No Bad Things

Some questions contain hidden assumptions or fallacies that render them nonsense, impossible to answer meaningfully. What color is yesterday? makes a category mistake; so too When is a square? What meaning would any answer offer?

My region of the country – the south and southeast – recently has experienced devastating storms, costly in property and, most tragically, in lives as well. In this we are not alone; the Midwest has suffered and is suffering still. More than once in the aftermath of these storms I have heard the age-old question, Why do bad things happen to good people? More lament than query, likely no answer is required, just prayer and compassion and assistance. That is just as well. The question as posed allows for no meaningful answer. Hidden assumptions and fallacies lie in wait for the unwary.

First, there is the notion of “good people.” This is a Romantic idea and perhaps an Enlightenment one. But, it is not a biblical notion. When hailed as “Good Teacher” by an apparently honest seeker, Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone” (Mk 10:18, NRSV). Following this line of assessment, Paul writes:

‘There is no one who is righteous, not even one;

there is no one who has understanding,

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned aside, together they have become worthless;

there is no one who shows kindness,

there is not even one.’

‘Their throats are opened graves;

they use their tongues to deceive.’

‘The venom of vipers is under their lips.’

‘Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.’

‘Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery are in their paths,

and the way of peace they have not known.’

There is no fear of God before their eyes’ (Rom 3:10-18, NRSV).

The Christian faith is not unduly pessimistic, just unflinchingly realistic about human nature. G. K. Chesterton once remarked – tongue-in-cheek but quite accurately nonetheless – that original sin is the only truly demonstrable Christian doctrine. Christians – at least those who look honestly into Scripture and into their own hearts – understand “good people” as a category mistake not unlike a blue yesterday or a 5 o’clock square. There simply is no category of people – even the best of the lot – that may be called good and thus may be granted immunity from the difficulties and tragedies of life. Those Christians well grounded in the ancient faith are much more likely to ask why good things happen to bad people rather than the other way round.

Second, there is the notion of “bad things.” It takes a bit more work to see this also as a category mistake, but I think it is worth the effort.

Things – by which we generally mean actions or events – certainly may be evil. Christians consider anything that opposes the will of God to be evil. Nor does one need be a Christian to recognize evil, though the lack of absolute referent may be problematic. Christian or not, humans consider such atrocities as the Holocaust evil; to refuse to apply the word “evil” to such things is to bring one’s own humanity into question. There is, then, clearly a category of things labeled evil, a category usually reserved for the actions of men. And it is legitimate to question why evil things happen – not to good people but to any people at all. The Christian story offers an answer, though one I am afraid is much out of favor presently: sin. Evil is the product of human choice – free choice, yes, but free choice which has been conditioned by all the errant choices of humanity that have shaped a world in which evil is most often the easiest of choices to make. An addict is free to refuse the next drink or pill, but his freedom is conditioned by all the previous choices to feed his addiction and by the culture of addiction in which he almost certainly lives. This is not to reduce personal responsibility, but to place it within a context of corporate responsibility, as well. We are individuals, but also corporate members of humanity and our choices matter not only to ourselves, but to all men.

In a separate category, things may be tragic. These are impersonal events which violate a sense of proper order, a sense of how things “ought” to be: the untimely death of a child or young adult; the devastation wrought by tsunami, tornados, floods – “natural” disasters; the hardships wrought by drought and famine, and the like. Unlike evil things, there apparently is no one to blame for tragic events – unless one seriously considers them “acts of God.” Such events are nondiscriminatory and random – they just happen – making no distinction between saint and sinner or prince and pauper. Yet again, the Christian story offers the same explanation for tragic events as for evil ones: sin. Human sin has disrupted the order of creation and has introduced entropy and corruption where once there was order and incorruption (cf Rom 8). Clearly human behavior impacts nature: oil spills, greenhouse emissions, deforestation, etc. The Christian story sees these specific examples as signs of a disease that infects man at a much more fundamental level. The world is out of sorts because man has failed to fulfill his vocation as steward of God’s creation. Creation suffers at our hands, and we, in turn, suffer at creation’s hands.

We could add other categories. Painful things come to mind – loss and hurt common to all men – like the dissolution of a marriage, the death of an aged parent, the financial collapse of a family business: things not unusual or unexpected, but hurtful nonetheless. But no matter how many categories we add, one will be missing: bad things. For by “bad things” I mean irredeemable events that separate one from the love and will of God; and these simply do not exist.

As one case in point Scripture offers the story of Joseph: sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused of attempted rape, wrongly imprisoned, and forgotten. And yet, when time came that Joseph could exact revenge on the very brothers who instigated these evil events he said instead:

“Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today” (Gen 50:19-20, NRSV).

This text does not deny that Joseph’s brothers intended evil. Nor does the entire story deny that evil resulted from their actions; slavery and false imprisonment are clearly evil acts. But the story will not allow any of these things to be called bad precisely because God redeemed them and used them not only for Joseph’s salvation, but for the salvation of many – and ultimately for the salvation of all through the preservation of Israel.

The story of Joseph is but one of many examples offered in Scripture. Paul draws all the specific examples together in a grand theological picture of the good things in the providence of God:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28, NRSV).

