This guy brings a bolt of fine cloth to his Jewish tailor and asks him to make a pair of pants. A week later he returns, but the pants aren't ready. Two weeks later he returns, but the pants aren't ready. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks - no pants! Finally, after six weeks, the pants are ready. They fit perfectly! Nevertheless, the man can't resist a jibe at the tailor. "You know," he says, "it took God only six days to make the world. But it took you six weeks to make a single pair of pants." "Ah," says the tailor, "But look at this pair of pants … and look at the world!"
Every generation agrees the world is in worse shape than ever before. I don't know. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention when I was young. Or maybe I didn't have the perspective I do now. But the world does seem to be spinning out of control, spiraling backwards towards prehistoric barbarism. I can hardly stand to pick up the newspaper these days or watch the evening news. As if the acts of God weren't bad enough - earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and the like - look what's happening to human society. Street gangs, ethnic cleansing, tribe against tribe, nation against nation. In our own country we can't keep guns out of the hands of children. In the last few days we have been bombarded with news about massive greed running amuck that might topple our economy.
We can't agree on how to fix these problems of violence and poverty and homelessness and bigotry and avarice, and the truth is, there is no easy fix. They are political footballs, with mutual recriminations on every side. The public grows more cynical with each episode in the way our politicians exploit these events for political gain. As the waters recede, the candidates flood the area in quest of sound bytes for the six o'clock news. In the church we work so hard for positive change, but where is the change? We pray for peace and healing, but where is the healing? And where is God in all this? Sometimes I wonder, sometimes I wonder, is God with us or not?
I like this question the Hebrews asked Moses at the waters of Massah and Meribah. It is an honest inquiry of a disappointed faith. From the Hebrew Bible to the modern rabbis, the Jewish people have openly questioned God. We read it in the Psalms, the prophets, and Job. "How long, oh Lord?" "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" "Where is the hope of his coming?" "Is God with us or not?" Somehow in our Christian tradition, we have lost the art of dialogue with God. It feels too disrespectful, too irreverent. But the questions are still there, eating at our hearts even if we can't bring them to our lips. The questions rise when we see senseless suffering … when are prayers go unanswered … when we see our loved ones go through "the valley of the shadow of death." We do fear evil there, and we reasonably wonder whether God is with us or not.
We wonder about God's passive inaction in moments of distress, and maybe about God's possible mistake in creating humanity at all … a free-willed humanity capable of perpetrating evil almost godlike in its scope. I think, like those ancient Hebrews, our wonder is an expression of faith. When God disappoints our expectations, we must test whether our expectations were accurate in the first place. Beyond this, if we are honest, we must question God. But questioning God presumes God is there … with us … and listening. That is why honest questioning is more faithful than passive acceptance of a world where God seems absent.
I honor the open ended, honest challenge of God born out of the experience of suffering and the questioning of God's wisdom in creating a humanity which commits such evil. A faith which does not ask such questions in the face of experience is either the superstition of the self-righteous or the insensitivity of the pampered or the denial of those who are afraid to seek the truth. God can stand our questions.
The irony of the Israelites asking whether God is with them or not when they are thirsty in the wilderness is that God has just delivered them from slavery to the Egyptians and already fed them with manna. They want it easy, but freedom is never easy. And neither is faith. We have a right to question God's faithfulness in our experience of pain, but not with the "what have you done for me lately" attitude of spoiled children. God is not our servant; we are God's servants. And our questions should be asked in the context of gratitude for all the good God has given us, beginning with the gift of life itself.
What if our existence is God's answer to the question of evil in the world? Even as we ask "Is God with us or not?" shouldn’t we answer the question affirmatively with our own lives?
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Phil 1:3-5).
It is our job to demonstrate an alternative to the world. We are called to be like Christ … to absorb the suffering and transform it into grace. We are the evidence in the continuing trial of God … co-creators in our own free will with the one who intended better for humanity than what humanity has accomplished so far. Will God's goodness be proven by what we become? Only if we have the mind of Christ.
There will always be bad news, but the good news is better than the bad news is bad. And I submit there are still more stories of goodness and grace than stories of evil and violence. We need to focus our attention more upon those, the untold stories of faithfulness and courage. I wish 20/20 would interview Millie, Catherine, Marlene, June, Royce, Bill, Ron, Marie, Emma and all of you who have been a part of this family of faith for the last 45 years. I want the tabloids to cover some couples in our church who have been together for fifty years, raising healthy families, making contributions to our world with their careers, building a church, and taking care of each other. Every day in this city, people are doing good things, sacrificing themselves to family and work and community, helping strangers, teaching our children, lifting the burdens of the poor, making new connections to strengthen the fabric of our common life, planting trees another generation will enjoy when we are all gone. And I want somebody to publicly acknowledge those countless unheralded acts of kindness and beauty. I wish 60 Minutes would come and talk to Taylor and Tanner, the newest members of our congregation. They could report the hope of the next generation … as witnessed by the lives of these outstanding young people. They could say, “Look how God is with us. Look how God is with us in this good, good life." God is with us.
I don't know why people get cancer. I don't know how a mentally ill can man kill teenagers at a rally in a church. I don't understand the devastation of earthquakes and floods killing men, women, and children alike regardless of their goodness or evil. And I join the complaint against God in not preventing the unspeakable evils of mass murder and genocide so habitual in this century. But I do believe God is with us. And I believe we will have an answer to these questions some day. And I believe in the meantime, we are supposed to be the answer … to be God with the poor and suffering and oppressed of this world … to be the body of Christ in a community of hospitality and love showing forth the goodness of God in the gift of life … humanity as God dreamed it should be … humanity as Jesus showed it can be. I believe there is enough love and goodness in the world to overcome the hatred and evil which plagues us. And if we are living by this high and holy calling, people will not need to ask "Is God with us or not?" They will say, "Look how God is with us. And Christ is alive in the hearts and lips and hands and feet and love of the ordinary people at Nekoosa United Church of Christ. Thank God!"
May we pray?
O God our Creator and Sustainer,
We don't pretend to understand everything you are up to in the world. Many of our questions wait for an answer only time and eternity will bring. But we do know you have been good to us beyond our deserving and that your love has touched us in ways we take for granted. We ask our questions in faith, and we ask about evil with gratitude for all the good you have showered upon us. Help us to mediate your presence through a loving community that helps people know you are with them in the world. And whenever our eyes are dimmed by tears and terror so that we do not see you and you seem far away, may we know you close at hand in each other through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Mary Anne Biggs, Pastor
Nekoosa United
Nekoosa