WHERE IS GOD? Walking with God in Difficult Times (661)861-6020 www.trinitybakersfield.com TrinityAnglicanBakersfield Sunday Worship 8 a.m. & 10:30 a.m. At St. John s Lutheran 4500 Buena Vista Road Small Group Study January 10 February 7
When bad things happen, we are often quick to wonder why. Difficult times raise questions of faith. In one way or another, these questions touch on the central question Where is God? Has He turned away? Does He care? Did I do something wrong? Is God in control? But there is another level to the question. Where can I find God in this? Or put in slightly different terms, How can I faithfully walk with God in difficult times? We choose to phrase it that way because sometimes we don t find the satisfaction and peace that we want. Sometimes the best we can do is keep walking with God in the midst of the questions and unknowing. Throughout this study, we will ask Where is God? in both of these senses: How can I understand this and how can I find God in this? But with every question, we will always come back to God s ultimate response to the pain, difficulties and questions: the Cross. John Stott, in his book The Cross of Christ, writes this: I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as God on the cross. In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. Here is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. (p. 335-36) With every question, then, we will come back to this bold stamp of the cross to ask how God has entered into and addressed these sufferings that stir so many questions within us. 1 Read Romans 8:18-25 7) Paul indicates that creation too is broken. What does creation s brokenness tell us about why natural disasters happen? Can we ever fully understand? 8) If God should intervene in natural disasters, or any other suffering, where do you think the line should be drawn? Do you think that would impact human freedom? Looking Back 9) Looking back on this entire study, what is the Christian response to suffering and difficult times? 10) How does walking with the Crucified Jesus help us in the midst of suffering? 18
Read Luke 13:4-5 Eighteen people in Siloam died in a natural disaster, when a tower fell on them. When asked if they were being punished, Jesus responded in a way that was not likely what they were looking for. Her responds by pointing not to the sins of some but the sinfulness of all. 4) Based on your reading of vv. 4-5, how do you think Jesus would respond to the idea that natural disasters are sent by God as punishment of the especially immoral? 5) Jesus doesn t claim that God directly caused the recent natural disaster. But he still believes God s hand is at work. How is God working in the midst of the disaster? 6) How have you seen God s hand at work in natural disasters for judgment or mercy? Scripture seems to indicate that the whole of creation has been disordered by sin. We also know that the whole of creation is finelytuned, delicately-balanced, and interrelated, so that the so-called butterfly effect is a reality. Week 1: Asking Questions Problems and Mysteries We are wired to want answers. We want to know why things happen. That in itself isn t an issue. Seeking understanding is a good thing. Where it becomes an issue, though, is when we want to reduce everything to a neat and tidy problem that can be definitively solved, to make everything into a formula. Typically the reason we want the formula is so that we can change the outcome. If we can solve the problem, then perhaps we can change the numbers we are plugging in and change things for the better. If we re honest about it, this isn t seeking understanding at all; it is an attempt to control things. The difficulty is that we re not dealing with math equations to be solved; we are dealing with a relationship with the Living God. When we deal with relationships, we are always dealing with some level of mystery which can never, by nature, be reduced to a formula or problem to be solved. Consider, for example, the relationship of marriage. If a husband does all the chores, buys gifts at the right time, and can check off all the expected boxes, will he then have a good relationship with his wife? You get the point. Relationships between two living beings are not equations, problems, or formulas. There is always a level of mystery. When it comes to a relationship with the living God, we need to be comfortable living with mystery. This doesn t mean, though, that we don t ask questions or seek answers. We still seek understanding. But we do so without trying to make a mystery into a problem. We do so with faith. As St. Anselm said, we believe in order to understand, not understand in order to believe. This series is built upon believing. We are not putting God on the stand to defend Himself, but from a position of belief we are going to ask tough questions so that we may more fully understand. 1) Do you have any New Years Resolutions? If so, what are they? 17 2
2) Think of a difficult time in your life. What was your first thought about why it was happening to you? 3) The sermon suggested different reasons why Jesus cried out to God from the cross. What were they? Do any of them resonate with you? 4) Why do you think difficulty makes us ask big questions? Week 5: Where Was God in the Earthquake? We have seen by now that God cannot be fitted into any of the simplistic moral ledgers that we humans contrive. Suffering is a mystery, and not a problem. We have addressed this mystery from a number of vantage points or rather, questions: Where was God in San Bernardino? Is God punishing me? Does God even care? This week we ask another question: Where was God in the earthquake? In other words, what do we make of so-called natural evil? Did God cause it or allow it to happen? Was Hurricane Katrina a judgment upon an immoral people? When a tree limb falls on my car, is that really an act of God? How could a good and just God allow a major catastrophe happen like the Tsunami in Asia that killed 230,000 people? 1) Have you endured firsthand any natural disaster? Describe the experience. Read Job 3:11-26 5) How would you describe Job s condition in this passage? Have you ever felt like Job? 2) Natural disasters can bring out the best and the worst in people. How have you observed both? Job is essentially asking why this is happening to him. The answer comes toward the end of the book. Read Job 38:1-7 6) How would you summarize God s answer to Job? 3) The sermon suggested that God did not originally intend for human beings to suffer from natural evil. What went wrong? 3 16
