1506AFC020615 – What’s Your Gripe?
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Job 7:6-7, 16-19 – “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and come to their end without hope. Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are a breath. What are human beings, that you make so mruch of them, that you set your mind on them, visit them every morning, test them every moment? Will you not look away from me for a while, let me alone until I swallow my spittle?”
E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika’i ‘oe, ʻōmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) This weekend we will be hearing a passage from the Book of Job. This is a very ancient piece of literature, probably composed around 2500 B.C. – and may believe it came into being even earlier than that in the 7th, 6th, or 4th centuries B.C. The passage above is from the Judeo-Christian Tradition, but there is also a so-called “Babylonian Job” called The Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi. There are a few similarities, but generally the two are quite different. The one thing they both have in common is the apparently unjust and horrific suffering of a genuinely religious person. Both stories take up an old, old question: “Why must there be suffering?” Rabbi Harold Kushner took up the question again in 1978 with his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He concluded that basically God was not powerful enough to eliminate evil. We saw recently in Isaiah 59:1 See, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, or his ear too dull to hear. He does have the power, and chooses not to use it. Still, suffering and evil are mysteries we deal with in our daily lives – daily lives. We can’t help but ask, “WHY?” this is an especially important question if it is we who are suffering.
Many times this question takes the form of “Why is God doing this to me?” Another form is “How can a supposedly loving God allow this to happen?” I want to focus on those two questions first. “Why me” is rooted in the idea that God uses suffering as a punishment for evil. The Old Testament is often cited as a proof for this supposition. Perhaps the most elaborate construct of this idea is the conquering of Canaan by the Israelites. Think back to our lesson on Jonah. The Ninevites were a thoroughly evil people. God had it in mind to destroy them. Nonetheless he sent Jonah to warn them. The Ninevites repented and were spared – for a while. When they reverted to their evil ways, they were destroyed. Yet it took centuries of opportunities to change before their demise was accomplished. The same was true for the inhabitants of Canaan. They too were thoroughly evil and had many opportunities to change. They did not. In fact, in the case of the Amorites God gave them roughly 450 years to get it together. My point is that you are not being punished. God is getting your attention by correcting you, by showing you the consequences of your choices to be stubborn and selfish. In the book of Proverbs we read at Proverbs 3:12 – For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. (New Living Translation). Paul cites this passage in Hebrews 12:6-7 – “… for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts.” Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? You are given an opportunity to change. You can choose to do so because you have free will.
Sometimes, though, it is true. The things that happen to us are not our fault. They are not God’s fault either. Sometimes something painful happens so that something better replaces it. Have you ever been to a dentist? Have you ever had a broken bone? Have you ever seen a marble sculpture? Sometimes painful things result in better things. Sometimes the things that hurt make us better in the long run. We have to look beyond the hurt and accept that good comes from it. Here are some additional insights from the Apostle Paul:
Romans 8:18 – I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
Romans 8:28 – We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Another way to say that is in all things God works for good.
“Eat your spinach. It’s good for you!” may seem like suffering at the time, but it’s nothing compared to having a healthy body which comes from healthy eating.
Sometimes the suffering we have to endure comes from the way others have treated us. There’s no denying that there have been gaggles of parents who abused their children but claimed “it was only discipline.” The same goes for other interpersonal relationships – siblings, spouses, children, other relatives, coworkers, supervisors, authority figures, or neighbors. We would be disingenuous to say that such abuse does not exist and does not seriously impact many lives. This reality is often the root of that second question, “How can a supposedly loving God allow this to happen?” That question is especially relevant when innocents suffer at the hands of great evil as when parents murder their own children (especially when they are unborn children), or when sociopathic killers torture and murder people. One I see quite often these days relates to ISIS and the horrific and egregious acts of terror they commit. How can people, in the name of God (whom they call Allah), do those things? As I have said here before, these acts are committed by heretics, and Allah is not Jehovah. At some points in history just about every major religious – and even antireligious – group has committed atrocities. Whoever the perpetrators are, it is still atrocious, still evil, and still a choice. We are not commanded to annihilate the earthlings that are different from us. We are commanded to love and forgive them.
Hebrews 12:15 – See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.
Ephesians 4:32 – and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
1 John 1:8-10 says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Matthew 6:14-15 – For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 22:37-40 – He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
In 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22, Paul tell us to be at peace with all men, return good for evil (not evil for evil), to take care of the weak and be patient with everyone (not only others, but ourselves as well), to pray without ceasing and “in everything give thanks,” so as not to quench the Spirit, and to abstain from all appearance (and practice) of evil. That’s a pretty tall order! Yet throughout the entirety of our Bible, God tells us to love him and each other.
So, does “love your neighbor” mean we complacently allow these evil persons to perpetrate crimes against us? Of course not! We have a moral responsibility to combat evil. The Two Greatest Laws do not say “Do No Harm.” God’s Law says to put God and neighbor first and we are to follow the whole Law. One commandment (5th or 6th depending on how you number them) forbids intentionally destroying human life. Some argue that this forbids war. Yet there are times when the so-called “just-war doctrine” compels us to take a stand. In this question, too, the key consideration is that we have a choice, and our choice should be guided by Christ’s Law of Love. Still, enduring evil and suffering – even if we do so within the guidelines of Scripture – is not easy, and we still want answers. Let’s return to Job and see how he was answered.
In the book of Job, God never tells Job why he was suffering. When you read the first part of the story of Job – Job 1:6-12 – we see that Satan – the Accuser הַשָּׂטָ֖ן ha-satan {haś·śā·ṭān} – obtains permission to demonstrate his belief that Job is a good and upright man because God has surrounded Job with divine protection. Equally important in the story, Job consistently denies that the reason for his suffering is his sin. In answer God comes down in a whirlwind and asks Job dozens of questions, and all of them are unanswerable! See Job 38:1-42:6. God never tells Job to stop complaining, either; even though the griping we looked at in the beginning of this essay is pretty harsh, God never said Job should stop. Job listens in silence and his response is also silence. He is humbled before God, and that is the posture we need to take when our lives seem to be only suffering, evil, and pain. We always have that choice to defer to him, to reverence him, to kneel in awe before him, and to surrender everything to him. What do I mean by everything?
By “everything” I mean whatever you have in your life that is contrary to the life God created in you. Can you and do you say “I hate!”? Then you have not surrendered that act of unlove to God. Do you and can you claim that God has given you more than your share of suffering and that none of it is the consequence of your own choices? God does not give you suffering. God does permit you to feel the consequences of separating yourself from him in the hope that you will choose not to make that separation the choice you select for eternity after your resurrection. “Why is God doing this to me?” “How can a supposedly loving God allow this to happen?” “Why doesn’t God fix this/me/them?” We have seen that some of the heinous evil that brings great suffering is the consequence of free will which makes Love possible. We know that the end of our life on this earth is not the end of everything because we are created in the image of God and are therefore eternal beings. We know that God can (and will always) bring great good out of great evil – think of the stories of Joseph in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament. The bottom line is that suffering and evil – like salvation, creation, the trinity, and other Divine Mysteries – are things we just cannot understand. Whatever your gripe is, this one thing is clear about evil and suffering: It does not come from God. It comes from our fallen nature and is part of our journey back to the life God intends for us – eternal, sinless, and glorious just like him. We know this because we know God truly does understand our suffering. Look to the life, passion, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
