I wrote some stuff down during church at the Table today and I want to post it. I thought about fleshing out my scribbles, but I won't. I'll let you come to your own conclusions from something God talked with me about this morning. Enjoy!
Space of lament:
What do I deserve?
What do You give?
forgiveness, mercy
blessings, grace
hardships, trials
What do I deserve? -- nothing. What have I earned? -- nothing.
What do You give? -- everything, good and bad. Then You make it good.
suffering, starvation, disasters, death -- can they be good?
Can even God make them good?
Yes, but I can't believe it.
I can't see it; I can't understand it.
I must trust.
your conclusion sounds very like conclusions i have arrived at again and again, especially over the last months. :)
ReplyDeleteHere's something that helps me envision God making "suffering, starvation, disasters, death" into something good: Philip Yancey's description of a chess master who would turn Yancey's every move into something that served the master's purpose.
ReplyDeleteHere's something that is a possible glimmer of how suffering is part of God's good purpose: George Ellis' description of the cosmos. Ellis is no slouch -- he's one of world's leading "theoretical cosmologists" (ie, tries to theorize the origin of universe), co-authored a book with Stephen Hawking; is also a Quaker S. African who was active against apartheid. He says that Philippians 2 is at the center of universe, specifically the act of kenosis ("he made himself nothing"), that sacrifice is at the heart of the constitution and character of our universe. We find echoes of this kenotic idea in biological life with the recycling of materials thru many generations; we use the materials of our body for a while and then return them to nature for other creatures to use. There's a similar pattern in astrophysics as the first generation of stars must "die" in order that elements formed in them might be incorporated into new stars, these second-generation stars then having the right elements to form the planets. The main instance is the power that suffering love has in human relationships -- we only truly transform the evil-doer when we persuade them by our love, not when we coerce them with our strength. (Ellis allows for some coercion. But the pattern should be kenosis; coercion is always to be the last resort.)
I find this incredibly fertile: now death & suffering & self-sacrifice are not just meaningless, dark horrors but are part of the universe's movement to a glorious future!
I preached two sermons last month skirting around this, trying not to get too philosophical. I had fun with the stories of the Good Samaritan and Dirk Willems, both of whom made choices that seem foolish practically-speaking but yet are ones we instinctively laud and view as noble.
Here's why I'm not on Facebook -- I dive too deep into these things. (Since your mother is listening to the Cubs beating the Mets, I had some extra minutes!)