February 24, 2002
Job 1:1-6; 30: 25-27
Crawling Out of the Fairness Hole
On April 12, 1995, two young women were traveling between Sunman Indiana and Milan Indiana in a nearly new Mustang GT. The 18 year old was driving, the 19 year old was in the passenger seat. A they rounded a rain slick curve in the road in which they had traveled hundreds of times, the Mustang began to slide toward the ditch. The young woman at the wheel over compensated a bit and the car flipped over and landed in a ditch. They were not speeding, in fact, they were judged by the Indiana State Police to be traveling more than twenty miles per hour under the posted speed limit. Both girls were ejected from the car, neither wore a seat belt. The passenger sprained her ankle and had a small laceration on her left elbow. The driver’s neck was broken and died at the scene. When I got the call later that day from the father of the driver, one of my best friends, he ended the conversation with these words, “It doesn’t seem fair.”
A little over four years earlier the chairman of my Board of Deacon’s at Petersburg 1st Baptist Church lay dying of pancreatic cancer at the age of 48 in room number 4304 at St. Mary’s Hospital just down the street. He had traveled to M.D. Anderson, Indiana Medical School and Vanderbilt University during the short six months since he had been diagnosed with the cancer. His last words to me were, “Promise me that you will take care of my family.” I promised. Nine months later, his eldest daughter was married a little further down Washington Avenue at St. Ben’s Catholic Church. As we stood in the Narthex, she said, “It isn’t fair that Daddy won’t walk me down this aisle.” Her uncle Russ was a good stand in but it wasn’t her daddy. A year and a half later when she gave birth to her first child she once again said those difficult words, “It’s not fair that dad can’t hold his first grandchild.”
Eight years earlier, Gayle and I were moving into the parsonage at Moores Hill First Baptist on December 17, 1983. We were so excited to be moving in. A young woman was hanging curtains in our living room, her name was Dorothy. The ambulance siren was heard just down the street. It stopped in front of the insurance agency in which she and her husband owned and operated. She looked but continued to work. An EMT ran toward the church a block south and hollered, “Dorothy, Dorothy, come quick, it’s Donnie.” By the time she ran to his side, he was already gone, dead from a massive heart attack at the age of 37. As we rode to the hospital for a futile attempt at resuscitation she uttered, “I think I will be able to accept that Donnie is gone but, not being able to say good-bye, just isn’t fair.”
Whether it is an 18 year old automobile accident victim, a 48 year old father of three with cancer, a 37 year old husband dead of a massive heart attack, Joni Eareckson Tada in a wheel chair, a voice saying, “Let’s Roll” or 300 plus rescue workers killed going into the World Trade Center while thousands rushed out, the common thread statement is true, “It’s just not fair.”
Unless you were born in a box, raised in a bubble and reside in a fairy tale you all know the truth of this next statement, “Life ain’t fair.” Even when you know that truth it is ever so inconsolably, horribly acute, gut wrenchingly familiar and incontrovertible that when one of life’s unfair moments strikes you smack in the face, when the unfair circumstances knocks you down and pierces your soul, you are dumped into a hole that is difficult at best and impossible at worst to crawl out of. The unfair hole is even deeper and more difficult to climb from when you land in the basement titled, “What if.” What if we had put those new rain tires on Cindy’s car? What if I had pushed Daddy a little harder to go get that physical? What if I had insisted on a trip to the hospital last week when Donnie felt that tightness in his chest as we moved that couch from the living room to the family room?
Well folks, what if we get honest today, real honest? What if we just start with the real question that every one of you has had in the back of your mind’s in those times when we are confronted by the unfairness’s of life. The unasked question that we have all been on the edge of asking when we have found ourselves crumpled at the bottom of the hole of fairness. If God is good, Why is life so unfair? If God is perfectly just how is it that so much of life seems anything but just?
The book of Job struggles with these questions. It is believed by many scholars that this book is the oldest book in the bible. We can safely say that these questions are thousands of years old. And, today we will not explore answers that won’t satisfy everyone. If the people of the Lord have struggled with these questions for thousands of years there is no reason to believe we will fill in these holes in the next fifteen minutes. But, bringing these questions into the light of day and facing them candidly, we can begin the process of crawling out of the “Fairness Hole” and live closer to faith than to doubt.
Let’s review the “unfairness hole” in Job’s life. Job had a flawless relationship with God. Listen to chapter 1, verse 1 again, “This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” He had a great family. Verse 2, “He had seven sons and three daughters.” He cared about his children and their spiritual lives. Remember, just in case they had sinned or cursed God, even in their hearts, he offered a sacrifice of cleansing after each “period of feasting had run it’s course.” If you read further beyond our scripture passage today you find that Job lost it all. In fact, he lost it all in one day. And, despite losing it all in one day, at the end of that day Job still worships God. He says in verses 20-22, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
Job then loses his health, his three closest friends accuse him of committing some terrible sin. Why of course he must have committed such a sin or sins, everyone knows that bad things only happen when we do bad things, right? Absolutely…WRONG! We seem to have an instinctive notion that life should be fair. Job, in so many words, says that it is all unfair in chapter 30 verses 25-27. “Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. Good things should happen to good people and bad things should happen to bad people. Renown psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb explains that wrong thinking in his book entitled, “Inside Out” he says, “We are designed for a better world than this. And until a better world comes along we will groan for what we do not have.” Another writer, Phillip Yancey writes, “We still expect a God of love and power to follow certain rules on earth, Why doesn’t he?”