7) God is not so much telling Job to stop asking questions as to not make the mistake of thinking that he can fully comprehend God s mind. How has Job been trying to reduce a mystery to a problem? 9) Is there a time when you were tempted to doubt that God cares? How were you able to walk with God in that time? Would you be willing to share your story with the group? 8) What does trying to solve the problem say about our desires? Our estimation of our intellect? Our vision of God? 15 4
Week 2: Where Was God in San Bernardino? Where was God during the attacks in San Bernardino? The question has been asked before, though the particulars vary. Where was God on September 11, 2001? Or on December 7, 1941? Or when the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410? Or when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 487 BC? Shall we go on? Eruptions of violence unsettle us deeply because they disrupt our perception of the world as a place of order. They call into question our assumption that God presides over this ordered world, thwarting the schemes of the wicked and violent, and promoting the good. We are forced to ask: why would God allow this to happen? Why would God permit our enemies to triumph over us? Where is God now? Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel writes of the same question in his book Night. He gives voice to the increasingly common conclusion that the very idea of God is yet another one of the many victims of the violence of the twentieth century: The SS hanged two Jewish men and a youth in front of the whole camp. The men died quickly but the death throes of the youth lasted for half an hour. Where is God? Where is he? someone asked behind me. As the youth still hung in torment in the noose after a long time, I heard the man call again, Where is God now? And I heard a voice in myself answer: Where is he? He is here. He is hanging there on the gallows For many there can be no other answer: faith in God cannot possibly survive the violent horrors of our days. God died on the gallows, in the gas chamber, or in any number of other eruptions of violence. The violent have taken the victory not only over their victims but over belief in God as well. 4) What does Jesus analogy of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field suggest about our worth to God (6:26-32)? 5) Notice how Jesus refers to God in v. 26 and v. 32. What does this name tell us about God? About us? 6) Karl Barth has said that many of God s commands are best understood rather as permission to live in true freedom. How does Jesus command Be not anxious give us permission to live in freedom even in the midst of difficulty? 7) In Matthew 6:32-33 do you think that Jesus is telling us not to be anxious because God will make all of our problems go away? Or is he promising something else? If so, then what? 8) Do you find it hard to continue to address God as your loving and caring Father in the midst of difficulties? Do you find that the cross of the Son of God helps? How? 5 14
In his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus doesn t candy-coat anything. He plainly tells his followers that they will face various difficulties in life like poverty (5:3), loss and mourning (5:4), persecution and rejection (5:10-11), temptation to anger and lust (5:21-30), and more vaguely, but ominously, rain, floods and wind assailing the house of their faith (7:24-25). Interestingly, many of the difficulties that Jesus speaks of in the beginning of Matthew s gospel are exactly those Jesus himself faces at the end of Matthew s gospel. There will be those who will take your tunic, Jesus says (5:40), and in the end the guards stripped him of his robe and cast lots for it (27:35). There will be those who force you to go a mile, Jesus says (5:41), and in the end Jesus is compelled to walk the long road to Golgotha (27:31-32). Jesus says that we will be reviled (5:11); he was reviled on the cross (27:41-44). In other words, Jesus knew all about suffering and difficulties. In fact, he not only knew about them and talked about them; he knew them, and he suffered them. And yet he still called upon God as a loving and caring Father and he still urged us to call upon Him as a loving and caring Father. Read Matthew 6:25-33 3) For many people anxiety is a major form of suffering in their lives. What kinds of things does Jesus tell us not to be anxious about? Is there a distinctive Christian approach to this question? Of course, the Bible doesn t dispel all of the problems inherent in the question. We aren t told, in other words, why exactly God allows the violent to carry out their destructive deeds. But the Christian faith has a distinctive approach to the question. Scripture addresses the question by first subverting the notion that the violent are the victors and the faithful the victims. The victory of the violent is only an apparent or at most, penultimate victory. True victory belongs to those who follow the Crucified Christ, no matter what they suffer at the hands of the violent. 1) Describe your reactions to the attacks of 9/11 or of San Bernardino or to some other eruption of violence. Did you wonder, Where is God? Why or why not? 2) The sermon explored the idea from Revelation 12:11 that those who are faithful to the Lamb are the real conquerors (not the dragon). How do they conquer? Read Psalm 10 As you read, keep asking yourself how the Psalmist goes about addressing his initial question in verse 1. (e.g. Does he answer his own question or not? If so, then how?) 3) What are the various characteristics of the wicked in vv. 2-13? How would you describe the wicked of our day? 13 6
