Theology Blog

Below is a sermon I wrote and delivered over a year ago about Karma….

This week, this new year we begin a new sermon series that we will be in until Lent. The series is called ‘lies we believe.’ We will look at things that we as a people, culture and Christians that we often believe that seem truthful, helpful and even Biblical that are not so. Each week we will look at a lie and a corresponding truth and will look at our scripture in doing so. The lie for today is Karma. The corresponding truth is redemption.

Several years ago, a television show came out that has since run its course called My Name is Earl. The show was about a man who won the lottery and as a result felt that fate, or Karma, required him to make up for every bad thing that he had done in his life. The show shared a variety of stories that affirmed this line of thinking. The basic gist of Karma is that if you do bad things, bad things will happen to you. If you do good things, good things will happen to you. When we, as followers of Christ think about this, we readily recognize that this is a false line of thinking, especially the preposterous way that this show often depicted Karma. Karma is the New Age, postmodern version of a works theology. If we are to be honest, however, we at times hold a view incredibly similar to Karma. When something bad happens we wonder why God is doing this bad thing to us, or why God is allowing it to happen. We wonder what we have done wrong. We feel and live in tremendous guilt when we sin and often look for ways to make up for our sin, while living in our mistakes instead of grace. I am not suggesting we not have remorse for our sin, nor am I suggesting we not engage in authentic repentance. What I am suggesting is that often times we allow suffering and sin to have more power in our lives than grace and we often fail to see that there is a possibility for redemption. On the other side of the coin, when something good happens to us or to someone else we think we have earned that or Karma, the universe or God has paid us back. When someone does something bad or experiences pain, we secretly are thankful that God, the universe, justice or Karma paid them back. While this may feel good and right and there in cases may be truth in light of the nature of action and consequences, it is not God’s truth, not the whole picture and embraces Karma.

Job certainly had a right to complain about his circumstances and his questions were often legitimate, especially as he went through very difficult things at the hands of the evil one. As we see in our reading today at the end of this part of his life journey and his story as it is recorded in the Scriptures, Job comes to terms with everything that he has experienced. He admits that God can do anything and that he in the midst of his complaints could never fully understand it.

As our reading from 2 Corinthians reminds us, Jesus died for us all and we are all in this together – all included, all in the same boat. We cannot simply see things from a worldly point of view. We are a new creation, and we are reconciled with God. God is not counting our sins against us. We do not have to earn God’s favor, nor is God out to punish us when we are good and reward us when we are bad. There are natural consequences in the world, sin is real and the world is not as it should be. We will face challenges and suffering, but we must be willing to recognize that even in the midst of challenges (as well as the good) God is at work and God is making all things new. The word for this is redeeming or redemption. It’s this concept that God can and will take anything and make it new. God is able to take broken situations, relationships and suffering and not only walk through them with us, offering us healing and hope, but turning those things around and creating a new thing, something that demonstrates his love for us and for the world, something that changes us as well as changing others. What is simply amazing is that God is able to take any situation and make good out of it, to make all things new.

The gospel lesson for this weekend, the story of the blind man, is a fascinating one, but in this translation, Jesus’ words are crystal clear. He points out to the religious folks that they have it all wrong…his blindness is not about cause and effect. We know this today and would not likely make the same error in judgment, but we also have this kind of view in other ways. God desires to heal and bless all people, to offer redemption to all as we each choose how we want to follow Him and how we want to engage in relationship with Him. As long as God is in the world, there is plenty of light, plenty of room for light and God brings this about in very mysterious ways. One of the fascinating aspects of this story is that God could have healed this blind man in a variety of ways, but he chose to spit and make a muddy clay substance with the dirt from the ground. God often brings about new life and redemption in ways we would not expect. When the blind man was asked how it was that he could now see, all he could do was to retell the story and they did not believe it. They too wanted to find this man who had done something amazing.

It can be tremendously difficult in a time of pain, grief or suffering to see the good; there is no denying that. One of the greatest tools we have in healing from these situations comes when we are able to look for the good that God is, has and wants to do in the midst of the difficulty we are facing. Every individual, family, church and community faces difficulty, but those who live in the hope and promise of God for not only healing, but also new life.  To say that God redeems all things recognizes that through His grace, God has promised to take all things, the good, the bad and the ugly, and make them new. To live a life that seeks God’s redeeming work is to look for the ways God might be redeeming every circumstance, experience and relationship. To live in the redemption is to reject Karma and believe that even in the midst of sin, suffering, grief and pain, God can write a new, better and more powerful story that not only brings healing and hope, but a new life as well. The great news is the story does not end with our desire to take on the suffering, because there is more to the story. There is the story of redemption that profoundly and mysteriously declares that God will make all things new. To live a life focused on God’s redemption means we believe with our whole being that God can take anything and not only create good from it. God can, will and desires to make all things new so we might experience healing and live in hope and so that God’s grace may be known to all the world. It’s hard to realize this when life feels like it is falling apart, but somehow, in some miraculous and mysterious way God is going to take these situations and others and make them new in a way that not only brings great joy, but proclaims his love story to anyone who is willing to watch and listen.

To reject karma and embrace God’s redeeming work is to look for and engage with the glorious, redemptive work God is doing in our lives, in our families, in our churches, our communities and the world. Living in the redemption is trusting God is going to do amazing things in our lives, our children, our families and our churches even when things seem dark and hopeless.

Karma is a heresy. Instead, as followers of Christ, as an Easter people, a people of the resurrection, may we seek God in all things: situations, events, experiences and relationships and constantly look for where God is at work, redeeming all things and making all things new. Karma is a lie, but the truth of God is redemption. Praise God!