God's Via Positiva #7 | Say Amen to Suffering?

0:03 So today is Palm Sunday. Throughout the season of Lent that is nearing its completion, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church has been talking about the attitudes and practices that our faith calls us to embrace. We've advocated saying amen to celebration, amen to transformation, amen to the stranger in our midst, and amen to God's mercy. This morning, as we begin the journey of Holy Week, our attention turns to the topic of suffering.

0:57 Surely, we're not going to say amen to suffering. I think that's actually a worthy question. Most Christians are aware that human suffering in general terms, and the suffering of Jesus in particular, play a crucial part in the stories of our faith. Our tradition grapples with the meaning of suffering, the causes of suffering, and the ways in which suffering shapes us. Our tradition wants us to ponder God's relationship to suffering. To engage this gnarly topic this morning, we're going to be guided by two different biblical passages. Our attention turns first to a moment when Christ predicts his own suffering.

2:01 Listen now for God's word to you as it echoes from Matthew chapter 17, beginning with the 22nd verse. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him. And on the third day, he will be raised. And they were greatly distressed. Our second passage for this morning is the story of Palm Sunday, as found in the Gospel of John, chapter 12, beginning with the 12th verse.

2:56 The next day, the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it. As it is written, Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt. His disciples did not understand these things at first, but when Jesus was glorified, they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

3:52 This is the word of God. For you, the people of God. Thanks be to God. Then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. To be human is to know suffering, to experience suffering. To be human is to wrestle with the nature of suffering. For as long as humankind has gathered together in community, we've sat around campfires poking the embers and raising questions about the causes of suffering, the meaning of suffering, the right responses to suffering. A good chunk of humanity's earliest literature can be classified as tragic.

4:55 These ancient plays and stories explore the causes of human pain and the depths of human anguish. The Greek playwright Aeschylus wrote his historical tragedy, the Persians, in 470 BC. And before that, perhaps some 700 years before Christ, an anonymous author penned the book of Job. That tragic story would, of course, be woven into the Hebrew Bible. Scripture, as a whole, spills a great quantity of ink talking about human suffering. In fact, it's difficult to think of a biblical figure who does not contend with some form of individual or communal suffering. Abraham and Sarah, they suffer.

6:01 Ruth and Naomi, they suffer. Many of the psalmists lament the troubles afflicting their lives. Esther suffers. The prophet Isaiah speaks about the widespread suffering of his people. Mary Magdalene suffers. John the Baptist suffers. Jesus, says the Apostles' Creed, suffered under Pontius Pilate. The circumstances giving rise to this extensive menu of scriptural suffering vary. Some of these people suffer due to the devastations of war. Some are beset by natural disasters like famine. Some wrestle with personal issues like infertility. Some, like Jesus, are subject to political persecution.

7:02 Some suffer the ravages of illness. Some are foreigners who are forced to migrate to another country. Some of these figures face violence within their own families. There's a whole lot of trauma in the Bible. And as we turn the pages of the big book of suffering, something else becomes clear.

7:32 Scripture isn't content with simply describing human travail. It wrestles with the root cause, causes of suffering. It asks, is suffering a random thing? Or are other human beings the primary drivers of suffering? Does God parcel out suffering as a punishment for evil behavior? These questions come into special focus during Holy Week. In this time, we ask, what does the suffering of Jesus mean? Why do the Gospels devote so much time, so much spiritual headspace to the story of Christ's passion? Why does the cross of Jesus sit at the heart of our faith?

8:32 In wrestling with these questions, the good book offers a diverse array of responses. There are majority reports and minority reports in scripture. There's nuance. There's argument. The book of Job details an extended argument in which Job's friends debate whether his tremendous suffering is warranted. The friends are convinced that Job's suffering is cosmic payback for some awful hidden sin. Job protests his innocence and at the end of the book, the poor fellow is actually vindicated by God. God says this suffering was not a result of Job's moral failings.

9:30 Given the many takes on suffering that are present in the Bible, we've got a lot of ground to cover today. So this morning we're going to consider 14 distinct approaches to suffering. And we're going to follow that up with a survey of the 20 most influential theological tomes on suffering. If we're talking about pain, shouldn't we experience it? In all seriousness, our goal today is a tight Palm Sunday focus. To get there, let's start with two basic but important observations. Basic but important. First, suffering is real. You might even say it's a universal experience.

