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Hope: The “Why” and the “Who” of It
The question I hear most often from people going through struggles in their lives is the question, “Why?”

“Why, Pastor, am I struggling with this illness? Is God trying to teach me something?”

“Why? Why was I the one let go at the office? I have a family to support. Why Pastor? Why?”

“Why did my mother have an aneurysm?”

“Why, Pastor. Why was my child hit by a drunk driver? Why?”

“Why is God doing this to me?”

These are the questions of the faithful in the face of suffering.

In the Bible there is a story of a man who was no stranger to suffering in his life. He lost his wealth, his livelihood, his children, his health. The man’s name was Job. Job had friends who came to visit him in his suffering, and wanting to help their friend, tried to answer Job’s question, “Why? Why this suffering?”

His good friend Eliphaz suggests that his suffering might just be that God is teaching Job a lesson. A modern day Eliphaz might say, “This is all God’s will. God has a reason for this, there’s a reason for everything.”

Job’s friend Bildad tells Job that if he were pure and upright God would reward him with prosperity. And then there is Job’s friend, good friend, Zophar, who goes on the attack and tells Job he hasn’t received all that God could have given him.

Ultimately the friends’ answers to the “why” of Job’s suffering fall short, but perhaps not because the answers were wrong—perhaps the question was wrong.

Years ago when I was still training for the ministry I had a wonderful colleague tell me, “Deb, it is important in life not necessarily to have all the right answers, it’s important to be asking the right questions.”

When God finally speaks, God changes the subject. God does not answer the question, “Why?” Hope is not found in the answer to the question “Why?” Sometimes there simply is no answer to “Why?” Life happens, that’s why. The rain falls on the righteous and unrighteous alike and the sun shines on the righteous and unrighteous alike.

God’s word was a word of hope to Job, a word that brought healing and eventually restoration. God’s response gave Job hope, because God was answering the right question. God did not answer the question “Why?” God answered the question, “Who?” Listen to God’s response to Job.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Who determined its measurements?
Who stretched the line upon it?
Who laid its cornerstone?...
Who can tilt the waterskins of heaven…
Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?

So often we hear people interpret this response of God to Job as an angry response, that God is scolding Job.

There is another way to understand this speech of God. The Hebrew Bible scholar Kathleen O’Connor talks about this speech as a turning point in Job’s life, not because God scolded Job and put him in his place, but because this speech turns the question from why to who and in so doing, God’s word offers Job a new vision. The answer to the question “Who?” offered to Job hope and healing and eventually restoration.

God offers to Job in this response both the reminder and the promise of God’s power and work in this world. God’s vision for Job is a powerful reminder that God not only created the earth, laid its cornerstone and determined its measurements, but also cares for all of creation, tilting the waterskins of heaven, letting rain fall upon the thirsty ground and providing for the raven its prey when its young ones cry for food. How much more will God care for and provide for you?

It was this vision of God’s creation—God’s power in creating and God’s love in the care of the created—that gave Job a story that was counter to his reality and it was that counter-story that gave him the lens through which to view his current circumstances.

Through the lens of God’s counter-story, through the reminder of God’s power in creating and God’s care for the created, Job could see that his present circumstances were not ultimate, that what was ultimate was God, the life-giving life-sustaining power of God that is unconditional. There, in the counter story, in the vision that God set before Job, was hope. Through that hope, through the reminder of God’s power and care, Job was able—living with this new vision—to move forward in his life and eventually be healed and restored.

Precious little Mariah heard this story of God’s love and God’s life-giving and life-sustaining power when she was 5 years old. It was a story counter to all that she knew as a child, a story that gave her a new lens through which to view her life, a story that gave her hope.

Mariah’s father was an alcoholic; her mother battled depression with pills and alcohol. Angry words, judgment and abuse were constant companions for her.

When she was 5 her parents finally gave in to their parents’ pressure about baptizing her and her two younger siblings. She listened intensely to the pastor as he told her about God, about how she was precious to God, about God’s love for her. The pastor talked about Jesus and his love and tenderness for children. He told her there was nothing she could do that would ever make God stop loving her. Then came the water and the gentle touch on her forehead. She had been given new life. Her baptism, the pastor’s words about Jesus and about God gave her hope for a future. It gave her a story that was radically different from her current circumstances. The counter story of God’s love and God’s presence gave her hope.

The counter story of God’s love did not answer why she endured such abuse, it did not change the hours and hours in the therapist’s office as an adult healing the earlier trauma, and did not enlighten her to “God’s purpose” in her childhood experience. The story of God’s love told her who walked with her in her suffering, who had the power to heal her wounds, and who could and did grant her new life. The words of God’s grace and the vision of a new reality, God’s reality in her life, filled her with hope and promise.

