Why, God?

I recently saw a series on Netflix called “Black Earth Rising.”  Much of it dealt with trying to hold accountable those people who caused the genocide in 1994 of the Tutsi people in Rwanda, almost a million people in only 100 days.  It’s heart wrenching to think of the number of people who died, men, women, and children, and the effect it had on the country of Rwanda, then and today.  It was one of those events in my lifetime that had people asking how a loving God could allow such evil to happen.  Events like the shooting on Friday in New Zealand, have us continuing to ask that question.  Then there are times when seemingly random events, like hurricanes and tsunamis devastate a region, and we wonder again why a loving God would allow such suffering to happen.  Also this week, 157 people, of all ages, were killed in a plane crash in Ethiopia.  Why?  Why does God, who we are told loves all, how could this God allow such evil and hate, such suffering to exist in our world?  

Some try to rationalize these events by coming up with explanations.  It all happens for a reason.  Unfortunately, it’s sometimes Christian people that are offering some of the most hurtful explanations.  For example, there were preachers who compared New Orleans to Sodom and Gomorrah and that Hurricane Katrina was a sign of God’s disapproval and judgement of the immorality of this city.  Some will turn a blind eye to the shooting of people based on their race or their religion.  Some will say that God has a purpose and that God has a plan; we just may not understand it yet or may never understand it.

And we want to understand.  We want to find meaning behind suffering, evil, natural disasters, disease, dementia, greed, poverty, and violence.  For thousands and thousands of years, people have been trying to explain our world in a variety of ways.  Our bible offers some of these attempted explanations.  

Over my sabbatical last winter, I read a book by Harold Kushner called, “Why Bad Things Happened to a Good Person,” his commentary on the Book of Job.  You might recognize this author because of his bestselling book, “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People.”  Kushner has been fascinated by this question since his school days and the question truly hit home when his son was diagnosed with progeria, or rapid aging syndrome.  His son stopped growing and starting growing old at age three and died when he was fourteen.  

Kushner writes, 

“Human beings are meaning-makers, constantly trying to understand our world in terms of cause and effect.  We desperately want to believe the world makes sense, that it is a place where things don’t just happen, they happen for a reason.  Painful as it may be to conjure with, we want to be told that it was not by accident that a family member got cancer or an earthquake struck a given city, that there was a purpose to it.  An unpredictable world, a world of randomness unregulated by cause and effect, would leave us uncomfortable.” Ch. 1, pg 2

How could a loving God allow evil and suffering in this world?  When people attempt to answer this question or attempt to explore this question, this is called theodicy, and there are books, essays, speeches, poetry, prose, tons of writing on this very question.

The book of Job is one of those attempts.  The book of Job is part of the Wisdom Literature of the Bible.  I’ll repeat a quote I shared last week from Rachel Held Evans, in her book, “Inspired,” She writes that “the aim of wisdom literature is to uncover something true about the nature of reality in a way that makes the reader or listener wiser” (pg 96) and that the book of Job “favours the wisdom of those who have actually suffered over those who merely speculate about it (pg 97).”   

In my last post, I talked about the chapters that bookend this story of Job, chapters 1, 2, and 42.  In these bookend chapters, Job accepts his suffering as God’s will.  “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away,” and “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”  The Job within these bookends though is a different character.  He questions; he doubts; he rants; he practically shakes his fists at God and begs for an answer to why he is suffering.  He has had everything taken from him: his oxen, his sheep, his camels, and even his seven sons and three daughters, and then finally his own health, being covered from head to toe with painful and itchy sores.  Why, God?  Why me?  Why this?  What did I do to deserve this?  What does it all mean?  

At the end of chapter two, Job’s three friends have come to be with him in his grief.  Some see this action as the Jewish ritual of sitting Shiva, a seven day period of time in which family and friends sit with someone grieving the loss of a loved one.   These friends, it reads, barely recognize Job in his grief and maybe because of physical disfigurement.  They lift up their voices and weep for Job.  