10:28 Although I do not mean to suggest that human suffering is parceled out in anything like an equitable fashion. Clearly this is not the case. In this life, some experience far more than their fair share of suffering. At the same time, even the most fortunate souls on this planet cannot make it through life without experiencing some suffering. It can be personal and rather private, or it can be connectional and communal. We're all aware of those whom we care about deeply who are suffering right now. So as promised, observation number one is basic but important. Suffering is real.

11:24 Suffering is part of the human experience. The second observation we should make about suffering will also come as no surprise to you. Suffering presents us with a tremendous spiritual challenge. When someone makes an appointment to have a one-on-one conversation with me in my office, I'll bet you good money that the conversation is going to touch on some aspect of human suffering. Suffering stirs up hard questions in our hearts and our heads. Is suffering ever good? Does God cause suffering? Does Jesus need to suffer for us to be saved?

12:23 Or is the notion that suffering can be in any way redemptive one of the worst things that religion has ever proposed? Sometimes these questions appear as a set of options. Is suffering never redemptive? Is suffering always in some way redemptive? Or is suffering sometimes redemptive? When I answer these questions in my office, I try to gently separate things that are true and helpful when people speak about their own suffering from perspectives that I think will cause them heartache and grief over the long term. In doing this, I think people deserve to know my bias.

13:18 When answering the question, can any good come of suffering? Is suffering redemptive? I typically respond with the pliable word, sometimes. What do I mean by that? Last week I had a conversation with theologian William Greenway in his powerful new book, In the Light of Agape. Greenway argues that most suffering in this world has no redeeming quality to it. I found myself nodding in agreement. There are people who suffer and who die In this world, that instance of suffering provides us with no moral, social, or spiritual upside. No deep and profound purpose.

14:21 There is suffering in this world that is simply tragic. Lamentable. Wrong. I'm speaking of the suffering of innocence. I'm speaking of the wanton destruction of people's opportunities for a vital and fulfilled life. The denial of chances to breathe free, to break bread with one's family, to laugh and to celebrate, to exercise one's God-given talents on behalf of the community. on behalf of the world. suffering caused by sectarian conflicts and campaigns of systemic violence, suffering caused by natural disasters, suffering that comes from crippling illness, economic hardship, and human cruelty.

15:23 It's not redemptive. It's not part of God's plan. I read a lot of sermons as a seminary student. One of the sermons that I found most compelling came from William Sloan Coffin in his time up at Riverside Church on the occasion of his son Alex's death. Preached a few weeks after his son Alex died in a car accident in Boston, Coffin described a scene in which a kind woman from the Riverside congregation was dropping off a casserole at his home. As she placed the food on the kitchen counter, she shook her head and sadly commented, I just don't understand the will of God. Instantly, Coffin responded, I was up and in hot pursuit, swarming all over her.

16:23 I'll say you don't, lady. Do you think it was the will of God that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper of his? Or that he was probably driving too fast in such a storm that he probably had a couple of frosties too many? Do you think it's God's will that there are no streetlights along that stretch of road? And no guardrail separating the road and Boston Harbor?

16:54 Coffin continues. There is one thing that should never be said when someone dies. It's the will of God. Never do we know enough to say that. My own consolation, Coffin continues, lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex died. That when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all the hearts to break. my friends most suffering is not i believe part of god's plan suffering is not in that way redemptive so should we then conclude that suffering itself is never redemptive never holy I've spent too much time marveling at the strength and courage of those who suffer and at the solidarity and faithfulness of those who dwell with and care for those who suffer to say that you cannot witness the good, profound good, in times of suffering, in people's responses to suffering.

18:21 What's more, and this is a fine needle to thread, I do think that our own suffering can teach us. Like it or not, suffering shapes us. The lessons that we learn from suffering vary. In one of life's great ironies, suffering can turn some people bitter, and it can turn others into joyful saints. I'd like to think that faith affects the way that we interpret our own suffering, but that's a tricky claim to make. So let me speak personally. I have found times of suffering to be perspective altering. I'm thinking of a time in college when a relationship ended and my ego took a drubbing.

