17 January 2010

Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 36:5-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11

I think it was the Swiss Theologian, Karl Barth, who once said that when a preacher prepares a Sunday Sermon, he or she needs to have a Bible in one hand...and the newspaper in the other...so that the Word that is preached touches what people are experiencing and feeling in their daily lives.  I had this Bible story about Jesus and the feast where the wine ran out where he intervened to save the day at his mother’s insistence, but with the news in my other hand, from the Denver Post and televised reports, I felt I had to go back to “square one” with my sermon preparation.  I needed to try to sort the feelings I was having as I watched all of this unfold thousands of miles away -- sensing that you would be having similar feelings  as you came to St. Paul this morning.

Wednesday evening, former president Clinton, the recently-appointed UN special envoy to Haiti, described the earthquake as a “tragedy of Biblical proportions.”  I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that.  Maybe he had in mind the Genesis story of Noah and the destruction of great Flood -- of maybe he was simply giving voice to what many of us tend to ask at times like this.  Where is God and what is his will in an event of this nature?  If God is truly in control of the world He has created, why do deadly earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis occur?

Some, I am sure, look at an an event like this and find it to be proof that there is no God -- or worse yet, a God who is powerless to keep it from happening or uncaring when it does.  And, inevitably, there are always those who seem to feel they have a direct line to God’s mind, eager to tell us that for one reason or another, God wills such events.  Pat Roberston, for one, almost immediately claimed that Haiti “has been cursed from the beginning” for their history of “voodo worship” is evidence of a “pact with the devil.”  Our daughter, who is an editor for the Ft. Collins Coloradoan shared with me that their newsroom received a fax from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, claiming that in addition to God’s anger over pagan practices, He does not like the widespread presence of Roman Catholic worship in that country, either.  Such religious nonsense falls into the same category as those who wanted us to see the attacks of 9/ll as evidence of God’s anger toward America because of its toleration of gay rights, feminism, right to life, and any number of groups and causes with which they disagreed...or those who voiced similar reasons for Hurricane Katrina, adding in that this was “God’s fist” striking us because there were people in America supporting the cause of the Palestinians in the Holy Land instead of giving whole-hearted support to Israeli policies.

Since in disasters like these, it is the poor who seem to suffer the most, especially in a desperately poor county like Haiti, this not only appears to be an example of “blaming the victims,” but also a wrong-headed indictment of God.  Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourner’s Magazine is “right-on,” it seems to me, when he wrote this week, in response to Pat Robertson’s latest outburst: “My God does not cause evil.  God is not a vengeful and retributive being, waiting to strike us down.  Instead, God is in the midst of this tragedy, suffering with those who suffer.”

And let me add to this some similar words written by William Safire a few years ago in the aftermath of the horrendous tsunami spawned by an earthquake causing massive death and destruction.  Basing his reflections on this event in the light of his reading of the Book of Job, he made three insightful conclusions that seem to underscore the words of Jim Wallis while giving us food for thought on all of this:

1.  The victims of events like this in no way “deserve” the fate that has been inflicted by the forces of nature.  Not all suffering comes as a form of punishment; sometimes it falls on those who are totally innocent and whose lives are already insecure and full of risk.  Safire reminds us that although his “friends” tried to convince Job that his troubles were the result of something he had done or not done, they were totally wrong.

2.  It is not wrong for us to question God, when we find ourselves in the midst of pain and struggles wondering why this has happened to us or others, nor do such questions lead inevitably to undermining our faith. The book of Job clearly gives us an example of a man whose suffering was immense, and whose raised serious questions to God, and yet in the end could not and would not curse God.  Even the words of Psalm 22, which Christ cries out on the cross, as he wonders if God has abandoned him, in the end are words of one who questions, but does not lose faith.

3.  Finally, when we are confronted by the aftermath of events such as we witnessed in the South East tsunami and which we are now witnessing in Haiti, Safire reminds us that our primary obligation is to express generosity – not to engage in interminable arguments about where blame is to be placed.  Jim Wallis, after reminding us that God is in the midst of the Haitian disaster, “suffering with those who are suffering,” that our response should be not only to keep the people of Haiti in our prayers, but to give what we can to help those who are in Haiti providing food, water, shelter, and medical care to those so desperately in need.