4) The Psalmist s initial question was, Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? Looking at vv. 16-18, is his question answered or not? What kind of an answer does the Psalmist come to? 5) What will the Lord do (vv.16-18) and what will be the result (v. 18)? Read Hebrews 2:14-15 The author of Hebrews relies on an idea that is very common throughout the New Testament: the powers of this world (like the Roman government) as well as the powers of darkness (like the devil) rely on the fear of death to keep people in bondage. Terrorism takes many forms, then, but the object is the same: the greatest weapon is fear. 6) What did Jesus do to destroy the power of the devil and bring deliverance? Is this the divine response you were looking for? Week 4: Does God Even Care? We are not alone in wondering if God cares about us in our difficulties. At the end of Mark 4, Jesus and the disciples got into the boat. A great windstorm arose, the waves were threatening to capsize the boat, and Jesus was asleep on a cushion. Screaming, they awoke Jesus: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? When life is cruel, we begin to wonder if God isn t cruel too or maybe just apathetic. Does God care? But the question can very easily be turned around on us. When we face difficulties, why are we so quick to exchange one view of God (loving Father) for another (distant deity)? Is it because we assume that if God was a loving Father, then he wouldn t allow us to suffer? After all, we think to ourselves, wouldn t we do the same for our children spare them needless suffering? The challenge that Scripture puts to us is to maintain our trust in our loving and caring Father despite the difficulties that we face. But even still, it is sometimes helpful to ask the question ( Does God care? ) even if the asking only sheds more light on our hearts than on God s reasons. 1) Woody Allen once quipped, If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever. Have you ever been tempted to think the same? Why? 2) God cares about us, yet he allows us to face difficulties. For many people this is simply a contradiction. The sermon, however, suggested some ways that we can hold these two statements in tension. What were they? 7 12
Read Hebrews 12:4-11 7) There are times when God directly disciplines us for wrongdoing. What is His motivation and goal when He does? 7) How do the death and resurrection of Jesus give us the victory over the powers of this world and the powers of darkness? 8) Discerning whether or not God is disciplining us is challenging. How can we discern it? How do we walk with God even when we are not sure? a) How does this resonate with the words from Psalm 10: You will strengthen their heart so that man who is of earth may strike terror no more? 8) God never promises that his people will never suffer violence. He does promise us that the victory belongs to Jesus Christ. How can you walk with Jesus in the midst of terror? What difference does the cross of Christ make? Not all suffering is punishment. In fact, it seems that most of our suffering is not direct punishment from God. So how do we discern why we are suffering? On the one hand, we engage in discernment through prayer, the study of Scripture, and consulting with mature believers. On the other hand, we engage in discernment with a humble heart that knows we may not get any answers and that no matter what is happening around us, God is always with us and using our circumstances to make us more like Jesus. 11 8
Week 3: Am I Being Punished? Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? (John 9:2) The disciples were asking Jesus a hotly contested theological question. The common understanding of the day was that sickness and suffering were the result of sin. If a man was born blind, then, the theological issue was one of whose sin was being punished. Is it possible to sin before birth, or was his blindness punishment for something his parents did? Jesus response makes it clear that the issue isn t so simple. The hard part of this issue is that there is theological truth in saying that sickness and suffering are the result of sin. Sickness, suffering, sorrow, and death are not God s intention for creation. His desire is for all of creation to be rightly ordered and to live in relationships of perfect health and peace. But when sin entered the world, the whole of creation was infected with the result that sickness, suffering, sorrow, and death spread. In this general sense, the question of the disciples touches on theological truth. Where it breaks down, though, is in trying to draw a direct correlation between each case of suffering and a particular sin. Are there times when we are actively and directly punished for sin? Are there times when we suffer because someone else sinned? Are there times when suffering appears to have no reason other than living in a sinsick world? The answer of Scripture to all of these questions appears to be Yes. Read Job 4:1-9 3) Job s friend Eliphaz argues that Job wouldn t be suffering if he were innocent. How do you feel about his argument? 4) What does this argument imply about who God is and what He is like? About Eliphaz s assessment of his own intellect and standing with God? Read Job 42:7-9 5) How did Eliphaz speak what was not right about God? 1) How was discipline handled in your home growing up? How do you think God handles discipline? 6) Does this imply that God never directly punishes wrongdoing? Why or why not? 2) The sermon suggested that suffering and punishment can t be reduced to a formula. When might our suffering be linked to punishment? How can we know? 9 10