Readings:
1 Samuel 7: 32-49
Psalm 9: 9-end
2 Corinthians 6: 1-13
Mark 4:35-41

Collect:
God our Saviour,
look on this wounded world
in pity and power;
hold us fast to your promises of peace
won for us by your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Reflection

‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!’ 

This anguished call of Jesus from the cross resonates with the cry of the disciples in the midst of the storm on lake Galilee and with Job’s cries to God.  It’s a huge question and one that many of us may have screamed in one form or another at various points in our lives.  It’s a call from the heart when we feel that God has abandoned us, and we just want to know why.

Job has lost everything and, feeling completed abandoned by God, has cried out, “Why?”. Friends have tried to placate him by saying that he shouldn’t question God’s justice.  In their eyes Job was suffering, therefore he must have sinned.  Not accepting this and finding no answers in his faith, he calls out to God again and again.  Finally, in today’s passage, God speaks and turns the tables on Job by questioning him.  It wasn’t that through all this Job finally understood why, but he was reassured to know that God was there with him.  The difference between the response of Job’s friends and God is stark, on the one hand his friends are offering him platitudes and trying to explain the unexplainable, being sympathetic but in their actions not being caring.  On the other hand, God, in posing questions to Job, isn’t giving him answers or trying to explain why but is empathetic.

At Hot Potatoes last week, we thought about what empathy was and the difference between empathy and sympathy.  During our discussion we share the video below.

Empathy talks about the ability to step into another person’s shoes and be with them, being vulnerable together. In the video this is illustrated by you climbing down into the hole with someone and being with them.  Whereas if you are sympathetic, you keep you distance and try to put a silver lining around the problem.  I know that this is a simplistic view but there is a lot of truth in it.

When we are in the midst of our storm and things are falling apart for us, we need to know that we are not alone, that someone cares and is with us.  They don’t need them to have the answers because what is the answer to “Why?”? We need them to hear our pain and to support us through it.  

There is a need for us to know that we haven’t been abandoned by God but that God is with us in the midst of our struggles.  Not providing answers to the question “Why?”  Not making everything go away.  But walking beside us, sharing our pain, listening to our anguish and just being there. 

When we face the storms in our own lives may we shout, scream and angry with God.  May we not be afraid to be real, for God wants to be with us and support us in our struggles.  God never abandons us to face things on our own.  And when we see others struggling, let us climb down into the hole to be with them not trying to make things right but supporting them through the struggles.

As the Psalmist says, our God ‘is gracious and his steadfast love endures forever.’ 

May this encourage us and give us strength to face the challenges that come our way.

Mike Morris