Copyright © CRCMA 2009
This article can be copied and distributed freely provided its content has not been
changed. This resource cannot be sold or distributed for financial gain. It must be free.
And it must be unedited. Otherwise, the author reserves all rights to the resource.
Week 17
W. Van Groningen
Suffering and Doubt
17. 1 Suffer the children
“Jesus said: Suffer the children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:14
A long time ago now, back when I was just a pudgy, pre-adolescent boy, I would grab my bike and tear off down town. Three miles later I’d jump the curb and come to a tyre-skidding halt just outside the front door of Griffith’s Bookstore and Supplies. I loved that place. But I’m not sure the proprietor was as keen on me as I was on his establishment.
Casting my rugged, indestructible bike aside, I would go roam the aisles. There were always treasures to be spied: Globes of the world. Rulers with pictures of exotic animals. Curious and quaint tools—compasses, protractors, and such. And of course there were all kinds of books. Empty journals waiting for ink to be spilled across their pages. Huge reference books that were at least 4 or 5 inches thick. And on one wall, there was an entire section—floor to ceiling—of bibles. I think I handled every one of those bibles, trying to choose just which one I wanted for my own.
I still have that bible. It’s a King James Version, red letter edition, that once had gold gilted edges. The bookmark I made for it—fine wire mesh with the words “my bible” embroidered in the mesh—still marks the pages. And to this day, when I recall scripture, I recall it in the cadence and style of that bible.
The proprietor of Griffiths suffered my presence in his store. I was not worth the sale of the bible he eventually made to me. But by suffering my presence he did allow this annoying kid to take hold of the kingdom in an unforgettable and formative way.
In these dreary winter days of school, may we all be more like Jesus, and suffer the annoyance of irritating room mates, brilliant but socially inept professors, and our own idiosyncrasies; the kingdom of God is populated by people such as these.
Prayer: Father in heaven, thank you for embracing us with your love, even when we don’t seem to measure up—to our own standards or those that others might prefer for us. Help us to likewise suffer others, so that together we may seek the comfort and joy of your enfolding presence. In Jesus name we pray, amen.
17.2 Consider The Trees
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Romans 8:22
“ …the mountains and hills will burst into song before you and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12
Trees inhabit the biblical story from beginning to end. They are right in the center of the garden at creation, and they flourish on the banks of the river of life in the kingdom come. The Lord appeared to Abraham at the great trees of Mamre (Gen 17), in Job, Psalms, and Jeremiah an abundantly fruitful tree planted by streams of water is a symbol for the way of life as God intended it. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed/tree. Dead trees are made into idols, are consumed by fire, or used as instruments of destruction and death. Jesus was hung out to die on a tree. There is plenty of reason for us to consider the trees.
A couple years ago, I planted two little dogwood saplings beside my driveway. These dogwood trees will grow to about 25 feet tall with a spread of about 35 feet wide. Each year, just before winter, they form little balls on the end of their branches. In the spring, these balls burst open into rosy pink flowers that shout forth praise to their creator. The flowers are followed by an abundance of bright green leaves which turn a glorious bronze as the autumn chills appear.
But this year, the tree is all confused and its buds began to open in January, only to suffer a killing frost and then a prolonged deep freeze. The trees suffer. There will not be a burst of colourful song this spring. The crop of leaves will be small, and the glory of the bronzed blaze in the fall will likely not appear.
When the trees suffer, so do we, and so does God. We do well to consider the trees: they are a barometer of our wellbeing. All creation groans under the weight of sin, as do we.
Prayer: Creator God, with the trees of the field we praise your name. And with the trees of our world we suffer from the brokenness of our times. Come quickly, we pray, and heal us. Heal our souls, our way of life, our trees, our land, our seas, our whole world. May we, with the whole creation, once again be like a fruitful tree planted by steams of living water. Amen.
17.3 It’s Adam’s Fault
“… Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:2)
I want to know Christ and he power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection of the dead.” Philippians 3:10,11Christians in North America are as obsessively individual as any other North American. As a society, we are so enamored of individuals that ascribe all the rights and privileges of individuals to corporations, treating them as “economic individuals.” In Christian circles, we celebrate our eternal uniqueness as individuals, our personal relationship with Jesus, and simply assume that if this or that church is not meeting my individual needs and desires then I’ll just shop around til I find a church that will.
