The church is a community, and when one of us suffers all of us suffer together. When one of us celebrates, all of us celebrate together.

Last Thursday afternoon, I was coming back to town with the pastoral team. We had been on a retreat, working on plans for the fall and into next year. While driving back, we got a text informing us that Brandon was murdered by his step dad. Brandon had been very active in the life of this church, he was twenty-two years old, and he taught the second grade class for the last seven years. That's a third of his life. I’ve known his step dad Jeff since he was in his early 30’s, and he’s now 50 or 51. I've skied with Jeff. My son has skied with Jeff. We've stayed in motel rooms together on ski trips. Jeff served as an usher here last weekend. Brandon was murdered by his stepfather, and it was surreal. We got back to the church after 5 p.m., and people started coming into the church as the news got out. We were praying with people, and we were calling friends. Pastor Sue called Brandon’s dad and learned his dad has just found out on the news five minutes before.

The pastoral team met on Friday morning, and we decided that we had to throw everything out we had planned for worship and come together as a community. I spent hours with both the local and national press for the last three days. The press was here last night and all through this morning.

The question that I'm sure you asked yourself as well as some of the people you know asked you -- and the press has asked me multiple times -- is how does a loving God allow something like this to happen to such a promising young man who served here in multiple ways? Brandon is part of the creative team that creates all of the designs for worship. The design team has a challenge - go find free stuff. They find stuff in barns, they rework metal, and they refinish wood and everything else. Do you know how much money's invested in this current design or what was paid for? The candles. That's the only thing that has been paid for. The creative team, which Brandon was a part of, created the welcome center. The welcome center used to be a closet, and Brandon helped to turn it into the welcome center it is today. The creative team finds old furniture and the things that you see around you. They're given very little money to be creative. So our question is: How can God allow this tragedy to happen to a promising young person like this?

And here's the biggest question that I've been asked and I ask myself: How can somebody who participates in the life of the church succumb to such evil? Jeff has served here for years. His estranged wife Kim taught Sunday school for the two-year olds for the last eight years. She's one of the best teachers we have. Jeff's been her assistant teacher. Jeff was very good with children, and he was an usher here as late as last week. These are not just people who attend church, they’re involved.

So the question is "How can good people who participate in the works of God succumb to participating in evil?” The Bible does not leave us uninformed for the kind of questions we're asking this morning. The book of Genesis says that when God created the world, he created it in harmony and balance. The nucleus of this creation for God is love. And it's the very nature of love to give freedom of choice. Love is not forced or constrained. It's not robotic.

Carolyn and I have been married for 38 years. The reason that I stay in this marriage is not because she has me chained to a pole at home. Or that the reason I stay faithful, exclusively faithful to one woman for the rest of my life, is not because I might be found out or she'll never know but because I choose to be faithful. If it's forced or controlled, it's not love. God created the world with balance and harmony, and the center of everything is love which by its very nature demands freedom of choice.

Since you have freedom of choice, you can choose to step outside the boundaries of this order of God, try to determine your own reality and make up your own rules. But every time humanity steps out of the boundaries of God's harmony and wholeness, it results in insanity. Open your Bibles to Proverbs 1:29. “Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord.” Do you see their freedom of choice? Love can't operate with control. In other words, if I go home to Carolyn and say, “I'm going to leave you,” Carolyn could hold a gun to my head and say “If you do, here's what will happen.” But then it’s no longer love. It's mandated. Love is the whole nature of who God is; God can't be otherwise. God says, ”Since they did not choose to fear me, since they would not accept my advice and spurn my rebuke,” - again there's no control there. God directs. God warns. God tells – “they will eat the fruit of their ways and they will be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them and the complacency of fools will destroy them.” What we need to see here is this; every time I choose to step outside the boundaries of God's harmony and balance, that not only will it hurt me, it can kill me. I could come down there right now and hit you up side the head or stab you with a knife. God won't stop me because of the free will that I have. We step outside the boundaries of God's harmonious balance, outside the boundaries of love. You could come up here and do anything to me, but we're choosing to fear the Lord. Fear does not mean be afraid of. Fear means to respect the boundaries that God has put in place in his creative order. What we're doing is creating or living in that harmony. But when we step out of that, it's destructive.

But listen to what it says in Proverbs 1:33, "Whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm." What has happened is that from the beginning of time, all of us have thought we know better than God. And we can create our own reality. We can make up our own rules. Let's put it in computer language. We have downloaded a virus, or we have corrupted the creation files. So as it says in Romans 8, “The whole world is groaning and travailing in pain.” Have any of you ever downloaded a virus into your computer? Just because you turn your computer off and turn it back on again, it doesn't rid itself of that virus. As a matter of fact, in Romans 8 say the whole creative order now is subject to decay.

What we're really saying when we ask this question of, “Why God?” is Why don't you rescue us from our own insanity? The insanity that we've created, that we've downloaded into your perfect system.” Any of us who have ever been in recovery community understand what that word rescue means. We love to be rescued. We love to be bailed out.

I'm going to use this for illustrative purposes only. This is not real, but my brother and sister over here are going to be the brunt of my illustration. So if someone wakes up in the middle of this illustration, please inform them it’s not real. Now Kathy and Jim, because you have decided to step out of the harmonious balance of God's creative order in your finances, you now have $30,000 debt on your charge card and you know it is just creating incredible insanity in your relationship and your life. So I say to you, Carolyn and I are going to rescue you, bail you out and tomorrow we are going to pay off all your credit card bills. You'll have no credit card bills. They go home this afternoon and since we’ve rescued them, they decide they can go out and get the new car they have wanted. And guess what? They go out and finance $30,000 on a car and say to themselves that they’re no worse off than they were before. We don't need to be rescued. We need transformation. I rescued them, instead of transforming them, which doesn't clear the virus, the real problem.

I could leave here today and be killed this afternoon by a person that is driving under the influence because of this free will world that we live in - it's the nature of God, that's the character of love. If that happens, please do not blame God and know that I am ready. But you see, the problem is this chaos, that we as human beings have corrupted the creation files and the world is now subject to decay. If God intervened and rescued us out of all of that, it will not fix the real problem.

The real problem is a heart problem. That's where the virus lies. Here's what it says is Deuteronomy 5:29, "Oh that they had such a heart, that they would fear me and keep my commandments always." Now remember “fear God” means that I respect everything he says and stay within the boundaries of his harmony and balance - which means anger management. Sometimes I can't help it, I just get so ticked off. I feel good when I blow up and I want to blow up, so I -  please forgive me God - step outside of the boundaries of your love and harmony. When I blow up, what are the possibilities that can happen? It's a heart problem so it says in Deuteronomy, "Oh that they had such a heart that they would fear me and keep my commandments always that it may be well with them and with their sons forever."

We experienced the death of a son this week. Why did we have a death of a son this week? Someone, for a moment, felt they could compromise. Now folks, this is what we have to understand. It's why we've been teaching all month that religion is inadequate. I can come to church. I can serve. I can teach. I can put money in the offering plate. But we're dealing with evil. We are dealing not with flesh and blood as the scripture said but with unseen dark principalities and powers. And every moment I'm not submitting, if I'm not submitting every dimension of my life, my anger, my lust, to the Holy Spirit, then evil is going to have me for lunch, sisters and brothers. This is not a God problem; this is a virus that we have willfully downloaded into God's creative order.

God is not indifferent or uninvolved. God doesn't rescue. God intervenes. John 3:16 - I've shared this before. I learned this verse as a four-year old when I'd visit my grandmother in the summer. Every summer I'd go to my grandmother's house for two weeks. We'd go out on her summer porch every morning. My grandmother felt there were only two necessities to make life successful, and one was to begin the day with a glass of prune juice. The prune juice was in one of those little cheese jars that you use for orange juice glasses when they're empty. We still use those in my home. Is there anybody else in the room that uses those little cheese jars? That's what we drink orange juice out of. I didn't know there were actual juice glasses until we got some when we got married. They must have all broken because now we're back to the cheese glasses. The other thing that she felt was absolutely essential to life - she didn't talk to me about reading, math, science or how many degrees you get - was this verse: “For God so loved the world, that God gave his only son that anyone who believes in me will never perish but have everlasting life.”

You know in other worship celebrations this weekend, we had new members come forward and the question they were asked was: “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and profess your allegiance to his kingdom?” I remember Brandon Haskins standing on this stage. His dad is in the room right now. Keith, I remember when your son stood here, and he professed: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” God doesn't rescue us; he saves us from our insanity. We don't need rescuing; we need saving, sisters and brothers. “That anyone who believes in him will not perish.” So when evil throws its best punch, when evil hits us with its best shot, like Thursday afternoon and shoots a kid in the chest, when evil says good night, Jesus is there to say good morning.

I was with Kim, Brandon's mom, at the police station at 10 p.m. Thursday night, and we were praying. Young Zane, her seven-year-old son, who had been kidnapped had not yet been found. Can you imagine a mother that just witnessed the murder of her son hours before, now sitting in a police station because she doesn't know where her seven-year-old son is. The detective came in at 10:15 p.m. and he said, “I have good news.” Police north of Indianapolis have your seven-year-old son in custody, and he is safe. I said, “Kim, I know this from the depth of my being because I had to work through this myself when I took my son, my only son, into a war zone. When I took my son into a war zone and we were in a place that three weeks later, 45 people were murdered, I knew that evil could come against me by coming against the people I love the most. I had worked through it before I ever took my son to the war zone.”  I knew evil could hit my son with its best shot, take my son out and say good night but I knew Jesus would be there to say good morning. I said, “Kim, I know when evil brought Brandon to the abyss of insanity today, that Jesus was there to meet him.” Kim said, “I know Jesus was there to meet my son.” In worship this morning, she was in the back of the room, she told me she dared in her pain to stand up to worship and praise God knowing that God met Brandon there. His father Keith is here right now, at this moment worshipping with us, knowing that Jesus met his son in that place.

