Tsunami - Part Two
On the other hand, the questioner might mean: “Well, you talk about such-and-such a God. Let us assume that God exists – now tell me, how can he be this way in light of what has happened?” This is a very different question, and I will proceed from here.
Let me first say that Jesus does not call us to be mindless followers. Abraham, when God says he will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, asks God if there was but one righteous person, would God spare the city. And God says yes, yes he would. Jacob actually wrestled with God the night before he was to meet up with his estranged brother, thinking his brother was going to avenge an old wrong. Jesus invites us to ask the hard questions, that is why he tells us to love the Lord with all of our mind, heart, soul and strength.
I turn to the story of Lazarus to see what God has to say to me. While Lazarus was sick, his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was very sick but when he heard this, Jesus did not go. Instead he remained where he was for another two days before going to Lazarus’ home. And no surprise to Jesus, nor to many other people that Lazarus is dead. Martha, when she heard Jesus was coming ran out to meet him and tells him that had he been there, Lazarus would never have died. Mary said the same when she saw Jesus, the disciples said so earlier. Many of us are familiar with the conclusion of the story, but before Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, do you know what he does?
He weeps.
The shortest verse in all of scripture is John 11:35 “Jesus wept.” There is a popular story of a man being marched off to his death in the death camps of Germany and he cries out “Where is God? Where is God?” To which an onlooker cries back,”He’s up there with you.”
“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ ‘Can a Mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands… ‘(Isaiah 49:14-16).”
The first thing to note is that God is not uncaring, cold or distant. He is here with us, knows our joys and our sorrows, and knows when we are on the verge of anger, despair or tears. The compassion of God is seen on the cross. Any charge of an uncaring God may be legitimately motivated, but any answer must also be given with the cross in mind. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).” “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).” “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again… (John 10:17-18).”
But how does this translate into our lives? It is one thing to say that God loves us, it is quite another to show how he gives us love to help us endure suffering.
Fung Hien worked as a translator for missionaries in Vietnam. When the Vietnam conflict erupted, he was captured and regularly shown the works of Marx, Engles, and other atheist and communist pieces in an attempt to brainwash him into thinking that all of western civilization, including its Christianity, was nothing but a lie. Eventually he began to doubt and gave in and for the first time since becoming a Christian he didn’t pray the following morning. He was then given a job – latrine duty. He was ordered to clean the bathrooms and toilets and while doing his work he found a piece of paper with English writing. As he related his own story, the paper was covered with (if you’ll pardon me here) human excrement, but he cleaned it off so desperate was he to read something in English. And he began to read “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” from the book of Romans. One of the commanders had been given a Bible and he was using it for toilet paper. Fung Hien fell onto his knees and prayed, thanking God that he didn’t let Fung even last for twenty-four hours without believing in Him. In time he had collected the entire book of Romans. Later on, he constructed a boat when he was confronted by members of the Viet Cong who asked if he was trying to escape, to which he lied, saying no, he wasn’t. He apologized to God for the lie and asked for an opportunity to tell them the truth. When they returned, Fung admitted to it and asked if they were going to put him back in prison. The Viet Cong said no, that they wanted to go with them. And as Mr. Hien further related the story, without the Viet Cong they never would have made it by sea as they were very skillful sailors and navigators.
God’s love comes in many forms. One is the ability to stand and continue to live. I want to repost a hymn that I posted previously and, after each verse, reveal how God has worked with each verse in mind.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
(Jesus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha ,etc. )
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
(The armies of Israel led by King Jehoshephat against a vastly superior foe)
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
(The exodus from Egypt, the dominion of Babylon)
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
(Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the furnaces of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon)
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
(Solomon, Samuel, Enoch)
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
(The disciples who, except one, were murdered for what they proclaimed)
God provides strength, love, and compassion. He provides meaning for a life that, after such an awful tragedy, may seem meaningless. That is why when Paul and the other early Christians, when imprisoned, did not complain or cry out – they sang. They sang songs to God not because they were oblivious to their own pain and suffering, but they sang out of gratefulness to a God that they had dedicated their lives to who continually looked out for them even in those dark moments. They sang praise to God even while they wept. Jesus wept for Lazarus even though he knew that he was going to raise him from the dead.