It is true, of course, that no two people are exactly alike. We are not clones. And it is also true that God takes great delight in the resplendent uniqueness of each and every part of his diverse creation. Each sparrow, each hair on our head, every grain of sand on the seashore, are known and loved by God.
We quickly get into big trouble when this obsessively individual focus is also situated in a “Newtonian universe” of cause and effect. For then we tend to assume that every individual happening has to have its correlative individual cause. And that is simply not the case. Most of the privileges we enjoy (and assume) are not the result of our individual doing. We enjoy them because we are part of a large (social, economic, familial, etc) system, and our place in the system largely determines the kind and scope of privileges that we will enjoy. So, too, the pain we suffer.
While there are clearly individual acts we can do that result in immediate personal distress, it is also the case that no matter what many people do, they will suffer distress because of their social, economic, geographic, or other location—a location they did not choose. In a real sense, it has little, if anything, to do with them individually. We all suffer Adam’s fall in more than individual ways.
When we suffer, perhaps we would do better to reflect on how our suffering shares in the redemptive suffering of our Lord, rather than to raise up the cry: why is God doing this to me?
Prayer: Jesus, we long for the day when you shall return, when there will be no more crying or weeping, when all creation will again sing your praises. Come Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Amen.
17.4 Suffering Love
“Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows … the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53: 4,6
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” I John 3:16
There are formative moments in a person’s life that forever change us. One of mine occurred on the edge of a swamp.
It was early fall and our little student retreat was getting ready to wind up and return to campus. We’d had a great weekend together. The lake was beautiful, the night air chilly, and the campfire stories ranged from revelry to revelation. Now it was late Sunday morning. The final event before we turned for home was going to be an outdoor worship service.
We hiked back into the woods, climbed up and over a rise, and there, laid out before us, was a sheltered inlet. The entire floor of this little inlet was a swamp. But rising from each side of the swamp were the most glorious trees you could ever imagine. The colours were radiant. Bright reds, vivid yellow, offset by patches of dark green. The scene took our breath away. Without a word, we just sat down, mesmerized by the glory of God on display before us.
It took a while, but finally one of the students remarked: Swamps are the greatest. All kinds of junk flows into them, but by the time the water leaves on the other side, it’s pure as crystal. All the muck and rotting detritus of upstream collects here, only to be transformed into the richest of soil, and clean clear water.
God’s love is like a swamp. God’s love absorbs all our sorrows and griefs, takes to itself all our inquity and sin, and transforms it all into life and life more abundant. Love suffers. And when our suffering love is freely offered in service to others, we participate in God’s great work of redeeming and transforming the world.
Prayer: God of wonder and grace, we thank you for taking up our sin and suffering so that we might be redeemed and transformed. May our lives exemplify that same suffering love you lavished on us, so that we might help others find life and life more abundant with you. Amen.
17.5 Blessed are those who doubt
“ The apostles and elders met together to consider this question. After much discussion …” Acts 15:6,7
Webster’s New Twentieth Century Unabridged Dictionary defines doubt as “to waver or fluctuate in opinion or belief; to be uncertain or undecided respecting truth or fact; to be undetermined.” And by this definition, the book of Acts may well be described as a record of the church’s early doubts.
What should believers make of the extraordinary events of Pentecost—had the apostles had too much wine or was this exuberant speech that could be understood in many languages a Spirit-given gift? And what should the church think of all these gentiles who didn’t want to be circumcised? Should believers eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols or not? For all kinds of questions, there was at first uncertainty, fluctuations of opinion, a wavering assessment of what was right and true. So the apostles and elders met together and had lengthy discussions.
When the church openly engages its doubts, our understanding of the gospel and its implications for how we should live, grows. Questions, uncertainty, fluctuations in opinion, much discussion, … these things are an ordinary part of growing in grace and understanding. When we are uncertain, when we question assumptions and customary ways of perceiving a matter, we are prompted to search the matter out, to increase our understanding and awareness of all the factors involved in an issue, and so we become better equipped to make a sure determination of the matter.
