Monday, March 20, 2023

Sermon 10 - Why?

Sermon 10 - Why?

Job 30: 20 - 23 
I cry to you and you give me no answer; 
I stand before you but you take no notice. 
You have grown cruel in your dealings with me, 
your hand lies on me, heavy and hostile. 
You carry me up to ride the wind, 
tossing me about in a tempest. 
I know it is to death that you are taking me, 
the common meeting place of all that lives.

I have always liked the book of Job.  For one thing, Job has a very nice turn in sarcasm when he responds to his foolish, supposedly comforting, friends.

I also have more than a little fellow feeling with Job.  Of course, some people would see some differences between us.  I lost my wife.  Job lost everything *but* his wife.  Gloria was a great comfort.  I am not lonely because I am living in Port Alberni rather than North Vancouver, but because Gloria is not here with me, and Gloria was the great comfort, and companion, of my life.  Job's wife was no particular prize: she told him to curse God and die!

The central theme of the book of Job is a constant problem to us even today.  It is, as C. S. Lewis put it, the problem of pain.  It is a basic philosophical question about the nature of the universe.  Why is it that pain exists?  It is most frequently posed as a supposed proof of the non-existence of God, or, at least, a non-existence of the god that we suppose is good.  The standard form of this question, in philosophical terms, is this: if God is both good, and all powerful, then why is there pain?  Why do we suffer?  If God is good, presumably he would not want us to suffer.  If God is all powerful, presumably he could do whatever he wanted.  Therefore, goes the thesis, either God is not good, or he is not all powerful.  This is the standard formulation of the problem of pain in our philosophy.

And, it is not a question merely in our time.  It is a question that has haunted philosophy, and theology, for as far back as we have any kinds of records of this kind of thought.

The book of Job is, possibly, the oldest book in the Bible: there are indications, in the literary form, of much older traditions than the books of Moses.  The book of Genesis starts out with the creation of the world, but the evidence is that the person who wrote this down was not actually a witness to this first act of Creation.  So, the book of Job, and the problem that it poses, are among the oldest pieces of literature that we still have available to us.

So, this problem, the problem of pain, the question of why pain or suffering exists, is not a new question.  It is an old one.  Possibly one of the oldest since man first started thinking about the ultimate nature of the universe.

Of course, many possible answers exist, and have been proposed.  Some say that pain exists in order to test us.  Some say that pain exists in order to strengthen us.  Personally, one of my favorites, is that pain, and suffering, and disasters, exist in order that God may allow us the opportunities to help.  When we look at a disaster and ask why?, what we should really be asking is, how can I help?  In a sense, this answer is the same as, or at least very similar to, the answer that God is strengthening us.  There is no particular reason that God needs our help in any problem, event, or disaster: so why is it that God provides us with opportunities to do his work, which he could, of course, do himself, and probably do a much better job of it than we could.  The answer would seem to be that there is some benefit to us in being allowed to do some kind of work for God.  And the most obvious benefit to us is that we are, in some way, being prepared.  Prepared how, and for what, doesn't seem to be very clear.  But this does seem to be the most reasonable rationale for why we are provided with any opportunity to work, at all.

But what is the answer to the problem of pain, that God gives?  The book of Job, and particularly the ending of The book of Job, does seem to give us God's answer.  Job's comforters (and, as Job says, a miserable long-winded lot are they all), give a number of the standard answers.  And, while their answers are not exactly untrue, it is obvious from the text that none of these supposed answers are, in fact, considered to be the ultimate answers.  None of them are completely correct, although they may give some wisdom in some situations.

But what is the answer that God gives, himself, at the end of The book of Job?  It boils down to this:

Why not?

At the end of the book of Job, God gives his answer.  And his answer is, basically, were you there when I created the universe?  Can you explain all the wonders of creation?  Do you understand why I did everything that I did?  If you don't, then you could not understand any answer that I would give you to this fundamental question.  You are limited creatures.  I have created a universe for you, and a place for you to live.  I have provided everything necessary for you.  But you are still creatures, and you do not understand the fullness of creation or the fullness of the nature of God.  Therefore there is something essentially, fundamentally, and inherently lacking in your understanding of the universe, and therefore I am not going to give you the answer to the problem of pain, because you simply would not understand what it is or means.

Now, of course, those who consider themselves clever, and consider that they are smart enough to run their own lives, and universe, and to make their own decisions, without recourse to God, would not accept this answer.  But then, they would not accept that God knows best anyways.  After all, these are the people who think that they are able to make their own decisions, and who know best how to run their lives, without any recourse to God.  They do not feel that God is necessary.  They have even, in many cases, decided that God does not exist.  And if you decide that you know better than God, then you don't need an answer from God anyway.  Or, at least, you wouldn't accept any answer that God would give you.  So, why should he give you any answer when you're not going to accept it in any case?

But for those of us who do believe in God, this is the only answer that God is willing to provide for us.  Ultimately, the answer is, why not?  We have to accept that answer.  We have to take it on face value.  We have to accept that God does know better than we do.  We have to accept that God is good.  We have to have faith in this.  And we have to accept this on the basis of faith, rather than our own reason or rationale.  There is, ultimately, no answer which is going to satisfy the question if we do not take the nature of God as ultimately good, and ultimately all powerful, as a first premise.  We are never going to prove, with the logic involved in our own limited minds, the existence of the god who created us, and everything around us, and every provision that we require for life and existence.  God is bigger than we are.  God has more understanding then we do.  And, ultimately, we have to take that on faith.  We can either believe that God is good, or we can disbelieve it.  We cannot prove it.  Our brains are not big enough.  Our collective wisdom, such as it is, is not bigger than God.  Our collective wisdom and philosophy is not sufficient to answer the question of the motivations of the God who created us, and everything else, including the nature of what we, rather laughably, call reality.  Which is only a small part of what God has revealed to us about the ultimate nature of reality.

So then, having said that, do we believe in God?  Should we?

Why not?


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)