Bishop John

 Excellent addresses opposing Euthanasia to the recent Anglican Church Sydney Synod.  Dr Karin Sowada:

Our Parliaments need to stand firm against this slippery slope which replaces a culture of care for the dying with a culture of individualism and the introduction of death by doctor-assisted lethal injection.

We call on our representatives in NSW Parliament to resist these pressures and rather say ‘yes’ to better palliative care, especially in rural, regional and remote Australia. As a community, we need to say ‘yes’ to fostering a climate of support for those facing the end of their lives, and transform ourselves corporately and individually into a people that cares for those who are dying, are lonely and vulnerable.  Fundamentally, as a church, we need to speak Christ into the emptiness of death.

Palliative Care expert Dr Megan Best gives very helpful information in her address.

The Dutch Government’s first euthanasia report was published in 1991.  The Remmelink report showed that around 1/3 euthanasia deaths the previous year occurred without the patient’s knowledge or consent (around 1000/year). 

In 1995 it was a similar number, working out to be 1 in 5 cases of euthanasia being performed without the clear and explicit request of the patient.

In 1998, 1200 people in the Netherlands were given lethal injections without their knowledge. Over 100 of those patients were mentally competent. And so it goes on.

There are stringent guidelines in place in Holland, but the numbers continue to grow.

Belgium legalized euthanasia a year after Holland and is going down the same track even more quickly.  In 1998, 1796 people were killed by euthanasia without consent, making it more common that year than euthanasia with consent.

Addresses and further info, Euthanasia: You are part of the campaign.

Guest blogger David Owens contributes to our final reflection on the issue of suffering in a most personal testimonial. Thank you, David, for this profoundly moving sharing of your walk of discipleship of trust in the Triune God. I include David’s words in his email which introduce his thoughts:  

I’ve been pondering the Bishop’s blog on answering ‘the problem’ of suffering, and the various guest bloggers contributions.  Without being asked, I’m attaching my own thoughts primarily because it has been helpful to me to think through the experience of the last several months and commit it to words.  If it’s useful to others that’s a bonus.  If John wants to use any, some, or none of it please feel free.  Blessings, David. {I decided to use all of David’s reflection which follows}

“After a day of much prayer and bitter tears we are heading in to hospital to be induced and give birth to Anabelle Louise Owens. We know already that some time in the last few days something has caused her heart to stop. Although every other sign remains good, our beloved girl has already died. We ask you to light the candle as you pray for us. [In preparing for the birth of our daughter whom we had already named Anabelle we sent the table candles from our wedding dinner to family and friends that they might light them as we went in to labour and pray for us while they awaited our announcement.] I won’t send another sms tonight. Thank you for your support. David and Julia.”

Sunday 28^th March 2010 5.33pm

 Anabelle Louise Owens has arrived on her Cuddle Day this afternoon, quiet and still, but so beautiful and perfectly formed. Already loved and adored but also grieved for what will not be. We have appreciated your prayers and support in the last few days and will in the coming weeks. Thank you, David and Julia

Wednesday 31^st  March 2010 3.40pm

There is a problem with “suffering”.  What do you do with this experience and a loving God?  How do you understand what has happened?  What have I learned in the months since?  First that the “pop theology” residing in the broad community of pain/suffering/loss is varied, seemingly consistently unhelpful, and seriously non-biblical.  “God needed another angel”, “God has taken her early to avoid an even worse fate”, “God is using this to teach you (me or someone else) an important lesson”, “everything happens for a purpose (which we cannot see)”, are all simply wrong.  All will eventually trip you up and tie you to a God who is not God.

People want to speak words of comfort.  Saying “thank you” as soon as possible seems to take the pressure off people and allows them to stop talking nonsense, and just be.  I remain humbled that Job’s “comforters” sat silently with him for a week (Job 2:11-13), I cannot say I have ever offered that level of practical sympathy to another.

I have been reminded repeatedly that Christian family is amazing.  A number simply sat for hours outside our home and prayed.  Many wished to provide any love and support that we could cope with.  Will and Gill screened this and managed our church – they were a quiet constant blessing.  Home group provided a practical basket of love some weeks after the funeral that was tangibly them and us – it too was a blessing.  Our needs were really very small and life shrank to a surprisingly minimalist extent.  After time some normalcy was craved and slowly we re-engaged with the world.