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:35, 37-39, NRSV).

Evil things? Yes. Tragic things? Certainly. But bad things – things which are irredeemable by God, things which cannot be incorporated into his will for the salvation of man and the restoration of the cosmos? No. So, the Christian has no answer for the question of why bad things happen to good people because he knows it to be a meaningless question. Instead, the Christian would prefer to tell the story of a God who is even now through Christ putting all things to rights, who is even now drawing good from evil and tragic events alike. The Christian prefers to tell the final chapter of the story in which heaven and earth are joined, God’s will is done on earth as in heaven, and God is all in all – the final chapter:

God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away (Rev 21:3b-4, NRSV).

This is more than semantics and sophistry; it is the Christian faith and hope that praise God as sovereign over his creation, that recognizes that our God is good and never stands helpless before his creation. It is the faith and hope that allow us to enter into the pain of the world in redemptive prayer and work, knowing that our God draws straight with crooked lines. He is, after all, the one who brought life for all from the death of his son – the greatest good from the worst evil. In light of the cross, there are no bad things – only things which God can and will use for good, for the life of the world.

Prayer for Haiti

When confronted by such evil as the recent earthquake in Haiti, it seems fitting that we, as the people of God, remember our place and calling.

We are not called to justify the ways of God to men. We are called to proclaim the justification of men before the righteous God through the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not called to understand or explain the presence of evil. We are called to affirm what we do understand and know to be true: The Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

We are not called to solve the problems of the world -- though God has given us a role to play in that. We are called to show forth, not only with our lips but in our lives, that God is even now putting the world to rights until his kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.

We are not called to doubt, but to faith. We are not called to despair, but to hope. We are not called to blame, but to love. And we are called to pray.

A Litany for Haiti

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father:
save and have mercy on your children in Haiti.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

O God, from whom comes every good and perfect gift:
give food, water, and shelter to the hungry, thirsty and homeless in Haiti.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

Merciful God, great physician of our souls and bodies:
give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering,
and pity the afflicted in Haiti.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

Compassionate God, lover of mankind:
lead your people, by the power of your Holy Spirit,
to pray, work, and give for love of you and love of your children in Haiti.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

Almighty God, our rock and fortress, our shield and deliverer:
strengthen and protect those who strive to rescue, recover, rebuild,
and restore in Haiti.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

Victorious God, Power above all powers, King of kings and Lord of lords:
bring to an end the corruption of all earthly powers,
their neglect and abuse of the innocents,
and the dark power of the evil one in Haiti.
For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.

Lord, answer us in the day of trouble and send help from your holy place, that we may shout for joy at your victory, and triumph in the name of our God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Massacre of the Innocents

As we approach Epiphany and celebrate the revelation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, we must also confront the response of the world to that revelation: the massacre of Bethlehem’s innocent sons is the shadow side of the bright glory of the Epiphany.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more” (Mt 2:16-18, NKJV).

These children were but the first of those who would die in the name of Christ. Nearer our time, within the memory of many and the lifetime of many more, countless innocents – and many who were not so innocent – were sacrificed to Stalin’s regime in Russia, imprisoned in “special camps” under inhuman conditions until hope and life were extinguished.

But not all succumbed. Father Arseny (1893-1973) survived and brought an Epiphany of Christ into the darkness of the death camps. Surrounded by death, he nonetheless lived and shone forth the light and life of Christ. Once, near the end of his internment, he visited the camp graveyard, prompting this reflection and prayer. It is a fitting meditation on the massacre of the Innocents and on all the evil of this present dark age.

What is all this for, O my Lord? What did all these people suffer and die for? All of them: believers, non-believers, righteous ones, criminals whose crimes are impossible to weigh in human understanding? Why? And the answer came to me:

This is one of Thy mysteries, Lord, which we people – the slaves of sin – cannot understand. This mystery is Thine. Thy ways are inscrutable. Thou alone knowest the path of each human life; our duty is to simply do good in Thy name, to walk in the statutes of the Gospel, and to pray to Thee. Then the forces of evil will be overcome. For where two or three are gathered in Thy name, there also shalt Thou be. Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to Thy abundant mercy, and forgive me for my despair, my weakness of spirit and my wavering.

Turning in all four directions, I blessed with the sign of the cross all those who were resting here, and bowing low I took my leave of them. Grant rest, O Lord, to the souls of Thy servants who have fallen asleep.[1]

Amen.

[1] Vera Bouteneff, trans. Father Arseny (1893-1973) Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father. Copyright 1998. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, NJ.

Reflection: The Problem of Evil

I must start and continue with honesty: I have little, if any, right to express my thoughts on the topic of evil and suffering, for truly the words of the Psalmist describe me well.

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance (Ps 16:5-6, NIV).

No great evil has ever befallen me and I have suffered only such losses as are the common, human lot. My family is whole and well. My employment is satisfying and as secure as is humanly possible. I am blessed beyond all reasonable expectations.

