On Suffering

The play Freud's Last Session highlights the fact that ideas have consequences. Everybody suffers and all worldviews address suffering. Christians must be very careful about their thoughts on suffering. How Christians understand suffering is often a focus of criticism from non Christians.  This sermon centers on Lewis' book The Problem of Pain. The dilemma of the Christian faith is why does suffering exist if God is all powerful and all good. Lewis addressed this with the free will defense. Honoring free will makes suffering possible.  God can do all things possible but this doesn't mean God can do nonsense. God cannot both give us free will and make certain the we always choose rightly. We cannot be both free and a puppet.  Free will is necessary for life itself. Free will is foundation of good as well as evil.  Some social scientists argue that free will is an illusion. But although there are many influences, we still, at the core, have the freedom to choose.  Lewis said that if God is Love, then God is more than mere kindness. God is not a senile grandparent that just wants us to enjoy ourselves. Being happy isn't the apex of good. God wants to perfect us. God wants us to be all we can be and sometimes suffering is a part of that.  Like a good parent, God seeks our maturity. Romans 8:28-29 reaffirms that "in all things God works for the good of those who love him." This includes suffering.  Lewis said suffering has two roots: 1. How the universe is made.  2. Abuse of free will.  Societal sin is real. We can at times unwittingly contribute to the suffering of others.  Lewis believed both in the Fall and evolution. We are not what God intended us to be. We evolved to the point where we can reflect the image of God. The reflection of this is a movement away from acting on for material and natural ends. Self consciousness moves us to the spiritual. But even trees are altruistic -- we are not so separate from Nature as we used to assume.  We are all cut of the same cloth. We are all part of the same sky. And all Creation pulses with the Holiness of God.  Our free will works to the good when we turn toward God and are no longer trapped in self absorption.  Christ reconciled Creation to God. The cross is not the focus of God's anger but the expression of God's love.  In Colossians 1:21-23, Paul affirms that the Gospel is preached to all Creation.