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Today’s issue provides material for the 2nd of 5 sessions in our adult forum series on God of Our Silent Tears. Session 2 meets on Sunday February 25th. All issues of The Rector’s Pen will be posted on our website as they are written. Quotations in today’s issue are drawn from The Rt. Rev. Dan Edward’s book “God of Our Silent Tears.” Page numbers are referenced in parentheses.
Bishop Edwards begins chapter 4 with a quotation that reveals the underlying theme of his discussion in this portion of the book: “Any attempt to look upon suffering as caused directly or indirectly by God stands in danger of regarding him as sadistic.” - Dorothee Soelle, Suffering (37) Edwards says that we likely are less interested in how suffering occurs than in the question “why.” Even Jesus cried from the cross: “Why have you forsaken me.” (38)
Edwards says that we must begin to answer the question “why” by first examining what scripture tells us. Yet he cautions us not to expect scripture to answer questions that it never asked in the first place. The Bible is a history of evolving beliefs and the church has continued to evolve in its thinking. For example, Edwards says, “It was not until the 18th century that Scottish philosopher David Hume famously asked: ‘If God is omnipotent and perfectly good, then why is there evil in the world?...Even in Augustine’s day, the question was why God did not stop evil. The idea that God caused evil was not yet being considered.” (38, 40) Edwards says that the Bible reflects the age-old experience of suffering and the hope that God will deliver us “but without giving a comprehensive theory of evil.” (41-42) Another challenge is that scripture doesn’t speak as one voice. The biblical scholar Bart Ehrman “cites multiple passages in scripture which portray suffering as a punishment for sins and demonstrates that such an idea does not make sense.” (43)
Edwards further states that “a host of Biblical texts explicitly reject the idea that suffering can be explained or justified this way.” He reminds us that Jesus said “God causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust alike.” – Luke 13:2-5, Matthew 5: 45 (43-44)
Edwards notes that “Although the Hebrew scripture and Jesus rejected the “divine retribution theory” theory, it cropped back up in Christianity through a distortion of the teaching that God is just…The biblical concept of justice…is not an algebraic equation of crime and punishment. It isn’t about wrath and retribution but rather, right relationships. The Hebrew word translated as ‘righteousness and interpreted as ‘justice’ is sedeq, which really means keeping promises in covenant. Biblical sedeq is faithfulness…The theological implications of [divine retribution theory] are even worse. Claiming that God punishes sin with earthly misfortune portrays God as a tyrant enforcing his will with the lash, and often using the cruelest of sinners as his agents. This is precisely the religion that plants bombs in women’s clinics and on commuter trains.” (45-46) Nevertheless, Edwards cautions “lest we throw the baby out with the bath…sin and suffering are actually sometimes connected—just not as crime and punishment…[such as] social injustice that causes us to wound and afflict each other.” (46)
Edwards says another argument for suffering offered by many is that it tests our faith. “‘Test of faith’ regards affliction as a kind of trial or temptation to measure the degree of faith and sufferer has developed. Job can be read this way and 1 Peter 1:6-9 supports that view…The problem…is that it posits a seriously flawed view of God…It is hard to worship and adore someone who would give us cancer to see how we handle it…Does God test our characters with broken relationships, diseases, and social injustice?” Edwards point out that every time we celebrate the Eucharist we acknowledge in the Collect for Purity that “God knows us quite well already.” (…to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid. (46-47)
Nevertheless, Edwards points out, “We must acknowledge that suffering and spiritual growth are sometimes, at least potentially, connected.” To sort out the truth, Edwards says, “It is crucial here to distinguish a cause from a purpose, and a purpose from a justification…Spiritual growth will not do as a cause [and justification] of suffering…But our choice to use our suffering as an occasion for growth is another matter…It is not always possible to turn pain into wisdom and compassion, but when it is possible, it is a profound way to live through affliction. Making meaning is a spiritual challenge life sets for us.” (48-50)
Edwards says that the “doctrine of providence is another widely held response to the problem of evil. This doctrine holds that God is actively involved in the world to move it toward a holy and noble purpose that is beyond our comprehension. In this view, seeming catastrophes serve a good purpose in God’s secret plan…Nothing bad actually happens. It just looks bad to us in the short run.” (50)
But Edwards also has problems with this view. He says, “The randomness of misfortune calls providence into question. Even theologians who defend the Calvinist view of providence* now make some allowance for randomness.” (51) He cites, theologian John Macquarrie, who says, “If creation is [an] open, unfinished process…, one would expect to find evidences of untidiness and loose ends, of change and necessity, alongside whatever one might discern of purpose.” Edwards observes that “providence is a fine doctrine to explain our experiences of God’s love and mercy. It is not so helpful in explaining evil. First, it attributes perverse motives to God. Second, when it says there is a secret reason we cannot know, it shuts down our minds instead of opening them to deeper understanding. Third, it denies that evil is really evil.” (51)
In the end, Edwards rejects all these theories saying that “explanations are not the kind of answer we need…We need some response to the pain, a response that consoles, sustains, and empowers…In truth, when Jesus cries out, he does not want a memo of explanation. He wants his Father to show up and do something…The most authentic Christian tradition (along with Judaism and Islam) faces the pain straight on and says, ‘This should not be…’ If the world already ran according to God’s will, Jesus would not have taught us to pray ‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.’” (53-54)
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QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
1. Have you known people who have suffered and grown wise and compassionate through their suffering? Have you known people who have been spiritually crippled by suffering, or made cynical or hard-hearted? What made the difference in their personal stories? Did the difference lie in the nature of the affliction or in the person who suffered?
2. Have you ever felt that God was punishing you? What happened to make you think you were being punished? Did this thought give you hope that you could escape future punishment by repentance and good behavior?
3. Do you believe God has a plan for humanity? If so, does this plan include our suffering? Or is suffering part of God’s Plan B, that is, God didn’t intend for us to suffer, but he has a way to weave suffering into his plan to make something good of it? Or is our suffering just plain contrary to God’s will?
4. The genocide of European Jews in the mid-20th century has traditionally been called the “Holocaust,” a term that refers to a burnt offering sacrifice. More recently, many Jews have objected to the use of a term that suggests meaning and value in Hitler’s atrocities, and have chosen to refer to that historic tragedy as the shoah, or catastrophe. Do you see more value in thinking of atrocities as sacrifices or catastrophes?
5. If we do not explain and justify suffering, is there anything we can say in the face of human misery that might in any way be helpful?
6. Some draw a connection between love and suffering and ask, it possible to love without suffering? For example, if we choose to love greatly then the world will likely disappoint us, whether through the untimely loss of a loved one, the failure of a beloved one to reciprocate, the inability to achieve the particular ends of love that we seek, or some other disappointment. Jesus loved greatly and the world rejected him. Also, since love is a letting go of ego, of control, and other forms of self-emptying, can we truly love anyone or anything without suffering at some level? Is this partly what Jesus means when he asks us to “take up your cross and follow me?”
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