WEEKLY COMMENTARY: At Times of Tragedy or Hardship .... Where Is God?

It seems that no one has seen the face of God directly.  Most of us believe there is some kind of God, who at one time established the many forms of life on Earth, and organized physical forces of great complexity, which generally give predictable results in their actions ---- there seems to be some order in our universe.

However, despite this, sometimes a person does contract a fatal disease, dies in a natural disaster, or dies in an automobile accident or other no-fault cause of premature death.  We call these incidents "tragedies"

Losing one's job, living in poverty or being unable to find timely medical assistance, are examples of "hardships".

If God is the supreme power who created us, the earth and the skies, why are our lives sometimes interrupted by tragedy or hardship?

Human understanding of how God works appears to be largely beyond our mortal abilities, but over the centuries much thought has attempted to explain this mystery.  The result has been the development of numerous theories, which take us into the realm of faith.

Which of the following theories about God do you find the most compelling? 

Theory #1:  I do God's will out of love for God, not out of self-interest.  I can be an obedient, moral person, but I act out of love for God, my creator, without my calculating that moral and obedient people will be rewarded with good fortune.  I can love and be loyal to Him, even if God perhaps does not show much love to me in return.

Theory #2:  Assume that God is the cause of our suffering.  But, our God is a God of justice and righteousness.  Our God is all powerful and causes everything that happens in the world.  Nothing happens without His will.  Our God stands up for people getting what they deserve, so that the good prosper and the wicked are punished.  He gives people exactly what they deserve.

          Friends and family of victims sometimes think the victim should be blamed so that evil doesn't seem quite so irrational and threatening to themselves.  They believe that because God punishes people for their sins, it is one's own misdeeds that have caused their misfortunes.  But, what if one does not know what the causal misdeed was.  Some ask if pointless suffering for some unspecified sin is really a contribution to humankind?  Blaming the victim helps fortunate people believe that their good fortune is deserved, rather than being a matter of chance.

          Why does there appear to be such an unfair distribution of suffering in the world?  Does God really give everyone what they deserve and need?  Why do totally unselfish people suffer, people who never do anything wrong?

Theory #3:  Sometimes victims of misfortune try to console themselves with the idea that God has his reasons for making this happen to them, reasoning that they are in no position to judge God.  They believe there is some purpose in this suffering, but that it is beyond our ability to understand.  Furthermore, if God has initiated the tragedy or hardship on us, how can we now, in our prayers, ask God to help us?

Theory #4:  Could it be that things happen to people for no reason ---- that God has lost touch with the world, and nobody is in the driver's seat?  If God is not in charge of all things, then who is?  Worse yet, could it be that God does not care what happens to us?  

          Bad things happen to good people in this world, but it may not be God who wills it.  For example, could it be that God doesn't decide which families will give birth to a handicapped child.  Perhaps God would like people to get what they deserve in life, but he cannot always arrange it.  Are we forced to choose between a good God who is NOT totally powerful, or a powerful God who is NOT totally good?

          When we were children we came to realize that our parents were not all-powerful, and that a broken toy had to be thrown away when they could not fix it, not because they did not want to fix it.  Likewise, perhaps there are some things God would like to fix, but He does not control them.  The Bible repeatedly speaks of God as the special protector of the poor, the widow and the orphan, without raising the question of how it happened that they became poor, widowed, or orphaned in the first place.

Theory #5:   Tragedy in our lives is for our own good.  It teaches us to be strong.  Perhaps God does painful things to us as His way of helping us ---- like a drill sergeant in the Marine Corps.  Can't suffering be educational?  Perhaps it can cure us of our faults and make us better people, just as a parent must sometimes punish a child?

Theory #6:  In troubled times, we are not compelled to feel that God has judged and condemned us.  We can be angry at what has happened, without feeling that we are angry at God.  Furthermore, we can recognize that our anger at some of life's unfairness is coming from God, in our instinctive compassion upon seeing how other people suffer.  He teaches  us to be angry at injustice, and to feel compassion for the afflicted.  We can feel that our indignation is God's anger at unfairness, working through us.

Theory #7:  God is not doing this to us.  He is a God of justice and not of power.  Thus, He can still be on our side when bad things happen to us.  He can know that we are good and honest people who deserve better.  Our misfortunes are none of his doing, and so we can turn to Him for help.  Regardless of how our tragedies are caused, God stands ready to help us cope with the situation, if we can just get beyond the feelings of guilt and anger that separate us from Him.  Could it be that, "How could God do this to me?" is the wrong question for us to ask.  We should ask, "God, see what is happening to me?  Can you help me?"  We will turn to God, not to be judged or forgiven, not to be rewarded or punished, but to be strengthened and comforted.

