Last week, our home groups discussed the topic, “joy in the sovereignty of God”. One of the great benefits of discussing the previous week’s sermon is the chance for the community to respond to the word and to digest more fully. In the course of doing that, a lot of questions get asked that are important to consider. All Christians would affirm and agree that God is both sovereign and good. However, there are plenty of situations, whether they are general observations of the world or something intensely personal, that would cause us to question God’s goodness.
When we look at Paul, we see lots of joy flowing out of him despite his harsh circumstances. But did Paul ever complain or despair while he was in prison? Is there room for sorrow and grief? Or are we supposed to ignore or swallow it in order to keep appearances?
I’ve been slowly making my way through Christopher Wright’s helpful book, The God I don’t Understand: reflections on tough questions of faith. In his first chapter, he points out that “the Bible compels us to accept that there is a mysteriousness about evil that we simply cannot understand (and it is good that we cannot).” What is challenging is believing in the goodness and sovereignty of God in the face of evil and suffering that continues to happen all around us. Wright makes the useful distinction that modern people usually asks, “why?” whereas the Bible more often asks, “How long?”. He says:
Their tendency was not to demand that God give an explanation for the origin of evil but rather plead with God to do something to bring about an end to evil. And that, we shall see, is exactly what God had promised to do.
People and theologians have attempted to explain evil, but for some reason the Bible is silent on the “why”, and often for our own good. Rather, the narrative arc of the Bible is God’s plan to destroy evil. That is cause for hope and joy. But for such joy to be remotely authentic, we are also given the space for sorrow and grief. This leads to Wright’s next point: “The Bible allows us to lament, protest, and be angry at the offensiveness of evil (and it is right that we should).
Wright observes that those who suffer in the Bible “simply cried out in pain and protest against God – precisely because they know God. Their protest is born out of the jarring contrast between what they know and what they see.”
If we were to look closer at the Bible, we not only are given room and space to lament, but we are given the language to do so. Read Lamentations. Not exactly chicken soup for the soul is it? There are more Psalms of lament than joy. The scriptures give us permission to do so, but for some reason along the way, Christians have forgotten how to do this and probably at a great cost. But lamenting, venting, and grieving isn’t an end to itself. Otherwise that would be depressing. Wright’s third point is this:
The Bible calls us to rejoice at the prospect of the defeat and final destruction of evil. Evil will be eradicated from God’s creation. This is the hope and promise of the Bible.
When we look at Paul, this is what captured his attention through all his suffering. Did he ever lament? We can guess that he did. Other letters point to some discouragement with himself and other issues. His letter wasn’t a blog or twitter account detailing every emotion he went through. But we do know that his joy was not escapist, but rooted in reality and rooted in eternal hope. After all, he did encounter Christ personally, the one who eradicated evil on the cross. But for all of us as NT Christians, we have the Holy Spirit that unites with Christ. We can go to Him with all our cares and concerns. When we are confused, we are given space to cry out to Him. When we are angry, the Bible gives us language for us to use to help us express the inexpressible. God can handle it. And thankfully he does and invites us to do so provided we continue to trust even when we don’t understand.
This past weekend, we had approximately 20 people attend our membership class. Not only did we get a chance to talk about the church theologically and historically, but we got a chance to talk about who makes up the church – people. Each of us got a chance to share how God had intervened in our respective stories and how he has invited us to be part of something greater than ourselves. Although it was long (5 hours!), it was great hearing our stories and putting it in the context of God’s story. Here are the table of contents of what we covered:
