Waiting in the dark

We look back on the birth of Jesus and his life, death and resurrection as an almost inevitable event in the process of biblical history. The coming of the messiah was promised from the beginning in Genesis and repeatedly foretold by the prophets. Then it happened, just as God said it would.

But that's from our perspective, looking back. What did people make of the promise when they were being marched into exile in Babylon? How did it look to those in the time between Israel’s return from exile and the actual event of Christ’s birth, when nothing seemed to be happening? It's easy to see God's faithfulness in hindsight, much harder when his promises are yet to be fulfilled or prayers are yet to be answered.

No wonder Simeon responded with such awe and gratitude when he held the infant Jesus in his arms (Luke 2:25-32). Here at last was the vindication of those who had continued to believe that the promise would be fulfilled.

Recognising this gives us a new perspective on the promised second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. We live in that time between the promise and the event, and sometimes it seems that nothing is happening. Life goes on pretty much as it always has. At times we forget that God has said it will happen and we become absorbed in our day to day life. We might even doubt the validity of the whole idea. But one day it will happen. And then it will seem just as inevitable as Christ's first coming.

Asking why

How are we to understand the things that happen to us which disrupt our carefully planned lives? They may be minor interruptions to our day, or major disasters. Either way, they unsettle us and cause us to ask "Why this, and why now?" 

Or at least, if we are brought up to believe that we are 'masters of our own destiny' they will unsettle us. Likewise, if we believe that we can discern and obey God's will for our lives day by day, we will find ourselves asking questions. If we are complete fatalists, or  if we believe that God is arbitrary and unpredictable in what he does, we may be much less concerned with asking "Why?" It's our fate, or the will of the gods, and we just have to accept it.

Christians tend to adopt one of three responses to unexpected set backs to their plans. The first response is to see the disruption as the work of Satan, and to be even more determined to press on. After all, if Satan is trying to oppose what we are doing, it must be good!

The second response is to assume that God is testing us in some way, to see if we will continue to obey him. Again, pressing on is usually the only appropriate response.

The third response is to wonder whether it's our own fault.  Maybe we're heading in the wrong direction. Perhaps our plans are misguided and we need to change our minds. If so, then more prayer and preparation are needed before we move on

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I suspect that which response we adopt is partly a matter of personality. Those who are self confident are more likely to consider the first two options, while the person who is prone to self doubt or cautiousness will tend to think of the third possibility first.

But there are also differences in theology (that is, our understanding of God) in the three responses. The first sees Satan as God's implacable enemy, the source of all evil. This view avoids attributing evil to God, whose goodness cannot look upon evil, far less will it. The weakness in this view is that it attributes far too much power to Satan and even risks falling into a dualism where the 'good guy' is at war with the 'bad guy' and eventually overcomes him. It also ignores those places in scripture where Satan requests permission from God for his actions or even seems to do God's bidding. 

So, for instance, when the gospels say that Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tested by Satan, it was clearly the Holy Spirit doing the leading. When Paul says that in order to keep him humble he received a "messenger of Satan in his flesh" it seems unlikely that Satan himself was interested in Paul's humility. The implication is that God wanted Paul to remain humble and allowed (or even called upon?) Satan to inflict him. 

If we take the view that God is absolutely sovereign over every event, then all that happens to us must ultimately be from God, and by his will.  This is the theology of those who adopt the second response. If we're not to fall into the trap of thinking that bad things only happen to bad people, we have to conclude that God allows bad things to happen to good people. But in order to avoid the conclusion that God is the source of evil, we then have to assume that he must have some good purpose for making the bad things happen. So difficulties are 'sent to try us', to test our commitment and submission to him, or to build our character. 

Those who respond by asking "Did I just get it wrong" also believe in God's sovereignty. But their theology allows more room for human beings to make choices that may not be God's will. God's sovereignty and control are demonstrated in the way in which he uses both our good and bad choices to work out his good purposes. 

So how do we decide the cause of the set backs to our plans and the necessary action to take? It isn't easy. All three responses, all three theological understandings, have some support from scripture. If we become conscious of having sinned in the choices we've made, we should deal with that. But what if we've been doing what we believe is good and pleasing to God, and still run into difficulties? 

Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned from Job, the book that deals most directly with the "why" behind unexpected set backs.  As readers, we are told that Job's afflictions were the result of a strange heavenly conversation between God and Satan. But no-one told Job that. 

Instead he was left to wrestle with his theology. Although Satan was the immediate cause of his afflictions, he never considered that option. Nor did he accept his wife's advice to give up. Unlike his friends, who piously reinterpreted his circumstances to fit their fixed theology, Job turned directly to God and asked "why?" He also asked "who?" - who is this God that I serve? In the end, he had fewer answers than when he started, but he also had a much deeper knowledge of God. 

Praying for your enemies

Jesus said..“But I tell you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you.” (Luke 6:27)

When I originally planned this series I intended that the next article after “Pray for one another” should be “Pray for your enemies.” It is no co-incidence that it has taken me so long to get around to writing it. Obedience to Jesus’ command that we pray for our enemies and do good to those who hate us is surely one of the most difficult tests of our discipleship.