Job, then, for the first time in our story, speaks.  From his very first words, we get a sense of Job’s well-being or lack thereof.  He says (translation by Robert Alter):

“Annul the day that I was born 

and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’

That day, let it be darkness.  

Let God above not seek it out,

nor brightness shine upon it.

Let darkness, death’s shadow, foul it,

let a cloud-mass rest upon it,

let day-gloom dismay it.

That night, let murk overtake it.

Let it not join in the days of the year,

let it not enter the number of months.

In other words, Oh that I had never been born or even conceived, and that that very day be only darkness and not be numbered.

Job’s story is one of grief, despair, of one who has lost hope.  His story is of one who questions God, an action that we are not always encouraged to take.  Some call this blasphemy.  Some will encourage only acceptance of God’s mystery and God’s plan.  Others will say that there must be a reason and that God would never do anything without a reason.  I say that there are times when we need to express with God our anger, our sorrow, our confusion, and our frustration.  Being in relationship with God means being able to express ourselves, share our thoughts and feelings, be open and true to ourselves.  I think that this is what God wants.  As a parent, I know that I would rather have my child yell at me and disagree with me, no matter how difficult that may be, then to cut me out of their lives or pretend to be someone that they’re not.  

It’s how I’ve learned to read the psalms.  We love the psalms of joy, the ones that praise God and make a joyful noise, but there are other psalms that ask God to thrash our enemy, to tear them limb from limb, make them suffer.  These psalms are expressive of a people who have been trampled and now want their enemies trampled.  People have fantasies about harming those who have harmed them and as long as they remain fantasies, that’s OK.  It’s better to express our anger, whether it be in poetr, music, or in stories, by screaming at God, than to let it fester and grow.

The hatred expressed on Friday in New Zealand is a sign of brokenness.  It’s not the way we want to see anger expressed, killing innocent people, because of their religion.  Hate spreads.  Many people lost loved ones in this shooting and there will be anger and hate.  How do we show our support?  How do we extend the hand of friendship to our Muslim neighbours?  How do we overpower that hatred with our love?  It’s won’t be easy.  I saw people standing on a street corner in London Ontario on Saturday with signs that read, “Not in My Name” and “Muslims Are Our Neighbours.”  We need to show our solidarity, especially now and especially as Christians.

God wants all that we have, all that we are, even if that means our anger and grief.  God especially wants to be near us and a part of us when we are suffering.  And we can also be that for others.  We can be there for people in their anger and their grief.  We can be that presence of God for people who need to vent and grieve and be angry.  The hate will sometimes wear itself out if it is absorbed with love by others.  

Read the words of Job.  Hear his anguish.  Hear his grief.  Job lost all that he had, including his beloved children and his health.  During those times when you are experiencing loss, sit with Job and feel free, like Job, to question God, question why me, why this.  Shake your fists at God.  God won’t mind.  In fact, I believe God will wrap you in God’s loving embrace and hold you until you’ve gotten it all out, until you’ve exhausted yourself and just sink into that loving presence  May it be so and thanks be to God.  Amen.

The Tempter

The past week, people have been captivated by what is happening with the Prime Minister and the resignation of cabinet ministers.  I’ve been a part of a few conversations this week, and feeling I didn’t know enough, I decided that I needed to dig a little deeper and find out what the talk was all about.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll share with you the little that I know.  Past Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Raybould, has stated that many government officials, including the Prime Minister of Canada, had inappropriate conversations with her about a court case with SNC-Lavalin, who is being charged with fraud and corruption in connection with nearly $48 million in payments made to Libyan government officials between 2001 and 2011.  These government officials wanted Wilson-Raybould to defer the charges as it could mean a loss of jobs and that it might affect the upcoming election in Quebec.  

I was hearing all of this just before the first Sunday of Lent, which is when, in churches, we read the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert.  If you don't know the story, in each of the first three gospels, Mark, Matthew, and Luke, there is a story about Jesus going into the desert for forty days and nights and where he is tempted by Satan, with wealth, power, and glory.   As I thought about this old story and the story in the news, I couldn't help but connect these two stories.  I imagined top government officials with Wilson-Raybould, trying to influence her decision on this court case, tempting her to think their way, to follow their direction, to make their interests her interests.  As far as I know, she did not give in to this temptation, and she believes for this reason, she was later removed from her position as Attorney General.

I'll state right away that I am not trying to paint Wilson-Raybould as the Jesus figure and the Prime Minister as satan; it’s a bit more complex than that, but it is a story with one party putting pressure on the other, government officials leaning on the Attorney General, attempting to lead her away from, what she sees as, the straight and narrow path.

This year, during the season of Lent, I have chosen to explore the biblical story of Job.  Job is not an easy book to tackle but it’s worth tackling.  It’s a brilliantly written book, full of beautifully written poetry.  It’s a book that deals with the big questions, especially the question of theodicy, which is an exploration of why a loving God allows suffering and evil to persist in the world, a question we all seem to grapple with at one time or another.  

The book of Job is part of the Wisdom Literature of the Bible, along with the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.  Rachel Held Evans, in her book, “Inspired,” writes that “the aim of wisdom literature is to uncover something true about the nature of reality in a way that makes the reader or listener wiser” (pg 96) and that the book of Job “favours the wisdom of those who have actually suffered over those who merely speculate about it (pg 97).”    

Because Satan appears in the Jesus story in the wilderness and in the story of Job, I thought it appropriate that we look at the role of Satan.  Chapters 1, 2 and 42, the last chapter, of the book of Job tell a story that is believed to be older than the rest of the book, a story of folklore, passed down for many generations and even in different cultures.  It’s a story in which God is influenced by Satan, causing harm to others, a story that makes us question who God is, and which is probably why we usually avoid this story.

In this story, God is very much like a king holding court and Satan is like an informer.  This Satan roams the land, almost like a spy, keeping watch over the kingdom, and informing the king, or in this case, God, of what is happening, the general mood of the kingdom, where there might be any disobedience or unrest, or anyone disloyal to God.  In this story, God doesn’t seem to know all, but needs the court to offer  information.  So, here we have God, surrounded by heavenly beings presenting themselves, and God is bragging about Job, the one person in the kingdom who is like no one else on earth, “a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.”

Satan is one of these heavenly beings and sees an opportunity.  Now, I’ve been saying the name Satan like it’s a proper name, but actually it’s a title or a job description, like the minister, the chef, the teacher.  The satan.  This word satan has a number of meanings.  It might mean the tempter, the adversary, or the accuser.  You can also see the satan as a persuader or an opportunist.  In our gospel, after tempting Jesus in the desert, we read at the end of that passage that the satan leaves until a more opportune time.  In the story from Job, this is the opportune time and God falls for the bait. 

Upon hearing God brag about Job, the satan says, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”  In other words, God has protected Job up to this point; God has not put up any obstacles to Job’s success.  Only take away all that Job possesses, and Job will certainly curse God.  So be it, says God.  Let’s find out.  All Job’s worldly possessions and success are then taken away, including his ten children, all in one fell swoop.  Job is left with nothing, but, contrary to the satan’s expectation, says, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”  God wins this wager.

But the satan is not finished and continues to taunt God by saying that people would give everything they have to save their own skin.  Stretch out your hand, the satan says, and touch his bone and flesh, and he will certainly curse you.  God takes the bait again and this time Job’s body is struck with horrible, itchy sores, from head to toe and still Job says, “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?”  Thus do we have the saying, “the patience of Job.”

As I said earlier, this is an old story, one in which God acts more like the gods of old, playing with human lives, than the one all powerful God we are used to reading about in our scripture.  It’s also a story with easy answers and with Job seeming like a bit of a patsy, just accepting whatever comes his way as God’s will.  The rest of the book of Job, turns this story on its head, but we’ll dig into that a little bit more in the following weeks.  

