Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 95; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42
When you’ve had the privilege of being around folks who are suffering from debilitating illness, or suffering from the loneliness of a loved one lost, or suffering from the hopelessness of old age, or suffering the grief of young death, trivial questions fade away and you begin to hear the question that really matters most: “Can I still trust God?”
When asked a foundational question like that, I try to resist the temptation to offer up my latest theory on such a heavy and fundamental subject as suffering and death. At those times I wish I were Jesus, who although he would have the answer to such a fundamental question, He rarely gave a direct answer to any question. Jesus usually answered those important questions with either another question, or with a simple sounding but extremely powerful story to make his answer within the grasp of those asking.
And that drives we scientifically enlightened, post-modern humans crazy! We, as students of science and logic, we want concrete answers. And we want them in short, meaningful, simplistic soundbites. We often make the mistake of feeling that we can and must answer those fundamental questions about God. We often feel that we can and must defend God in the face of suffering and death. We often feel that we have to offer our answers at the time when those asking those questions are most vulnerable to our inability to answer those questions well. Usually it’s at the bedside of a terminally ill person, or in the receiving line at a viewing or at a funeral. These are definitely not appropriate times for us to take a whack at such loaded questions as “Why does God allow suffering and death”, especially because our response will usually cause more harm than good.
What we do best is show up. Our power to bring comfort comes by just “being” with someone who is grieving. Our power to start healing comes by just showing up in those critical times of suffering and offering five simple but powerful words: “I am here for you”, and nothing more is necessary. Our silent support for others who are suffering and are grieving is our best method of support because we are not so good at deciphering what question is really being asked, especially when the one asking the question is distraught and devastated. In these critical times of needed love and support, all we really need to do is what God does in the face of suffering and death: just be there, be present.
The thing about Jesus was that, God bless him, Jesus always knew, in the midst of any question, what really mattered, what was really being asked. And more times than not, the question really being asked was a simple one: “Can I trust God?” “Can I trust God to honor His promises? Can I trust God that my life is not just a random series of meaningless events? Can I trust that, despite all the pain and suffering and injustice in the world, can I trust that God still loves me, and knows me, and works to make my life a blessing and not a curse? Can I trust God that, in the end, my life will have meant something? Can I trust God?”
The real test comes when addressed to the topic of family and loved ones: “Can we trust God with our loved ones? Can we trust God that he was with our loved ones who suffered and died, that He was with them all the years they suffered? Can we trust God that their suffering is over? Can we trust God that they are no longer in pain, no longer in torment, are no longer in agony? Can we trust God that death is not the final answer? Can we trust God?”
For the Hebrews that pester Moses non-stop in our reading from the Book of Exodus today, the question asked from their point of view is: “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”
At this point in the book of Exodus Moses and the people have successfully fled from Egypt, successfully left slavery at the hands of the most powerful country in the region, successfully left behind exploitation and abuse, and for the first time in generations experienced hope that they would be God’s chosen people. All this was achieved by God alone, God who brought plagues, God who humiliated Pharaoh their jailer, God who repelled the Egyptians with a swirling cloud by day and a towering pillar of fire by night, God who led them through the sea on dry land and then swallowed up their oppressors with the returning waters of the Red Sea. All these things God alone had done for them. And yet despite all the ways God has provided for them, they continue to complain to Moses and to the Lord, “Give us water to drink”, and they insist on putting God to the test.
And once again God through Moses leads the Hebrews to a rock at Horeb, where Moses strikes that rock with the same staff God had used to part the waters of the Red Sea, and out comes water to relieve their thirst.
The Hebrews ask for water, but as usual what they are asking of God is not “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” What they are asking is “Is the Lord among us or not?”, or more simply, “Especially out here in the middle of death and suffering, can we still trust God?”
In our reading from the Gospel of John there are many questions asked around a well that was dug by Abraham’s grandson Jacob and his children. In all her questioning of Jesus, what the woman at the well needs to know is not why a Jew is asking her for a drink, or how to drink from a well without a bucket, or why Jews and Samaritans differ on their idea of where it is appropriate to worship God. What the woman at the well is asking is: “After everything that has happened in my life, can I trust God to forgive me? Does God still love me? Can I still trust God?”
The Good News today is that what Moses struggled with the Hebrews to understand was: yes, after all He had done for them, they could trust God. What Jesus struggled with the Samaritan woman to understand was: yes, despite her checkered past, she could trust God. What Jesus struggled with his disciples to understand was: yes, after all Jesus had taught them, they could trust God. What Jesus struggles with us to understand is that, especially in the midst of pain and suffering, in the depths of grief and despair, in the face of death and destruction: yes, we can trust God. We can always trust God!
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