Henri Nouwen once remarked that he found it curious that many of the people he knew who were very angry and bitter were people he had met in church circles and places of ministry. That made me think.
There is a biblical naming for this particular type of anger and whining. It can be called being on the banks of Babylon, feeling exiled from your own faith experience.
We are all familiar with the Psalm 137 (popularized in song in 1978 by The German disco band, BoneyM) that sings out the whining of the Hebrew people: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, remembering Zion; on the poplars that grew there we hung up our harps. How could we sing a song of the Lord on alien soil? Let my tongue cleave to my mouth, if I remember you not, if I prize not Jerusalem above all my joys!
There is an interesting background to this whining: After Israel had entered the Promised Land, received God's law, became one kingdom, and built a temple to worship in, she felt politically secure and confident in her faith. Her confidence in faith was very much rooted in the possession of three material things: a land, a king, and a temple. God had promised these and God had delivered on that promise. After much struggle they finally had their own land, their own king, and their own temple. These then replaced God has the foundations of their faith. Naively they expected these three material possessions to stay with them forever.
It was not to be: neighbouring Assyria, overtook them, conquered the land, deported the people, killed the king, and knocked the temple down to its last stone. Israel now found herself in exile in Babylon, with no land, no king, no temple; and, seemingly, no reason to continue to have faith in God. Her faith, anchored as it was in land, king, and temple, now seemed empty, a dream gone sour. She felt exiled, not just from her own land but from her own faith because the foundations of that faith were now removed. Someone had taken away her land, king, and temple and, with them, seemingly her reason to trust in God.
She was left with some painful questions: How can there be a God, if God promised to be present in a land, a king, and a temple, and these are gone? Moreover, how can we be happy in such a situation? Someone had stolen what I believed were the foundations of my faith and I will not be happy about that! The laments of Babylon are in the end a euphemism for whining and anger.
But they echo the bitter, whining Christians we hear today: why did God take away my job when I had believed him for it? I prayed for this job and I believe it was God who gave it to me and now it is no more. How can I keep trusting God?
We become angry with God for ruining something that was dear to them, and for putting us on an unhappy bank on another river. We are on the banks of Babylon, unhappy, given over to whining.
What we need to hear in all this is the answer that God gave to Israel when she first expressed that unhappiness: Where is God when someone has taken away your land, king, and temple? God's answer: "You will find me again when you search for me in a deeper way, with your whole heart!"
God is beyond any material land, ruler, or building. God is also beyond any job or wealth or talent. The dark night of pain and insecurity we experience whenever we feel like we are on the banks of Babylon is the purifying pain that comes with finding out that everything that is precious to us, everything we want to identify with God himself, eventually gets crucified (just as Jesus did) and in the wake of the disillusionment we find ourselves in a free-fall, losing a grip on what once anchored our faith. And we will continue to free-fall until ultimately we lose everything so as to fall right to the bedrock of faith itself, God, solidity beyond all material lands, kings, and temples. For the raw truth is this: Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection are the only foundation of our faith. The foundation of our faith is a Person, not some possessions!