The satan in this story and in our gospel story is a powerful presence.  These stories use a powerful figure to personify the effects of temptation and influence in our own lives and how strong and powerful they can be and how difficult to ignore, similar to the animated figures we see of an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, presenting both sides of an argument, but the devil always seems to have the better one, easier, more fun, more self-serving.  The angel has to fight doubly hard if the right and true way is the more difficult direction or more of a sacrifice and more for the good of others.

I don’t judge people like Wilson-Raybould or Justin Trudeau because I know that politics is filled with temptation and influence.  There are a number of stories on film, on TV, in books of politicians being seduced by power, of being caught between a rock and a hard place and having to choose a lesser of two evils, of people, good intentioned, who get into trouble.  

Needless to say, I don’t usually hold up politicians as role-models.  They too often disappoint.  It’s a world that corrupts many.  I think I’ll stick to a different role model.  I’ll follow the one who resisted temptation, resisted and refused the satan in the desert who promised wealth, power, and glory.  Jesus went into the desert after his baptism.  The experience changed him, so that he felt ready to preach the word of God, to show a new way, and resist the current powers of the land.  That’s a model I want to follow, even though it is the more difficult direction and may not always be in my own self-interests.  

Jesus took the difficult road, he resisted the way of power and glory, and that journey, the one working towards God’s kingdom, healing, teaching, and leading, eventually led to the cross.  How far are we willing to go?  Would we resign our position, expressing our lack of confidence in our leaders?  Would we go public with knowledge that might potentially cause a loss of reputation?  Would we face down our tempters, those people encouraging us and influencing us to go in a direction we know is the wrong choice?  

When I am tempted, I use Jesus as a role-model but I also rely on the strength I receive from my family, from my own inner integrity, and a supportive community.  From where do you find your strength?  How do you withstand temptation, the satan that always seems to be waiting on our shoulder?   

May you find those spaces that give you strength, those people, places, or activities that keep you grounded and pointed in the direction of truth, compassion, and justice.  May you find in Jesus a role model, one who has shown us a way to live, a way to die, and a way to live again.  As we live in this complex world of multiple directions and decisions, a world full of seductive power and privilege, may the Spirit, that angel that resides on the other shoulder, be your guide and your wisdom.  Thanks be to God for good role models and loving supports.  Amen.

Be Strong and Courageous

**This is an adaptation of a sermon preached on March 2, 2019, at the very first gathering of Horseshoe Falls Region, one of 16 regions in the new structure of the United Church of Canada.

2018 was a tough year for me.  We had some struggles at home that I won't go into here, and the church I serve went through some big transitions, with their worship and pastoral care minister, who had been with them for 18 years, moving on, and a church assessment committee that recommended some pretty big changes for future staffing, and a vote on whether or not to sell their manse (house available for minister) and use the money to renovate the church.

Those of you who have been with communities of faith dealing with big changes know that it doesn't always happen gracefully.  Those who are fearful and feel they're not being heard or that they're not getting their way may choose to take action in appropriate and hurtful ways, sometimes putting staff and others in tough spots, feeling pushed and pulled, and experiencing high levels of stress.  Honestly, I don't know where I'd be right now if my year hadn't started with a sabbatical.  

But all of that is behind me now, right?  Changes have been decided upon, and we can just move on without any more stress or struggles.  Right?

I'm not going to fool myself.  It feels good to fell like we are moving out of transition and moving into a different part of the journey, but in some ways, the stress and struggles are just beginning.  I am moving into a whole new role at the church I serve, with new challenges.  My family, with both my sons almost graduated and moving on to university, will also go through challenges.  Some years will have more struggles than celebrations, and at times, we will feel heavy burdens, and that's life.  

