Sermon by Revd Chrys Tremththanmor
An orthodox Jew went into his
synagogue on Friday to pray. He knelt before the Tabernacle and, rocking gently
backwards and forwards, he prayed out loud to God. Out loud he said, ‘Lord God
of the universe, please forgive me. In the past week I have cheated on my wife
with my secretary, I have fiddled my taxes, and I kicked my dog. Please forgive
me.’ The man rocked and thought for a bit, and then he said out loud, ‘Lord God
of the universe, in the past week there have been earthquakes and tsunamis in
Japan, people are suffering in Libya, and my cousin’s son died. Lord God of the
universe, you have a lot to answer for.’ The man rocked and thought a bit
longer. Then he said, ‘Tell you what, God, you forgive me and I’ll forgive
you.’ He got up, dusted off his trousers, and turned around. At that moment the
Rabbi grabbed him by the shirt collars and said fiercely, ‘Why did you let God
off so lightly?’
What I admire about our brothers and sisters in the Jewish faith is that they are willing to argue with God. I sometimes worry that we Christians seem to think that we always have to be nice to God. We’re supposed to see everything as God’s will and just accept what happens. In particular we seem to see doubt about God, anger with God, as something negative.
Like many of you, I have been transfixed by the disaster which has overtaken Japan this week. When I watched the images of the tsunamis, it took a moment for me to realise that those little specks were huge buses, coaches, being swept along by the water. Whole buildings, massive ships, swept through fields and streets by the sheer force of water. We can easily imagine what has happened to any human being caught up in that surge of seawater.
I do believe that God created the universe and all that is in it. I don’t believe that this was in six days. I accept the theory of evolution, and I think God was behind the Big Bang which set everything off. I believe that God put into place the physical laws of the universe which caused all matter to be formed, and for intelligent life to emerge on our planet.
But that doesn’t let God off the hook. Even if he didn’t sit down and carve out the tectonic plates of our planet, he still started creation off. He must have known what would emerge, and that this would include a planet which could produce natural catastrophes as earthquakes and tsunamis.
When we see the sort of suffering which these disasters produce, I think it is natural to feel dismay, disappointment, anger with God, the creator of all. And I think it is biblical to express that anger, even doubt, to God. The Bible encourages us to be honest with God.
If we look at the Bible, both the Hebrew scriptures, which we call the Old Testament, and the New Testament, we will see plenty of examples of people expressing their anger and disappointment with God.
The first example which comes
to my mind is the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah has been challenging the King and
the religious authorities. The authorities didn’t like this prophet, so they
beat him up, put him into stocks, and at one point threw him into a deep pit.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that Jeremiah feels let down by God, the God he
has been trying to serve. In Jeremiah 20 he says to God,
‘O Lord, you have seduced me, and I was seduced;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long; everyone mocks me.
For whenever I
speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and
derision all day long.’
And later on he adds
‘Cursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!
…Why did I come
forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?’
Many translations hesitated to use the words ‘O Lord, you have seduced me, and I was seduced.’ Although I can’t read ancient Hebrew, I understand that there are sexual connotations to the phrase. Jeremiah is basically telling God, ‘You used me in a one-night stand, and now you’ve discarded me.’
We
also see this sort of anger expressed in many of the Psalms. The one which
comes to my mind is Psalm 22.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my
groaning?
O my God, I
cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
We continue to see this wrestling with God when we read about Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before Jesus was arrested, tried, and crucified, the Gospel of Luke tells us, Jesus ‘withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.’ And recall some of Jesus’ last words from the Cross. ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
When disasters happen, whether these be natural, or perhaps ones in our own lives, we should turn to God and express with honesty what we feel. If we feel angry, disappointed, confused, then that is what we should share with him. Why? Because we are in a relationship with God, and we should trust in the security of that relationship. Think about our human relationships. Haven’t there been times when you’ve fallen out with your nearest and dearest? Often that happens most in the teenage years, either when you were a teenager or when your children turned into that most horrific of creatures. Despite rows and tantrums, you were still in relationship with each other, stuck with each other. We are in an intimate relationship with God, and expressing honest emotions doesn’t destroy that relationship. Quite the contrary, actually—being honest can bring us closer to him.
I don’t, however, have the answer as to why we have a world which can shift and destroy. I don’t know why children can be born with birth defects or why marriages break down. I don’t know why God can’t give us the answer to these questions. But I look at it this way.
When
I was ten years old I had some maths homework, all about pi and calculating the
circumference of a circle. I made the mistake of asking my father to help me. My
father is a very intelligent man, a medical doctor, and before I knew it he was
trying to teach me high level calculus. Far above what my little ten year old brain could comprehend.
I never made the mistake of asking him to help me with my homework again. By
the way, when I was at university I took a course in calculus, and at twenty
years old I was able to understand it. I had grown up enough to grasp the
principles.
I think perhaps it’s the same with God. We ask him to explain to us, but he can’t. We just aren’t able to understand, with our limited human understanding, here on Earth. I do hope that it will be explained in the next life, when we are older and wiser in the presence of God. In fact, I have a long list of things I want to discuss with God before I step through those Pearly Gates!
In this life we are called to trust. Trust God enough to express our doubts, our confusion, our anger. Trust enough in our relationship with God to be honest with him. We may not get answers, but it’s through the willingness to wrestle with God that we grow in our relationship with him. And perhaps grow enough to trust him with the questions to which we cannot, in this life, get all the answers.