13th March 2011 - The First Sunday in Lent

Friday is my normal day off so last Friday I was having a bit of a lay in when my wife came and told me that there had been a major earthquake in Japan. We turned on the TV news and were overwhelmed by the pictures we saw of collapsing buildings, burning oil refineries and the ugly and seemingly unstoppable wave of the tsunami. As the day wore on we saw the same pictures over and over again and then newer pictures as night came in Japan, including one from a military aircraft which seemed to show a whole coastline on fire. On Saturday we had the scenes of an explosion from the nuclear reactor and the question about what that would bring about.

All this on top of the devastating scenes from Christchurch New Zealand which have affected some of us here personally because they were there, or nearby, or have relatives or friends who have been involved. Add this to the upheavals in North Africa and particularly in Libya, and the ongoing effects of the economic meltdown in the western nations and most of us will be asking “what on earth is going on in the world?”.

Troubled times always provoke questions. For some people the troubles and suffering of the world will be seen as confirming their belief of the non-existence of God. For others such suffering might be seen as the action of God. On Thursday I was visited by a Jehovah’s Witness who clearly saw the New Zealand Earthquake as a warning that God was about to decisively intervene in the history of the world. Still others who are even more extreme might see what is going as God’s Judgement on particular nations and peoples just as, after the earthquake in Haiti, one American preacher blamed it on the islanders' practice of Voodoo.

Let me say straight away that I wouldn’t sign up to any of those so called “explanations”. Nevertheless I do believe that my Christian faith has something to say as I reflect on these things. I don’t think I have any “cut and dried” answers to the questions that are raised. Indeed I think “cut and dried” answers are inappropriate - our thinking about such things is always provisional. But let me say where my thinking has brought me so far.

Firstly, I am utterly convinced that any explanation which seeks to blame the victims is wrong. The whole of Jewish and Christian tradition, theology and teaching is against any such idea. The great biblical discussion of suffering is found in the book of Job in the Old Testament. There Job, a good man, suffers for seemingly no reason at all. Four friends come, Job’s comforters, and attempt to persuade him with long and detailed arguments that he must have done something to deserve it. They start with a premise which is demonstrably true; that wicked actions inevitably lead to negative consequences: but then they go on to turn this around to try and argue that all suffering comes because of wicked actions. This is what is called a logical fallacy. You can see how it is wrong if you consider the proposition “Cats have four legs, therefore if it has four legs it’s a cat”. No, it might be a dog, a cow, a horse or an aardvark. There may be many explanations for suffering other than the wickedness of the sufferer. In Job's case God comes in at the end and tells his so called friends that actually they’ve got it wrong. Job is innocent. In the end Job’s suffering is a mystery as is much of the suffering in our world.

So no, blaming the victim is simply not compatible with Jewish and Christian teaching.

The second thing that comes into my thinking is this. We do live in a world in which bad things happen, seemingly at random. The Jehovah’s Witness that called at my door was basing his thinking on Mathew Chapter 24 where Jesus says that before the end comes “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places”. Now as I read that passage Jesus is not saying that these are signs to be looked for but things that will always happen. These things have happened throughout history and will continue to happen. I believe Jesus will come again and that his coming will be preceded by a time of great suffering, including persecution of Christians, but once again we shouldn’t think that means that any particular suffering is some special sign, “This must take place” says Jesus, “but the end is not yet”.

As I said before, we live in a world in which bad things happen, seemingly at random. The universe has a randomness built into its makeup. Scientists tell us that we could not exist unless this was so. That on a planet on which disasters could not happen there could also be no life, and that we as human beings owe our very existence to catastrophes which have happened in the past. Theologically I can see that God has made the world (indeed the universe) in such a way that this is so because the universe is designed to produce creatures like us. Creatures who are capable of thinking and acting independently of God so that we do not exist as God’s robots but as his children; so that our obedience to him may be freely given and not compelled.

Thirdly, I am convinced that whatever such disasters demonstrate, they do not demonstrate the absence of God. The teaching of Christianity is that God is not absent from our suffering but present in it. The theologian Jürgan Moltman has written that the crucified God of Christianity is the only God that can make sense in the presence of the suffering of the world:

“Any other answer would be blasphemy. There cannot be any other Christian answer to the question of this torment. To speak here of a God who could not suffer would make God a demon. To speak here of an absolute God would make God an annihilating nothingness. To speak here of an indifferent God would condemn men to indifference.”

God is not absent from suffering but present in it. Because of Jesus the person who suffers is not just a helpless victim but also an icon of Christ.

One way of reading a difficult passage in the letter to the Romans is this, “in all things God works for good for those who love him” (Romans 8.28 margin). In other words God is not absent from suffering but in it, working for good.

I do not believe that Christians have any special “get out of jail free” card which exempts them from suffering. It is realistic to say that anything that can happen to anyone can happen to me. Yet we are promised that God will never leave us or forsake us, “So we can say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?'” (Hebrews 13:5,6).

So there is my thinking - I hope it helps. Blaming the victims is never an option. Suffering is part of the randomness of the world. But God is present in our suffering seeking our good and the good of his world.

