How do we, as Christians, think about human pain and suffering?  There are, of course, many different categories of pain.  There is personal pain and there is the pain suffered by a group—that is, a church, a nation, or a group of people who suffer from some catastrophic event. 

          And of course there are many different kinds of pain and suffering.  Thinking only of personal pain, there is physical pain, but there is also mental and emotional pain. 

          There is suffering we are born with.  Our little grandson, who will be two years old in December, had to endure two open heart surgeries within the first six months of his life.  No one thinks it’s fair for a little child to suffer pain of any sort.

          There are many children who are born into abject poverty, who suffer the daily pain of not enough to eat and who don’t even have proper clothing to keep them warm.  There are children born into situations where they suffer from infancy from neglect and abuse.  Surely no one would argue that they deserve this plight!

          There is the pain and suffering that comes with aging—most of us suffer in some way or another as our bodies and our minds begin to wear out.   Sometimes we joke about it, but the truth is that growing old can be painful.  None of us would choose to die a slow and painful death.

          I could go on, because the varieties of human pain and suffering are seemingly endless.

          The difficult question I want to discuss today is “What does God have to do with human pain and suffering?”

          The Bible is full of pain and suffering.  And, to be perfectly up front about this, sometimes God intervenes in human history and alleviates suffering, and sometimes he doesn’t.  Sometimes, in the Bible, it seems as if pain and suffering is a consequence of sin, and sometimes it clearly is not.

          So be forewarned, I am not going to tie up the entire subject of pain and suffering into a neat little package and offer you a simple answer.  Unfortunately, the more you grapple with this problem, the more you begin to understand that there is no simple one-size-fits-all answer. 

          The truth is, sometimes we understand, and sometimes we simply don’t.  Sometimes we experience God’s comfort, and sometimes God seems far from us.

          All of these feelings are expressed by different writers in the Bible.  The Psalm that was read earlier in the service, Psalm 88, is certainly one of the darkest of the psalms.  It is a cry out of the depths of pain.  It may have been written by someone who was dying.  I think it might possibly have been written by someone who suffered from mental illness.

          Even though the writer cries out to God, there seems to be no answer.  Yet the psalmist calls out to God several times.  Many psalms end with a resolution to the problem, but this one ends on a sad note:  “You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.”

           Most of us would really rather just skip over such a dark psalm and not even read it.  But I think we need to understand that there are instances of pain and alienation even from God that people endure in this life.  The incredible thing about this psalm is that the orientation is still towards God, rather than away from God.  Though this person suffers continually, he or she still cries out to God rather than rejecting God.

          So does this mean this person has been rejected by God?  I don’t think so.  Several people come to my mind who could have written this psalm.  One would be Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer was a Christian pastor who resisted the Nazi regime in Germany during World War II.  Bonhoeffer was put into prison by the Nazis.  We have, of course, heard many stories of those prisoners who were freed at the end of the war.  Sadly, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not one of them.  He was killed in prison just shortly before the war ended.

          So also were millions of Jews, who were cremated under Hitler’s evil regime.  Many of them could have written this psalm as well.

          Then, I think of Christian martyrs who have died because of their faith.  Certainly they were afraid and must have felt that God had abandoned them when they were thrown to the lions or beheaded or tortured and shot.  Why didn’t God step in at the last minute and save them?  We don’t know the answer.

          We all know the terrible stories of people who have been sold into slavery and treated horribly.  Today, there are women and children in various places around the world who are sold into slavery and prostitution, against their wills.  Perhaps, if they knew God, they, too, could write a psalm such as this.     

          Right here in America, there are people who are tortured by drug and alcohol addiction, people who suffer from painful illnesses, and people who suffer from mental illnesses.  Many of them could write this psalm.

          Right now, maybe you are thinking that you are pretty miserable just sitting there listening to this sermon, which seems pretty depressing.  Well, let me just say that as I was writing it, I felt that way, too.  I really wanted to just quit or tell you some funny stories.  Do you know how many Psychiatrists it takes to change a light bulb?   Just one, but the light bulb really has to want to change.

          But I believe God has a message for us in this.  Too many times, Christians have swallowed the lie that says God wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and happy.  There is something out there called the prosperity gospel that teaches that if you want to have more, you just have to give more.  They will tell you that the only reason you’re not happy and rich is that you have not allowed God to bless you.  If you are lame or ill, they will tell you that you only need faith in order for God to heal you. 

          If you believe all of that, I challenge you to figure out how, when you get to heaven, you are going to explain your position to all the martyrs who died for their faith, to the faithful Christians who suffered from life-long battles with mental illness, and to people who were born and died as slaves.  Maybe it would be better to plan to ask them some questions.

          Now, let me say this.  There is certainly an element of truth to the health and welfare gospel.  There is a certain amount of truth to the power of positive thinking.  It is true that if you mope around, things will likely not go as well for you as they will if you approach life with a positive attitude.  And with regard to giving, it is true that God often does seem to financially bless those who give generously.  But none of these are guarantees.

          It’s also true that Jesus healed people, and often he asked them “Do you want to get well?”  It’s a question we should consider.

          The scripture passage that sparked all of this in my mind is from the book of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet, and this passage is one in which he weeps.      

