Calgary First Mennonite Church

How can a Loving, Powerful God allow Suffering?

Luke 9:23-25, Romans 5: 1-5

January 30, 2011                                                                                                                       

INTRODUCTION

Dozens of the e-mails forwarded to our mailbox are inspiring and uplifting. Backed by breathtaking nature photographs, we get nuggets of wisdom and advice. Some is excellent: “Never stop learning”; “Tell people you love them”; “Enjoy the simple things.” But there is other advice, too: “Keep only cheerful friends, grouches pull you down;” “Get rid of everything that isn’t beautiful, useful, or uplifting.”  Sounds good at first, too, but when I give it more thought, I wonder. Could it be that some people have something to be grouchy about? Might they need a few cheerful friends? The overall message seems to be, “Get rid of everything around you that could be unpleasant, and you will have a good life.”

 It’s definitely not “cool” to talk about suffering. We don’t want to hear about it, or see it – and certainly not experience it. Someone recently told us, “We don’t watch the news. It’s all bad anyhow.”  Among the hundreds of greeting cards in our stores that are designed for people who are ill, it’s hard to find even one that recognizes that not everyone will get well. We don’t know what to say to someone who has only months to live. A cheery note saying, “Hurry up and get well,” likely won’t do much for the person dying of cancer or ALS. So I haven’t chosen a popular topic.

GOD AND SUFFERING

How can a loving God who is all-powerful, even allow suffering, we wonder. Perhaps evil people deserve to suffer, but why would a person who has lived a healthy lifestyle, given generously, exercised compassion, and honoured God in word and deed, be forced to deal with disobedient children, a painful illness, a major handicap, or serious financial losses? Our pastor, Will Loewen, has challenged us to read through the Bible in the current calendar year. Instead of reading it from beginning to end, he has offered us a format that is considered chronological in order. After Genesis 11 comes the ancient book of Job, which I recently finished. Very clearly, Job has done nothing wrong, yet, within days, he loses everything – possessions, children, health, even his reputation; literally - everything - except his life and his wife. With nothing in his hands and a dreadful, painful skin disease, his life is scarcely worth living – and his wife? Isn’t exactly helpful (but then, she has lost everything, too).

In fact, virtually the whole story of the Bible is laced with suffering – once sin enters the world. The firstborn child kills his brother; by the time of Noah the people on earth are so corrupt that God literally destroys them in a flood. Noah and his family are the lucky ones. But imagine living in the ark with hundreds of animals for a whole year. And then, when at last you can breathe fresh air again, you are the only family on earth. Pretty lonely. But God is there, and grace abounds. Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph all go through great difficulties, not to mention Israel’s slavery in Egypt, followed by 40 years in the wilderness. And I could go on to speak of Saul, David, Solomon, and their heartaches, as well as of the prophets and their horrible deaths for speaking the truth (Heb.11:36-37).

Although Jesus did not ever suggest that we deliberately seek out suffering, the words of the Prince of Peace, to his disciples, don’t point to an easy road: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, will find it (Lk. 9:23).”  Your job is not to find a soft life, but to put God ahead of everything else, including your comforts. Put God’s will above everything else – and you will find life. Even Jesus, God himself incarnate, does not escape the most horrible suffering imaginable.

HISTORY

Early Church

The first believers suffered intense persecution. Tradition has it that all but one of the 12 disciples died violently as martyrs of their faith. To the writers of the New Testament books, suffering is an expected, accepted fact of life. Christ’s strongest rebuke to a disciple is to Peter, when Peter tells Jesus he must not suffer. And yet, after the resurrection, this same Peter writes, “But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings…” (I Peter 4:13a). James encourages endurance in suffering; in II Cor. 11 (23ff) Paul lists a chronicle of his sufferings that would be enough to finish virtually anyone’s enthusiasm, but not Paul’s. Peter, James, and Paul have found meaning in their sufferings.