That is why Terry Anderson, a hard-nosed atheistic French reporter, said that while being chained and held captive by Middle Eastern terrorists in a dark dungeon in the Mecca valley that he found God. In that dark night of his soul, he found the Hound of Heaven pursuing him, not letting him fall further than he could bear, and revealing the light of the love and glory of God in a place far more symbolic of Hell.
It is the love of Christ that illuminates the life of the Christian, and that love ought to overflow. As Jesus said, he who believes in Jesus will have springs of eternal water gushing from him. Let us take that water of grace to people who are suffering, and as Christ helped us to stand, let us help them to stand. The kingdom Jesus came to build is where the Romans, the Babylonians or anyone else could never invade – the hearts of people who love God. In the light of a God who gave his one and only son for us, it behooves us not to give of our time and money, at the very least, to help those who suffer. Maybe, some of those who cry out to know where God is in the mist of tragedy would not do so if we Christians saw them with God’s eyes, and loved them with God’s heart.
Martha told Jesus that, had he been there, Lazarus would never have died. Jesus responds by saying that her brother would live again, and Martha said she believed in the resurrection of the dead at the last day. But Here Jesus makes another scandalous statement. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26).” The resurrection is not a fixed, impersonal event; it is a person. The resurrection is not a when statement, but a who statement, because it comes not at a certain point but because of a certain person, the person of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus offers the love of God, not just now but forever.
When we watch those clips on the news of two people standing together, and the waves come and sweep one of them away, what does Voltaire have to say to me? What does Nietzsche have to say to me? What does Madeline Marie O’Hare, the one who popularized Nietzsche have to say to me? You know in her journal, O’Hare wrote time and again, Someone please love me. Do we commit their souls to the Great Perhaps? Or like Bertrand Russell, do we live on a philosophy of unyielding despair? Proximo said this, in the movie Gladiator, “We are but shadows and dust. Shadows and dust.” And without God, that is all we have to give to those who suffer though your heart refutes you a hundred times, as Voltaire said.
God does not dismiss your pain as secondary, emotive, or glandular. God embraces it, and the one who suffers, and tells them that they are loved. That though you are aching and hurting, God desperately loves you and will help you to stand. “Can a Mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you… (Isaiah 49:15).”
Let me first say that Jesus does not call us to be mindless followers. Abraham, when God says he will destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, asks God if there was but one righteous person, would God spare the city. And God says yes, yes he would. Jacob actually wrestled with God the night before he was to meet up with his estranged brother, thinking his brother was going to avenge an old wrong. Jesus invites us to ask the hard questions, that is why he tells us to love the Lord with all of our mind, heart, soul and strength.
I turn to the story of Lazarus to see what God has to say to me. While Lazarus was sick, his sisters Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was very sick but when he heard this, Jesus did not go. Instead he remained where he was for another two days before going to Lazarus’ home. And no surprise to Jesus, nor to many other people that Lazarus is dead. Martha, when she heard Jesus was coming ran out to meet him and tells him that had he been there, Lazarus would never have died. Mary said the same when she saw Jesus, the disciples said so earlier. Many of us are familiar with the conclusion of the story, but before Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, do you know what he does?
He weeps.
The shortest verse in all of scripture is John 11:35 “Jesus wept.” There is a popular story of a man being marched off to his death in the death camps of Germany and he cries out “Where is God? Where is God?” To which an onlooker cries back,”He’s up there with you.”
“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ ‘Can a Mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands… ‘(Isaiah 49:14-16).”
The first thing to note is that God is not uncaring, cold or distant. He is here with us, knows our joys and our sorrows, and knows when we are on the verge of anger, despair or tears. The compassion of God is seen on the cross. Any charge of an uncaring God may be legitimately motivated, but any answer must also be given with the cross in mind. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).” “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).” “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again… (John 10:17-18).”
But how does this translate into our lives? It is one thing to say that God loves us, it is quite another to show how he gives us love to help us endure suffering.
