Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: Suffering

  • Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12

    Sorrow Like My Sorrow – Lamentations 1:12

    12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:12.

    There are several things I could discuss about this verse, but I’ve been thinking about the sorrow. When we are in trouble, many of us feel that we are suffering in ways nobody else can understand.

    In one sense, your sorrow is your own. You experience sorrow in individual ways. Your feelings are your own feelings. But very often when we think this we are missing the suffering of others, suffering we don’t understand and that might even be suffering worse than we are.

    The problem is that there is no real way to measure pain, suffering, and grief. Is what I have experienced more or less than what you have experienced? Neither of us really know. We can’t measure our suffering against our ability to endure.

    Despite all that, I am often shamed when I’m complaining, even just in my own mind, and then find out someone else is experiencing something I perceive to be worse. But I still don’t know the weight of that suffering to another person even when I know it is great.

    In lamentation, we long to have our suffering acknowledged. It is part of being seen and recognized. In scripture the hoped-for recognition is from God. That is the purpose of lamentation. We recognize and express the reality, and we look for the recognition of our pain.

    I will confess that I really don’t like to talk about difficulties. I prefer to keep on a proper “faith face” that suggests everything is fine whether it is or not. That face is often what we put on to avoid lamentation.

    So, honest face or faith face?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    A Cause – Lamentations 1:5

    5 Her adversaries have become her masters,
    her enemies take their ease,
    for the LORD has made her suffer
    because of her countless sins.
    Her young children are gone,
    taken captive by an adversary.

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:5.

    One of the things my mother taught me was always to look for my contribution to creating a problem. The reason, she told me, was not that I was probably to blame, or was supposed to always load up on guilt, but that those were the only things I could actually fix.

    An underlying theme of Lamentations is that Judah bore responsibility for what had come upon her. That there were actions that had led to consequences. In our verse, it is the LORD who has brought these problems on Judah, yet that is because of their sins. Some people aren’t comfortable with this form of expression. It’s important, however, to remember that in the Bible stories God is seen as the cause of everything. There is little distinction made between things that result naturally and positive acts of God in specific circumstances. All of these result from God, God’s law, and God’s nature.

    Lamentation is a good thing. What is not a good thing is whining. Yes, I do my share of complaining, of blaming everyone else. And I am not responsible by my actions for everything that goes wrong. I’ve had circumstances where I can’t think of what I could have done. But many times there is some action possible.

    There are also those who look on any misfortune and blame the victim. Whatever the problem is, that person should have done something to prevent it. This too is destructive behavior.

    Lamentation recognizes the situation and the fact that it has brought problems, hardships, pain, suffering.

    Our verse today is solid with sorrow. Not a moment of joy. Not even the relief of finding someone else to blame.

    Even so, it’s a step toward a more healthy future.

  • Psalm 23:4 – With Me

    Psalm 23:4 – With Me

    Even though I’m walking in a deadly dark valley
    I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
    Your scepter and your staff give me comfort.

    The words are few, but the message is deep. Even with God guiding us, we will find ourselves going through times of trouble and darkness. We will be in places where we will wonder what happens next. Journeying with God is not a constant triumphal parade in which everything that happens to us appears and feels glorious.

    God’s scepter and staff (rod and staff – KJV), meaning is authority and his support and presence give us the ability to live through the times of deep darkness and the fear of the shadow of death. God is there.

    This is a message (I think the message) in the book of Job. When God appears, 38 chapters in, God provides no answers to Job’s questions. God dismisses everything from the third through the 37th chapter.

    “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” God asks Job. Then he proceeds to ask Job questions. When the speech is done, Job responds,

    I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
    but now my eye sees you;
    therefore I despise myself,
    and repent in dust and ashes.

    Job 42:5-6 (NRSV)

    But even there, God changes the tune as he tells Job’s friends that they have not spoken of him in the right way, as his servant Job has done.

    It’s knowing that God is there that satisfies Job.

    In that deep valley, we can know that God, who, through Christ, is acquainted with our every trial and weakness (Hebrews 2:10-11 & 4:14-16). Like Job, we will try to find reassurance that God is actually hearing us and aware of our situation, but we have the assurance.

    I like the description of God, originated by process philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, as the “fellow-sufferer who understands.” There’s some more to this view of God, however. Let me quote Bruce Epperly, author of the book Messy Incarnation, which I publish:

    God is the fellow sufferer who understands and the joyful heart who celebrates. God cries along with the Bethlehem mothers, mourning the slaughter of their children. God experiences the hopelessness of parents separated from their children to fulfill the campaign promises of a self-interested political leader. God feels the terror of a child running for his life in a war-torn land and the panic of an adult on the streets of Minneapolis, Minnesota, crying for mercy, “I can’t breathe.” God places you on God’s knees in prayerful embracing. God never places God’s knee on your spiritual neck!

