For, you know, a day of reckoning is going to come. A day of justice will finally arrive. Nothing is more clear throughout the Scriptures than this. The day of the Lord will come, sure and certain, and on that day, the righteous judge of all humanity will render some verdicts.
Some folks do live as though the day of justice will never arrive. Some folks live to satisfy every whim and take whatever they want, whenever they want it, as if there is no accounting. And, yes, it looks like they get away with that, for now.
But, I tell you, the Bible speaks of a great day of judgment in which the King will divide us into two camps. Some who have taken and squeezed, coveted and wanted, who have never been satisfied will be over on one side. They will be told, much to their surprise, that the bill is now due and payable. Insofar as they gave nothing, shared nothing, offered nothing to the sick and to the hurting, now they will get what they deserve. And it will not be pretty. It will not be satisfying.
And that same Bible tells us that the Lord will turn to others, others who scarcely even thought about their resources, and He will speak of their generosity. He will speak of their detachment from the things of this world, and He will announce to them in tones of triumph, "Come, ye blessed of the Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you."
Oh, I tell you, mark it down, there is going to be a day of justice. There is going to be a day of reckoning. The mills of God grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine. You and I can wait for that. We can wait because we pray with the Psalmist’s rapt gratitude, "My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."
We have discovered, with the Psalmist, that it’s all grace. Grace now, grace then. Grace before us, grace beneath us, grace above us. Not what we deserve, but what we receive from the goodness of our God. All of us, good and bad alike, just and unjust, it’s grace. But the day of truth is coming, and we will see that grace abounds.
It’s not whether we’ve invested wisely so that we can live in comfort, but whether we have let go of material attachments so that our spirits find comfort, no matter the size of our bank account. It’s all of grace.
It’s not whether we pursue our enemies to eke out justice; it’s whether in the presence of our enemies we see what God has done for us and for them and let go. It’s all of grace.
Nor is it whether we feel cheated, it’s not whether we think we deserve better, it’s not whether we’d like more to our credit. It’s about grace. Satisfied with grace. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
So what if good things happen to bad people? The Bible says that "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." What part of “all” lets you or me off the hook? None of us deserves anything! But grace abounds, goodness and mercy follow us.
It’s all about grace. And so "by grace are you saved, through faith, and not of works, for it is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast." Grace alone. Grace abounding.
Do you want satisfaction? "When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s grace than when we first begun."
“The Lord is my shepherd; I don’t even want to want anymore. I have His gentle gifts, and they are enough. As for my enemies, the table is spread for them too. And surely goodness and mercy will follow all of us, all of us, all the days of our lives, until the justice of God is made clear.” And we shall be satisfied, even when good things happen to bad people. Even that Mercedes driver.