And yet the problem of evil and suffering will not go away and periodically demands our attention. My hometown is currently in the grips of great evil and suffering. In January 2007 a young couple was car-jacked, tortured, and brutally murdered here; the details of the savagery are almost beyond my comprehension. For two years community angst and anger have quietly smoldered. Now, the trials have begun and the rage – especially of the couple’s parents – is writ large in the newspapers and graphically portrayed in television news coverage. The first defendant recently was convicted of almost every felony on the law books in our state and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. This was not enough to satisfy the parents, however, who want the perpetrators not only executed but tortured as they tortured: eye for eye, tooth for tooth. I cannot understand the depth of these parents’ loss, the full measure of their hatred. I pray God I never will. What I can do to help them, I will do. I will pray for them: O God, make speed to save them; O Lord, make haste to help them.

So evil has come unbidden to our community – and to world and to our lives – and must be addressed. For this reason only – and not because I have particular wisdom on this or any topic– I will offer some reflections, praying that I reflect the faith of the Church.

Theodicy is the name of the dilemma evil poses the Christian: If God is both all-powerful and all-good/all-loving, then why does he allow evil and suffering to continue in the world? To this question I have no answer. Scripture, at most, only offers hints of possible answers, but offers us nothing concrete. Perhaps that is just as well, for Why? is not really the question we wish to ask at all. If the parents of the murder victims could in one instant perceive God’s grand design in which the question of evil is finally resolved, if they could understand the redemptive plan in which the persistence of evil plays its part, even then in their pain they would still cry out, Why? This is not a cry for explanation, but a cry of human anguish. If the parents of the murder victims could in one instant perceive that in some now unfathomable way ripples of grace would flow outward from that horrendous event and work for cosmic good, the price of their sorrow would still be too high. No explanation of evil and suffering is given – at least in part – because no explanation is sufficient. We do not want to understand the pain; we simply want it to stop. But stop, it doesn’t.

This, then, is the way our human dilemma is usually portrayed. We have been told in our faith that God is all powerful which means he could, I suppose, spare his creature from great suffering and we have been told that God is all-good/all-loving which means he should, most certainly, spare his creatures from great suffering. And yet this is clearly not the way God acts toward us.

Perhaps our confusion lies not so much in God’s behavior as in our statement of the problem. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why God allows evil to persist – which I think is without human answer – perhaps we should ask what God is doing to resolve the problem of evil, both within the human heart and in the world. That question has a clear answer and the answer is Jesus.

However you choose to understand the biblical stories of creation and fall, they tell of a world made good and very good and then ruined by sin, by the thoughts and actions of human beings. And this means, quite simply, that evil is not simply outside us and exerted on us, but also inside us and exerted by us. Why is there evil in the world? we ask. Because we are in the world, the stories answer. It is not possible to resolve the problem of evil without resolving the problem of man – which is precisely what God has done and is doing in and through Jesus.

The process of resolving the problem of evil in man is long and complicated. Why would we expect it to be otherwise? The process runs through a people, the descendants of Abraham, and through a nation, Israel. It runs through slavery and freedom, through Law and Prophets, through exile and deliverance. Through it all, God uses a people – who are themselves part of the problem – to resolve the problem, until ultimately God uses a Person, Jesus, who is not part of the problem, but is himself the solution. All the long process of millennia culminates in Jesus: God incarnate, fully God and fully man. Jesus resolves the problem of evil in the world by resolving the problem of sin in man, by uniting his divinity with our humanity, by accepting our sin, and by suffering the evil of the world to destroy sin and to defeat evil and the power of the evil one. However you choose to understand the cross – and Scripture uses many metaphors – it is God’s answer to sin in man and to evil in the world. In his death, Jesus put to death sin. In his acceptance of the evil done to him – rejection and crucifixion – Jesus destroyed the power of evil.

Of course, when confronted with the evil still among and within us, it is difficult sometimes to see exactly what the cross accomplished. God is the Alpha and the Omega – the A and the Z, the beginning and the end – but we live somewhere around L or M, somewhere in the middle. And while sin and evil have been defeated by Jesus, they have not yet been abolished. How then do we live in this middle time? There is but one path forward, through, and out of our problem: to walk the path of salvation blazed by Jesus and offered by the church – a path which confronts evil within and without, accepts suffering, commits one’s spirit to God, dies to sin, and is born again through water and word and Spirit, in newness and holiness of life. In the midst of evil and sin – and the very real pain and suffering they cause – we hold fast to the faith which proclaims that God is even now putting the world to rights through our Lord Jesus Christ and we look forward in faith to that day when all will be fully restored, when no evil will persist, when no sin will defile, when no tears will fall, when we will live forever with our God. In the midst of evil and sin – and the very real pain and suffering they cause – we strive to put on the whole armor of God that we “may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:11-12, NKJV). In the midst of evil and sin – and the very real pain and suffering they cause – we hold fast to the promise that Christ has overcome the world and that greater is he within us than he that is in the world.

And we pray. Pray for one another – as God’s beloved – that we may not fall into sin nor be overcome by adversity. Pray for those who suffer as the victims of evil and – with great difficulty – pray for those who suffer as the perpetrators of evil, for these, too, are God’s beloved. And pray for me, chief among sinners, as I pray for you.