1. On the contrary, Isaiah and Revelation insure that in the coming Kingdom, pain and suffering are no longer a part of life (or eternal life). The life we live now is a reflection, or foretaste (Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine; Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine), of the fullness of life with (rather than life in) Christ. Unfortunately, as we experience, pain is a part of life: physically, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. BTW: I hope what I said was pain is an evidence, not the evidence. Our hope on earth is that Christ is with us in our suffering. James opens his letter proclaiming God’s work in humanity transforming suffering into maturity and fullness of life. Hebrews is a manual for enduring the suffering that comes from and in the Christian life. Paul writes to the Roman church, “We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us [Rom 5:3-5].” I think the Doctor Who quotes here restate this rather brilliantly – if not obscurely.

What I was going for here was not to say, “I hurt, therefore I am,” but the opposite, “I am, therefore I will experience hurt.” The story of Lazarus puts Jesus in the center of sorrow. Of course, the cross is the height of God’s entering into the presence of pain and suffering in the world.

2. I believe that you are right. However, love is not impervious to pain and sorrow. The risk of love involves the risk of a broken heart, rejection or what is possibly worse, ambivalence. These, to me, are many of God’s complaints in the prophetic literature. The will to love is perhaps the most painful endeavor of all. Though, when we speak of love the way I think that we are, then we have to differentiate love as it is experienced on earth in this life, and love as it will be experience in Christ’s perfection – the heaven metaphor.

3. I certainly am not saying that suffering is good. I am saying that suffering is inevitable, a certainty of human existence. Scripture says that good can come of suffering. Also, that hope is stronger than pain.

“How is pain evidence of life rather than evidence of death because of our falleness, or evidence of our brokenness and that of our world?”

I believe that this is a tricky question.

Pain is evidence of life because a beating heart feels it. If you love, you will hurt. If you trust, you will hurt. If you play football, you will hurt. If you look back on your past, you will feel some sort of pain. Pain is just a part of life. I think the Doctor makes the statement well that a human life that includes pain is better than becoming a robot that experiences neither(as in the episode).

Which leads to another kind of problem: a life spent trying to avoid or escape pain. If one is trying to avoid pain, they will have to avoid love, avoid mountain climbing, avoid having a child, a spouse…a faith. And yet, many seek that religious perfection that will protect them from pain rather than lead them through it.

Pain IS also evidence of death and the fall. That’s an inevitable truth. It was not created on the 8th day. Pain was a result of human choice…and still is in many ways.

The short version is: pain is something we can’t escape. We make choices both good and bad, noble and disastrous, courageous and unintentional that result in suffering and pain. The Doctor can’t help with that.

BUT Jesus does.

Just wondering out loud about what this brings to mind at the moment.

I thought the “God is love” lyric in Stay Frosty was a step in a new direction as well.

Peace.

I’ve had to think about this quite a bit. I have no answers, really, but I would respond by saying that Eli’s responsibility was to raise his sons (read: apprentices) in the family business. It was no surprise they Phineas and Hophni became priests. He simply hadn’t prepared them. He spent quite a bit of time on Samuel, however. Perhaps, the direct connect between God and Samuel was sexier than his direct connection to his sons.

Israel would have been better off if he had prepared them simply because Israel would have had access to contiguous integrity in the temple. I don’t believe that Israel would have been better off had Eli made different choices, though. There were well on their way to captivity, with or without the Eli family. It’s one thing when the people wander from the heart of God, it’s another when the pastor leads them there – omissively or commissively.

In this case, I wonder if it wasn’t a case of spending more time with Samuel over his own sons. Phineas and Hophni wouldn’t have necessarily been at home. They would have been right there with him, watching him choose another “son” over them. End game could be something like, “raise your children first!”

I’m not sure there is balance, more like juggling. I often wonder how much of my faith I’m teaching to my kids. Like Eli, I spend so much time shaping the faith of my community…