Do you ever find yourself asking, “Where is God in all of this mess?” I’ll admit that I do, quite frequently. I don’t think I’d be human if I didn’t! But I also find that the only answer that makes any sense of our human experience, that fits with what the Bible shows us, and that rings true with what (as Christians) we believe about the loving nature of God, is this:
God is right here in the mess with us. Wherever it is muckiest, dirtiest, nastiest; wherever it hurts most; wherever the worst atrocities have been committed, wherever people cry out in pain and longing. There we find God – among the suffering, the struggling, the oppressed, those suffering the agonies of what it is to be human.
Reading the newspapers, it would be easy to wonder what on earth God is doing, letting all this happen. It’s easy to get downcast. To feel that, if God is to be found where things are at their worst, then there is nothing we can do to make things better. But I would like to argue otherwise. We can pray. Even if we can do nothing else to change the world, we can pray.
The reading this Sunday from the first letter to Timothy urges us to do precisely this – but specifically to pray for “kings and all who are in high positions”, and indeed for those who love the Book of Common Prayer services, it’s very much part of the set prayers and intercessions. However, there is a second part of that sentence: “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”
Whilst it initially looks like we are simply to pray for our leaders because we ought to, in reality we pray for them to be good leaders, to fulfil the covenant of leadership which we expect: to govern in such a way that we, the people, can live in peace and dignity. Jesus changed the model of leadership, and our expectations of what a leader should be and do. It is arguably from Christ, and Christ alone, that the model of servant leadership comes. Prior to Jesus and his teachings, and outside of Jewish thought, kings and rulers simply wielded power as they wished for their own benefit and for the benefit of their friends.
People often complain that the Church should stay out of politics. If by that you mean party politics, then quite possibly yes, especially in the modern era where each side tends to demonise the other, instead of having rational debate! But Christianity is deeply political, because it is absolutely about power, the use of power, and changing the structures and ways of life and living to bring about justice, humility, and compassion.
That’s why we will always find God among the suffering. And that is why prayer does make a difference – because it engages all of us in that quest to make the world a better place, following in Jesus’ own footsteps and teachings.
Revd. Talisker
Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash