March 7, 2010
What About Suffering
- Luke 13:1-9
- Dr. Teri Thomas
So Jesus and the 12 guys are all gathered around the large screen TV in the den of Peter’s mother-in –law. They’re watching the Horizon League Playoffs and making predictions for March Madness. The game ends and the evening news comes on.
James puts down the popcorn and Peter turns up the volume on the remote. They watch quietly the images of people in Haiti still homeless, still waiting for food and water and basic human services. The report shifts to Chile where over 700 are dead from a quake and threats of tsunami still frighten the people into the hills. Now Taiwan has a quake in the same region damaged by a typhoon last August when 700 people were killed.
A commercial for Cymbalta comes on and Peter pushes the mute button.
Nathaniel laments- floods, earthquakes and tsunamis--all of them wreaking havoc and altering lives. And don’t forget the 30,000 children who died today of hunger, and those who are orphans because their parents die of AIDS. Why? It just doesn't seem fair. What have any of them done to deserve such devastation? What did they do to deserve to die?
I know, I know, Matthew pipes up. I heard Pat Robertson explain what happened in Haiti. He said, they made a deal with the devil to kick the French out and God is punishing them.
Jesus just rolls his eyes, pulls the back of his recliner up and looks at his disciples. You guys just don’t get it do you? It doesn’t work that way. The people in Haiti and Chile and Taiwan are not being killed because they were bad. Stuff happens. Tectonic plates shift. Hurricanes develop. People die. It is not because of their sin.
I know you want to think that God makes these things happen. You think a God who punishes you is better than a God who just sits by and lets random disasters happen. There has to be a reason in your mind. You scrutinize their behavior, their architecture, their government, their beliefs. You hunt for some cause to explain what happens in hopes that you can be sure it never happens to you. What you crave, above all, is control over the chaos of your lives.
Let it go, it is out of your control.
Whew, the disciples let out a collective sigh.
But Jesus isn’t finished.
Remember that Clint Eastwood movie we saw on cable last week, Unforgiven. Remember that scene when the young gun slinger is literally shaking in his boots in shock and remorse after having shot a man dead for the first time. In a weak attempt to justify himself, the young man says, “Well, I reckon he had it coming.” Clint just glared at him and said, “We all got it coming, kid.”
What is that supposed to mean, Andrew wants to know. We don’t deserve to die like that.
Before you blame God, or anyone else, just think about it. Maybe you didn’t cause the disaster but what are you doing about it? How are you living in light of it? Is there any way you contribute to poverty or racial divisions in the world? Are there ways you are involved in climate changes or government corruption? Is there anything in the way you live that needs to change?
The disciples look at Jesus like he is nuts. This conversation is scaring them.
It is not a bad thing for you to be a little nervous, Jesus says.
Don’t worry about disasters and diseases and other things that can come crashing down on your head. But don’t ignore your fear either. Because that torn place your fear has opened up inside of you is a holy place. Look around while you are there. Pay attention to what you feel. It may hurt you to stay there and it may hurt you to see, but it is not the kind of hurt that leads to death. It is the kind that leads to change. It is the kind that leads to life. (Barbara Brown Taylor)
It doesn’t make any sense, Simon mumbles.
Jesus opens his scroll to the prophet Isaiah.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Amen.