What else did I learn?  That the time to work out your own understanding of suffering is not in the midst of it – grief is too overwhelming.  An earlier observation of (another’s) loss had allowed me to already know the falsehood of “everything happens for a purpose”, and the long term damage that that misunderstanding would do.  I understood the wrongness, and curse of what we were living through.  God was not remote, and actually the flat black and white text of scripture became vibrant and colourful, three dimensional truth.  The mapless grief remained but God’s promise was certain and a comfort.

Music always a part of our home became a part of the grieving process.  Blessed be the name of the Lord, and Indescribable were staples.  Stephen Curtis Chapman’s Beauty will  Rise was too difficult to listen to initially, impossibly painful, but has now became a favourite.

I had a need to put together a timeline of what had happened and a good friend helped enormously there.  I have a need for justice, for my little girl, even while I cannot say what this actually is or will be, beyond the resolution of heaven.

Two passages were immediately helpful and remain continuously front of mind:

1. All of Romans, particularly Chapter 8 where creation groans awaiting redemption, and the Spirit intercedes for us with groans too deep for words to express and especially Rom 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”.  This happened not so that God could do good, but even in this God will work for the good of those who love him.  My groans are chorused by the Spirit and creation itself, I am not alone in my grief, and it will not be air brushed away but properly resolved.  Jesus words on the cross “It is finished” (John 19:30) are just that, it is finished.  We wait for the resolution, nothing more needs to be done.  This does not sound like a God who is remote, regardless of any of my own momentary sense or feeling.

2. Rev 21:3,4 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  I will one day meet my little girl, without tears.  Maranatha.

 See also Answering the problem of suffering and Christians respond to suffering #1, Christians respond to suffering #2, Christians respond to suffering #3, Christians respond to suffering #4, Christians respond to suffering #5 and Christians respond to suffering #6

“… Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?…” Job 2:10

 Another response to the questions of Why is there suffering? And, if there is a God who is supposed to be loving and all-powerful, then why does He allow suffering? comes from the book entitled, “Faith Questions,” from the chapter ‘Is God involved? God and Suffering.’

 Misery and suffering are realities in our world. They affect rich and poor, black and white… a basic point has to be established. The fact that suffering is universal does not present an impossible problem for the atheist. He can explain easily enough why people suffer. Suffering is a problem for the Christian because he claims to serve a God who is the Creator and who is loving, good and caring. How can a God like that allow suffering, especially where the innocent are involved?…there is no complete, water-tight Christian answer to this problem. All that we have is the outline of a possible answer.

 The article summarises:

• There are two types of evil, moral evil (found in wrong relations with God and with what God has made, especially people…Most human suffering comes from what is often called ‘man’s inhumanity to man’) and natural evil (found in the effects on people and animals of distortion in the natural environment – disease, earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding, drought and so on).
• God is wholly good and loving, God is all powerful, and evil really exists in the world and causes great suffering. If anyone of these three claims is not true, then the ‘problem’ disappears.
• The traditional Christian answer is called the ‘free will defence,’ and it is the only one that holds up.  It argues that the almighty Creator made human beings in such a way that they are free to choose good or evil.
• ‘Why does God not intervene directly to stop the deeds of evil men?’ Part of it is that being human and remaining human involves the possibility of choice – choosing good or evil…to remove it is to reduce humans to creatures living by instinct and not by choice.
• ‘Why did God create people with the freedom to follow evil inclinations? God made people, not automatons.
• Disease is not part of the creation God made and intended and it came into the world as a result of moral evil. In the story of humanity’s fall in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Even were told that their deliberate choice to disobey God would spoil much more than their own individual lives – the whole natural world would be affected. Fertility would be impaired, pain and death would take their toll….The choice to be independent of God resulted in death – separation from God. It upset the harmony of all creation..
• Both good and people suffer, for we are all part of the same human race living on the same earth. As the rain falls and the sun shines on both good and bad, so suffering comes upon all types of people. In the last analysis only God can answer the question why one man suffers when another does not.
• When a person is struck down with an incurable disease or injured in an accident it is not a just punishment for his or her sins. Suffering may be a result of the presence of sin and evil in the world. It is not a result of a person’s own sin.
• Evil and suffering pose a problem for Christians who believe in a good God who is active in creation and in the lives of his people. God himself did not remain aloof from suffering, but in the person of Jesus of Nazareth entered the world and endured pain of mind and body on our behalf. Even though the world has gone wrong God has taken responsibility for it. Jesus died for that very sin and evil which has caused the pain and distortion of creation. He died the death due to us, and when we suffer he enters into close identity with us, as someone who has gone through it all himself.