Early Anabaptism

Last Sunday was World Fellowship Sunday, when we remember the beginnings of the Mennonite – or Anabaptist – movement.  Again, it is a story bathed in blood. Hunted down by the governments as well as all the existing churches of the day – including those who had, themselves, stepped out of the Catholic Church, it is a wonder that there were any Mennonites left. (One of the spots of light unfolding in our current story is the apology the Lutheran World Fellowship made to the Mennonites last July, asking and receiving forgiveness for their history of persecuting Anabaptist/Mennonites (see MWC flyer)

Today

With a stable, tolerant government and access to modern medical technology, our generation, in our country, may be experiencing one of the most suffering-free periods in history. Throughout the rest of the world we hear stories like these: bomb blast kills (35) and injures 150+ in Moscow on Monday; millions of Haitians still homeless, injured, or grieving the loss of loved ones a year after a devastating earthquake and the deadly cholera that followed; floods and mudslides in Australia, Brazil, and more; demonstrations in Egypt, war and violence in Somalia, Sudan, Colombia, and the list could go on. MCC Director Abe Janzen is currently in Colombia, evaluating a newer program of MCC called (SEED). On Tuesday he wrote in an e-mail, “Today and yesterday we were in northern communities, where thousands have died, been displaced, and are trying to restore their lives. It’s a country where 50 years of violence now serves a new way of doing business, and even government, in some places.” Young children carry weapons. Violent youth gangs are common. (Luis, the man Abe is staying with, said Thursday, “In Colombia we have lost the capacity to be amazed. Nothing surprises us anymore.” “What impresses,” says Abe, “is the Mennonite and other churches who work, in really difficult and dangerous situations, to push back the violence, deal with its legacies, and little by little, build a counter culture here that believes peace works.”

Suffering in North America

That is not to say that we, ourselves in North America, do not experience suffering. Some of us are ill; some have recently lost loved ones; we have friends or family members who are suffering or dying. My step-sister-in-law, still grieving the death of her husband 5 years ago, had the unspeakable agony of losing the youngest of her two sons in very difficult circumstances just before Christmas. A year ago our colleague, Dave Funk, pastor of Abbeydale Mennonite Church and his wife, Kendra, were excited at the anticipation of their third child’s arrival. Then a 20-week ultrasound turned their excitement into turmoil and questions. Their unborn child had multiple health problems, the most serious affecting the brain and heart. There was no reason to believe the child would live more than a few hours, if that.

THE PROBLEM

Couldn’t God just put a stop to all the pain?  If we must concede that, as Genesis 3 suggests, suffering results from people opposing God and making evil choices, what about the earthquakes, storms, and floods that are beyond human control? What about stillbirths, mental and emotional handicaps, and horrible diseases? Many have sought to deal with the issue. The questions are many; the answers few. Some years ago I took a chaplaincy course in a hospital setting. In addition to our visits, verbatims, and class work, we were assigned a major paper. “The theme,” said our instructor, “is the same one I’ve asked each class to write on for the past 5 years: “The Meaning of Suffering”.  In this setting where we dealt daily with people facing death, the issue was ever before us. Writing the paper was more difficult than I had expected.

SOME CLUES

Why does God allow pain? Couldn’t an all-powerful God have figured out a better way? Here are some thoughts:

1.         In our hospital setting, Nancy’s situation was a beginning. Nancy had a condition that had caused her to lose feeling in her feet. Now she was in hospital, battling a life-threatening infection, because some weeks earlier she had stepped on a needle, and not realized it. With no pain, the minor injury had gone unnoticed and untreated until it became dangerous. She would have been grateful for normal pain sensations. Those nerve endings are there for good reason.

2.         As for people hurting each other, in his book, “The Problem of Pain,” C.S. Lewis reminds us that although God is powerful enough to create the universe and much more, God has limited his own power by giving us freedom of choice. If God were to control our human reactions so that we couldn’t hurt each other, we would not have the freedom that is so precious to us. We couldn’t even choose to love.

