Beauty in Suffering

2 Corinthians provides an interesting perspective on the meaning of human suffering when framed within the narrative of the gospel ... Two texts in particular:

Chapter 1 - "... who (God) comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God ... for just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.  If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer ... We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, of the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia.  We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.  But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, the dead-raiser."

Chapter 4 - "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard-pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed.  Always the death of Jesus we carry around in our bodies so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our bodies.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you."

Our journey through lament reminded us that before God it is okay, in fact, it is GOOD to acknowledge the full weight of evil.  That we are authorized to spell out in full and living color the evil, the injustice, and the hardship of our lives, and to do it before the face of a God who hears, knows, takes into account, and longs to respond with his justice and redemption.

What we come to see as remarkable, then, is the means by which God actually does bring that justice and redemption into the world.  I note three things in particular that stand out in the above texts:

1) Suffering seems to allow a sort of emptying effect for the believer - it causes them to let go of everything but God, which brings them to a core of redemptive, missional energy

2) Suffering creates energized communities of grace, peace, comfort, and generosity - in short, justice

3) Suffering is crucial for the spread of the gospel, because the messengers need to reflect the message - God brings his salvation to the world through a crucified, weak, and powerless Messiah, and continues his salvation in the world through communities that act as living witnesses to world-transforming, powerful weakness

I have always been intrigued by (1) and (3), only recently has (2) come into focus for me as a crucial component of God's agenda for drawing the world into his salvation.  Brokenness, in a weird way, creates opportunities for the people of God to put God's justice, his shalom, on display, and if the opportunity is seized, there begins a transference of life and grace that simply must be reckoned with.

What do you think?

What role has suffering played in your life?

Have you seen any of (1-3) played out in your life?

Stories of (1-3)?

The Cosmic Wager

So, Tuesday's discussion on the theology of Job TOTALLY jacked me up ... A profound book to say the least.  I didn't want our time together to end ...

Here's a synopsis of the book's outlook:

1. Job is presented as the epitome of godliness in the tradition of Deuteronomy and Psalm 1 ("blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil")

2. As such, he is the most blessed person in the entire world ("greatest man among all the peoples of the East")

3. God sits in charge of a "heavenly counsel" that apparently the "accuser" (Hebrew - ha-satan - "the satan") is accountable to

4. God points out Job to ha-satan as the epitome of the human race

5. Ha-satan accuses God of having created an inherently flawed system - i.e., his contention is that Job "fears God" only because God rewards him - that he DOES NOT fear God "gratuitously" - in other words, Job doesn't do what is right purely because it is right, and he doesn't love God because loving God is inherently good.  He only does it to get stuff.  

6. If this were true, the entire arrangement between God and man would be intractably poisoned.  God himself would be impugned.

7. God apparently thinks it is NOT the case that Job only fears him to get stuff, so he allows ha-satan to take Job's stuff and his health, to prove his point and exonerate his arrangement.

8. And so the bet is on.

Here's what I find interesting.

1.  The suffering of Job apparently is NOT for the sake of "purifying" Job's faith.  That is, this is not a test for Job in order to make him a better person.  He is "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."  It doesn't get better than that ...

2.  The suffering of Job is for the sake of vindicating God (stick that in your theological pipe and smoke it)

3.  Though it is ha-satan who directly causes the pain of Job, the text is emphatic that when Job attributes the ultimate cause of the suffering to God, he did not sin or speak wrongly of God by charging him with "wrongdoing" or "unsavoriness."  He is God, let him do as he pleases.  Job, in other words, doesn't blame ha-satan.  He looks to God, and maintains his "integrity" by continuing to be devoted to God despite the fact that it is no longer rewarding to him.  (We're inching pretty close here to the Psalmist's assertion that God himself is our inheritance)

4.  The text passes NO JUDGMENT on the fact that lots of seemingly "innocent" people suffer because of this cosmic wager (Jobs sons and daughters and servants who are killed - heck, let's throw in the cattle too)

5.  The moment at which Job errs in the book of Job is when he begins to "justify" himself rather than God.  This draws God out of hiding for Job, and Job thus humbled ends where he basically began: "Surely I spoke of things I did not understand."  That is, "The suffering sucks.  And I want it to be over.  And I'll ask God to end it.  But when it doesn't end when I want it to end, I'm not going to raise my nose at God to justify myself.  I'll only admit that there is MUCH more going on than I can understand.  And then I'll worship God who I trust is both good and wise and just, and governs the universe mysteriously according to his goodness, wisdom, and justice."

So much to chew on here ... What do you think?