  See also Answering the problem of suffering and Christians respond to suffering #1  and Christians respond to suffering #2, Christians respond to suffering #3, and Christians respond to suffering #4

“… Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?…” Job 2:10

 The Very Revd Richard Humphrey (Dean of St David’s Cathedral) shares his thoughts on the questions of Why is there suffering? And, if there is a God who is supposed to be loving and all-powerful, then why does He allow suffering?

 Yancey handles this well in his two books, ‘Where is God when it hurts?’ and ‘Disappointment with God.’

 Without wanting to go into a philosophical issue of causality, free will etc, I will go for my emotional response.

The very fact that we respond to suffering the way we do says something.  When we experience grief it is a real experience and that this matters.

 But if there is no God then this feeling is only an illusion and it does not matter as we are only a random collection of atoms and accidents.  The grief I feel is not real, it is only a chemical reaction.  But the problem is we know it is real we may not be able to prove it but we know, and this sense of things not being as they should be only makes sense if there is a God who has determined what is right and wrong.  I do not have enough faith to go against this evidence.

 The book of Job then calls on us to trust God in the moral sphere as we trust him in the creative sphere, to use David Clines remarkable phrase “innocent suffering is a hippopotamus.” Just as we don’t understand a hippo, what it is for, we should trust God.

 Why, ultimately because he entered into that suffering. And triumphed over it. Thus whilst creation groans it will be redeemed.

 Ecclesiastes would add that as humans we simply can’t see things from God’s perspective so it is all ‘hebel’ (vanity), mist, ungraspable.

 It’s not much of an answer, but I think it is worth saying that I am a Christian not because I understand suffering, but because of Jesus and in him I have the best hope of an answer.

 See also Answering the problem of suffering and Christians respond to suffering #1 and Christians respond to suffering #2

“… Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?…” Job 2:10

 In a recent post, Answering the Problem of Suffering, I looked at the two most common questions I am asked, why is there suffering? And, if there is a God who is supposed to be loving and all-powerful, then why does He allow suffering?

 I have asked some friends for their thoughts to these questions which will be posted in a series of blogs entitled Christians responding to suffering.

 Some thoughts from James Veltmeyer

 1.    When people ask about suffering, think why they are asking, e.g. “Why does God let people die of cancer?”

That is, “Why did God let my dad die of cancer?”

People understand that people die of things like cancer and they want to know why a certain person they love has it.

Sometimes I say no matter what answer I give it won’t fix their problem of suffering. But I can be there for them and just listen.

 2.    There is suffering because we live in a fallen & broken world.

 3.    We suffer because of people’s sin.

If a person who is drunk drives a car and hits my brother and kills him then it was the person’s choice or sin that caused my suffering.

God gave us free will, a choice to live for Him or live for ourselves.

 4.    Suffering shows there is a God

 Haiti – “How can God allow this?” – see point 2.

For the atheist it’s just the way life is they can’t give a person who is suffering any comfort. Atheism doesn’t answer the problem of suffering.

When we cry out “Why” – who are we crying out to??? Maybe God

When we want someone to do something – maybe it’s God that we want to do something

Also maybe God is restraining or holding back suffering, the suffering could have been worse but in God’s mercy it isn’t.

 5.    Suffering causes us to repent and trust Jesus – see Luke 13:1-9

 6.    God understands our suffering, He sent His Son Jesus to suffer, die on a cross and rise again.

 7.    Suffering will one day stop. The hope of Heaven – see Revelation 21:4, no more suffering. A great promise for Christians.