Fung Hien worked as a translator for missionaries in Vietnam. When the Vietnam conflict erupted, he was captured and regularly shown the works of Marx, Engles, and other atheist and communist pieces in an attempt to brainwash him into thinking that all of western civilization, including its Christianity, was nothing but a lie. Eventually he began to doubt and gave in and for the first time since becoming a Christian he didn’t pray the following morning. He was then given a job – latrine duty. He was ordered to clean the bathrooms and toilets and while doing his work he found a piece of paper with English writing. As he related his own story, the paper was covered with (if you’ll pardon me here) human excrement, but he cleaned it off so desperate was he to read something in English. And he began to read “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” from the book of Romans. One of the commanders had been given a Bible and he was using it for toilet paper. Fung Hien fell onto his knees and prayed, thanking God that he didn’t let Fung even last for twenty-four hours without believing in Him. In time he had collected the entire book of Romans. Later on, he constructed a boat when he was confronted by members of the Viet Cong who asked if he was trying to escape, to which he lied, saying no, he wasn’t. He apologized to God for the lie and asked for an opportunity to tell them the truth. When they returned, Fung admitted to it and asked if they were going to put him back in prison. The Viet Cong said no, that they wanted to go with them. And as Mr. Hien further related the story, without the Viet Cong they never would have made it by sea as they were very skillful sailors and navigators.
God’s love comes in many forms. One is the ability to stand and continue to live. I want to repost a hymn that I posted previously and, after each verse, reveal how God has worked with each verse in mind.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
(Jesus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha ,etc. )
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
(The armies of Israel led by King Jehoshephat against a vastly superior foe)
When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
(The exodus from Egypt, the dominion of Babylon)
When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.
(Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the furnaces of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon)
Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.
(Solomon, Samuel, Enoch)
The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
(The disciples who, except one, were murdered for what they proclaimed)
God provides strength, love, and compassion. He provides meaning for a life that, after such an awful tragedy, may seem meaningless. That is why when Paul and the other early Christians, when imprisoned, did not complain or cry out – they sang. They sang songs to God not because they were oblivious to their own pain and suffering, but they sang out of gratefulness to a God that they had dedicated their lives to who continually looked out for them even in those dark moments. They sang praise to God even while they wept. Jesus wept for Lazarus even though he knew that he was going to raise him from the dead.
That is why Terry Anderson, a hard-nosed atheistic French reporter, said that while being chained and held captive by Middle Eastern terrorists in a dark dungeon in the Mecca valley that he found God. In that dark night of his soul, he found the Hound of Heaven pursuing him, not letting him fall further than he could bear, and revealing the light of the love and glory of God in a place far more symbolic of Hell.
It is the love of Christ that illuminates the life of the Christian, and that love ought to overflow. As Jesus said, he who believes in Jesus will have springs of eternal water gushing from him. Let us take that water of grace to people who are suffering, and as Christ helped us to stand, let us help them to stand. The kingdom Jesus came to build is where the Romans, the Babylonians or anyone else could never invade – the hearts of people who love God. In the light of a God who gave his one and only son for us, it behooves us not to give of our time and money, at the very least, to help those who suffer. Maybe, some of those who cry out to know where God is in the mist of tragedy would not do so if we Christians saw them with God’s eyes, and loved them with God’s heart.
Martha told Jesus that, had he been there, Lazarus would never have died. Jesus responds by saying that her brother would live again, and Martha said she believed in the resurrection of the dead at the last day. But Here Jesus makes another scandalous statement. “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die (John 11:25-26).” The resurrection is not a fixed, impersonal event; it is a person. The resurrection is not a when statement, but a who statement, because it comes not at a certain point but because of a certain person, the person of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus offers the love of God, not just now but forever.
When we watch those clips on the news of two people standing together, and the waves come and sweep one of them away, what does Voltaire have to say to me? What does Nietzsche have to say to me? What does Madeline Marie O’Hare, the one who popularized Nietzsche have to say to me? You know in her journal, O’Hare wrote time and again, Someone please love me. Do we commit their souls to the Great Perhaps? Or like Bertrand Russell, do we live on a philosophy of unyielding despair? Proximo said this, in the movie Gladiator, “We are but shadows and dust. Shadows and dust.” And without God, that is all we have to give to those who suffer though your heart refutes you a hundred times, as Voltaire said.
God does not dismiss your pain as secondary, emotive, or glandular. God embraces it, and the one who suffers, and tells them that they are loved. That though you are aching and hurting, God desperately loves you and will help you to stand. “Can a Mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you… (Isaiah 49:15).”
posted by Brian at 2:41 PM
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