An academic is only as good as his/her next question. Research is as good as the quality (the creativity, the interest) of the questions it seeks to address. Good questions lead to new insights. Real doubts provoke significant learning. If we approach the Scriptures without any doubts, thinking we already know all it has to offer, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us rather let the questions fly, and search out the truth of God’s revelation in Scripture with much discussion.
Prayer: God of all truth, grant us the grace and assurance of your presence in the midst of our uncertainties and doubts. Guide us to yourself. Set us free to question the issues of our day and in doing so to perceive ways of responding that seem good to the Holy Spirit and to your body—the church. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
17.6 Be Merciful to Those Who Doubt
“But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit… Be merciful to those who doubt...” Jude 20-23
We don’t know a lot about this person named Jude whose brief letter is included in the Scriptures. He describes himself as a brother of James and a servant of Jesus. Scholars suggest that the author of this short letter is likely a son of Joseph and Mary, and thus a brother to James and Jesus.
James writes a rather sharply worded letter because of the urgent issue of false teaching that is causing disarray among the believers. And then he ends his letter with a very pastoral call to persevere in faith.
Given the strong language Jude uses to describe the nature and ultimate reward of false teachers, his gentle words of encouragement at the end of the letter are all the more striking. Be merciful to those who doubt. Jude is clear that he doesn’t want his readers to “go soft” on truth. He is not counseling his readers to “look the other way” when they do things they ought not. But he is very patient and sympathetic to those who doubt.
Perhaps Jude is especially sensitive to these persons because of what he experienced back home. How would you react if your brother became an (in-)famous prophet and miracle worker? At least at first, wouldn’t you harbour some doubts about this brother of yours? Surely your friends and neighbors would: “Where did [Jesus] get this stuff. … Isn’t this Mary’s son, and the brother of James, Joseph, Jude, and Simon?” (Cf. Mark 6: 1-6).
Whatever the reason, Jude wants to make it very clear that an appropriate response to doubt is not anger or judgment but mercy and patience. In time, our doubts can be resolved, and all the more readily if we experience the kindness and compassion of persons whose life is trustworthy—characterized by holiness and faith.
Prayer: Holy God, pour out your Spirit upon us, we pray, so that we may be gracious and kind to those who doubt. May our lives bear faithful witness to the Way of life and truth that you opened up before us. And when we doubt, Father, please bless us with gentle friends whose witness and way of life are patient and trustworthy. Amen.
17.7 Doubters Welcome Here
“Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”” John 20:24,25
What a remarkably reassuring passage of Scripture this is for all of us who are at times skeptical or uncertain about (i.e., who doubt) amazing reports that this or that “miracle” healing, visitation, vision, or whatever, just occurred.Thomas was “one of the Twelve.” He had traveled with Jesus. He had seen Jesus do many miracles. He had been instructed by Jesus, he was with Jesus when Jesus foretold his death and resurrection, he was at the table when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. If anyone was in a position to take a testimony about Jesus given by one of the other disciples at face value, it was Thomas. But he couldn’t. He had his doubts and those doubts would only be resolved if he could see the Lord, and touch his wounds.
Remarkably, the other disciples did not get frustrated or angry with Thomas. They did not spurn him, or tell him he lacked faith. They seemed to understand. A week later (John 20:26), the disciples are gathered in a room and Thomas is with them. He’s still included. He’s still welcome. He’s still one of them.
This is a picture of the body of Christ. They welcomed him. They embraced him—doubts and all.
In the providence of God, Jesus is made plain to us in many different ways: a cup of cold water, broken bread, a body healed, shared grief, the radiance of an Easter sunrise. Many of us will see and believe. Others will still doubt that it was really a manifestation of the resurrected Jesus. We are all welcome to gather together, doubts and all, as his beloved followers.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, pour out your Spirit upon us so that we may see and perceive the presence of Jesus among us. Help us to embrace one another fully—doubts and all. In Jesus gracious name we pray, amen.