Passage: Genesis 1:26-31
Passage 2: Matthew 27:45-46
Preacher: Dr. Jim Standiford
Series: Why? Making Sense of God's Will
Do we blame God for suffering or do we have some responsibility?
Come, Lord Jesus, fill our minds with your word, fill our hearts with your love, and fill our lives with your light. Come, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.
The Letter to the Hebrews begins with these words, “In the past, God spoke to our ancestors in many times and many ways. But in these days God has spoken to us through a Son.” (Hebrews 1:1) We may name God with our words. There are a variety of names for God in scripture. Among them are: Yahweh, El Shaddai, Elohim, God Most High, Everlasting God, Adonai, Theos, Father. There are also qualities attributed to God. Among these are: omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, compassion, strength, anger, and loving-kindness among others. Often the qualities where as much wishful thinking by the people as they were evidenced by the divine. Then also among the Hebrews there was the practice of not speaking God’s name at all in the understanding that to name something or someone was to have a level of control over them. Consequently, some people had one or more names for God while others chose to remain silent. But either way, each of us names God by our actions, by how we choose to live, or by how we assume God is supposed to act.
Adam Hamilton points out that there are two assumptions that many people bring to their understanding of God. These are akin to the ideas Job’s so-called friends shared with him as depicted in our art piece today. The first is that if we are good, God will take care of us, protect us, and nothing bad will happen to us. It is a form of works righteousness. We get rewarded for being good and punished for not being good. So the conclusion often arrived at is that when we suffer we must have been bad and done things wrong.
Yet, when we read the Bible we see over and over again good people who suffer. In fact the Bible is largely about people who refuse to let go of their faith even in the midst of their suffering. Consequently, this assumption is problematic. The Bible does not teach that those who follow God will not have any problems. Don’t we wish it did!
The second misguided assumption is that we often say everything happens for a reason, meaning that it must be a part of God’s plan. This point of view says we can’t see it at this point, but God must have a good reason for this to happen and we just have to trust God. The problem with this line of reasoning is that if cancer strikes or you lose your job, then you have to conclude “It must have been the will of God.” Thus, God gets blamed for all kinds of bad things, and we have to question how can a good God cause bad things to happen? Let me say it very clearly, I do not think God causes us to suffer. Our suffering is not God’s will. It is not God’s punishment against us because we have sinned.
The scriptures give us a good foundation at this point. The Genesis passage proclaims God is the creator and the one who gives a sense of order to creation. In creating humans, God gives humankind dominion or care for creation. We are called to be the managers or overseers of creation. God also gives us freedom, the ability to choose right or wrong, that which helps sustain life, or limit life. This freedom is represented in the poetry of the creation story by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which is in the garden. God states humans are not to eat from this tree, but at the same time we have freedom to choose to follow God’s wishes or not. You know the story. Starting with the first humans and down through the generations to you and me, we far too often choose not to follow God’s will. We call it sin, acts and attitudes that separate us from God and each other.
Adam Hamilton, in his book, considers three categories of suffering and how we can understand God’s relationship to them. The first of these categories is suffering from natural disasters. It seems we are constantly hearing about or experiencing some form of widespread suffering brought about by a natural disaster somewhere in the world. Prescientific people throughout history have seen such disasters as acts of God. (Insurance companies still use this language.) People who hold this view often say God uses nature to punish wayward people. However, now we know differently and better. We know that such events are a part of the ebb and flow of the life process of our planet. St. Paul in Romans (8:21) puts it this way, “All creation is groaning as in the pains of childbirth.” Sometimes human beings, and too often they are the poor peoples of the earth, get caught in these giant forces of nature and there is much suffering and death. These events are not God’s judgment on certain individuals or groups of people. We have a prayer in our Book of Worship (pocket edition, p.64) that states, “O God we trust that you do not willingly grieve or afflict us.” Rather, God’s will is that we groan with compassionate help for those who suffer, much as the Good Samaritan helped the man attacked on the road to Jericho.
A second category of suffering is suffering caused by human decisions, often involving the misuse of the freedom we believe God has given us. God doesn’t take our freedom from us, nor does God protect us from bad decisions we or others make. I am not saying there are no miracles. Miracles do happen, but by definition they are rare. Most always, if I drive carelessly on the freeway, God will not take control of the car and guide me and others to safety. (Although I understand there are some cars that can almost do that on their own now.) God will not intervene to protect or harm. Just look at the life of Jesus and the amount and severity of the suffering he endured. We are free to choose how to drive and how to live. Some of our decisions are good and help life; others are bad and harm life. The sad stabbing story of 12 year old Ryan Carter in Lakeside is complex. At its heart is the fact that in a flash of anger his 10 year old friend, who has significant medical-mental issues, made a terrible decision. What is heartening and holy, and I believe reflects the presence of God’s spirit, is the empathy and compassion of the grieving parents who have called on the community not to make the 10 year old out to be a monster. They are showing us all how to grieve and suffer.
The third category of suffering is suffering caused by sickness. So often when people become ill they will ask, “Why me, Lord?” as though it is a punishment from God. I know plenty of preachers, myself included, who routinely get sick and lose their voices around Christmas and Easter. Is that because we are preaching the wrong content and God punishes us by shutting us up? You may wish that were the case, but I don’t think so. It most likely is because those are times of intensified activity and heightened levels of stress, immune systems are challenged and there is increased contact with a greater number of people; all of which means there is a greater chance of sickness. God does not punish us by sending us sore throats, pneumonia, cancer or any other form of illness. Consider the gospels accounts of how much time Jesus spent healing people. Sickness is not God’s way; health and wholeness are God’s will for us.
I have lung problems now. The doctor says the problems most likely were initiated because I grew up with my father smoking in our home. That is not God’s fault, nor God’s judgment on me. It is an outcome from not knowing then what we know now about health. It is a result of making decisions that can harm life. My dad smoked until the day he died at 89. His lungs were tough. Mine aren’t. Disease, sickness, injury and death are all a part of having bodies like ours in a world like ours.
For our gospel reading today we have brief verses from Matthew and Luke. Both passages come from the same time in Jesus’ final hours. One speaks of the loneliness we often experience when we suffer, Jesus cries out, “My God, why have you forsaken me.” He had earlier asked, “If it be your will, let this cup pass from me.” Jesus knew the full range of human pain and emotion. He is honest in his relationship with God. One has to believe in God if we are to cry out to God in the painful moments of life. The passage from Luke completes the action. As Jesus breathes his last we are told the curtain of the Temple is torn in two. In other words, God’s presence is now no longer separated from us behind any curtain. Trusting in that presence Jesus prays, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” The great affirmation of our faith is that suffering and death do not have the final word in life. Our God is the giver of life and the one who in the Holy Spirit is with us throughout all the circumstances of life, including death, and will see us into the life to come. We sang this faith in our opening hymn today, (Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above, v. 2) “The Lord is never far away, but through all grief distressing, an ever-present help and stay, our peace and joy and blessings.” We will sing of it again in our closing hymn, (How Firm a Foundation, v. 2) “Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.”
Suffering is a part of life. We may not like it or understand it, but we know there is Someone who has gone before us and promises never to leave us. Our faith does not say we will not suffer, but when we do suffer God suffers with us. To reject God will not change the conditions that have brought on our suffering. It only takes from us the greatest resource of hope, comfort, and strength that we have. I invite you to put your whole trust in God; in all times and all places, and know that God is with you. Suffering is not the final word. God is the final word, and a good word at that.
Thanks be to God.
