Fake News: It Is All God's Plan
Fake News: It Is All God’s Plan
Psalm 13
Isaiah 41: 8 – 10
June 23, 2024
Grant was such a cute baby. The first child of an older couple, Grant had enormous brown eyes and a head full of dark, rich black hair that always looked windblown because of his huge, soft curls. When I baptized Grant, he was about four months old. As I took him from his mother’s embrace, he just smiled and snuggled right into my arms. He laughed as I baptized him. Grant was adorable.
A couple months later Grant began to struggle. In a horrible unforeseen coincidence, both of his parents were carriers of a very rare genetic disease called Pompe’s Disease. His muscles began to waste away. His parents got him enrolled in an experimental gene treatment program that slowed the progress of his disease, but he spent much of the time in the Children’s Hospital getting treatment for related symptoms.
At Grant’s second birthday we had a special party for him….. in the hospital. His doctors and parents were mildly optimistic that the gene therapy was providing some reasons for hope. Most babies with infant onset Pompe’s disease died before the age of 2.
A few days later, because of some tragic treatment mistakes, Grant had a series of horrific events that left him brain dead and on life support. 3 days later Grant, his parents and I sat in the Chapel of the Children’s Hospital singing to him, holding him – and each other – as Grant took his last breaths.
How I remember his mom – his faithful, wonderful mom – looking at me and asking why God couldn’t have done something different.
Twin brothers, the only sons of a family in my first church, were driving home together from college on Christmas break. They left later than they had originally scheduled and so they found themselves winding through the mountains of the northeast on the way home late in the evening. No one knows what really happened. It was snowing. But what we do know is that their car swerved off the road, hit a tree, and that both boys – the only children of the Clarks – were killed.
The Clark parents spent months with our senior pastor trying desperately to find a way to understand God’s place in what had happened to them. After almost a year of conversation they left the church – and the faith – disillusioned, heartbroken, and incredibly bitter.
I have been blessed to be the missions pastor at two very large churches. While I now much prefer service in smaller churches, I do miss the material resources that large churches can utilize in service to God and to God’s people.
One site in particular has a special claim on my heart. I have spent over 20 years in service to this mission hospital. An individual made a large donation making it possible for this Christian hospital to have the only functioning imaging center in the region. Other donors and the church have provided resources to keep the hospital functioning. The doctors and nurses are all Christians in a non-Christian region. Everyone who comes through their doors gets treated with love, kindness, and expertise regardless of ethnicity, national origin, or economic status.
This hospital exists in a war-torn land. The medical director recently lost his home to a bombing. The leading hospital administrator has not been seen in several months. No one knows if she is even alive. The hospital labors on – somehow – serving as a bright light of hope in a very dark place.
Recently a friend of mine who is familiar with my connection there asked a profound question. “Where is God in the midst of all of this tragedy?” It’s a good question. It is the right question.
The issue of a good God and the presence of tragedy is a significant issue for us. For people of faith - for people who seek to live in a relationship with God - when horrific events assail us, we are often moved to cry out, “Where were you God? You are the Creator of the Universe. You hold the Sun and Moon, the Stars – the entire Cosmos – in your hands. Where were you when my child, when my spouse, when my family member needed healing or protection? Where were you when the place that is doing your work was bombed? Is this how you care for those you are supposed to love? Aren’t you in control?”
People outside the faith ask a similar question. They ask, “If your God is so good; if your God really loves us; if your God is truly all powerful then why does your God allow such evil things to happen?”
Folks, it’s a fair question – one echoed in the Psalms. We in the church all too often set up the question ourselves in the clichés that we utter at the time of death and tragedy. We talk about a sovereign God. We talk about a God who knows the number of hairs on our heads. When life is good, peaceful, and filled with bounty we loudly proclaim and give thanks to the God who we declare is intimately involved and responsible for the details of our lives. We quote Jeremiah 28 and declare that our comfort and privilege is a reflection of God’s plan for our lives.
But what happens when it all goes south? It is easy to talk about God being in control when life is good. Where are God’s plans when we are struck with tragedy? When our spouse or child isn’t healed – in this lifetime? When those we love are caught in a death spiral of drugs and self-destructive behavior? When we become the innocent victims of other’s greed or quest for power? Where is God at those times? Am I to believe that God is responsible for this tragedy? Are we to believe that somehow this horrible event is God’s plan? Do I just reject the notion of God all together?
