HELLO!

Yesterday’s blog invited deep and interesting questions about faith. I offered some questions I was asked early in my ministry; the Trinity, the virgin birth, whether children should receive Communion. None of these questions have been raised with me for thirty years and counting. Because I visit, people have opportunity to ask me deep questions, one on one. I treasure these moments. I never offer myself up as an expert. But I will share, first what the range of theological views on the matter are and second, my own view. I feel people should know both. When I ask people deep questions, these are the responses I want to hear.

THE deep question of faith, the one most asked 30 years ago, and today, is “why would a loving God allow such suffering in the world?” The book that speaks the most effectively to that question, for me, is God and Human Suffering; An Exercise in the Theology of the Cross written by United Church theologian Doug Hall. Hall rejects the theological triumphalism that would have us deny suffering, as well as “positive religion” that assumes once a person subscribes to a belief system suffering is overcome. Instead, God enters into the human condition and shares in human suffering as “Emmanuel, God with us.” Suffering is a part of human existence and to deny its presence is to limit the fullness of human life. In such a denial people lose an emotional reference point, they are less able to enter imaginatively and compassionately into the suffering of others, and when confounded by the experience of those who are suffering, there is often a desire to find an “enemy” who can be held responsible for the suffering that is not understood. Not all suffering is the same. We need to distinguish between suffering intended within the created order, seeking the fuller integration of life (mortality), and suffering that has its roots in the pain humans inflict on others. Suffering rooted in the created order has a positive role, in spite of negative experiences, it helps people grow and develop into fully human persons that God intended. There is always the element of risk due to human freedom which may allow choices that have destructive consequences.

Hall suggests the event of the Cross provides the means by which Christians can enter into the suffering of the world. In weakness and humility Jesus enters into suffering and calls his church to do likewise. This is not a faith of masochism, there is real joy in finding life in the midst of pain, of living resurrection and new life. The Book of Acts reflects this practice. Further, Jesus goes to the Cross as an act of justice seeking, he refuses to be silent in his critique of the powers of empire and hierarchy. God has intended mutual love. Jesus embodies this. For the church, the mission is to seek out those who are suffering to be with them. There is a danger that the church can become so preoccupied with its own security that it loses its commitment to follow "the Way”.

No easy answers. But the hard questions purge the shallow assumptions and point us to a deeper truth, a more meaningful life. Peace, Kevin