Trinity Episcopal Church

January 17, 2010

Today I am preempting my regularly scheduled sermon. This week I prayed for Haiti, for those who were trapped and the volunteers who tried to free them. We feel helpless and in shock at the scale of this tragedy.

And I knew many would wonder, Where was God in all of this?

It reminds me of my first encounter with theodicy (the theologian’s word for coming to terms with the goodness of God and the evil that happens in our world).

I remember watching the news, Walter Cronkite, news, not opinion. That was in the 1960’s, that’s before the news networks played their electric guitars and light show and JC Penney models as announcers. As a kid I watched scenes of the war in Vietnam---helicopters; jungle forests; sweat stained soldiers with rifles on their backs walking dirt roads.

And one night they showed a village ravaged by a battle, and dead bodies were everywhere, including animals, and shocked, I sat on the edge of the couch and exclaimed, “YOU MEAN THEY KILL DOGS TOO?” (My brother, who had just returned from Vietnam a leg shorter, wrote an article Saginaw news with that same title).

This week we watched scenes on TV of the Haitian crisis. And we’ve heard an infinity of commentary. Reporters self-righteously broadcasting from the tragic scene, “…and where is their (Haitian) God?”

Reporters who wear $100 safari shirts who come from Santa Barbara, California, who surfed their way through college and know nothing of the struggle, poverty, or faith of the Haitian people.

Commentary: One “Christian” religious leader (I use the term loosely) said that the Haitians swore a pact with the devil to free them from the French, and the devil said “OK, it‘s a deal” and they kicked out the French, but since then, “they’ve been cursed by one thing or another.” (This is from "Slate," the online news magazine.)

I’m not sure if that means that the devil caused the earthquake or God did---either way I am embarrassed by his statement.

Haiti is a country, by the way, that claims to be 80% Roman Catholic and 16% Protestant. Which, last I looked, were also Christian denominations.

Why is it that news networks look for these guys who maybe wrote a popular book in the 70s, who obtained their ministerial degrees online---Master of Divinity conferred by Zappos.com---and then they bring them on TV and ask them, “What God and the bible have to say” about the tragedy.

I realize I’m a nobody when it comes to the media. That’s why CNN didn’t pick me to respond to the Haitian crisis. I don’t live in California; I didn’t get my degree from Zappos. I’m not a Penney’s model, but nevertheless, I decided I should respond.

I know I can’t answer the question of “Why?” but maybe we can sort it out a bit.

Some people believe in deism. A view a of God, who created the universe and set it in motion with laws to govern it. Then God walked away. He wound up the clock and left the room. “God has left the building!” Storms, earthquakes and tornados are part of nature and since God has left the building, God is not involved.

But according to the Bible, and my own experience, God is involved; He knows us by name. He sees us, He hears us, He feels our pain, and He answers our prayers. And God gives us courage in our troubles.

As I watched the TV coverage, I wrote down some Haitian stories: A man trapped for 50 hours came out from under the rubble, “My prayers and faith in God is what helped me through it.” he said.

A girl buried under dead bodies for 2 days was rescued and had a microphone stuck in her face and was asked if she had anything to say. A woman standing next to the young girl stepped in and simply responded, “God! That’s all we have to say.”

These are just two of a dozen stories spoken by Haitian earthquake victims. Slow to speak about the faith of the living the reporters were quick to speak about the “so called God” of the dead.

Jesus never said He would save us from ever getting hurt. Jesus got hurt. The Apostles got hurt. Jesus’ mother Mary, the saints and martyrs---even God got hurt!

But Jesus promised He would never let us go.
He promised our pain and cries would be heard by God in his eternal heaven.
Jesus promised “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes on me… will never die!” God is involved in the world.

Some people believe in determinism, or strict Calvinism. God is involved in our world, so much so that God has predetermined everything that will happen in your life and on earth. He controls everything---that is God’s plan.
Surprisingly, this is still a popular view for many Christians today.

I knew a guy in seminary, a good Christian from a church going family, who was abused as a child; I have heard and read about murders, rape and killing sprees---according to determinists all this was God’s will. Does murder, rape and violence sound like the plans of a loving and just God? Is God a murderer?

I know when I suffered the loss of my family in an car accident I had people telling me stuff like, “Oh, God needed another flower in his garden so that’s why he took your son,” or “It must be God’s will,” or “Everything happens for a reason.”

God’s will? God’s reason? We are not pawns on a chess board. God moving us around like the Greek god Zeus on Mt. Olympus.

God is not like the feeble wizard of Oz, hiding behind a cosmic curtain pushing buttons and pulling handles to control our lives.

I don’t believe everything happens for a reason. What happened to that abused boy--- what happens to the victims of violence --- what happened in Haiti is in every way opposite to the will and character of God!

And I consider it blasphemy to say God caused hurricanes or earthquakes or cancer or aids or that God has willed a child to die or be abused.

When Jesus walked the earth he showed us what God is all about; he loved children and healed people of their diseases.
Jesus went out of his way to put his arms around people who were hurting and suffering and trapped and “unclean.”

I remember a woman who spoke to me after the accident that claimed my family 15 years ago. She lived about 6 house down the street from me in Mississippi; She was a wise and gentle person with a beautiful southern accent.

She was over, with some other people and their casseroles, and I was murmuring about the question of “Why?” and Mary came over and put her arm around me and said, “Rick, sometimes things like this just happen. Accidents just happen.”

This sounded so simple, but up to that point nothing else had made any sense to me; no plan, no formula, no pithy phrases about God’s will. We live in a world where accidents just happen. There is no reason.

As we watched what unfolded on TV regarding Haiti, we saw both the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. God has given us the potential to do good, but God also takes a great risk by giving us the potential to do harm. That’s why there is good and bad in the world, because we are free.

We are free to build our homes on shorelines vulnerable to hurricanes. We are free to smoke, over eat, and drink too much alcohol. We are free to drive our cars recklessly; we are free to rob and steal and hurt one another. We are free to live in cities and villages built on the fault lines---and sometimes accidents happen---sometimes the earth shakes.

What God does promise is that he would bring good from tragedy. Romans 8:28 In all things God works for the good of those who love Him.

God promises, in the face of tragedy, to somehow, sometime, God will use it for good. That’s God’s will! Our suffering and tragedies are not irredeemable---I am just one example of that.

And in the end, no matter what and where that will occur, God promises “God will swallow up death forever, wipe away all tears, and remove the disgrace from all the earth.” Book of Isaiah 25:8

Fr. Rick Schark
Trinity Episcopal Church
Lexington, MI

Trinity Episcopal Church

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January 17, 2010