As a church, a world wide, universal church, it feels like we have been struggling for a long time.  Our culture and society are changing.  More and more people are questioning their faith and the church's role in their lives.  Some are fighting to hold on to their faith, standing firm on fundamental beliefs, while others, with a more modern, scientific, and logical view, just don't see how these beliefs hold up.  Many dismiss magic and miracles and even find wonder difficult to discover.  

In the United Church, we've been hearing for many years the struggles we are facing with a shortage of ministers, a lack of resources, churches closing, and faith communities experiencing conflict.  Ministry has become linked with stress, disagreements, bitterness, and even despair at it getting any better.

We hear these messages over and over again, and I got to tell you, my friends, I sometimes wonder if these messages have become who are are as a church.  It feels like a loop.  We are told people don't want to come to church so we don't ask people to come to church.  We are told there is no money, so we scale back because there is no money.  We are told we are dying, so we prepare for the end.  We are scared; we are on high alert all the time; amalgamations and closures become expected and sad, but not surprising; we get trained on conflict resolution and how to work through crises, and we wait for the day when it will all come crashing down on us.  Little hope is offered and cynicism sets in.  Is that who we are as a church? 

A couple of weeks ago, I was at a luncheon with one of the children from church at their Christian school.  There was a bible club that presented to us different verses from the bible that they had memorized and put to song.  Joshua 1:9 was one of them:  "Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  The quote struck a chord for me.  I had planned on using a different passage but this one spoke to me that day, so I looked it up.   

I hesitated.  This passage follows the end of the Torah, the first five books of the bible.  Moses, the great leader who had led the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt, had just died at the entrance into the holy land, after a long journey through the wilderness.  Now we are introduced to a new leader, Joshua.  It's the beginning of a very violent chapter for the Hebrew people, taking over a land that wasn't theirs, a land that had already been populated by other nations, all, supposedly, with God's blessing and support.  

Joshua though was leading a people into a whole new world and this is where I see the similarity of this story and out story.  The people of God were ending one journey and beginning another.  They were no longer slaves of an Egyptian Empire.  We are moving away from a Christian Empire and its many privileges.  They were done wandering in a wilderness and ready for a new beginning.  It's time for us to end our wandering and find a new beginning.  

Three times in this passage, Joshua is told to be "strong and courageous."  God says to Joshua, "Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them."  We might heard God saying to us, "Be strong and courageous; for there is good news to share that can inspire people to own their gifts and to share their abundance to a world in need."

God said to Joshua, "Only be strong and courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go."  We might hear God saying to us, "Only be strong and courageous, carrying the wisdom of our ancestors, remembering all that we have been taught, so that we might serve one another with mercy and compassion, peace and justice."  

God said to Joshua, "Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  We might hear God saying to us....well, I think we might hear these same words for us today, "Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

We are starting a new chapter.  We look different.  As churches close, others are creating new visions and beginning to thrive and grow.  Christendom has come to an end and churches are struggling to determine what that means and how it looks.  But we are also the same.  We are still Christians.  We still follow Jesus.  We are still to support one another, strive to make connections with each others, and, with God's guidance, we all strive to discern God's call to us and live out the words and the wisdom of Jesus, who we profess is still with us, through the Spirit, supporting and leading us.  Whether or not the church as we know it crumbles, our call to serve one another, to love our neighbour as ourselves, and to bring hope to a broken world, does not change.  

Joshua was a leader for a people who really had no idea what they were doing and what was coming next.  Sound familiar?  We are also guessing.  Sometimes we get it right; sometimes we don't.  We have made a lot of mistakes.  Hopefully we learn from those mistakes, seek forgiveness and make amends, and we try again.

Are you ready for this new adventure?  Are you ready to stop dying and figure out a new way to live?  Are you ready to join together in this new beginning, professing our willing to follow Christ to the cross and to resurrection?  Because we are a resurrection people.  We believe in new life, new beginnings, and transformation.

Be strong and courageous.  Do not be frightened or dismayed, for God is with us wherever we go.  We are not alone.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.