Week 1: The God who hears our cry
GLIMPSES OF GOD – Hope for today’s world
Early in 2010 a terrible earthquake hit the Caribbean island of Haiti. Over 200,000 people were killed and millions made homeless. Where was God when the earthquake struck? Was he unable to help? A powerless God. Did he not care? A heartless God. Or - as many people have argued over the centuries - did he actually cause an earthquake in order to punish sin or simply ‘teach us a lesson’? A cruel and vengeful God.
Strangely, in the event, the people of Haiti themselves didn’t see things in any of those ways. One woman, rescued from beneath a wrecked house after six days entombed, was heard to say as she was carried out on a stretcher, ‘Merci, Seigneur, merci!’ - ‘Thank you, Lord, thank you!’
Faith seemed to flourish in that place of suffering, suggesting that the answer to the question, ‘Where was God when the earthquake struck?’ is: ‘Right there, among the collapsing buildings’. As a vicar, I have spent time with many seriously ill and dying people, almost always conscious that God was more real and present in those circumstances than in the apparent security of daily life. Suffering isn’t punishment The idea that God actually causes human suffering to teach us a lesson was directly contradicted by Jesus. When faced with a man blind from birth and the question, ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’, Jesus’ answered: ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned’ (John 9:3). So suffering is not sent by God. It isn’t punishment, nor is it necessarily the result of sin - the sufferer’s, or anyone else’s. (See also Luke 13:4.)
Of course some suffering - quite a lot, actually - is the consequence of sin: war, oppression, torture, murder, cruelty, greed, exploitation ... But much suffering is simply the result of being human and living on an unpredictable planet in a purposefully ‘random’ universe.
But that does not mean that God is indifferent to human suffering. Far from it. The story of Moses at the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:1-4:17) makes this clear. The Israelites, including Moses, had suffered for many years as slaves in Egypt. Doubtless they’d often prayed about their plight to the God of their ancestors. Probably they wondered whether he cared about their situation; perhaps some even began to doubt his existence.
Eventually, while shepherding his father-in-law’s sheep, Moses ended up near Mount Sinai. He saw a bush that was burning - yet not being consumed. Intrigued, he drew near, and was then engaged in a mysterious dialogue with God himself.
Yes, God assured him, he had heard the prayers of the Hebrew slaves. He knew about their suffering. And he was about to act to rescue them. Good news indeed. ‘So come’, God said, ‘I will send you to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt’ (Exodus 3:10). God was about to act, and Moses was to be his agent. ‘The cry has come to me, so I’m sending you.’
This wasn’t quite how Moses had seen it! Suddenly the rescue operation involved him. Moses was to confront the most powerful man in the world and persuade him to release his vast army of Hebrew slaves. God promised he would be with him, but Moses’ role was crucial. God would accept no excuses - and there were plenty. The last, and most pathetic, was simply: ‘O my Lord, please send someone else!’ (Exodus 4:13). God’s human agents of blessing This story tells us a lot about the way God relates to our needs and their fulfilment. It offers answers to many of the questions we often ask: Does God know about our problems? Does he hear our prayers? Is he actually able to do anything about them? And what part does he expect us to play in answering them?
What Moses discovered was God’s habitual way of meeting needs: no legion of armed angels, no well-timed earthquake, no blinding flash of divine light. The problem was human. Let humans - called, supported and enabled by God - provide the answer. God would supply strength, vision and guidance. But people would be his agents of blessing.
Good wishes and even prayers are not enough if we - God’s people - decline to be part of the practical answer to human suffering. The history of the Church is made splendid with the stories of those who have responded, from St Francis to Mother Teresa – and from countless numbers of ‘ordinary’ faithful believers. Sinners yes – but saints too. A scientist reflects “Earthquakes occur because tectonic plates slip from time to time. If you had a solid crust there wouldn’t be any slippage; there wouldn’t be any earthquakes. But there wouldn’t be life for very long, because the gaps between these plates allow mineral resources to well up from within the earth and replenish its surface - keep life going.