CS LEWIS has an essay entitled God in the Dock.
            It, rather boldly, has humanity as judge, accuser and juror
And God as the accused, in the dock.
            There have been plenty of people over the years who have wanted to get God in the dock.

 Lewis himself went through the ravages of questions and doubts.
            His mother died when he was 5. He became an atheist. Much later in life he looked on his beloved wife of three years suffer and die through cancer.

                        Another person who would like to see God in the dock is Elie Weisel. He is a profound Jewish author. I read one of his books on holiday in January.
It is physically thin but encyclopedic in its challenges.
 In it he describes his life as a Jewish teenager arrested with his parents by the Nazis. He vividly, confrontingly, in simple, unembellished Language describes concentration camp life and the final flight to avoid the approaching Russian armies.

There are precedents from much earlier PERIODS of people wanting to Set God in the dock.

            Job. He had a case to make. Time and time again he calls on the Almighty to appear so he can question and confront him. He had great faith but lost everything and almost everyone. Job  13: 3 3 But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God.

Habakkuk in the Old Testament, Jeremiah's contemporary, had some serious questions to put to the Lord.
 How could he raise up a people like Babylon, less righteous than the Israelites,
To come and be agents of God's judgment on their sin and unbelief.
 
Various psalms have the same questions: Psalm 4:8‑10
8. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. Selah
9.  But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies.
10. You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us.

And Paul who healed many asks the Lord why he will not heal him. 2C12
And he has a few other things on his mind as one day he looks back over his life.
2 Corinthians. 11: 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers,
27 I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

Lewis, Weisel, Job, Psalmists, Paul, all asking "why Lord"?  And every person here probably has some God in the dock questions.
Or maybe you have questions on behalf of others.

A young teacher married for only a few months. Finds out her husband has strayed morally. Things can't be repaired, they divorce, and she is scarred
And has to learn to trust again.

I cannot forget Mavis. Her brilliant young Christian son died in a car accident caused by an irresponsible driver.
Then her husband died. And then having a night out She and her daughter went to see Barry Humphries. Perhaps Melbourne has less Entertainment options than Adelaide.
At some point he through a bouquet of flowers into the audience that hit her triple certificated daughter Robin in the chest. She went to a specialist
Operate. He botched the operation and caused a lung infection that crippled her and she struggled on for a few years until she died.

Iraqis must wonder‑ freed from a Saddam's evil to face terrorist evil.

Zimbabwe farmers needed to supply their people With food, beaten off their land by a madman armed with racist ideologies.

And while we are piling up the tally, what about N Korea. A regime that has money for nuclear weapons and military might.  But lets its people starve, even diverting UN supplies to its soldiers
While its people eat weeds and roots.

Bring on the dock. Even our Lord, on the eve of moving from being Jesus of Nazareth to being Jesus the Saviour prays that there will be another way ahead,
But not what he wants, to stay in this beautiful world and fish with Peter.
Climb mountains with his disciples, have barbeques on the beach. He will do whatever his Father's will is, no matter what.
He prays and the answer comes as the Betraying lips of Judas mark him out for arrest.
And even on the cross, as the sin of the world falls upon him
"Father, Father", He cries out "why have you forsaken me"?

As Hebrews 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered
9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him

What I find absorbing is to see the other side to these questions and complaints.

Lets move from the challenges to some answers.
Job demands his day with God in the dock and from Job 38 on he gets it.
But what happens is not what he expected.
Instead he ends up in the dock. He is questioned about his credentials to question God. Job is exposed as ignorant, powerless, and ungrateful
For all the good he has received from the hand of God.
He only exists by the grace of God. 42:1 Then Job replied to the LORD:
2 "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted".
3 You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?" Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.

He doesn't seem to have all or any of his questions answered, But having met God he can live without all the answers.

Habakkuk passionately asks his questions but then
Without seeming to have them answered in a cognitive way Comes to the following conclusion in Ch. 3 17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

And the Paul, of shipwreck and whipping fame can say alongside of all that Has happened, all the suffering, tragedy, persecution, pain:
Philp.4: for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
God has given him the grace to live with his trials. And he won't even heal Paul of his physical affliction, his thorn in the flesh. He says My grace is sufficient for you. And Paul accepts that.
He is healed at a deeper level than the physical, in his heart his soul, he learns to live with his pain and his unanswered requests through faith in Christ.

And Mavis. Angry with God, disappointed at the pain in her life,
Hurt every day but held her pain together Job 13 3 15 Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.           CS Lewis: the risk of being healthy must mean the risk of being sick.
The freedom to love God is risky because that same means can be used to crucify God.
And Elie Weisel. As prisoners watched a young boy being hung by the Nazis someone asked. 'Where is God now?'. Weisel writes:
"And I heard a voice within me answer him;
'Where is He? Here he is‑He is hanging here on the gallows...'

God was in the tragedy. And the dozens of different writers of the Psalms have another side to them:     Ps. 22 starts with My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?
Ends with 23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honour him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

The deepest faith learns to hold questions alongside of faith in Christ ‑trust alongside of doubts.' questions made into prayers.
Prayers made into actions to support the people of N. Korea,
The terrorized of Iraq while the big picture is being dealt with. Faith in Christ can move us from cynicism and anger into a relationship that helps us live with our unanswered questions.