Theory #8:   When all else fails, some people try to explain suffering by believing that it comes to liberate us from a world of pain and in the case of death, leads to a better place.  Death takes us out of this world of sin and pain.  The victim is now in a happier land where there is no pain, no grief.

          Sometimes, when our souls yearn for justice, because we so desperately want to believe that God will be fair to us, we fasten our hopes on the idea that life in this world is not the only reality.  Somewhere beyond this life is another world where "the last will be first" and those whose lives were cut short here on earth will be reunited with those they loved, and will spend eternity with them.  No living person can know anything about the reality of that hope.  The non-physical body that left us when we die, we call our "soul".  Belief in a world to come where innocent souls are compensated for their suffering can help us endure the unfairness of life in this world, without losing faith.  But it can also be an excuse for not being troubled or outraged by injustices around us, and not using our God-given intelligence to do something about it.

__________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your spiritual growth this Spring.

__________________________________________________________________________

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Golf and the Game of Life

Last week, many people were amazed at the comeback by 43-year-old Tiger Woods, in winning the Master's at Georgia's Augusta National.  Over the past decade, Tiger had gone through four back surgeries and the global disgrace of repeated marital infidelities.  But now he seemed to have recovered his former golfing glory!

I am not much of a golfer, but one of my favorite New York Times columnists is a passionate golfer.  That would be Thomas L. Friedman, whose foreign affairs column I always enjoy.  But this time he surprised me and he talked about Tiger Woods and golf.  Tom Friedman wrote "golf is the sport most like life."

He noted that, "it is played on an uneven surface and everything is on you.   So, good and bad bounces ---- and self-inflicted mistakes ---- are built into the game.  And so much of success in golf, as in life, is about how you react to those good and bad bounces,  Do you quit?  Do you throw your club?  Do you cheat?  Do you whine?  Do you blame your caddie?"

But, is golf really so much like life?  "In one sense," says Friedman, "each and every round of golf is a journey, and like all of life's journeys it's never a straight line.  It's about crazy bounces, self-inflicted mistakes and unexpected detours, and therefore becomes a journey of discovery about yourself and your 'playing partners'."  "And, if you love the game, its an everlasting journey in search of self-improvement."

To Tom Friedman, Tiger's plays under pressure were stunning, but it was not just luck or even pure physical attributes.  Friedman believes it was about practice ---- hours and hours and hours.  Friedman quotes Gary Player as saying, "The more I practice, the luckier I get."  "And," says Tom Friedman, "that is where the meaning of Tiger's comeback seems to begin ---- the willingness to commit to endless hours of practice.  How many of us have that iron will?"

Most of us make a variety of commitments all the time.  Some are observed long-term, while others are forgotten in a few days.  Many of our commitments will be about something which we expect will benefit ourselves ---- "I must lose 15 lbs."  Perhaps most of Tiger's commitments were to benefit him.

But we do not really just live solitary, isolated lives, so we also make commitments to benefit some of the people around us.  Here's the hard part ---- what sort of balance should I seek between commitments for my benefit, and my commitments to other people, near and far?

If Tom Friedman and I were actually having this conversation, face to face, I would have had some questions.  I would have asked Tom, how did Tiger Woods avoid the conclusion that his success was all about HIM?  Is there some source where I can seek coaching on how to protect my emotive heart, but also share my heart with others?  How do I keep my occasional golfing practices from making me believe that "I could become the greatest golfer" ---- my latent old pride?  Is obsessive golfing practicing the best way for me to leave the world in better shape than when I found it?  Most importantly, is "practice, practice, practice" in giving to others the right way for me to develop a long-term commitment to giving care to others?  

_________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this Spring at CPC.

_________________________________________________________________________

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Is It Possible To Give Strangers Too Much Help?

We may face this question several times a day.  Suppose you encounter a "pan-handler" on the street.  Are you reinforcing a dependency or meeting an urgent need, if you hand him a $5 or $10 bill?  Are you paying for a hot meal or cheap rum?  People who say there is an easy answer are failing to listen to either their head or their heart.

I  once had a sweet little dog ---- a Boston Terrier, who weighed in at about 15 lbs.  She could not provide her own food, of course.  She had to eat the food I gave her, or go hungry.  Some days she did not have much appetite for the standard meal I offered.  So I was tempted to help her by livening-up the bowl with some salmon or liver pellets, which I kept as her "occasional" treat.  Then one day it occurred to me that lately I had been doing this almost every day.  Had this enriched dog food now become for her the new "normal"?  Do I now need to find some new "super" treat?  In my little world, finding the correct balance for helping seems to require some diligence and thought.