On Friday the Bishop of Chelmsford wrote this, and I end with his words:

"But there is something we can do. We can pray for those who suffer. We can give generously to those in need. Therefore, I am calling upon the people of Chelmsford Diocese to pray for all who are caught up in the aftermath of this disaster and to give what they can to the appeals for aid that will soon be set up. The Christian faith teaches us that we are one human family.

"We must stand together with those who suffer across our world."

I've Decided to Reactivate this Blog

If anyone is reading this!!!

After a couple of years without posting I've decided to reactivate this Blog.

1st March, 2009: Year B- Lent 1

Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

There is a wonderful children's picture book by Maurice Sendak called, "Where The Wild Things Are". It tells the story of a little boy named Max who, one evening, "dresses up in his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another". His mother calls him "WILD THING" and Max says "I'LL EAT YOU UP", so he is sent to bed without any supper. In his bedroom that night Max travels to a forest beside the ocean where a boat takes him to an island "where the wild things are". The wild things roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth and roll their terrible eyes and show their terrible claws; but Max learns to make them still and control them so they make him their king and he leads them in a wild rumpus. But Max grows lonely among the wild things and wants to go back to where someone loves him best of all. Suddenly he smells something good to eat so clambers into his boat travels back, away from the wild things, to his room where he finds his supper waiting for him.

It is a story that can be read at many levels. On the surface, of course, it is a story of adventure and imagination. Go a bit deeper and it's a story of a child learning to cope with emotions of anger and frustration. Go deeper still and it's a story of everyman learning to accept and control, and indeed value, the wild things that are inside each one of us. The bits of ourselves we carefully hide away from others and often try to hide away from ourselves.

In our Gospel reading today Mark tells us, that after Jesus was baptised "the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him." If we read the gospels of Matthew and Luke we are given detailed accounts of the temptations which confront Jesus: to turn stones to bread to feed his hunger; to cast himself down from the temple as a miraculous sign to the people; to worship Satan so that the kingdoms of the earth will be given him. Temptations to put his own needs and bodily appetites first; to seek to rule through fame and celebrity; or to impose his will by raw power. In Mark's gospel these temptations are not described in detail; and I for one am glad of that. Mark's brief account - just one sentence long - is, for me, just as valuable as Luke's or Matthew's longer versions.

What is happening here? Jesus has just been baptised and at the moment of Baptism is affirmed by a voice from heaven which says, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.' Fully aware of who he is Jesus will set out on a path of proclaiming the Kingdom rule of God; a path which will lead him to the cross. Fully God, he enters upon this path in full awareness of where it will take him. Fully human, he enters upon this path with all the hopes and fears that you or I would have, and indeed with greater hopes and fears than you or I.

So he goes out into the desert, compelled to do so by the Holy Spirit of God. It is an interesting fact that Monotheism - the belief in one God - always arises in the desert. As one Jewish comedian put it - "in the desert we were so poor we could only afford one God." In the Bible the desert is the place where one goes to encounter God. Moses meets God in a burning bush, out in the desert. The Israelites pass through that same desert and encounter God and receive his law and his covenant. Elijah, despairing and despondent, goes out into the desert and finds his faith renewed. Latter prophets follow, so does John the Baptist and so does Jesus. In the letter to the Galatians we read that Paul the Apostle went out into the desert after his conversion to spend time with God. In the years after Christianity became the official religion of the Roman state the life of the Christian Church in the cities became comfortable and compromised and a new movement began, lead by St. Antony. Young men and women abandoned the cities to live alone and in communities out in the desert. Thus the monastic movement began. A movement which continues to this day. It's a little known fact that amongst Christian Copts of Egypt today there is a vast revival of faith and a huge renewal of the desert life. Christian monks from Egypt brought their way of life to this land an had a huge influence on the Celtic Saints like Columba, Ninian, Chad, Cedd, Aidan, Hilda and Cuthbert. The sought the out desert places on remote islands because they wanted to encounter God; and they did, and renewed by that encounter they carried the Good News of Jesus across Europe. The desert is the place of encounter with God and a springboard for ministry to the world.

But the desert is also a place of battle. Saint Anthony in his writings describes the battles he has with demons which seek to drag him away from the encounter with God. The Temptation of Saint Anthony has been the subject of astonishing art from Hieronymus Bosch to Salvador Dali. Bizarre and grotesque demons are shown tearing at the Saint while he is at prayer. I believe that we are to understand this psychologically. These demons are the "Wild things" that seek to consume us, to drag us down, to make us less than we can be.

Which of course brings us back to Max in his room, and to our own struggle. We can and we should seek out the desert. Perhaps literally - a few years ago I spent two weeks in the Sinai desert and is was a very special experience for me. Perhaps in the more comfortable deserts of places we can go to be alone and meet God face-to-face. For me Holy Island is such a place. Perhaps in just a few minuets of 'desert time' grabbed from a busy day in order to be alone and open to God.

But we can also find ourselves driven out into the desert, the desert of bereavement, or sickness, or unemployment, disappointment or failure. Deserts we would not choose to occupy. Places of conflict and battle where "the wild things" tear at us and demons tempt us. The astonishing thing is that this desert too can be the place where God is encountered. That this desert too can be a springboard for ministry. And that the place "Where The Wild Things Are" can also be the place where angels minister to us.