How does one make sense of a world where we believe God is good but the world that he created of full of suffering? This is a difficult question and it is a loaded one. Especially when we take into account that often times, this question is a very personal one: Where is God when I suffer? Why does God allow my loved ones to suffer? Why do people who inflict evil on others seem to get away with murder (pun intended) and don't seem to suffer at all? These are fair questions that deserve further contemplation. Where does one begin to even start to formulate an answer? This Sunday we will look at a few important details that would hopefully begin to help us frame an answer to our questions.

Job: We will first look at the suffering of God's servant Job. It seems as if God has it in for Job. Why would God allow him to lose everything? Job's suffering seems cruel and unusual. The question of why is not fully answered in this book, but there is a more beautiful and meaningful theme that emerges. That is this: Even though Job questions everything he believed to be true, that knew that God was present. "I know that my redeemer lives, and in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed yet in the flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with mine own eyes, I and not another." (Job 19: 23-27). Even in the midst of suffering, Job did not falsely accuse the LORD with any wrongdoing. What's even more scandalous, Job seems to know that his present suffering would not have the last word. Even though he may have felt abandoned, he knew that he was not abandoned.

Psalm 23: We are reminded in this beautiful Psalm that as we walk through the difficult and darkest valleys of life (what we could call suffering), God is not far off. In fact, he is with us, walks with us and leads us to times of refreshing. We are reminded from the narrative that we find in Scripture that God is not only familiar with suffering he makes provision for us in the midst of it. I have heard too many personal stories of suffering and God's goodness that also persuade me to affirm this reality. From our readings in Job, Paul's letters as well as John's Gospel, we are powerfully reminded that God will not let suffering have the last word in our lives. As a community, our call to action is to speak to suffering when we encounter it and to do the work that we see Jesus doing in the Gospels. God has not left us to ourselves to figure out the question of suffering. For that, all I can say is, "Thanks be to God."