We have a somewhat similar problem when trying to help needy humans.  Some of my friends have told me that homeless folks, or "the hungry," are just not taking good care of themselves, so their difficult circumstances are of their own making.  Unlike my feeding of my dog (because she cannot provide food for herself), these friends of mine say, "most of these 'needy' folks are just 'gaming' the system."  But the question I must always ask myself is where is the truth?  And can I be absolutely sure?  What will be the consequences for an apparently "needy" person, of my giving, or not giving?

But the questions get more difficult!  What about  needy people who appear to be physically or emotionally unable to care for themselves?  And how do we know for sure that their ability for self-help is limited?

How does one select out those for refusal who are "gaming" the system?  It is difficult if one's exposure to that person is a brief encounter ---- such as with a "panhandler" on a street corner.  To seriously help the needy, one needs to develop at least a brief relationship.

A good answer, I feel, is the practice at the Elizabethport Presbyterian Center, which regularly offers free, hardy food to as many as 4,000 people a month.  To qualify, the client applies by answering written questions about family size, whether annual income is below the Federal Government's poverty measure and personal conditions like special personal diet requirements.  With such information showing the applicant's eligibility, a "participation card" will be issued.  Periodically thereafter, the Center re-interviews the client to update the person's application data.  Importantly, the Food Pantry staff and the clients also get to know each other as sort of an unofficial community.  The Center has found this process to be very effective in reaching the people who really need help, and thus preventing others from "gaming" the system.

These on-going relationships are important for screening, but also they sometimes lead to new opportunities for needy people, both for strengthening their own self-support efforts, and keeping the clients and their families "in community" so they can help each other.

I love the well-known slogan that "it is better to teach a man to fish, than to simply give him the fish for his meal."

Our church experience encourages us to practice risk-taking mission and service.  We are encouraged to leave our comfort zone and go to places for mission and service that we would never have gone to on our own.  However, the adventure in going to such places is only the first step.  Thereafter, as we discern the correct balance in our giving, the question is always how to help people grow in self-sufficiency.  Then, how much support to give each such person in order to develop, if possible, the desire for greater self-sufficiency?

__________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this Spring at CPC.

__________________________________________________________________________

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Are the Theologies of Islam and Christianity Really Very Different?

Once I was asked to take a business trip to Morocco.  I did not speak any of the local languages, so I arranged for an English-speaking guide.  We traveled together to several cities ----- Casablanca, Rabat, Fes and Marrakesh.  He was the driver, but he also knew much about current events in Morocco and its history, so we had interesting conversations.  I was glad I had some time to become well-acquainted with him and with that country.

On one of our long drives between cities we found ourselves talking about religion.  He said he was a Muslim, an adherent to Islam.  I told him I was a Christian, and we started to compare notes.

It turned out we had a number of things in common.  Both faiths value prayer, worship (humbling ourselves before God) and fasting.  Both faiths shun the worship of idols.  We both honor and remember Adam, Noah and Moses.  We both believe we are descendants of Abraham, the patriarch of both our faiths, as well as of the Jewish faith.  For the Jewish people it was through the line of Isaac, and for Muslims through the line of Ishmael.  However, today Islam has two main denominations (Sunni and Shia) because of disagreement over the choice of Muhammad's successor.  Christian beliefs also vary somewhat by denomination.

In fact, my Moroccan guide said, Christians and Jews are recognized within the Qur'an (Koran), the Muslim Holy Book, as "people of the Book.  Muslims even honor Jesus Christ as a great Prophet," he continued, "and so we also believe that Jesus will return to earth."

I was surprised and pleased that there were so many commonalities between the Muslim and Christian faiths.  But now the conversation became a little more difficult.  Remembering my guide's reference to the Qur'an, I asked him what he believed about the Bible.

He paused a moment, and then said that for Muslims, God's revelation came in their holy book, the Qur'an, a complete code of laws, rules and regulations of behavior given by Allah (their name for God) to govern all life and society.  I responded that Christians also submit ourselves to a Holy Book.  We believe that the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God with the power to change lives.  However, I emphasized that Christians believe that God's full revelation in our lives came in the life and death of Jesus Christ.  I said the Bible's purpose is to lead us into an intimate relationship with God.  Throughout the Bible, the God of the universe is portrayed as seeking relationship with us, as well as seeking to cultivate warm personal relationships with one another.