19:24 I'm thinking of answering the phone and learning that my own dear friend had been killed in a car crash. I'm thinking of all those conversations upstairs, all the tears shed in my office over the years. The pain of human suffering is acute. It is awful.

19:51 And it changes you. In my recent conversation with William Greenway, he made a comment that I immediately wrote down. He observed, Scott, people think that suffering narrows the vision, but it does the opposite. It helps us see each other's faces. This past Monday I was climbing the two flights of stairs that lead from the Lexington Avenue subway line up to the Hunter College entrance and as I climbed I could see a fellow lying on a blanket in a corner of one of the landings. It was a cold day. He didn't have any shoes. His hair was a snarl, there were stains on his shirt. He looked utterly exhausted.

20:49 He was the picture of human misery. As I climbed toward this man, another fellow, another, I would guess, of our homeless neighbors, although this guy had shoes, another bedraggled man was descending the stairs. He paused. He stared uncomfortably in a very non-New York way at the guy in the blanket. After a few awkward moments, the guy in the blanket looked up and said to the gawker in an annoyed tone, can I help you? The fellow with the shoes looked him in the eye and said with warmth in his voice, I'm I'm sorry for you, man. Real sorry. I'm so sorry for this. The guy on the blanket paused and then in a much less annoyed voice responded, it's all right buddy, it's all right.

22:00 to suffer is to be given perspective. It's a hard-won outlook. It may never feel like it's worth the cost, and yet this perspective is part of us. And if Greenway is right, it's holy.

22:20 Those who have suffered find that their vision has been expanded. They are better able to see other worn, battered, and bedraggled faces. And in seeing, they are tempted to compassion.

22:42 Palm Sunday models this for us. In today's passage, ominous shadows flicker. First, Jesus warns of his own impending suffering, and this shakes his followers. And then the Gospel of John says that the meaning of Palm Sunday only makes sense to the disciples when they look back on it, when they look back on, and I quote, the things done to him. these same shadows hang over today's bulletin cover in in anthony van dyke's painting christ's entry into jerusalem is not the boisterous happy parade that we see in other palm sunday art Here, in this painting, the disciples seem nervous.

23:44 They point, if you look at the far left of the painting, they point toward the jostling crowds that await Christ, toward what lies ahead in Jerusalem. They seem to be asking, Are you sure about this? Are you sure you want to go there? Responding, Christ raises a hand, offering a sign of peace. He does not waver. He's going to continue. He's going to continue preaching about the love of God. He's going to keep on encouraging people to love and not hate their neighbors. Jesus intends to deliver this message, this good news, to persist even though terrible powers are conspiring against him. To persist even though he knows what lies ahead.

24:48 Some claim that the events of Holy Week play out so that Jesus can satisfy God's need to exact a punishment for humanity's sins, a sacrifice for all the wrongs that we've done.

25:10 Honestly, I'm not there. I do not picture God as a revenge-focused accountant whose books will only balance when inked with the brutality of the cross. I do not see Good Friday as a spectacle demanded by a bloodthirsty God. I see something else in Holy Week. I see something else in Palm Sunday. I see a prophet, a teacher, a friend to the poor and downtrodden, who willingly moves toward suffering. I see someone who preaches love, who reaches out in love, who encourages people to see each other's faces and to love those faces.

26:15 I see this preacher ride intentionally into a maelstrom. I see the powers of this earth, small-minded powers, whose cruelty and greed and arrogance knows no limits. I see them decide that this gentleman is a threat. And I see this gentleman refuse to turn back in the face of their threats, refuse to surrender to powers that would silence his message or forestall his acts of compassion. I see, if you really want to know, God entering into human suffering. I see Christ answering the ultimate ride or die summons.

27:20 He will stand with us and stand for love, come what may. He will never stop handing out heaven's magnifying glasses, calling us to peer at each other with compassion and care and saying to each other, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for this. This is Palm Sunday. In the face of every horror that Pontius Pilate flings his way, Christ keeps bringing the love to the very end.