Who is my enemy? As a child I naively thought that all Christians were ‘nice’ people, and nice people should not have any enemies. I’ve since discovered that sadly neither of these are true. While it may be true that inoffensive people don’t make many enemies, we are not called to be inoffensive. We are called to follow Christ. If Jesus, the best person who ever lived, had many enemies, we should also expect to have enemies. Those who hate Christ will hate us too.

What’s more, it’s not just the rampant atheist and other fanatics who may wish us ill. Our enemies may be those closest to us.The psalmist speaks of “friends” who soothe us with insincere words before going out and slandering us. (Psalm 41:6-9). Jesus said our worst enemies would come from within our own household (Matt 10:36). He himself was betrayed by a disciple and sent to his death by the leaders of his own people.

We should be careful, however, not to label as ‘enemies’ those who simply irritate us, annoy us or let us down. In The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote “Our enemies are those who harbor hostility against us, not those against whom we cherish hostility.” Certainly we should pray for the well being of those we find difficult to love, but our lack of love and patience towards them is our problem, not theirs. Jesus bore no hostility towards the disciples who deserted him in his trials.

Why should we pray for our enemies? Quoting Proverbs 25, Paul wrote that by praying for our enemies we would “heap burning coals on their heads.” This is sometimes taken to mean that our purpose in praying should be to make our enemies uncomfortable and shame them into changing their behaviour. (The Good News Bible even translates this phrase as “you will make him burn with shame.”) Yet there seems to be a subtle sense of revenge-seeking about this that contradicts Paul’s previous statement that revenge belongs to God. And in practice, how often is an enemy shamed by a Christian’s prayers? It happens, but by no means consistently.

Perhaps Paul’s next sentence “Do not let evil defeat you, instead conquer evil with good” suggests that he has in mind the purifying coals of the temple or the transforming coals of the smelter. In a chapter that deals with our own inward transformation, praying for our enemy’s transformation would certainly be evidence of our progress towards this goal.

We face two obstacles in praying for our enemies. The first is that we simply don’t want to do it. It goes against our human nature, which prefers to seek revenge whenever it’s safe to do so. We need the sort of inward transformation that Paul speaks about.

The second obstacle is that, if we do pray for our enemies, we can become smug about it. Like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, we can imagine that we’re somehow gaining favour with God when we pray. “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like this enemy of mine - look, I even pray for her.” Again, an inward transformation is required.

The source of this transformation, this change of heart, is our recognition that we too were once enemies of God, yet he has not dealt with us as we deserve. Jesus calls us to treat our enemies as we ourselves have been treated by God, with love, compassion and forgiveness. In this way we will become sons and daughters of God. Such a transformation is not merely the result of reflection, but a work of the Holy Spirit upon our spirit.

Praying for others

Jesus compared praying for the needs of others to a man coming to a friend's house at midnight. After waking the whole household with his knocking, he pleads for the loan of three loaves of bread to feed the visitor who has just arrived at his house. (Luke 11:5-8) If such audacity and persistence gets results on earth, says Jesus, you can be assured that it will be just as effective in heaven.

Our 'visitor' need not be aware of our midnight door-knocking. For instance, we might pray silently for the physical and spiritual needs of the people around us as we travel to work, as we meet people during our day, as we watch the news on television or read the newspaper. Such prayers can strengthen our faith when we see answers to our private prayers that can only come from God himself since no-one else knows about them. Even if we never get to know, this side of heaven, how our prayers were answered, bringing others' needs to God in prayer is a wonderful way of ministering to people. (Obviously, if we have the means to provide for their needs out of what God has already provided to us, we should do that too.)

Sometimes, though, we might let our 'visitor' know that we're off to get some bread for them. In other words, we will offer to pray for them. Saying "I'll pray for you" can sometimes be a cop-out from actually doing what's needed, whether that's providing a meal, spending time listening or whatever. But knowing that someone is praying for them is often a great encouragement to the person who is struggling. Even some non-believers appreciate such an offer, though we need to be aware that there are others who will be offended. (We can still pray privately for such people, of course.)

When should we invite our hungry 'visitor' to come with us to our generous friend's house to get bread? That is, when should we offer to pray with someone? In my experience, people are much more eager to have someone pray with them than we are to offer. If the other person is a Christian, asking "Would you like me to pray with you?" is unlikely to cause offense, even if the answer is "No, thanks." We need to be sensitive to the situation - not everyone wants their most intimate problems aired aloud in prayer in public. Some Christians are happy to be prayed for, but are not comfortable about praying out loud themselves. It's probably better not to offer to pray with a non-believer until we know them reasonably well, unless we're prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so.

The advantage of praying aloud with someone is that they hear what we're praying, and can then see how our prayer is answered. The words we use in prayer can be an encouragement, if they remind the person we're praying for of the goodness and faithfulness of God. The disadvantage is that we can slip into the temptation to move from genuine prayer to words as therapy or a form of intimacy. For this reason, it is better in some situations to invite another person to join you in praying for the person in need.

The more we're aware of our own dependence on God, the better we will be at praying for others. The man in Jesus story knew he had nothing to offer his visitor, but he knew he could depend on his friend to provide it. Jesus tells us to keep on knocking on God's door because it will be opened.