The church has wrestled with this issue for centuries. One extreme has God as a disinterested, cosmic watchmaker who spun creation into existence but who then sits back to watch history unfold like we might watch a television show. In this construct, God does not break into history. This God bears no responsibility for evil and suffering, but instead does become guilty of the charge of divine indifference.
The other extreme, actually shadowed in our Reformed tradition, has a sovereign God controlling and directing every event, every sequence of events, every happenstance in our lives. Again, this is great when life is good. But when it isn’t, God then becomes responsible; God then becomes originator of both good and evil. How many times have we heard, or perhaps even said ourselves in the midst of the chaos of tragedy, “Hang in there, God has a plan.” I was told that countless times when my father was killed. In this construct, God moves from protector to perpetrator.
There is no easy, simple answer to the question of a good God and the presence of evil and suffering. But lets start the conversation and see where it takes us.
I think we need to start with some basic biblical assumptions. God is sovereign, all-powerful, and all-knowing. God is good. God loves us. God wants only what is best for us. God deeply desires an intimate relationship with us. That relationship is the very reason for which we were created.
God’s desire, God’s plan for us as His beloved creation, was reflected in the beauty, in the peace, and in the joy of the life before humanity chose self-centeredness. Creation was a place that reflected God’s goodness. A place where humanity walked hand in hand with its Creator in a deep and intimate relationship. A place where there was no sin and pain. All of God’s goodness was reflected in Creation – it was perfection, it was Paradise.
But friends, there was a prerequisite for our relationship with God. Love requires free will, the ability to not love and to then go one’s own way. Loves requires freedom of choice. The ability to choose for God or for one’s self.
When humanity said no – when pride, ego, and self-centeredness reared its ugly head – sin entered the world. Not only did sin create division between humanity and God – breaking and distorting that divinely intended relationship; but sin also, somehow, in some way distorted Creation itself. Romans 8 tells us that now Creation itself lives in bondage to that brokenness, to that decay. Creation, that text graphically tells us, groans under the weight of sin and it is that brokenness that is the source of so much sickness and disease.
And so, as a result of that initial rebellion, sin, tragedy, and brokenness entered the world. God is sovereign. God is all-powerful. But God has chosen to limit the expression of His sovereignty and power by giving to us freedom of choice – the freedom to love, the freedom to be – and not to be – in relationship with God.
We are capable of great beauty; but in our brokenness, we are also capable of choosing to go our own way. That choice, that rebelliousness, is not God’s fault; that was not God’s desire. Again, Paradise was God’s desire.
Oftentimes we are the victims of other’s sinfully bad and evil choices. Sometimes the tragedies that we experience are brought on by our own sinful choices. And other times we fall prey to the sickness and disease that exits in a broken world. Sin, and its painful consequences, occur on an individual level. Sin also happens on a global and institutional level as the influence of individuals – and groups of individuals – expands.
Natural tragedy hits as Creation itself spasms under the consequences of sin. Earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, sickness, evil, disease (hear that again, sickness, evil and disease) - I believe these are examples of Creation groaning and contorting under the weight of a sinfulness that has somehow marred and distorted the physical world.
So where is God in the midst of tragedy? I believe that God is in the redemption business. God is in the business of transformation. I believe that God grieves as we suffer under the consequences of sin. I believe that God has sent Jesus Christ into the world – as an act of love – to make it possible for us to become people no longer defined by our sinfulness and rebellion but instead by our redemption, obedience, and reconciliation. I believe, and it has been my experience, that God raises up men and women, children and youth, to stand with us in our brokenness and times of tragedy to carry us when we are not capable of carrying ourselves.
Friends, God is not responsible for the evil that afflicts us. God is the answer to that evil. God is not responsible for the events that might result in great tragedy and hardship, but God has not left us alone in that distress. God sends to us the Holy Spirit so that - even in the midst of strain, difficulty, and the chaos of tragedy - we are not alone. We have the Holy Spirit. We also have one another so that we can be tangible expressions of God’s love and concern for those who are afflicted with grief and tragedy.
Finally, I believe Scripture reminds us, that not only does God grieve for us, not only does God send to us the Holy Spirit, not only does God raise up folks to help us deal with tragedy, but Scripture also reminds us that tragedy does not have the final word. Remember, the tomb is empty. God owns the final page. Eternity is an intentional expression of God’s love and desires for us. God’s will ultimately triumphs. The sick are healed; the broken are made whole – in eternity. In eternity, our tears are no longer expressions of sadness and despair but instead are evidence of indescribable joy!
