"Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?"

            The technical, theological term for my sermon this Sunday, February 24th, is “theodicy,” which is the problem of evil.  For Christians the problem of evil is an especially difficult challenge because of our understanding of who God is.  Traditionally, Christians have seen God as all knowing (omniscient), all powerful (omnipotent), and all loving.  We believe that God seeks to be in a loving, caring relationship with each of us.  Given this understanding of who God is, the challenge becomes this:  If God is all powerful; if God is all knowing; and if God is all loving, then why does God allow bad things to happen?

            In my sermon this Sunday, February 24th, I will be struggling with this doubt.  The scriptural basis for my sermon will be Job 38: 1-12.  As we discovered in my previous sermon on February 10th, concerning whether we can be angry with God, the Book of Job is an excellent resource for reflection on the problem of evil. 

            In reflecting on theodicy, I think it is important to distinguish between natural evil versus human evil.  By natural evil, I mean the occurrence of bad things, which are beyond human control and responsibility.  Natural evil occurs on a large scale, when humans and other living creatures suffer because of floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.  Natural evil also occurs on an individual scale when, for example, an individual suffers from a disease such as cancer, or a baby is born with a life impacting birth defect.  We tend to hold God completely responsible for natural evil.

            By contrast, human evil refers to evil, which is clearly caused by human decisions and actions.  Genocidal acts, such as the Holocaust, as well as more recently in Rwanda, Darfur, and Iraq, are examples of human evil on a large, social scale.  On an individual, personal scale, crimes such as rape and murder, are examples of human evil.  For many Christians, human evil seems to be more easy to understand—and explain.  We believe that God gifted each individual with free will, to choose either good or bad.  Thus, human evil can be explained as a freely chosen act that perpetrates evil over good. 

            For most of my pilgrimage as a Christian, I have felt comfortable explaining away human evil as not the responsibility of God, but rather the result of human free will.  More recently, however, I have become dis-satisfied with this answer concerning the root of human evil.  Part of my re-thinking on the question of human evil centers on scale.  When many persons suffer because of the decisions by a single individual or a small group of persons, is it reasonable to attribute all of that suffering to free will?  Consider the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings on December 14th:  In this tragedy, 26 people died because of the actions of a lone shooter, Adam Lanza.  Twenty-six lives seem like a very high price to pay for the misused free will of a single individual.  Why would a loving God allow so many people to suffer, just to warrant the free will of a single individual?

            Another reason that I am re-thinking my response to human evil concerns the nature of human freedom.  There is increasing doubt that individual persons are as completely free as we have traditionally assumed.  For instance, sociologists and anthropologists have long pointed out that individual persons are profoundly influenced by their social context.  Our “social location” shapes our outlook and limits our options to mentally consider various possibilities.  More recently, social geneticists have made interesting discoveries that suggest we may be genetically predisposed to adopt some social perspectives over others.  While none of these discoveries suggest that we lack some degree of free will, they do indicate that the scope of our free will may be significantly restricted.  For me, this restricted understanding of free will has begun to raise doubts about whether all of human evil can be simply written off as flawed human decisions.

            Job asks God, “Why have you allowed so many evil things to happen to me, your faithful and just servant?”  This is just a more personalized version of our question:  “Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?”  In our scriptural passage this Sunday, God responds to Job, but God does not directly explain why bad things happen.  Although Christians have been struggling with theodicy for centuries, there does not appear to be a satisfactory answer to this doubt.  As Christians, we must accept and trust God in faith.

            At the same time, I believe that it is important to read the Book of Job side-by-side with the Gospels’ account of the crucifixion of Christ.  In John 15:13, Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Then, Jesus did precisely this:  Jesus suffered and died on the Cross out of his love for us and in order to redeem all of Creation.  There may be no satisfactory explanation for the problem of evil, but we do not suffer alone.  God is present in our suffering.  God has also suffered with us through God’s suffering and death on the Cross.  Even though the rationale may be beyond human wisdom, we do see redemption in God’s suffering with and for us.  This should serve as strength and consolation when we suffer from evil—either human or natural.

This sermon is the seventh in a series, called:  “Confronting Our Doubts.”  For a complete listing of the series, see my first post below.  Through confronting issues that raise doubts, I believe that we can gain deeper understanding and a stronger faith.  I hope that this sermon will stimulate deeper reflection and understanding.

Feel free to post your comments on this blog.  If you live in the Meriden-area and do not have a regular church home, please consider attending Meriden United Methodist Church this Sunday.  Meriden UMC is located at the corner of Dawson and Main.  Our worship service starts on Sundays at 10 am.  Everyone is welcome and accepted because God loves us all.