    Bruce Epperly, Messy Incarnation, p. 37

    I would like to emphasize here that God suffers with all sufferers, not just those we manage to care about. God loves the world and feels the pain brought about by evil. God’s caring is not limited and conditional as ours so often is.

    Yes, God can even care for me,. one who so often forgets, fails to recognize, and lives as though caring was optional and occasional. Even while writing this, there was a call to care, and it annoyed me. I acted, but not with grace. Yet God still cares and walks with me.

    Who is God calling you to care more for today?

  • Psalm 119:87 – Almost Finished

    Psalm 119:87 – Almost Finished

    They almost finished my time on earth,
    but I did not abandon your precepts.

    Mitchell Dahood again provides a good translation:

    They nearly exterminated me from the earth,
    but I did not forsake your precepts.

    Mitchell Dahood, Psalms 100-150, Anchor Bible, p. 166

    Dahood continues on page 183 with a discussion of the text, dealing the final phrase “in the earth” or “from the earth.” For some time there was a suggested emendation (textual correction not reflected in any manuscript reading) change “in” to “from.” That emendation then received support from a Dead Sea Scrolls fragment, but Dahood maintains that there is good linguistic evidence for translating the Hebrew prefix for “in” as “from” in many cases.

    There! A dose of language study, however superficially written and documented!

    The claim that one is doing right while bad things are happening is not a rare one in scripture. It is, in fact, the big issue in Job. While Samuel-Kings repeats a refrain about evil bringing bad results and good behavior bringing good results, Job discusses the contrary situation: Job is declared righteous in the text by God, yet he suffers. Job’s friends thought he was obstinate and arrogant for maintaining his innocence. God doesn’t challenge Job’s innocence, but rather simply challenges Job with presence and power.

    One of the problems of living together with other people is that our suffering, if attributed to human action, is not always attributed to our own action. Bad actors make many people suffer, irrespective of their behavior.

    When faced with a bad situation, it’s not the time to be forgetting good actions. If I’m walking along a mountain trail and find myself in danger because someone else has damaged the safety rail, or damaged the trail itself, it’s not the time to forget rules of safety. In fact, I need to be more carefully because someone else was either less careful or actively destructive.

    “Everybody else was after me and almost got me, but I stuck to your rules.” It’s a good loose interpretation of our verse today, but it’s generally good practice as well.

    When I was younger, I would try the excuse that all the other kids were doing something. It didn’t go far with my parents. But in society as a whole I see this as a justification for bad behavior all the time. The other folks are doing it, so why not me? Or perhaps the other folks are doing it, so I have to do it or I’ll lose.

    Rather than seeing this as some kind of boast, perhaps we ought to see it as an example for ourselves. When other people do it wrong, we should stay on the right track, right to the end. I suspect no good is accomplished by ignoring God’s principles and rules, no matter how many other people we see doing it.

    Reflect: Can you say that you haven’t taken up the approach of the other guys?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:50 – Experience

    Psalm 119:50 – Experience

    This is my comfort when I’m afflicted:
    Your word to me has given me life.

    What do you hold onto when living through difficult times?

    During times of great difficulty, theological conclusions, no matter how well thought out and firmly held, can let you down. It’s very difficult to continue believing in a God of love, when that love is not evident.

    I know this from experience. When our son James was dying of cancer, Jody and I had plenty of teaching to rely on. We were both teachers in the church who had taught weekend seminars on prayer. We had plenty of stuff in our heads. We did not teach that God always resolves problems in the way that we would prefer. If you’ve read Job, you can understand that God may call on you to remain a witness when things look as dark as possible.

    So what did sustain us?

    Our experience with God, experience that gave reality to what we had learned and what we taught. We knew that God could act, because we had experienced this. We also knew that the result might not be what we preferred, because we had the experience of the church and our own experience that matched again with what we taught.

    But even more, living through the experience required a continued sense of God’s presence, and a continued conversation with God. Knowledge could fail us. Friends could fail us. We could feel alone, beset on every side. But when we would spend time with God, when we would listen for the still small voice (KJV) or the sound of sheer silence (NRSV), a quietness in which you know God is there, we could find the strength to sustain us.

    Our comfort in our affliction was that God, through God’s powerful, creative Word, gave us life, sustained that life, and held that life in Divine care.

    How can you experience God’s comforting and empowering presence today?

    (Featured image is from Adobe Stock by By Romolo Tavani. Licensed. Not public domain.)