3.         Thirdly, as suggested earlier, God can transform pain and tough experiences into something valuable. We actually need some stresses in order to develop well – like the rosebud that does not bloom if we help it along by peeling off the green outside layers.( I tried that once). In our Romans 5 passage Paul says he boasts in his sufferings, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and that endurance produces character,  and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us….”(3-5a). Like Paul and the other apostles, many since have not been able to explain suffering, but have somehow found meaning in it.  Pastor Dave Funk’s daughter Rachel was born May 21. In November I e-mailed Dave to ask how they were being sustained. He responded, “We are experiencing God’s grace, strength and joy, but finding also that ‘God never gives you more than you can handle’ is a myth. He does; he allows us to be utterly overwhelmed, and we grow then in increased dependence on Him and His body the church. We are growing into a most healthy weakness.” At our ministerial meeting on Thursday we heard that, miraculously, Rachel Amariah Funk is till alive. At 8 months she weighs only 7.5 lbs, but is beautiful, responsive and beloved. Yet the agonizing knowledge that they will lose her is with them constantly.

GOD IS WITH US

In his book “Where is God when it Hurts,” Philip Yancey reports interviews with a number of people who have come through incredible suffering, including Joni Eareckson Tada, who broke her neck in a diving accident. Though she survived, she became a quadraplegic, sending her on a journey she would never have chosen.  Joni has become a woman of strength and faith, who has given hope, encouragement, and faith to thousands through here books, articles, and personal presentations. Much of her strength of character comes out of seeking and ultimately finding God’s presence in the midst of her impossible experiences.

Yancey’s conversations with survivors of the horrific Nazi concentration camps also  speak of God’s strength and help. One of them, psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim says, “It is a well-known fact of the concentration camp that those who had strong religious and moral convictions managed life much better than the rest. Their beliefs gave them strength to endure….”(p,213). Solzhenitsyn, another survivor, suggests that “faith in God may not get you out of the camp, but it is enough to see you through each day” (p.200).

Suffering can provide the impetus to open ourselves to God.

To surround ourselves only with that which is pleasant, beautiful, and comfortable, moves us away from Jesus’ challenge in Luke:” If you want to be my follower, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.”  Jesus’ words fly directly in the face of our modern affluent outlook that says, “Pamper yourself. You deserve it!”

And the Apostle Paul, who knew all about suffering, can confidently say, “We glory in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit…”(Rom.5:1-5).

CONCLUSION

No, we don’t really understand why people who have seriously sought to follow God’s will have to suffer. What we do know is that, not only can suffering produce growth, but God is with us in our suffering. We know that God is not asking of us, something that He himself has not gone through in Christ. I personally tend to be speechless in the face of difficult, unresolvable suffering. The best I’ve been able to say to those in physical or spiritual agony is, “God knows what you’re going through. He’s been there. He’s right there with you.”

Learnings

And, finally,  there are, as Paul suggests, things we can learn from suffering, as well as from being with people who suffer. Philip Yancey tells of Dr. Juergen Trogish, a pediatrician working with severely mentally handicapped patients. What could possibly be the meaning of their lives, he wondered. Then he had occasion to begin a class, training young people to care for patients like his. After a year he had his students fill out a survey. Here is a sampling of the answers he received to the question, “How has your life changed since you became totally involved with disabled people?”

• For the first time in my life I feel I’m doing something really significant.
• I feel I can now do things I wouldn’t have thought myself capable of before.
• In observing the disabled, I’ve discovered myself.
•  I’ve become more tolerant. (Yancey, p. 207)

Respond

Though, as Genesis 3 tells us, pain and suffering entered our world as a result of sin, Jesus makes it clear that suffering is not necessarily tied to specific people committing specific sins. It is a universal fact of life. The best we can do is respond. Christians have gone a long way toward alleviating suffering, creating hospitals for the ill and housing for the homeless. They have also made individual gestures of caring, visiting those sick and in prison, providing meals, etc. Treasure in heaven is not the only payoff they receive. There is already here a deep knowledge that when we respond lovingly to sufferers, life is truly worthwhile. It is one way of following Jesus.

No, when we throw our lot in with those who are suffering, we don’t gain the whole world. But we don’t lose our souls, either. In fact, it is then that we are whole.

“True health,” says theologian  Juergen Moltmann, “is the strength to live, the strength to suffer, and the strength to die. Health is not the condition of my body; it is the power of my soul to cope with the varying conditions of that body” (Yancey, p. 186).

Both life and death are in God’s capable, caring, loving hands.