Where is God in tragedy? Right where you want Him, right where you need Him, right alongside of us. Not as perpetrator, not as cause, but as the only, ultimate, eternal answer to whatever might afflict us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Psalm 13
Isaiah 41: 8 – 10
June 23, 2024
Grant was such a cute baby. The first child of an older couple, Grant had enormous brown eyes and a head full of dark, rich black hair that always looked windblown because of his huge, soft curls. When I baptized Grant, he was about four months old. As I took him from his mother’s embrace, he just smiled and snuggled right into my arms. He laughed as I baptized him. Grant was adorable.
A couple months later Grant began to struggle. In a horrible unforeseen coincidence, both of his parents were carriers of a very rare genetic disease called Pompe’s Disease. His muscles began to waste away. His parents got him enrolled in an experimental gene treatment program that slowed the progress of his disease, but he spent much of the time in the Children’s Hospital getting treatment for related symptoms.
At Grant’s second birthday we had a special party for him….. in the hospital. His doctors and parents were mildly optimistic that the gene therapy was providing some reasons for hope. Most babies with infant onset Pompe’s disease died before the age of 2.
A few days later, because of some tragic treatment mistakes, Grant had a series of horrific events that left him brain dead and on life support. 3 days later Grant, his parents and I sat in the Chapel of the Children’s Hospital singing to him, holding him – and each other – as Grant took his last breaths.
How I remember his mom – his faithful, wonderful mom – looking at me and asking why God couldn’t have done something different.
Twin brothers, the only sons of a family in my first church, were driving home together from college on Christmas break. They left later than they had originally scheduled and so they found themselves winding through the mountains of the northeast on the way home late in the evening. No one knows what really happened. It was snowing. But what we do know is that their car swerved off the road, hit a tree, and that both boys – the only children of the Clarks – were killed.
The Clark parents spent months with our senior pastor trying desperately to find a way to understand God’s place in what had happened to them. After almost a year of conversation they left the church – and the faith – disillusioned, heartbroken, and incredibly bitter.
I have been blessed to be the missions pastor at two very large churches. While I now much prefer service in smaller churches, I do miss the material resources that large churches can utilize in service to God and to God’s people.
One site in particular has a special claim on my heart. I have spent over 20 years in service to this mission hospital. An individual made a large donation making it possible for this Christian hospital to have the only functioning imaging center in the region. Other donors and the church have provided resources to keep the hospital functioning. The doctors and nurses are all Christians in a non-Christian region. Everyone who comes through their doors gets treated with love, kindness, and expertise regardless of ethnicity, national origin, or economic status.
This hospital exists in a war-torn land. The medical director recently lost his home to a bombing. The leading hospital administrator has not been seen in several months. No one knows if she is even alive. The hospital labors on – somehow – serving as a bright light of hope in a very dark place.
Recently a friend of mine who is familiar with my connection there asked a profound question. “Where is God in the midst of all of this tragedy?” It’s a good question. It is the right question.
The issue of a good God and the presence of tragedy is a significant issue for us. For people of faith - for people who seek to live in a relationship with God - when horrific events assail us, we are often moved to cry out, “Where were you God? You are the Creator of the Universe. You hold the Sun and Moon, the Stars – the entire Cosmos – in your hands. Where were you when my child, when my spouse, when my family member needed healing or protection? Where were you when the place that is doing your work was bombed? Is this how you care for those you are supposed to love? Aren’t you in control?”
People outside the faith ask a similar question. They ask, “If your God is so good; if your God really loves us; if your God is truly all powerful then why does your God allow such evil things to happen?”
Folks, it’s a fair question – one echoed in the Psalms. We in the church all too often set up the question ourselves in the clichés that we utter at the time of death and tragedy. We talk about a sovereign God. We talk about a God who knows the number of hairs on our heads. When life is good, peaceful, and filled with bounty we loudly proclaim and give thanks to the God who we declare is intimately involved and responsible for the details of our lives. We quote Jeremiah 28 and declare that our comfort and privilege is a reflection of God’s plan for our lives.
But what happens when it all goes south? It is easy to talk about God being in control when life is good. Where are God’s plans when we are struck with tragedy? When our spouse or child isn’t healed – in this lifetime? When those we love are caught in a death spiral of drugs and self-destructive behavior? When we become the innocent victims of other’s greed or quest for power? Where is God at those times? Am I to believe that God is responsible for this tragedy? Are we to believe that somehow this horrible event is God’s plan? Do I just reject the notion of God all together?
The church has wrestled with this issue for centuries. One extreme has God as a disinterested, cosmic watchmaker who spun creation into existence but who then sits back to watch history unfold like we might watch a television show. In this construct, God does not break into history. This God bears no responsibility for evil and suffering, but instead does become guilty of the charge of divine indifference.
