Suffering and God's Goodness (Death of John the Baptist)
Mark 6:14-29
Ephesians 1:3-14
I almost changed the reading for today. I felt the Gospel lesson, with its description of John the Baptist's execution, was so dark, and I guess I did not feel up to the challenge of speaking about it. But these stories of senseless violence have nearly always been a part of the human experience. And it seems, people's anger and dismay will nearly always be part of the response.
Sometimes the anger moves us to act on behalf of others; sometimes it merely embitters us. In my work as a minister I have come to see that quite often the question of God's goodness (and even God's existence) arises from people's experiences of evil in the world. In my studies I have seen how theologians people who talk about God have developed different theories to explain the co-existence of God and evil. It is so important a field of discussion that it has a name: theodicy.
Different theologies have shaped the canon of Scripture.
We find arguments that God tests us or allows us to be tested -
through our experiences of evil and misfortune this is the idea behind the story of the Binding of Isaac as well as the story of Job
The story of the Exile is the argument that God has the right to punish a nation for injustices and unfaithfulnesses practiced by a majority of the people.
Once the Biblical Canon had been somewhat settled in the west, the doctrine of Original Sin was further developed to justify the judgment that precipitated the need of Salvation for a fallen humanity. We are told that granted a free will, the human person seems incapable of choosing right, that is, the path of 'life and blessing.'
It is a history of blame; blame the victim, and or blame the Creator who is the Imagination which shapes our lives.
And in face of this blaming, people have defended God in various ways.... saying:
This is God who has a right to do with creation whatever God wants... Jeremiah's vision of the Potter with the clay...
God chastens us because God loves us: I only desire your dross to consume and your gold to refine...
God was in Christ suffering death to bring us through death into life that is eternal and abundant. God has undergone suffering in order to sanctify our experiences of suffering.
God limited God's self in order to bring about this thing called love. We were granted free will and the potential for good action or evil action so that we might choose the good so that we might respond to love with love.
People have even defended the notion of God's goodness by annihilating God. Saying in essence 'I will believe in no deity unless that deity behaves in a way that I find acceptable.'
I, too, am deeply grieved by the suffering in the world. Certainly I have been angry with God for being patient with our sin, with our failures in love and obedience. And yet I have had glimpses of insight. I understand more and more that evil can not be destroyed... it's effects can only be redeemed and healed.
The story of the Great Flood was an object lesson. God showed us that destruction can not remove evil from the face of the earth...
It is only the compassion of God, become human, that can forgive and heal the suffering that results from evil actions, that can mended this broken creation.
Long ago I wrote a poem about the accidental death of a young girl. Abby was a dreamer who stepped off into the path of a truck and died. Thinking of Job, I spoke of the Accuser who severed Abby's life from our lives... inviting us to kill our love for God.
Each day we stand at a crossroads; like the people of the Exodus we stand at the riverside, looking in at the promised land. And God speaks to us, 'This day I set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life.'
If only death and curse absorb our attention then our lives wither and we have an embittered existence and who is served? No one.
But if we surround suffering with compassion, if we can forgive ourselves for our failures in love, then we can forgive others and suffering can be healed; blessing is loosed in the land.
I have seen people die terrible diseases stealing their strength away... and yet I have seen in their faces, such love, such peace shining through radiant smiles that I now know -- through faith and through compassion suffering can be transformed
The limitations and pain we must endure can become the means of allowing grace in the world. God's will for the people of this world is that we live with compassion... it the underlying message of all the great religions.... our actions are to be ruled by our feeling with another and seeking to alleviate one another's pain. Healing comes to us through our prayers for others.
We were created to live in love, and God trusts that we will learn this lesson. We have been chosen from before the foundation of the world to be God's children God's purpose has been set forth in Jesus Christ. Heaven and earth are to be united in love.
So let us turn away from blaming God and one another. Let us ask God to empower us with the ability to forgive let us allow the compassion of God to work through us in order to bring healing and blessing to a troubled world. May our lives and our love in Christ Jesus be a sign of the union of heaven and earth.
