Isaiah 5: 8 – end; Acts 13: 13 – 41; Psalm 12
“Help me Lord for there is not one godly man left: for the faithful are minished from among the children of men. They talk of vanity every one with his neighbour: they do but flatter with their lips, and dissemble in their double heart.”(Psalm 12: 1-2)
These words come from this evening’s Psalm. Reading them one might think they were describing current circumstances; many of those seeking power seem to find it entirely acceptable to say anything provided it is what their listeners are likely to want to hear. So much so that ours has now been branded the ‘post truth generation’.
The disregard for truthfulness amongst some of the world’s leaders, and the fact that many people still support them despite this, is only one of the issues which is currently troubling. How do we respond to news reports of the devastation and suffering for civilians in, for example, Syria, or the Yemen while some of the world’s great powers fight their proxy wars? Never mind the recent bombings. How do we respond to the needs of so many refugees? And how do we make sense of tragedies on a personal level, such as the recent and untimely death of Revd Sarah Eynstone, one of my predecessors as Curate at Hampstead Parish Church? How are we to read such events – on the world or the personal scale?
Both of our readings this evening assure us that God is interested in human actions and events, both in the political and a the personal sphere.
Isaiah was a prophet in the southern part of the divided nation of Israel. A small state surrounded and threatened by great empires seeking expansion. The prophet speaks out against social injustices, drunkenness and political scheming amongst God’s people. Some have abandoned God’s rules for ensuring equality of wealth, allowing themselves to build up large estates. Some pursue feasting and drinking rather than attending to anything more serious. There is a tension between political advisers who rely on their human skills and others like the prophet who seek a religious authority for their actions and who advocate trusting in God rather than making alliances for the sake of security. The passage details the approach of an oppressing army which has been sent by God Himself. The prophet writes: “But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.” (v16) The message is that God is holy; he acts in the world with justice and righteousness and expects the same characteristics to be reflected in His people.
Our reading from Acts gives us Paul’s view on the history of his people, the Jews, and on God’s intervention in human history. The setting is a synagogue where Paul and Barnabas are invited to speak to an interested audience of Jews and converts to Judaism. So Paul tells the story of God’s people from the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt to the coming of Christ, his life, death and resurrection. In Christ, God has intervened in human history in a new and decisive way and through Christ forgiveness of sins is proclaimed. God is not only interested in human history and human conduct, but has Himself entered it in Christ. Christ is the culmination of God’s actions, and his coming heralds a new age.
Both of our readings claim that God is interested in human history and works both within it and through it. He is not like a clockmaker who sets the universe going and steps back to let it run. However, trusting that God is in some sense ‘in charge of’ or involved in the events of history and of our personal lives does not make it any easier to understand or interpret the things that happen. Why so much suffering? Why is it so often those who seem to have the most to give to others who are taken from us so early? Why does God allow suffering at all, and why does He remain silent in the face of suffering?
This weekend I’ve spent some time dipping into Brendan Smith’s book ‘The Silence of Divine Love’ which I read some years ago. The author says that it simply won’t do to put forward the pious but anodyne argument that all will be well in some future life. We have to ask why all the suffering now? If God wanted to have a universe in which there were free intelligent creatures capable of love, is this the only universe that he could have created? Is God in some sense responsible for both evil and suffering and good? Isaiah certainly suggests this when he writes: “I am the Lord and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7).
At the heart of God is mystery and paradox and silence as well as light and truth and love. At the heart of our Christian vocation is the call to pay attention to this. There are no easy answers, but the experience of suffering – our own or others’ – can be a prompt to encourage us to step aside from our frequent self-preoccupation and busyness and to seek out a deeper understanding and experience of God. If we have the courage to do this we may also find the wisdom we need to engage with the pressing issues of our day.
Amen