I finally got around to the podcast I mentioned two weeks back entitled ‘Is it OK to turn your back on suffering?’. It wasn’t exactly what I expected but it was on topic enough 😉 and I was challenged to consider things I usually don’t think too much about. And that involves social media which I tend to categorise as a ‘necessary evil’ of our modern world. I use social media sparingly and mainly for my congregational work. Many people seem immersed in social media. The screen literally is the window to the world with all its unfiltered words and pictures of suffering, horrific images, propaganda, and hate. Social media feeds our dopamine hits so that people can find it hard to ‘turn away’ from more and more graphic things. Hence the podcast was about whether we should turn off social media, look away, when suffering and more suffering and yet more suffering comes our way. (The short answer was ‘yes’ it is ok to turn your back on the bombardment but one has to be careful not to turn away from suffering close by – especially if you’re actually going past the man who has been mugged going from Jerusalem to Jericho, so to speak, then one should stop and render help.)

Of course, it is easier said than done and living is messy as we try and negotiate what to do with a global real-time perspective let alone what to do in relation to the people around us – especially those in need. While I was in Wittenberg news come to one of the bishops that a pastor in his church had committed suicide. The shock was palpable for pastors are as human as anyone but the inevitable questions arise about why and the immediate focus was now care for his family and congregation. And yet, we all did something. We prayed.

I know that prayer might be seen as an alternative to action, a cop-out if we are supposed to help because of the relationship we have, but bringing a person, an incident, a situation, a siren (if you hear one going past), a war, injustice, corruption, the degradation of a person or a people, whatever is on the screen is not a forlorn or useless exercise. In prayer, we are acknowledging that the world is God’s and he rules with two hands – via the State and via the Church – and he is bringing about his will in this world. In prayer we are orienting ourselves to this reality and seeking God’s help – in this case, especially for others – and God hears our intercessions. God doesn’t sit on his hands and look down to watch how things ‘will turn out’ but works to answer our prayers. In Christ, God understands suffering and is not remote from it and we trust him to act. Often what we have to learn is that God’s timing is not our timing but still we can cry out to the God who helps. In Jesus, every human being is precious – no one is disposable – no one is to be discarded.

The world has always suffered plague and pestilence, cruelty and corruption, power politics and greed. (It is truly a blessing when civil society has law and order and peace.) Martin Luther’s reforming desire for the Church was that it did not contribute to the hard times people suffered but instead offered and proclaimed the Gospel and challenged and encouraged our discipleship under the cross.

Because God has had mercy on us, we can cry, ‘Lord, have mercy!’. God leads us to respond to suffering – particularly what is happening around us – in the real world – even while the screens are almost ubiquitous and one response to what we encounter is prayer. We are not powerless even though we may feel battered or that the world is getting ‘worse’ because God has given us life with him, security with him, hope with him, and he will give us insight how best to respond to the hard and harsh things of this world. Even if we turn our back, let’s still kneel and pray!

GS