          Jeremiah is writing here, not about individual pain and suffering, but about national suffering.  He writes in a time of darkness for the nation of Israel.

          At the time of his writing, the Assyrian empire had pretty much devastated the northern kingdom of Israel.  Judah, where Jeremiah lived, was hanging on by a thread, threatened by the Babylonians.  Jeremiah saw his own nation crumbling both from without and from within.  Listen, as Jeremiah cries out to God on behalf of his nation.  Jeremiah 8:18:

 ¹⁸ O my Comforter in sorrow,
       my heart is faint within me.

 ¹⁹ Listen to the cry of my people
       from a land far away:
       "Is the LORD not in Zion?
       Is her King no longer there?"
       "Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
       with their worthless foreign idols?"

 ²⁰ "The harvest is past,
       the summer has ended,
       and we are not saved."

 ²¹ Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
       I mourn, and horror grips me.

 ²² Is there no balm in Gilead?
       Is there no physician there?
       Why then is there no healing
       for the wound of my people?

 ¹ Oh, that my head were a spring of water
       and my eyes a fountain of tears!
       I would weep day and night
       for the slain of my people.

          Does it surprise you to hear these painful writings coming from the Bible?  If you have not read a great deal of the Bible, you might be surprised.  In fact, you could probably sit in church for a long time without hearing the sorts of passages you are hearing this morning.  That’s because pastors are just like you—they would rather not think or talk about the painful, difficult things, either in the Bible or in life.  But I think it’s important at least once in a while that we do address the hard issues.  And that includes hard issues that don’t have neat, simple answers.  Maybe no answers at all.

          Maybe some of you are getting worried.  You might be thinking to yourself, “What is she thinking?  If she keeps preaching like this, no one will want to come back next week!”

          Well, that may be.  But I am concerned about the people who suffer real pain—physical or mental illnesses that seemingly have no end; poverty that seems to have no answer; people who are victims of senseless violence—I am concerned about a church that simply teaches them to trust in Jesus and put on a happy face.  And isn’t that exactly what the Christian church does, most of the time?

          What about the suffering of Jesus?  Jesus really suffered real human pain—physical, emotional, and spiritual pain.  When he hung on the cross and cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he was experiencing bitter human pain.

          The message of the cross to those who are suffering bitter physical, emotional, and spiritual pain is that they are not alone.  Jesus knows our every heartache.  He truly does understand our pain and our suffering.

          God does not promise to remove our pain in this life.  He does, however, promise us eternal life in heaven, and he does promise us that there is always hope—if not in our lifetime, then in the future, and in our own death.

          Recently, the Christian world was somewhat shocked by the publication of the private journals of Mother Teresa.  I have not yet had the opportunity to read them, except those excerpts that have been published in the media.  I can’t tell you exactly what her darkness of the soul means.

          But I wonder if perhaps the extreme human depravity and suffering that she witnessed day in and day out prevented her from being able to see God.  I wonder if perhaps she came very close to experiencing in her life what Jesus was expressing when he called out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

          I do not side with those who read her writings and say it is proof that God is not really there.  There are a few who have said that if Mother Teresa, that great saint, did not experience God’s presence, that proves that God is really not there.  The rest of us are just deluded.

          I see it differently.  I think that if Mother Teresa was able to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus in reaching out to the poorest and most destitute people on the face of the earth, God was surely with her every step of the way.  Perhaps God’s face was hidden from her, but nevertheless, she was a reflection of God’s face to many, many people around the world.

          Perhaps you are here today feeling depressed or discouraged because of some sort of pain in your life.  What I believe God would say to you is that God is there for you in your pain.  God’s face may be hidden from you, but that does not mean God is not there.  You may not feel hope, but that does not mean hope is dead.  You may not be experiencing the joy and love of God, but that does not mean that there is no joy and love in God’s heart for you. 

          No matter what you are feeling; no matter what you are going through, Jesus is beside you.  There will be times when you do not feel his presence.  Nevertheless, he is there.  Jesus promised us that he would never leave us.  He is here with us today, and he will be here with us no matter what happens to us tomorrow or the next day.

          Is there a balm in Gilead?  Yes, there is.  The African American slaves who wrote that beautiful song of hope are a witness to the hope that God gives us even in the darkest, most impossible situations of life.  Some of them died in slavery, still waiting for that balm in Gilead.  Yet they have given us this prophetic message of hope.  And when our hope is in the Lord, that hope will never disappoint us.

Prayer:  Loving God, we pray for all those who are living with physical pain and suffering, with no hope of recovery.  We pray for all those who struggle day in and day out with mental illness.  God, we lift up all those who are suffering from the horrors of war.  We pray for all those who have been abused.  God, we acknowledge that there is terrible evil in our world, and we feel helpless in the face of evil.

          God, we thank you that you are a God of compassion.  You know our sufferings and you care about what happens to each one of us.  When we suffer, you suffer with us, Jesus.

          Most of all, Lord, we thank you that you have promised never ever to leave us or forsake us.  God, we give ourselves, body, soul, and mind to you, trusting you with all of our griefs and all of our sorrows.  We thank you that when we put our hope in you, that hope will never disappoint us.  We know that one day we will be with you in heaven, where sorrow and suffering will be no more, and we will see you face to face.    Amen