Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Why Bad Things Happen

The Pursuit of Holy Moments

Job1:1, 2:1-10, Hebrews 1:1-4

Mark Fredericksen, ND

Vashon United Methodist Church, October 6, 2024

 

The Book of Job is perhaps the oldest set of writings in the Bible.  It may have been written as recently as 2500 years ago or as long as 4000 years ago.  In many ways, it is a complete enigma.  As you heard, it has an entirely different idea of God, where God is the head of a council of God-like beings, one of which has the name SaTan (which should NOT be confused in any stretch with being the red, horned, god of Evil portrayed in horror movies and in some Christian horror-based theologies.)  SaTan is Hebrew for a prosecutor – one who metes out justice.  The book does not involve Jewish people (nor Christians), and it seems to have gotten incorporated into the Old Testament because it seems to answer an age-old question religious folks ask: why do bad things happen to good people?  But (spoiler alert) it doesn’t answer that, it turns out.  What it does do is argue the pros and cons of whether God acts with justice. The bottom line, after wandering through 38 chapters of his friends harping on their belief that Job MUST have done something to deserve his suffering, God speaks and essentially says, “Yeah, I am just, and you know-it-all humans don’t know the half of what I’m managing.”

So, inquiring minds still would like to know, control-freak-prone humans would like to know, and most populations around the world want to know why bad things happen.  We all grapple with that question!  Particularly when it is our own suffering!   I have had my share of suffering, physically and mentally.  I was born an empath, and as a pastor and as a doctor, I’ve been with a lot of people on the receiving end of suffering up to and including death in some pretty horrific circumstances.  I also cannot look away from the daily news, which seems obsessed with reporting every tragedy everywhere. Through all of my prayerful, meditative ponderings during my 69 years, I’ve come to an answer for myself.  It is a faith-based answer, but I’ll admit that it may not be satisfying for many. Nor can many accept it – especially if they’re in the throes of suffering at the moment. In the briefest (callous sounding) way, suffering is just what life hands us. It’s not punishment for anything, as that would negate the essence of Christ’s life and death. 

But we must remember that suffering is cast in a much bigger, grander, and more stunning frame like unto how God speaks to Job at the end – and I’d encourage you to look it up and read the closing 4 chapters of Job starting at chapter 38. If we are going to follow the spiritual journey and embrace the belief in God of the universe, my faith resonates with an understanding of Infinite Love, which is the generative power and energy of all that is – on every plane, from star & galaxy formation to the basics of life as we know it.  If we stand on a platform where we can see the full spectrum of creation, spanning all time and distance, our average human experience of life – averaging around 80 years -  is so danged brief as to be invisible – alongside eons and light-years.  The Psalmist indeed did hit on an excellent praiseworthy question: O Lord, what are humans that you are mindful of them? I’ll grant you that sounds quite existentialist and fatalistic– but there is more.  The Infinite Love that holds all that exists together with us IS unfolding on a spiritual plane that defies words of how to speak of something so truly magnificent and glorious. And we ARE held eternally in that plane.  ALL suffering vanishes there – and yet all suffering in this life teaches us important lessons – might I say even ESSENTIAL lessons.  We are children of the Most Holy One!  We have infinite value!  Suffering teaches us how to be good people.  When I suffer, I learn how to be with others when they suffer.  And that becomes the basis for us becoming more Christ-like good people.  Authors Matthew Kelly and Allen Hunt of “The Fourth Quarter of Your Life: Embracing What Matters Most define a good person as someone who knows how “to be honest, humble, generous, responsible, empathetic, selfless, patient, kind, moral, courageous, ethical, and grateful.”1

I think “good person” is what the author of Hebrews is speaking of in their writing about angels and Christ being in a higher, more noble place. Can any of us say that Jesus was not among the best good persons who ever lived?   Isn’t it fantastic that we live in an age where we can benefit from and know the teachings and love of Christ – largely through how we can be together?  One church, one eternal love, one sharing.  So we can benefit from the lessons passed down through ages of wars and Inquisitions, heretic burnings, torture, and exile – through crucifixion and death; spoken of, written about - by prophets, mystics, priests, pastors, and our family of faith so that we – WE -can trust in the deepest part of our souls that all suffering WILL end – come to its completeness and leave us the wiser better prepared for extending what Kelly & Hunt call “Holy Moments” to the world.

They define Holy Moments as moments in which a good person opens themselves to God and prayerfully follow what God is calling them to do.  It may be my empathetic doctor-y side biasing me, but I think one of our highest callings, in general, as the church is to notice the pain and suffering of others, to be present with them in the hard spaces, and lower the temperature of suffering wherever we can. This involves understanding exactly how Jesus lived and taught because he occupies a place – a crucial place in our spiritual lives, namely that place of Messiah at God’s right hand.

There are many not-so-good people who are manipulating the words and life of Jesus to claim what never was- to press their own agenda to foment power, greed, and exclusion and to scare us away from being good people to those from diverse other life experiences.  This is not and never will be something Infinite Love embraces.  It is not something we, with pure hearts and good morals, should or can embrace.  There are dark forces nibbling around the edges of our culture and our faith.  We must embrace lovingkindness and, despite the suffering in our own lives or that in the world, stand courageously hand in hand with the Messiah we know Jesus to be. A bit higher than even angels.  Alongside him.  Forever.

 

1 Kelly, Matthew ; Hunt, Allen R. . The Fourth Quarter of Your Life: Embracing What Matters Most (pp. 23-24). Wellspring. Kindle Edition.