I've a great friend. Her name is Sharon Romanus. She's a pastor is southeastern Ohio. We went to seminary together at age twenty-two, graduated at age twenty-four, and were ordained as United Methodist pastors in 1977 at Lakeside, Ohio. One of the reasons Sharon's always been one of my heroes is she chooses to serve in an under-served area. She serves in these little churches, multiple churches, to rural and Appalachian people. That's been her passion and call, and she's kind of like the Mother Theresa of the Methodist Church. She never had time to really develop a personal relationship for herself because she is always giving it away to all of us. Carolyn and I got so excited about ten years ago because here she was well into her forties and she finally met somebody in her church. It's really exciting to see someone who’s never been married and in their forties get married because they approach it with maturity, not like the immaturity that I did when I was twenty. Sharon was so happy. Three months into the marriage, however, her husband dropped over dead of a heart attack. And I'm thinking, “God, can't you just every-once-in–a-while make an exception and intervene? I mean this would have been a great. What are you doing, God?

Every once-in-a-while I get ticked off at God. The newspaper reporters have been asking me “Why?” You know what I want to tell them? You know that bumper sticker that says “dung happens?” I think channel 7 is right here right now. I'd just say it exactly the way it reads on the bumper sticker right now but it would end up on the news tonight.

Carolyn and I saw Sharon up at the pastors’ meeting at Lakeside, Ohio shortly after her husband died. I didn't know what to say. I was so angry all over again, not understanding what God is doing. As we're leaving the conference I say to Carolyn, “Sometimes I just don't understand what God does.” All-of-a-sudden I see a car ahead of me, it’s Sharon's car, and it’s got a bumper sticker on the back. Guess what it says? Grace Happens. Grace Happens. I had never seen that sticker before. Isn't that what the word says? Because evil increases, grace abounds. When evil gives its best shot, grace wins.

We were sitting in the office Thursday night calling friends, and people were coming into the church. I had to sit down because I was so numb, I thought I'd fall down. RaNae Street who's our Children's Ministry Director, was on the computer trying to get more information and all of a sudden she said, “Hey, Brandon made a post five hours ago on Facebook.” Three thousand of us were Brandon's friends. Here is the last post of Brandon’s on Facebook: "Life is too short not to do something that matters." Three hours later he died. "Life is too short not to do something that matters."

I began thinking about this. Twenty-two years old and he taught Sunday school here for seven years. As a seventeen year old, he got so involved with me on this Sudan thing. I couldn't believe how a seventeen year old got into it. He was one of three founding members of Artists for Sudan. One of the last discussions I had with Brandon about the Sudan, because he wanted to get into detail about it, was out in the hall this December. He was hanging those Sudan pictures, some of which are still hanging out there in the hall today.

As a seventeen year old, he began to post Ginghamsburg videos and stuff on YouTube. I didn't find this out until yesterday. We didn't even know what YouTube was, and here Brandon was putting us out there for the world to see. A half-hour before we went into worship last night, Dan Bracken, who is on our staff said, ”Did you know about the Sudan video on YouTube?” I said, “No” and so Dan Googled it to find it. You'll have to check it out yourself on YouTube. But read the paragraphs about how he told the world that we needed to be involved against crimes against humanity. What is so amazing is the world will be downloading his stuff years after he's gone from planet earth.

So the message here this morning is we don't need to cry for Brandon. Believe me. He heard Jesus say good morning. But the question for you and me today is to realize the brevity of life and to ask are we doing something that matters? We don't know who could leave here in the next three hours. But I guarantee you every one in this room will leave at sometime. The most important issue that we need to settle first and foremost is our relationship with God. You know, I saw Brandon stand in this place and profess his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and pledge his allegiance to God's Kingdom. I saw the fruit of Brandon living that out in his life. That's the most important thing.

You don't even need to understand who Jesus is. I remember when my journey began, here was my first prayer: “Jesus, I don't even know if you're there. But if you are, I need you. And I want you to have all of who I am and all of my life.” It's been the best journey and it's why I do not fear death. Because I can tell you this: I know our Redeemer lives, sisters and brothers. I know our Redeemer lives. And when you think about it, if you knew you were going to die in the next three hours, would you hold grudges against someone or fight with someone because they have different political beliefs? This is a wake up call about what matters? It matters that we love God and love people. So when evil gives its best shot and says good night, Jesus meets us in that place and says good morning. Amen.

 Would you bow your head in prayer with me, church?

Will you pray for Brandon's family? Just silently pray for his family. That they may have a real sense of Brandon being in Jesus' presence. Pray for his little brother Zane. And healing in Zane's life and for all that Zane has seen and been through. Brandon loved his little brother Zane. The end influence of Brandon's life is really being told in many ways. Pray for the witness of Jesus Christ right now that God uses this in a powerful way, the witness that is being told of Brandon's life. Now pray for Jeff. No matter how angry that we may be, Jeff is part of this community. No matter what any individual does, they can never go far enough to be outside the boundaries of God's redemptive love. Now pray for yourself. That in the brevity of your life, you not get distracted from one important thing. To love the Lord your God with all your whole heart, soul and mind. And to give every day of your life to serve his purpose. We pray this together in Jesus' name. Amen.