  • A Robust Theodicy?

    A Robust Theodicy?

    As I conduct interviews on theodicy with various authors, I’d like to suggest this:

    We need a theodicy (and in fact a full theology) that is as comfortable in Job as in Deuteronomy. This would be the expression of a faith that isn’t forgotten in good times or repudiated in bad.

    Here again is the first video:

    I will be interviewing Dr. Bruce Epperly and Dr. Allan R. Bevere on Thursday, November 10, 2022 and will be posting those interviews over the next couple of days. Further interviews will be announced here.

  • Marketing Jesus

    Marketing Jesus

    Shortly after I separated from the Air Force I was chatting with a gentleman while waiting in line for something or other. On realizing that I was a veteran, and in fact had been somewhere that would qualify me as a veteran of a foreign war, he started a pitch to get me to join that fine organization (VFW).

    His initial pitch was simply that I could. I asked him why I should. At this point he was somewhat at a loss and simply told me that they had a wonderful local VFW post where I could drink and swap war stories with other veterans. On short acquaintance he couldn’t possibly have know what a poor pitch that was for me.

    Now please don’t imagine that I’m writing against the VFW, any more than I will be writing against Jesus when I talk about marketing approaches. The VFW does some fine work, which is my point. You can give a poor sales pitch for a good cause and drive people away.

    Fast forward about 12 years to a time when I was looking at church congregations. I had not been a member of any church for those years and more, but as regular readers may know, I did have my MA in Religion (with that wonderful concentration in Biblical and Cognate Languages). This made life a bit difficult for pastors who discussed their churches with me.

    In the end, I was considering two United Methodist congregations. I had attended church and some excellent studies at both, and I liked both organizations in many ways. At one of the churches pastor said: “We don’t care what you believe. If you want to enjoy our fellowship, you’re welcome.” The other discussed my beliefs and how they fit with the congregation.

    Now I’m very interested in openness and acceptance, and I advocate the maximum freedom of belief, but I do think an organization requires some sort of center to make it functional and useful. And a mission. That too.

    Thus I joined the other congregation.

    Over the course of my life I have experienced a variety of sales pitches to get me to accept Jesus Christ as my savior, most of them after I already had. Many of these came from people who felt I hadn’t quite gotten it right. Others came from people who presented their pitch so quickly they hadn’t had time to realize I was already a Christian. One came from someone who saw me reading my Greek New Testament while waiting for tires to be installed on my car, and was convinced that my Christianity must just be a thing of the intellect. He was truly concerned that I might mistakenly think that reading Greek was a means of salvation.

    I’ll call it a means of grace. I didn’t think of saying that to him. It would doubtlessly have sent him ballistic. (Then I would have needed to repent, so perhaps it’s best I didn’t think of it.)

    I would categorize approaches to selling Christianity in a few broad camps:

    1. The desperate. These are the people who are afraid that if you don’t accept Christ while in conversation with them, you will doubtless go to hell. One short prayer, and you’ll at least avoid that. Flames are usually involved in the conversation (pun absolutely intended). Conservative and charismatic Christians are susceptible to the use of this approach. Liberals and other mainliners might be susceptible, but often they don’t believe in hell.
    2. The cultural. Christianity is a good society, sort of like Kiwanis or the Lions Clubs. Good people are Christians and attend church every so often. Come join our church and be socially acceptable to the good people. Mainline congregations are most susceptible to this, but conservatives may fall for it in the right cultural context.
    3. The upwardly mobile. This is the home of the prosperity gospel. The pitch goes that you’re in a lower economic and social class than you’d like to be, and Jesus wants you to have abundant life, so just follow Jesus to health, wealth, and satisfaction. (No, not the satisfaction theory of the atonement. Self-satisfaction.)
    4. The apologetic approach. By this I don’t mean a person who defends elements of the Christian faith, but rather the person who desires to batter down your defenses with his or her command of data.

    In fact, in all of these approaches there’s some truth. Being a part of a caring community can improve your standard of living, your sense of joy, your peace, and many other things. Not quite in the way the prosperity preachers tell it, but it can help. Being part of the church can be a good cultural and social move. Considering your eternal state is likely worthwhile, and studying the data behind your religious faith is constructive.

    There’s an effective temptation to attack every good intention or work. The desperate evangelist is driven by a desire to help. Believing that eternal hell fire is in your future if you don’t accept Jesus as your savior, he feels compelled to make you. This sense led to some theological support for the burning of heretics. What was a few moments of torment in this life compared to what God would do to them in the next? If the torturer could bring this eternal punishment to their minds forcefully enough, perhaps they’d repent and be saved. The temptation here is to take away from God the power of salvation and judgment. Most humans are susceptible to it in some way.