God’s grace comes to you this day to fill you with hope and promise. I know, we want our whys answered, but God wants to give us something that makes a difference in our lives. God is the who, who comes to us in the cross, who comes to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s answer to us in our lives. Jesus comes to us, as the crucified and as the risen, with the power to make a difference. It is God’s promise of new life through the power of the resurrection that is the lens through which we see all of our life on earth and in which we have our hope and healing and new life. Amen.

 

Conversation with Debra Samuelson

Lydia Talbot: Debra, thank you for sharing that wonderful message about hope.

Debra Samuelson: You’re welcome.

Daniel Pawlus: You’ve had a great opportunity to do a lot of outreach work and I wonder if we could talk about your sense of hope, how it’s shown to us through that work because you’re touching people on a very personal, vulnerable level, aren’t you?

Samuelson: Yes. There’s a story. There’s a man from the congregation who started what is called Goshen Valley. It’s a boy’s home for boys who have fallen between the cracks in the legal system. A young family from the church lost their twin boys. When Cameron and Elliot were born prematurely they thought that Elliot was going to live. Cameron died soon after he was born, and four months later, very tragically and very suddenly, Elliot died, as well. They responded to that by building a garden in this boy’s ranch. Now, when I first thought it was a garden, I thought, oh flowers, that’s nice! But, it’s a meditation center and it gives that family hope. It is a way for them to make some sense of the death of their children. It doesn’t answer the question why. There’s no answer to why these boys died but it gives them hope. It lets them know that through God’s strength in their lives these boys at the ranch have a place to come and meditate and pray. And their twin boys now can somehow give life to these other boys, who in their own way hadn’t been given a chance in life, but now at this ranch are given a new beginning. It is a powerful story of hope, not answering the questions, but of hope and how this young family has managed to move forward in their life with God in their life and by their side.

Talbot: Wonderful message, Debra, on the question “why” that we all ask. The wrong question about why we suffer.

Samuelson: We do. We can’t help but wonder why.

Talbot: But in your ministry—I’m picking up on Daniel’s question—when there are no words really that help people in the depths of pain. I’ve said myself to loved ones, “Well, I know there are no words, but know that we are praying.” But when there are words yet, as a pastor what do you say to people who have lost loved ones, or who are homeless, or who are at the depths of their lives?

Samuelson: That is the power of the cross. That’s the power of the cross that Jesus meets us where we are and walks with us. And not only that. That is powerful in and of itself, but somehow that’s not enough. God also meets us in Christ in the cross with a promise of new life, and that promise comes in surprising ways. The disciples couldn’t remember that promise! I mean they knew. Christ had told them. Jesus had told them what was going to happen. How could they remember that promise of new life when all they knew was the crucifixion? And walking on Saturday, walking, remembering the crucifixion, how could they remember the resurrection, the promise of the resurrection? And yet it happened! God’s promise in Jesus Christ, God’s promise in the cross is so strong it doesn’t depend on whether or not we remember that promise or even believe that promise. The promise of the resurrection is stronger than anything and God’s answer is always yes. God’s answer is always new life.

Talbot: So the hope...

Samuelson: The hope.

Talbot: ...is still there when our worst fears have been realized. Debra, you’re a professional harpist.

Samuelson: I am.

Talbot: I must suspect music has been central to you in ministry and in stories of hope. Can you share some of that?

Samuelson: Music was probably my first language. The harp was the way I communicated with people. And probably the nicest compliment I was ever given was when a woman said to me that she experiences God through my playing. I must say I do not play very much any more, so people wouldn’t say that about my playing any more!

Talbot: We understand and we’re told so often that faith and hope are inseparable companions. If it’s faith that puts us on the road, it’s hope that keeps us there. How do you explain that to the homeless that your church is ministering to?

Pawlus: That’s what I’m wondering. You must see in the face of people that are up against difficult odds this struggling to find hope and how do you minister to them in that kind of situation?

Samuelson: The food ministry itself is a sign of hope. When people are down and out, here is a place to offer them a meal. We offer them a meal a day. And there are other organizations that we support where we can send them that also not only feed them but help people get their feet back on the ground. Help people know how to interview. Help people get clothes for the interview. Follow them along so that it’s not: well, here’s how you do it, good bye, good luck. So the hope comes in the actions as well.

Pawlus: How important do you think that is as part of our church faith community? Many times we’ll go to church on Sunday and that will be our only participation. But the opportunity for churches to reach out in this way is really powerful, isn’t it?

Samuelson: It is very powerful. How do we talk about the love of God without also showing it? Without also being the hands and the feet of Christ in the world?

Talbot: And to see the face of God on those faces who are so very sad: the CHRIS kids, the homeless kids that you’re working with. Can you say a word about that?

Samuelson: Yes. In these children’s faces there is hope because they now have someone that loves and cares for them. And they haven’t known that before.

Talbot: Who are some of those?

Samuelson: Some of those children have run away for all kinds of reasons, who have not been supported in their home life. And now they are supported. Now they are loved. Now they are given resources and tools to build their lives.

Talbot: Thank you so much, Debra Samuelson.

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