My Muslim friend wanted to respond with the Muslim view of man's relationship with God.  The Qur'an, he said, describes our relationship with God in terms of master and slave.  But, while Allah is distant in his relationship with mankind, the Qur'an also describes Allah as merciful and compassionate to mankind.  This latter point pleased me, because Christians also seem to affirm this view of God ----- our Scriptures describe God as  merciful and compassionate to mankind, but also as being an intimate master.

Even though Jesus holds a high place in Islam as a Prophet, surprisingly the Qur'am teaches us the Jesus was never killed.  God is sovereign, the Qur'an teaches, and therefore God would not have allowed Jesus, His son and the great Prophet, to die such a violent death.

"Because Muslims don't share the Christian belief in original sin," said my Muslim friend, Muslims wonder why Christians even need the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross."  I told him that from the Christian point of view, the pain and death of Jesus (the Son of God) on a Cross provides us with the greatest gift from God we can imagine.  Jesus' humanity and suffering demonstrate the extraordinary lengths to which our Creator goes to lavish great love and forgiveness on us, in spite of our sinful ways.

"Well," my friend asked, "why don't you obey the teachings of our great Prophet Muhammad"?  I had to be careful here.  I said Christians believe that Muhammad's teachings contain much truth, but they are not part of our Biblical tradition.  "Don't be offended," my friend said, "but Muslims believe that in his teachings Muhammad corrected texts in the Bible." 

The prevailing view in Islam apparently is that everything that Muhammad said and did was inspired by Allah (their God), even though unlike Jesus, Muhammad was totally human.  The Qur'an claims that Muhammad has God's seal of prophet-hood, Muhammad being the last and final messenger to Islamic humanity.  "But, while Muslims venerate and imitate the prophet," my guide continued, "they stop short of worshiping him or regarding him as divine."

My Moroccan friend had one more great question:  If salvation is an "automatic" gift through God's grace (the Christian view) why do we need to do good works?  Muslims and Christians share a linear view of history, a belief that our destiny in Heaven or Hell depends on how we live our lives on earth.  We both believe in individual death, judgment and the resurrection of the body.  My friend continued: "In Islam, those whose good deeds to others outweigh their bad deeds, will attain salvation.  Those whose bad deeds to others outweigh their good deeds will abide in Hell."

Apparently, it is love for Allah and a desire to please Him that motivates the faithful Muslim to keep striving for good.  Paramount among the good behaviors to which Muslims aspire are the Five Pillars of Islam:  confession of faith, prayer, tithing (giving to the poor and helping in other ways people who are in need), fasting and (for some Muslims) pilgrimage to Mecca.

While Islam calls men and women to submit to their God's law, Christianity understands that Jesus has already fulfilled God's law on behalf of the world.  Muslim's submit to God's law with the passionate belief that their actions are working to bring the reign of God.  Christians believe that God's kingdom has already come. That Jesus Christ has already accomplished the ultimate reign of God, and therefore we strive as hopeful heirs of the promised kingdom.

"The Christian emphasis on God's grace could be seen as an easy pretext for personal and societal lawlessness," continued my Moroccan friend.  He certainly had a good point.  History provides many examples of people who claimed to follow Jesus and yet were perpetrators of evil.  On the other hand, the Islamic emphasis on absolute submission to God's law could be interpreted as unforgiving legalism, from a Christian's perspective.

These conversations left me with the hope of some greater harmony between our two faiths, or at least greater mutual tolerance and respect.  What forms could this greater harmony take?  For our Muslim friends perhaps some movement toward believing in grace and forgiveness.  For Christians, greater obedience to the teachings of Jesus as our greatest example of living by God's laws.

__________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal spiritual growth this Spring at CPC.

__________________________________________________________________________

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Do You Know Anyone Who Tells You: "I'm Spiritual, But Not Religious"?

Recently I had a phone call from a neighbor, inviting me out for a golf date.  I don't really play golf, so I had to decline.  But, we had not spoken for a while, so I extended the conversation to ask about his summer plans and what his kids would be doing in the fall.  Then I suggested that he and his wife might find some interest in some of the things we are doing at Central Presbyterian Church.  I offered to take them to one of our church services and to introduce them to our Senior Pastor.

"Jim, thanks," said my neighbor, "but you have to understand that I am spiritual, but not religious, and my wife feels the same way.  But, thanks for asking."

Later, I wondered about my neighbor's response.  What does it mean to be "spiritual, but not religious"?  Does it just mean not being denominational?