If God is unfair, what are the possible answers?
1.) “There is no God.” That was Job’s wife’s response. “Forget God, if bad things happen to good people he can’t exist.”
2.) God is loving and weak. Rabbi Harold Kushner writes from this perspective. But the complexity and immenseness of all we see around us proves that God is a REAL power and not weak at all. The famous atheist Elie Wiesel, who was thrown to atheism from his experience in a Nazi concentration camp says to Kushner, “Why doesn’t your weak God resign and let someone more competent take his place?”
3.) In the end, it all balances out. Hinduism teaches in it’s doctrine of karma that it may take up to 6.8 million incarnations to realize perfect justice. When that balanced karma is reached everyone receives just the right amount of pleasure and pain. There has to be a better answer than to wait around for 6.8 million incarnations.
4.) There really isn’t a problem here. Many or maybe most Christians are in this category or they at least traverse through this territory at one time or another. This form of thinking says things like, “God is trying to teach you something.” You may learn something, but that is not valid. Dr. Crabb writes, “this type of thinking tries to use faith as a means of not learning contentment regardless of circumstances, but rather to rearrange one’s circumstances to provide more comfort.” The worst of these statements I hear well meaning Christians utter often is “All things work together for good, you’ll see.” Ask Cindy’s father, ask C.M.’s widow, ask my friend Dorothy or maybe Elie Wiezel, sometimes it doesn’t work out for the good. Bad things are bad things
I am not a proponent of all the things of Robert Schuller. But I think he has gotten at least one thing right and that one thing explains for me the answer for unfairness in our world. In his book entitled “Life Is Not Fair, But God is Good” Schuller writes, “Life is made up of everything that happens to us or hits us. And life is the business of living in a sinful world where evil, injustice and wickedness are very much alive! Place the blame where it belongs: on the FACTS of life. Not in the ACTS of God.”
5. Life is not fair, but God is good.
But folks, since I told you that I wanted to be candid, I will be. Every one of you here today ought to be thankful that God is Not Fair! That’s right you ought to be “way happy” that God is not fair. There are at least four things for which we should rejoice that we serve an unfair God.
First, God faithfully seeks to save us. Let me ask you this question, “Who went in search of whom? In the parable of the vineyard and workers in Matthew 20 we are told that God went looking for the laborers. Time and time again he went out and imploring others to join him in his work and mission. Candidly people: You did not find Jesus, he found you. You were lost, he came and got you in your “lostness” and he led you into “foundness.” He did and does all the work and we reap all the benefits. Do you know what the bible is a record of? It is a record of God reaching out to touch mankind, it is not a record of man trying to find God. From Abraham to Jesus, this is true. God came to Abraham, not Abraham to God. Jesus came into the world not the other way around. The people of planet earth did not decide they needed a Savior and called out to God. God knew we needed a Messiah, a perfect sacrifice and in due time, “God sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
Here’s another question, “Why do You Love God?” 1 John 4:19 says, “We love Him because he first loved us.” In 6.8 million incarnations (sarcasm folks) you would never, I repeat never decide to love God if he had not loved you first.
Second, Our unfair God deals with us individually. A fair God would treat everyone the same. God knows that different people respond to God at different times, in different circumstances, in different ways. I have a whole shelf full of hats at home that says on the tag, “One Size Fits All.” You might be able to get everyone on your head but one size does not fit all. A fair God would treat us all the same. An unfair God deals with each of us individually.
Third, an unfair God redeems all, hear that word…all? An unfair God redeems All who are willing. That is a big deal folks. Jeffrey Dahlmer reportedly gave his life to Jesus a few short weeks before he was murdered in prison. I am a fair person, I don’t like the sound of that. Fairness dictates that Jeffrey Dahlmer should languish in the fires of Hell for eternity. But. An unfair God redeems all who are willing. Instead of focusing on the unfairness of Jeffrey Dahlmer living next door to you in eternity, how about focusing on God’s timing. Remember I said that he accepted Jesus a few weeks before he died. That is incredible timing. And, if God is unfair enough to let Jeffrey Dahlmer in, he might just be unfair enough to let you…or me in too.
Finally, an unfair God always rewards those who serve him. Going back to Matthew chapter twenty again. The master hires some to work in the morning at noon at 3 in the afternoon and at five. Quitting time is 6 P.M. and the Master pays everyone the same wage. The ones who work all day cry, “UNFAIR” but the master says, “The wages are mine to pay, I pay as I choose, I pay as I have agreed with each person.” Man, am I glad I serve an unfair God.
Phillip Yancey in his book, “Reaching for the Invisible God” tells a story of a friend who told him, “I have no trouble believing that God is good. My question is, more, What good is he?” He further writes that Dallas Dillard says in his book “Divine Conspiracy”, “Nothing irredeemable has happened to us or can happen to us on our way to our destiny in God’s will.” That means that life is unfair, God is unfair. It is God’s ironic method that what we regard as a disadvantage may work to advantage, a truth that Jesus emphasized in nearly all his stories and human contacts. He held up the good Samaritan instead of the privileged religious leaders. His first missionary was a woman who had five failed marriages and a live in on her resume’. A pagan soldier was held up as a model of faith. A greedy tax collector named Zacchaeus was turned into the model for generosity. When he left this world he turned over his mandate to a group of largely uneducated peasants led by a cursing traitor named Peter. Everything and anyone can be redeemed. That is unfair but are you not glad that he is. And if you can begin to be glad that he is, you are on your way out of “The Fairness Hole.”
