God Needs Our Cooperation

God Needs Our Cooperation

Where is God when… ? - Part 4

Sunday, November 19, 2023
Luke 10:1-12; Genesis 1:24-31; 1 Corinthians 13:5, 7

God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing: livestock, crawling things, and wildlife.” And that’s what happened.  God made every kind of wildlife, every kind of livestock, and every kind of creature that crawls on the ground. God saw how good it was.  Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”

 God created humanity in God’s own image,
        in the divine image God created them,
            male and female God created them…

… God saw everything he had made: it was supremely good.  There was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.

Genesis 1:24-27, 31 (CEB)

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Craig J. Sefa

God Needs Our Cooperation

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The ancient Babylonian story of creation, The Enuma Elish, tells of the great god Marduk who out of a tremendous war among the gods managed to subdue the chaotic forces of earth and re-create it into the habitable world in which we live today.  Unlike the Hebrew creation narratives in Genesis, the Enuma Elish along with parallel stories from Sumeria and other regions of ancient Mesopotamia, are filled with violence, bloodshed, and destruction.  Creation is birthed out of struggle, of battle, and of war. 

Not so for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  In the Hebrew retelling of these ancient myths we find a singular God who speaks love into nothingness.  God said, “Let there be”… and there was.  On the 6th day, for example, God said, “Let the earth produce every kind of living thing,” and that’s what happened.  The earth produced.  Creation was not violently subdued and chaos forced into submission by the most powerful deity.  Rather, Creation itself worked in cooperation with God, responding to God’s invitation to produce every good thing for the flourishing of life, all life, plant, animal, and human. 

This distinctive creation narrative among it’s parallels in the ancient world sets God apart and establishes God’s power as cooperative rather than coercive.  The way creation itself cooperates with God’s desire by producing good fruit sets the tone for the way humanity would be called to work with God as co-creators and stewards of all that God had made.  From the very beginning, God intended human beings to work collaboratively with one another and with their Creator to multiply and fill the earth, to plant gardens and build communities and civilizations of people who would work together for the benefit of all.  From the beginning, the thriving of creation depended on human cooperation with God.

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

 ~ attributed to St. Teresa of Avila

God Squeezes Good from Bad

God Squeezes Good from Bad

Where is God when… ? - Part 3

Sunday, November 19, 2023
Romans 8:1-39; Genesis 50:20

We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called  according to his purpose. 

Romans 8:28 (CEB) 

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Craig J. Sefa

God Squeezes Good From Bad

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Last week we explored the nature of God’s uncoercive and uncontrolling love.  Because love cannot coerce or force itself on another, it is impossible for God to singlehandedly prevent evil, particularly when that evil results from the choices of free-willed human beings.  Yet we can also say that love always works for the good, for the flourishing of humanity and of all creation. 

We can think of countless examples of people who have suffered tremendous evils in their lives and came out must stronger on the other side.  Victims of abuse may stand in the gap to protect others or care for others who have gone through similar trauma.  Someone whose child was killed by a drunk driver may become an advocate to prevent similar tragedies in the future.  Even if a person who has suffered doesn’t end up doing something so great and public, there are many who look back on their pain and trauma as an experience that shaped their character, that made them stronger, and potentially enabled them to do things with their lives they never dreamed possible.  Perhaps this is your story too.

This is where God’s best work comes in to play.  God is always creating and re-creating, renewing, restoring, healing, and making whole what is broken.  It does not mean, as so many have claimed, that the tragedy or suffering was a part of God’s plan in order to bring about this better outcome.  If suffering and evil is part of God’s will or God’s plan then to work against it would be to fight against God.

A loving God never causes pain or suffering.  But God’s love always works to squeeze every possible good out of even the worst situation.  Not every evil can be redeemed, even by God, but as Frederick Buechner says, resurrection reminds us the worst thing is never the last.  God is always weaving the bad into good.

God Can't...

God Can’t Prevent Evil Singlehandedly

Where is God when… ? - Part 2

Sunday, November 12, 2023
1 John 4:7-16, John 4:24, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them.

- 1 John 4:16 (CEB)

God is Spirit, and it is necessary to worship God in spirit and in truth.

- John 4:24 (CEB)

 Love doesn’t force itself on others.

 - 1 Corinthians 13:5a (The Message)

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Craig J. Sefa

God Can't Prevent Evil Singlehandedly

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In his book, God Can’t: How to believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse & Other Evils, Tom Oord tells the story of his friend Jayne, who endured sexual abuse at an early age, followed by years of trauma and destructive patterns that nearly led to her taking her own life.  Jayne describes her long and painful process toward healing, which began, she says, on “the day I realized I had choices.” 