I remembered that my neighbor once told me that he finds God in the sunsets, in walks on the beach, in vistas from mountain tops.  Clearly, for him, God is in Nature.  But does that mean that people who go to church ---- the people who are "religious", like me, are sort of like monastic hermits who never see beyond their church building?  Does he think we don't see God in the sunset?  Perhaps he thinks we do not recognize that God is in Nature when we read the Bible's Psalms and Creation stories.

Being privately "spiritual but not religious" just seems like eating only snack food.  There is nothing very challenging about having deep feelings of inspiration from viewing a beautiful sunset, or viewing the countryside from a mountain top.  For some folks, spirituality might also arise from forming gratifying relationships with other people, perhaps even just from helping them!

These Nature experiences are wonderful and uplifting, but do they feed our rational side?  I think my relationship with God becomes rich and profound only when we dig deeply into a religious tradition that we did not invent emotionally ourselves ---- one not invented merely for our own delight.

Could one say that being  privately spiritual, and nothing more, is to be a bit self-centered?  Such people may find ancient religious doctrine dull, while finding their own easily fed emotional lives much more interesting. 

So, what difference would it have made if my neighbor had said that he is religious, not merely spiritual?  In my view, he would be saying that he had been shaped by "a mighty cloud of witnesses," sharing the wisdom and faith of many generations.  Importantly, that he is someone brave enough to encounter God in a living, human community.

We are aware that when we least expect it, any of us can suddenly wonder why we are here and where we are going, but church involvement gives us a way to work that out.  And when life gets scary, my neighbor might want the company of someone "religious" holding his hand, saying a prayer and simply putting up with him, just as many church people try to do.

I know that some people are not going to be comfortable entering traditional church buildings or theological traditions.  To understand the ritual of worship in a traditional church setting requires some prior learning ---- some familiarity with Scripture and basic theological concepts.  But, perhaps one of the benefits of adding some "religion" to one's "spirituality", is that we move closer to discovering God's purpose for us ---- not just to be a spectator of beautiful sunsets.

Nearly 30% of Americans say they have no religious affiliation, according to a Gallup survey.  But more than 90% of Americans still believe in God, or in a universal spirit, according to Gallop research, even as fewer claim a particular religious "brand" or denominational identity.  While more people seem to be opting not to align themselves with a particular religious denomination or tradition, their interest in faith of some kind remains keen.  Some folks just don't like the aura of past-founded religious denominations, where the church appears to outsiders to be like a private club.

This growing disinterest in theological dogma and abstract tradition,  reminds one of earlier cycles in American religious practice.   For example, consider the 19th Century Transcendentalist Movement, which some of us may remember puzzling over in college literature courses.

"Transcendentalism" is a cluster of ideas in literature and philosophy that developed in the 1830's and 1840's.  The Enlightenment had come to new rational conclusions about the natural world, based mostly on science experimentation and logical thinking.  However, the pendulum then began swinging to a less rational, more intuitive, more-in-touch-with-the-senses, way of thinking.  As one of the thought-leaders of the day said, "God gave humankind the gift of intuition, the gift of insight, the gift of inspiration ---- why waste such gifts?"

Among the core beliefs of the Transcendentalists was an "ideal spirituality" that transcends the physical and empirical, and is realized only through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrine of the established religions.  Transcendentalists longed for a more intense spiritual experience.  Some of the major figures in the movement were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.  They were strong believers in the power of the individual ---- they were champions of individualism.  They believed in the ability of mankind unassisted to realize almost anything.

Transcendentalism, in fact, is said to really have begun as a religious movement, an attempt to promote the idea that humankind is capable of direct experience of the Holy.  It was a reaction to the Unitarian rationalist view that the truths of religion are arrived at only by a process of empirical study and by rational inference from historical and natural evidence.  William Henry Channing (1810 - 1844) viewed Transcendentalism as a pilgrimage from the "idolatrous worlds of creeds and rituals, to the Temple of the Living God in the soul."

However, Orestes Brownson, a contemporary of Emerson, thought he saw "transcendental selfishness" in such views.  "Are all things in the universe to be held subordinate to the individual soul?  Shall a man take himself as the center of the universe, and say all things are for his use, and count them of value only as they contribute to his growth or well-being?  According to this system,'I am everything; all else is nothing, at least nothing except what it derives from the fact that it is something to me.' "

In the end, don't we need to be both spiritual and religious?  I find that each strengthens the other.  But they both take some work.  Some people may think the heavy lifting is just in the theology of church participation.  However, being simply "spiritual" isn't always easy.  Sometimes finding God in Nature is a struggle.  Do you remember Hurricane Sandy? !!  Did you find God in that event?

___________________________________________________________________________

These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this Spring at CPC.

___________________________________________________________________________