    Then there is the Jesus way. I was hit by it this morning as I was reading texts for next Sunday’s lesson.

    Jesus was saying to everyone: “If anyone wants to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

    Now there’s an “ouch”! No promise of prosperity. No threat of hell. No social acceptability. In fact, if you read on through the end of the chapter, it gets even worse. The facts of the situation were present in the Person.

    I wonder how a church growth program would work that called for people to lose their respectability, give up their comfort, become socially unacceptable, experience pain, and ignore ridicule. I’ve never seen one of those.

    Other than in the gospels.

    Let me look at some other texts from this week’s reading list.

    9He said to me, “My grace is enough for you, because strength is made complete in weakness.” I now gladly boast in my weaknesses because Christ’s strength is all over me. 10So I am pleased in weaknesses, when insulted, when in need, when persecuted, when in hardship, for Christ. For when I am weak, he is strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

    I guess Paul wasn’t up on the latest pitches and methods of evangelism either. And just to add to our feeling of injury and annoyance:

    If we suffer together with him, we will be glorified with him. (Romans 8:17b)

    I was somewhat surprised after reading the scriptures to find that the lesson author managed to write the whole lesson without mentioning suffering. He had some good thoughts, but somehow avoided that one.

    So just what is it we’re proclaiming (or selling)? Are we doing it right?

    (Note: All translations are my own, and are sometimes intentionally loose. Featured image downloade from Pixabay.com, which doesn’t require attribution, but I’ll give it anyhow.)
  • Thankful for the Gift of Suffering for Jesus?

    Thankful for the Gift of Suffering for Jesus?

    Because you have been graciously given this on behalf of Christ:
    not only in Him to believe,
    but also for Him to suffer. (Philippians 1:29, excessively literally)

    I’ve been meditating on two texts as the new year begins, Philippians 1:27-30, and Ephesians 5:1-2. I’ve been kind of ignoring this suffering thing so far. But last night listening to music in worship at Freedom Church Pensacola, it suddenly struck me to think: Do we have any songs in which we actually praise or thank God for suffering? There may well be, but I don’t recall one off-hand.

    This is certainly not a criticism of the church I was in at the time I thought it. I don’t recall this sort of thing anywhere. We don’t talk about it in the way Paul does here. In fact, we don’t really want to acknowledge the reality of suffering. Often our singing, praying, preaching, and indeed our living presents the pretense that nothing ever can or will go wrong. Have you ever heard anyone say in church, when a testimony is called for, that they have had a horrible week and just don’t know how they can go on? No! That’s a sign that they’re crazy. The intelligent and sane ones pretend.

    I don’t think Paul is saying here that suffering is wonderful and good in itself. I think the privilege is that the suffering that will come—and despite our desires, it will—is not vain and of no worth, but rather it is suffering on  behalf of the kingdom. It’s not cheering that there is pain, but rather cheering from the pain that whatever happens is not in vain.

    This reminds me of the Battle Hymn of the Republic and the frequent change of the line “as He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free” to “as He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free.” (You can find more on this here.) Those who have served in the military know that dying may be necessary. It’s not what you live for, but many people have faced death for their nation. Many Christians have faced or are now facing death for their faith. It’s a reality, but just as we change the line in the song, we’d rather not talk about it. Certainly, we don’t want to sing about it.

    Conducting ourselves in a way that is worthy of the gospel (Philippians 1:27) may involve annoyance, discomfort, suffering, and even death. God’s gift is that we do it in, with, and through Jesus Christ.

     

  • Football: I suspect God was indifferent to the ultimate outcome

    Football: I suspect God was indifferent to the ultimate outcome

    Finding God in Suffering: A Journey with JobBruce Epperly, author of the recently released book Finding God in Suffering: A Journey with Job, questions the view that God determines the outcome of football games (or, I suspect, any other sport), rewarding the faithful and punishing the unfaithful. The title to this post includes his money quote from his post, Is God a Seahawks Fan?. Here’s the full paragraph:

    I am sure that God was present on the playing field but not as a miracle worker or team mascot; God was there urging the players to achieve their best as team members, to be sportsmanlike, and to remain healthy amid a rough and tumble game. I suspect God was indifferent to the ultimate outcome.

    I found this post refreshing. God is involved, but God isn’t there to make your team win–or lose. He’s there with each person.

  • Quote: Prayers Make a Difference, But

    “I think my prayers make a difference, but they’re not omnipotent.”

    Listen to the whole interview by Doug Pagitt with Dr. Bruce Epperly, author of the recently released book Finding God in Suffering.