“God did not control me on the cliff;” she writes.  “I chose to turn and live.  But so did all those who hurt me.  We all had free will.  And I don’t need to say nonsensical things such as, ‘God allowed my abuse to build my character.’”

Far too many people suffer deep emotional, mental, and spiritual scars from the idea that God’s predetermined plan included their abuse or other traumatic event in their lives for some greater mysterious purpose.  In recognizing her own free will and the free will of her abusers, Jayne came to see God not as an all-powerful overseer who watched the evil happen to her, but as a loving God who is never coercive or manipulative and who by nature, cannot take away someone’s freedom even if they use their freedom for evil. 

“The God who controls could not be my anchor,” she says, “but the God who loves me, comforts me, brings me support by prompting the good actions of others, and guides my choices most certainly can.”

It is difficult to imagine that there are things beyond God’s control, but Jayne realized that a truly loving God who has the power to prevent evil and harm but chooses not to is not very loving at all, at least not in any sense of the word “love” we could comprehend. 

Michael Fortier, who served prison time after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, was not directly involved in the attack, but he was convicted because he knew of the plans ahead of time and did not alert the authorities.  In other words, even our imperfect human justice system acknowledges that all people have a responsibility to prevent evil and harm to whatever degree they are able.  If we say God is in absolute control of everything and has the ability to prevent evil but chooses not to, surely God would be just as culpable if not more so than any human who fails to do what they can to prevent such a horrendous tragedy. 

This does not make God weak or powerless, and we will see in the coming weeks how God uses the persuasive power of love to work in cooperation with humanity to squeeze the most possible good out of every situation.  God moves people to act with compassion and boldness to help prevent evil, but the power of Love cannot be coercive or forced.  Jesus shows us a God who is fully present in our suffering, not a God who sits by and allows otherwise preventable evil to go unchecked. 

God is Love and Love never fails.

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For a more in depth reflection on the questions around God’s goodness and love in the midst of suffering and evil, check out God Can’t: How to believe in God and Love after Tragedy, Abuse & Other Evils.

God Feels Our Pain

God Feels Our Pain

Where is God when… ? - Part 1

Sunday, November 5, 2023
Luke 10:25-37; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.  The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds.

Luke 10:33-34 (CEB)

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort.  He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (CEB)

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

Craig J. Sefa

God Feels Our Pain

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All Saints Day often brings up a mixture of emotions, from joyful memories to tremendous grief in the absence of those who have gone before us.  The stark reminder of death is difficult to process and often avoided in a world so overwhelmed by human suffering. 

So where is God in the midst of all this death and suffering?  Over the coming weeks we will wrestle with why God cannot simply put an end to pain or death or even evil.  For now we must begin with a key aspect of God’s character, that no matter what it may seem, God is a God of compassion.

Compassion is not simply feeling sorry for someone in their grief, but actually empathizing with them in suffering. 

Psychologist Brene Brown says empathy involves “listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating the incredibly healing message, ‘You’re not alone.’” Empathizers are fellow sufferers who understand. I distinguish empathy from pity. To pity is to feel sorry for others at a distance. The one who pities remains detached and says, “That’s just too bad for her.” “Ain’t that a shame?” “Bless your heart.” Or “Sucks to be him!”

Tom Oord, God Can’t, 49.

When the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable sees the dying man on the road, he was “moved with compassion.”  It is hard to be moved with compassion from afar.  As we draw near to the suffering, our capacity for compassion and empathy increases. 

This is equally true of God.  In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul describes God as a God of compassion and the source of all comfort.  Unlike humans, God does not suffer from compassion fatigue, but always draws near to the hurting and brokenhearted.  God doesn’t merely see our suffering from a distance, but God feels our pain and can handle it.  God’s empathy and compassion always moves God toward expressing love in a variety of ways. 

John Wesley calls our mysterious perceptions of God’s presence “spiritual sensations” because the Spirit communicates with us beyond our five senses.  Jesus sends the Spirit as the Comforter.  The Spirit often uses human comforters as conduits of God’s presence to those in pain.  God demonstrates compassion through communities of compassionate people. 

Sometimes we feel God’s love and compassion more than others, but even when we can’t, God always feels our pain and is moved to extend love and mercy toward all who are hurting.  If the cross shows us anything, it is that God is a God who understands… a God who always with us in our suffering and who deeply feels our pain.