pope hugs weeping girl who begs to know why god allows children to be abandoned to drugs and...
TRANSCRIPT
Source: Kings Church Eastbourne – March 2014
The main big objections…
“How could good and loving God allow such
suffering and evil in the world?”
Pope hugs weeping girl who begs to know why God allows children
to be abandoned to drugs and prostitution
“Many children are abandoned by their parents. There are also many
who became victims and many terrible things happened to them like drugs or
prostitution. Why does God allow these things to happen to us? The children are not
guilty of anything. And why are there only very few people helping us?
GLYZELLE PALOMAR
Suffering and Evil is a deeply personal and emotional haunting question.
“She is the only one who has put a question for which there is no
answer. When the heart is able to ask itself and cry, then we can
understand. Jesus in the Gospel, he cried. He cried for his dead friend, he
cried when he saw the poor widow burying her son. It is only when we
learn to cry with those who are suffering that we can begin to
understand them and to love them.”POPE FRANCIS
There is no answer … we just don’t know.
Psalm 22 My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day,
but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.
In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
Psalm 22 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.‘He trusts in the Lord,’ they say,
‘let the Lord rescue him.Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.’ … I am poured out like water, and
all my bones are out of joint.My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.
Psalm 22 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.
All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garments
Psalm 22
But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help
me.For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
future generations will be told about the Lord
They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn:
It is finished!
Hinduism "In proportion to the extent of one's
religious or irreligious actions in this life, one must enjoy or suffer the
corresponding reactions of his karma in the next.”
Bhagavat Purana 6.1.45
Buddhism The Buddha had observed that life is
suffering. The Buddha discovered that the direct causes of suffering are desire
or craving, and ignorance. This is the Second Noble Truth.
By overcoming craving and ignorance, they will attain happiness and
Enlightenment and rise above this world of suffering just as the Buddha did.
Islam
Say: “Nothing will afflict us save what Allah has ordained for us; He is our Patron; and
on Allah let the believers rely.”Surah (9:51)
Allah is the un moved mover. All life is subject to his will to be a Muslim is to
submit to the will of Allah
Atheist
“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to
get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won't find any rhyme or
reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we
should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good.
Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we
dance to its music.”Richard Dawkins, Out of Eden, page 133.
An all-almighty all-loving all-knowing God would not permit suffering and evil
without a good reason+
I don’t know a good reason+
Therefore there is no such reason.+
Suffering and evil exists =
An all-almighty all-loving all-knowing God does not exist.
Christian
We don’t know the answerJewish poem of David
My God, my God,
Why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day,
but you do not answer,
Why?The question for a Hindu would mean that don’t understand Karma, for a Buddhist they have not
reached enlightenment, for a Muslim the question displays lack of submission to Allah, for the
Atheist who are you asking?
BUT the God of the Bible invites us to take our suffering to God and
ask him why?
The Bible provides both logical and moral
arguments but ultimately in each specific case of suffering and evil the
answer is we don’t know!
Love and Human Choice.
“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil.” Genesis 2
Henry Scougal “Love is the greatest and most excellent things we are
masters of. it is indeed the only thing we can call our own, other things can be
taken from us by violence; but none can carry off by force our love: if anything elsebe counted ours, by freely giving our love
we give our all”
Evil and Human Choice.
Jesus said “This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people
loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” John 3
Evil and Human Choice.
Hope of Justice.
Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18
Hope of Justice. This is how we know what love is: Jesus
Christ laid down his life for us… so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment…There
is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.
1 John 3 & 4
Suffering and broken world.
“Because you ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat
from it,’ ‘Cursed is the earth because of you’ ” Genesis 3:17
Suffering and broken world.
Our present sufferings … for the creation was subjected to frustration, … in hope that the
creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory
of the children of God. Romans 8:18
Suffering and broken world.
”We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to
shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” Rom 5
“Therefore we do not lose heart thought inwardly we are wasting away … For our light and
momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So
we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but
what is unseen is eternal.”2 Cor 4
Hope of a new creation.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us
new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”
1 Peter 1:3
Suffering and broken world.
“Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth… He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who
was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” Revelation 21:2&4
The Bible provides more than the logical and moral responses of human evil and physical disorder for suffering
and evil.
The God the bible invites us approach with our suffering the God who has uniquely experienced suffering and
pain!
God himself knows suffering and pain !
God designs a people for loving relationship with him.
People turn theirs back on him, rejecting him with a categorical no to his offer of love.
God himself enters our world. Jesus God in flesh, to call us to himself only to be resisted,
rejected, and ultimately insulted, tortured and crucified, by those he came to save!
God in anguish weeps… He is not different or unmoved
‘ As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it …Jerusalem,
Jerusalem… how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
“They brought Jesus and they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get… Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, …‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself!...Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.”
“At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the
afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means ‘My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”
This is no Hindu Karma, or Buddhist lack of enlightenment. This is no Muslim blasphemy, or atheists blind physical forces. This is God
tasting the pain of human evil, the disintegrating de-creation of a broken world.
This is God in his glory, able to comfort all who suffer because he has
drunk the bitter cup with you
Whilst the Gospel of Jesus does not answer
the every why of our suffering, this God alone
wraps his nail pierced loving arms around you and weeps with you and whispers a
promise it will end - It is finished!