The other extreme, actually shadowed in our Reformed tradition, has a sovereign God controlling and directing every event, every sequence of events, every happenstance in our lives. Again, this is great when life is good. But when it isn’t, God then becomes responsible; God then becomes originator of both good and evil. How many times have we heard, or perhaps even said ourselves in the midst of the chaos of tragedy, “Hang in there, God has a plan.” I was told that countless times when my father was killed. In this construct, God moves from protector to perpetrator.
There is no easy, simple answer to the question of a good God and the presence of evil and suffering. But lets start the conversation and see where it takes us.
I think we need to start with some basic biblical assumptions. God is sovereign, all-powerful, and all-knowing. God is good. God loves us. God wants only what is best for us. God deeply desires an intimate relationship with us. That relationship is the very reason for which we were created.
God’s desire, God’s plan for us as His beloved creation, was reflected in the beauty, in the peace, and in the joy of the life before humanity chose self-centeredness. Creation was a place that reflected God’s goodness. A place where humanity walked hand in hand with its Creator in a deep and intimate relationship. A place where there was no sin and pain. All of God’s goodness was reflected in Creation – it was perfection, it was Paradise.
But friends, there was a prerequisite for our relationship with God. Love requires free will, the ability to not love and to then go one’s own way. Loves requires freedom of choice. The ability to choose for God or for one’s self.
When humanity said no – when pride, ego, and self-centeredness reared its ugly head – sin entered the world. Not only did sin create division between humanity and God – breaking and distorting that divinely intended relationship; but sin also, somehow, in some way distorted Creation itself. Romans 8 tells us that now Creation itself lives in bondage to that brokenness, to that decay. Creation, that text graphically tells us, groans under the weight of sin and it is that brokenness that is the source of so much sickness and disease.
And so, as a result of that initial rebellion, sin, tragedy, and brokenness entered the world. God is sovereign. God is all-powerful. But God has chosen to limit the expression of His sovereignty and power by giving to us freedom of choice – the freedom to love, the freedom to be – and not to be – in relationship with God.
We are capable of great beauty; but in our brokenness, we are also capable of choosing to go our own way. That choice, that rebelliousness, is not God’s fault; that was not God’s desire. Again, Paradise was God’s desire.
Oftentimes we are the victims of other’s sinfully bad and evil choices. Sometimes the tragedies that we experience are brought on by our own sinful choices. And other times we fall prey to the sickness and disease that exits in a broken world. Sin, and its painful consequences, occur on an individual level. Sin also happens on a global and institutional level as the influence of individuals – and groups of individuals – expands.
Natural tragedy hits as Creation itself spasms under the consequences of sin. Earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes, sickness, evil, disease (hear that again, sickness, evil and disease) - I believe these are examples of Creation groaning and contorting under the weight of a sinfulness that has somehow marred and distorted the physical world.
So where is God in the midst of tragedy? I believe that God is in the redemption business. God is in the business of transformation. I believe that God grieves as we suffer under the consequences of sin. I believe that God has sent Jesus Christ into the world – as an act of love – to make it possible for us to become people no longer defined by our sinfulness and rebellion but instead by our redemption, obedience, and reconciliation. I believe, and it has been my experience, that God raises up men and women, children and youth, to stand with us in our brokenness and times of tragedy to carry us when we are not capable of carrying ourselves.
Friends, God is not responsible for the evil that afflicts us. God is the answer to that evil. God is not responsible for the events that might result in great tragedy and hardship, but God has not left us alone in that distress. God sends to us the Holy Spirit so that - even in the midst of strain, difficulty, and the chaos of tragedy - we are not alone. We have the Holy Spirit. We also have one another so that we can be tangible expressions of God’s love and concern for those who are afflicted with grief and tragedy.
Finally, I believe Scripture reminds us, that not only does God grieve for us, not only does God send to us the Holy Spirit, not only does God raise up folks to help us deal with tragedy, but Scripture also reminds us that tragedy does not have the final word. Remember, the tomb is empty. God owns the final page. Eternity is an intentional expression of God’s love and desires for us. God’s will ultimately triumphs. The sick are healed; the broken are made whole – in eternity. In eternity, our tears are no longer expressions of sadness and despair but instead are evidence of indescribable joy!
Where is God in tragedy? Right where you want Him, right where you need Him, right alongside of us. Not as perpetrator, not as cause, but as the only, ultimate, eternal answer to whatever might afflict us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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