How Long, O Lord?

Several years ago, in an effort to show the power of the book of Psalms as a resource for prayer, I wrote out prayers based on the various psalms and shared them on my blog.  I hoped to help people claim the ancient psalms as a still relevant and contemporary “school of prayer.” 

If you have spent much time in the psalms you will note that roughly three-fourths of them are rather melancholy.  As I sought to share deeply the emotional honesty of the psalms through my own prayers, some of my congregation who read my blog-prayers became concerned for me; that perhaps I was going through a crisis of faith.  They could not bear to think that their pastor might honestly identify with a psalm like Psalm 13: 

            How long, O Lord?  Wilt thou forget me for ever?

            How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?

            How long must I bear pain in my soul,

                 and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

            How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? 

Well, maybe these parishioners had never had a moment’s doubt about the omnipresence of God.  Maybe they had never experienced any delay in God’s answering of their prayers.  Maybe they had never been perplexed by the presence of so much evil in God’s good world.  Maybe they had never been disappointed with God.  Or . . . , maybe they simply were living in denial. 

Phillip Yancey, in his book, Disappointment with God, deals with three questions: Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden?  The conclusions he reaches are not neat and tidy.  We are still left with the question, “Why?”  But what the book of Psalms does is give us permission to ask those questions and let them linger.  The psalms give us license to express our doubt, our disappointment, our anger, even our hatred, and leave all those emotions in the hands of God.  Even when the psalm seems to imply that God is distant and unresponsive, in the very act of praying the psalmist is nevertheless expressing faith in God. 

So much that has been in the news lately – mass killings, ugly politics, devastating weather – may leave us wondering if there’s a God who cares.  Before we Christians rush to the defense of God, perhaps we need to listen to the questions people ask, questions that have been asked in the form of prayer by God’s people long ago, “How long, O Lord?  Wilt thou forget me for ever?”

 

Perhaps there is something to be learned in allowing time for lament and expression of doubt and pain.  Perhaps only after such honesty can we then move to the conclusions of Psalm 13: 

            But I have trusted in thy steadfast love;

                 my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

            I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

 

 

Can Christians and Muslims Get Along?

             As I have reflected on the outbreak of violence in Northern Africa and other places, in response to a film that insults Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, I am dumbfounded by the reaction.  What makes Muslims so sensitive to provocation of this sort?  And is there a way to avoid this violence?  And the bigger question is, can Christians and Muslims get along?

There is a radical fringe among Christians, certainly, but the radical fringe among Muslims, the jihadists, is more numerous and more extreme by many degrees.  And we in the western world have a natural tendency to measure Islam by the violence we see among the extremists rather than the peace-loving Muslims, the silent majority, who rarely get media attention.

In a recent radio interview, a Muslim journalist said that there are considerable numbers of radical extremists who grow the beards, and talk the talk, not because they are devout followers of Islam, but because they have political motivations and hatred of the West.  They do not practice their faith at all, but because the radical jihadists suit their political purposes, these hypocrites align themselves with the religious extremists.  In other words, not all jihadists are religious Muslims.  And it is certain that the majority of Muslims are not jihadists.

Still, what do we do about that violent and vocal minority?

There is no simple answer.  We in the western world are angered at the loss of life at the hands of those who attacked the US Embassy in Libya, and we are dismayed at the level of violence overall.  In the Christian world, we have seen the exemplar of our faith, Jesus, insulted and impugned in many ways.  However, while there are those fringe elements who might react with threats of violence among us, most Christians have been incredibly tolerant of blasphemy.  When Andres Serrano drew attention for his photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine, he was sharply criticized, some of the museums that displayed his work drew threats, and some individuals actually have defaced Serrano’s work.  Still – no guns have been fired, no bombs have been used, and no one has been killed.

Our willingness to be tolerant makes the intolerance of some Muslims even more perplexing.  Obviously, we do not understand their sensitivities. 

          I am grateful for the military presence of Americans in the Mideast.  While I abhor war and the use of violence by anyone, some show of force helps protect the innocent from the actions of the extremists.  And while some American soldiers have been guilty of appalling actions in isolated instances here and there, the vast majority have historically shown amazing restraint in the use of force.

          The world situation is complicated.  I simply caution us not to paint all Muslims with a broad brush stroke of radicalism.  I am thinking of my acquaintance Ghassan, who is a deeply devout man of prayer and peace, and a leader in a small house of prayer among Muslims in a community where I have lived previously.  He is equally appalled by the violence of others who claim Muslim faith, as I am appalled when he recounts incidents in which some of his neighbors have threatened him or his family.

          Until the day when God reconciles all of creation, I encourage us all to pray and work for peace, and to be kind to our neighbors --- as Philo is reported to have originally said, “most people you meet are carrying a great burden.”