Suffering in a Liturgical World

Suffering in a liturgical world

(This title was chosen before I realized it had the feel of a Madonna song)

Written by Dan McDonald

 

            Generally speaking one should speak of the meaning of a verse within its direct context. I am going in this meditation to rip a verse completely out of context. I am going to connect the words of II Corinthians 9:7 to the existence of suffering in the earth. II Corinthians 9:7 is telling about how God loves a cheerful giver. The verse says; “Each one must do as he has had made up his mind not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (II Corinthians 9:7 RSV) The reason I think we can apply this verse to an understanding of suffering is that the reason this verse is so instructive about how we should give is that it leads us to that understanding by giving us something to think about concerning the nature of the God we serve and worship. God does not wish for us to be motivated by compulsion but cheerfully, free, in a self-motivated albeit not selfish manner. God desires that we give ourselves, our worship, our service, our contributions freely and not because we are coerced or driven to something by compulsion. I believe this same desire on God’s part to see us serve and worship God freely is at work in God’s unwillingness to simply eradicate suffering by an act of sovereign power. God works to bring us to a point where we freely choose to serve him, and as suffering is connected either directly or indirectly with human sin it is God’s good pleasure to show his goodness and kindness to men that he might lead them to repentance. (Romans 1:4)

            In order to understand this line of reasoning I think we need to appreciate how the creation, as it is described in the Book of Genesis is a liturgical creation. One of the sad results of the battle between Conservatives arguing for a literal understanding of the creation account and progressives arguing for a poetic understanding is that we have become so obsessed with how long the days were in Genesis and how many years ago it happened that we haven’t stopped to realize that the creation account shows us that God created the universe in a liturgical manner.

            What do I mean by saying that Genesis shows us God created the universe in a liturgical manner? I mean by it, that God created all the stuff of creation and at the time when all the stuff was created, for however long that moment was the earth was described as a void, without form or shape, and covered in utter darkness. There is in that description a sort of chaos with everything and yet nothing is yet in any form or order. How does God cause this to change? He speaks to the creation and then things start happening. God calls the creation to order.

            There are at least two ways we can understand God’s work of speaking to the universe and his speaking leading to the creation. We can imagine God speaking like a magician. With a wave of his hand he speaks and non-existent rabbits start popping into existence out of God’s hat. There is simply one actor on the stage doing magic. But I believe we have reason to believe that God was speaking liturgically. He was addressing creation that creation might actively respond to God’s voice and participate in the work of creation. God would speak and say “Let there be light.” The creation responded by the power of God’s word for matter and energy to be rearranged in such a manner that light appeared where there had been nothing but darkness. If that sounds unreasonable then we might well ask why at the end of each day of creation did God evaluate the deeds of the day and say that what he saw was good. Was God congratulating himself because he is the utmost egomaniac who says by gosh I am good and I am going to congratulate myself? Do we really believe God is the most narcissistic being in the universe? Something else makes far more sense. God has invited his creation to be actively involved in moving towards the perfection of creation. He has said “Let there be light” and there was light and he looked upon what the creation had accomplished at his directive and he said to the creation “It is good.” He was congratulating the creation for its active and wonderful participation in the creation process. We then can see when we are told that God will say to the faithful in the day to come, “Well done good and faithful servant” such a similar expression as God said to the creation in the six days of creation.

            This brings this whole creation account into a different perspective in the modern battle between fundamentalists and evolutionists. Is the creation active in the process of creation? If we understand the creation as liturgical it is. Did God create the creation? Of course it is his word which energized and directed the activity into which the creation itself acted. The Christian views his salvation in a similar manner. Do we believe that salvation is by grace, energized and directed, and to be fully credited to the Word of God active in our lives? Yes, by all means. Do we believe that we participate actively in this salvation by seeking, believing, trusting, following, struggling, and doing all things in his name? Yes, of course. We believe in a liturgical world where nothing is accomplished towards our perfection apart from God’s Word and where nothing is accomplished without our participation in the work of redemption. This view of the creation seems especially highlighted in Genesis 1:10-11 where God commanded the earth to bring forth vegetation and then the earth brought forth vegetation. How did that happen? It happened by mystery as part of a divine work of liturgical cooperation between the creator and the creation.

            There was progress throughout the six days of creation, whether that creation was six days taking billions of years, or billions of years of activity packed into six days. The earth progressed from being shapeless, void, covered in darkness, chaotic and with neither beauty nor life to being a place with light, life, beauty and order. But then came man our human existence and our sin. While we can imagine something a bit different than a literalistic rendering of the creation story, the stories found in Genesis are describing something that God revealed was important to be included in the story. The work of creation in its progress to the ultimate perfection intended for it was disturbed when we broke from the plan of God. Sin derailed the march towards progress in the creation. The consequences of sin were death and disorder. The march towards eternal life was turned and creation began to retreat towards the disorder, darkness, death and chaos that had characterized the universe before God began to speak to the creation and the creation responded in accord to the Word spoken.

            That is where we have found ourselves in this phase of the work of creation. But God has chosen to be patient, forbearing, and in his goodness to work so as to lead us to repentance. (Romans 2:4) God did not simply use his sovereignty to sweep aside man’s freedom to remove suffering from our existence as if we had not sinned against God and broken the covenantal bonds of the liturgy of creation. God did something much greater. In the person of Jesus Christ, he became man and chose to enter the world as it was according to our present story in the creation. We live in a world characterized by mortality or death, characterized by sin and suffering. God, the eternal God, did not have to enter such a world. But he entered it that through the weakness of humanity he might absorb all the sin and suffering and death of this world in whose order we live and as he absorbed all these things he exhausted them and he gave himself up as an offering to God. Then on the third day he rose again having overcome Satan and all the powers of the earth.

            At this point he can turn to us and speak once more the liturgy of the Gospel promising rest, peace, and life to those who come to the Father in the Son by the Spirit. He has restored the possibility of our coming to him in freedom without coercion. In this time when God in his goodness is granting us the opportunity to find repentance in Christ we face suffering in a new way. St. Paul speaks of our relationship to suffering. He spoke of how he was determined to know Christ and this meant that he might know the power of Christ’s resurrection through his participation in the sufferings of Christ. Christ overcame sin, death, and suffering not by eradicating these things by an act of magic but by overcoming them through human weakness on the cross and in the resurrection that we might therefore be buried with Christ in baptism, participate in Christ’s sufferings and be resurrected unto eternal life through his resurrection. This is the wonderful news of Christ’s Gospel and even though there remains for a season suffering – it is now a suffering faced in Christ.