Section 163:4a
Unnecessary Suffering

Discernment Process

Doctrine and Covenants 163:4a and Bunda Chibwe’s commentary remind us of the many conditions in our world causing unnecessary suffering. As ones who are named the Community of Christ, we are called to respond. The kind of responses Brother Chibwe invites us to are varied: listen more intently to the lonely, oppressed, poor, and marginalized; take initiative to transform the world; challenge unfair cultural trends; reshape our understanding of God; join the poor and oppressed on the margins of society. While he acknowledges
that these responses are not easy, he also affirms they are our calling as a prophetic people attending to God’s concerns.

Discernment is a helpful process that enables us to attend to these important invitations to determine how we are specifically being invited to respond. One frequently stated concern regarding discernment is that a person may spend so much time in inner reflection he or she never moves to action. When this occurs, discernment has not completed its job. Discernment is all about action—action that has listened deeply to the need at hand, considered fully the resources available, and heard God’s insistent whisper in the recesses of our heart.

When these have taken place our actions are more likely to be God-inspired, effective, and life-giving.

• Prayerfully read paragraph 4a. Notice any particular part of the passage that draws your attention. Let this part of the passage stay with you for several days. What images and thoughts emerge?
   
• Read the commentary again. Notice sparks of passion as you reflect on the various concerns named. Do you see areas where you have already invested your energies? What tugs at your heart? Let your imagination flow as you consider what it might be like to respond more
  fully. Where would you be? Who would you be standing beside? How would it feel? How would it affect your current situation? Who would help?
   
• Let all of this be held in prayer. When one response stands out, keeps coming to mind, enlivens your imagination, and calls in the inner recesses of your being, begin there with an action God invites you to accomplish. God is already weeping for the need to be filled and
  will join you in your response.

For Further Reflections and Discussion

1. Previous generations have sometimes believed that suffering is an unavoidable and perhaps necessary part of God’s plan of salvation for humans currently living in an imperfect world. What are the implications of that idea for a prophetic church? What is your own understanding of why suffering exists?
    

2. The author says our “theology is most relevant when it listens to the oppressed, the poor, and the marginalized because they will tell us how well we are ministering.” How well are we—as individuals, families, congregations, and an international denomination—currently listening to such groups? What might be standing in our way?
    

3. Asian theologian Kosuku Koyama points out that the oppressed want justice, not charity, while the rich want to give charity, not justice; furthermore, the powerful want to give religion to the poor in hopes it will take away their complaints. If you agree with this, what examples
   can you point to?
    

4. Weeping is used as a metaphor both for the way God acts and, particularly in the African context, a way to be freed from pain, express loss of hope, show a willingness to confess, and correct damages so salvation can occur. Why is weeping such a powerful metaphor? What does it mean for God to weep?
    

5. Look over the list of “Top 10 Most Critical Crises” as outlined by the Copenhagen Consensus. If you or your congregation were to pick just one of these areas as a focus for ministry, which would it be? Why? What are some specific steps you could take?
    

6. How has our own history as a faith movement on the margins of “acceptable society” prepared us for the challenges raised by Apostle Chibwe?
    

7. Is it ever possible for a prophetic people to separate discipleship and stewardship? In what ways are these two areas of the Christian life “interdependent and indispensable”?