I think it's still applicable. Just change Asia to Japan:
We all have seen the pictures on the news–pictures of millions of gallons of water slamming into the seashore, devastating homes, businesses, and taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. We’ve heard the heart-wrenching stories of families who lost loved ones, of a mother who had to choose between children, and of those who are still wondering. We continue to hear of how people are scurrying to head off disease and famine and how the efforts to get relief to south-east Asia are moving frightfully slow. In all of this chaos–in all of this confusion–in all of this turmoil, there are many people of faith asking some serious questions.
Why is perhaps the biggest one. Why did God allow this to happen? Why did so many have to perish? Why couldn’t have God stopped this from happening? Where is another question that comes. Where was God when all of this was happening? Where is God now?
As I stated before, these are serious questions. They are questions that deserve answers. They are questions of a deep faith.
And oftentimes we try to come up with the answers. One of the ones that usually comes out and quickly is that God was somehow punishing these people for something. Generally it may have to do with the fact that there are many in these areas who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore, God is punishing them and making them believe by the pain that is inflicted. There is usually a corollary to this type of thinking that says, "When I believe in the right way and am doing the right things, then bad things like this won’t happen to me."
Believe it or not, this answer is actually found in the Bible. The Old Testament has many instances where God is characterized as a God who willingly inflicts pain and disaster because of the disbelief of a group of people. We are told of how God sent the great flood to destroy the world because it was wicked. We are told of how God sent poisonous snakes among the people of Israel because of their faithlessness toward Him. We are told of how God allowed armies to conquer and devastate the Kingdom of Israel because they failed to worship him. So, indeed, this answer is a possible answer to the questions of why God allowed this to happen. However, as I look at the life of Jesus Christ, I can’t help but wonder if this is an adequate answer?
In the past couple of weeks we celebrated Christmas; the birth of our Lord and Savior. In my Christmas Eve sermon I recounted how I believed that one of the most significant aspects of Christmas is that God came down in the form of Jesus Christ. God came down to share our lot in life. God came down to experience the things that we experience, to hurt like we hurt, to laugh like we laugh, and to cry like we cry. As I read the life of Jesus, I can’t see one instance where he tries to make people believe by harming them. I can’t see one instance where he injures or kills someone to punish them. Rather, Jesus acted quite the opposite. He brought healing and compassion. He forgave and encouraged people to sin no more. He trusted even those who denied him. In light of Jesus Christ, I have a hard time that God sent that tsunami to Asia to punish anyone or to force them into belief. I’m not sure God had a hand in that at all.
Which leads me to the next question: why didn’t God stop that wave? Why didn’t God prevent all of those people from dying? Honestly, I don’t know the answer. The closest we come in the Bible is the book of Job. Job himself wonders why he is having to go through all of the difficult times in life. He’s lost his family to death. He’s lost all his money. His friends are convinced that he sinned so that God hated him. Yet, Job knew he did nothing of the sort, and he cries out to God. God simply says, "My ways are not your ways. How can you in your infinite state understand me when I am eternal?" Perhaps God could have stopped the tsunami. Perhaps he couldn’t have. I really don’t know the answer, and I have to live in the somewhat uncomfortable mystery of it.
And in the midst of this uncomfortableness, the question arises, "So where was God in the midst of all of this?" I am reminded of Elie Weisel, the great author who wrote about the Holocaust. He recalls a day when walking through a concentration camp. The prisoners were all forced to watch the hanging of several men. One boy also was to be hung. The executioner kicked over the chairs, and one by one the men fell, breaking their necks and dying. The boy, however was different, he did not weigh enough, and when his chair was kicked out from underneath him, he began to struggle as he slowly suffocated. In the midst of watching this gruesome undertaking, someone cried out, "Where are you God?" And another voice answered, "God’s right there, hanging from that gallows!"
Elie Weisel makes a huge theological statement in this story. In a very real way, this Jewish author is illustrating what we as Christians call the theology of the cross. God did not come down to earth to take our suffering away; rather, God came down to share in our suffering. To show that He understands our pain, our hurts, and our wounds. That’s one of the reasons Jesus went to the cross and died–to show that God cares about our sufferings. God hurts when we hurt, and God cries whenever we experience tragedy. Where was God when that tsunami hit Asia? He was being swept away by the waters. He was having to choose which child to hold onto. He was searching for loved ones He may never see again. He was shedding tears that many of His beloved children were dying.
God was in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of that pain, in the midst of that tragedy crying out with humanity. And now God is active in the midst of that chaos working through the many relief workers who have pledged their support. He is there working in every dollar that is being raised to feed, clothe, house, and vaccinate the people affected by this disaster. God is there. Period.
As Saint Paul states in his letter to the Romans in the 8th Chapter, "What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
What Paul writes is a promise: a promise that is given to each and every one of us who call upon the name of Jesus Christ. It is a promise that is given to us at our baptism. Yes, on that day when God comes down to us, washes us clean of that selfish nature and clothes us with Christ–God gives us a promise. He promises that he will never desert us nor abandon us. He promises that nothing can separate us from His love. He calls to us and says, "You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased." And from that point on, we will never be forsaken. Tsunamis will hit again. Volcanoes will erupt. Buildings will topple. War will come. But none of this will separate us from God’s love, and that love will manifest itself as we show compassion and caring toward those affected by these and other disasters. And that’s a promise worth holding onto! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment