SERMON: WHERE WAS GOD?

Preached by Gregory W. Lee
22 April 2007

I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22:24 " For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help"
-- now turn over to John 5:17 "Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.""
-- as we open this morning, please bow your heads and pray with me a prayer written by Rev. Joseph P. Monahan -- let's pray
-- "Lord, we don't have words for what we've seen. There are no words. There are only tears -- tears for young lives lost, for promising lives cut off, for loved ones whom we can hold no more.
-- A place we cherish, a quiet place of study, a place filled with memories of friendships and laughter and learning, has been torn apart by gunshots and screams.
-- We heard, but we did not believe. We tried to comprehend, but we could not. And now we ache -- we ache with sorrow for eyes that witnessed what no human eye should ever witness, for dinner tables with empty chairs, for lives that took decades to grow but only seconds to extinguish.
-- We ache with fear for our own children, for the knowledge that a decision to kill, a decision made in an instant, can never be taken back, can never be undone.
-- And we ache with the emptiness that reverberates around the drillfield, through every corner of campus, because we hear the voices of our brothers and sisters no more.
-- God of love, God of blessing, God of life eternal, God of life all-powerful, God of life beyond all words, beyond all hurts, beyond all pain -- God of love, heal us. Amen.
[Copyright © 2007 Rev. Joseph P. Monahan. Published by The General Board of Discipleship. Used with permission.]

-- this morning, I am going to take a break from our series on "How to be a bad Christian" to address a matter of pressing importance -- as I'm sure you all know, this has been a momentous week, to say the least
-- on Monday of this past week, a lone gunman -- a student at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA -- committed a shooting rampage on that campus that left 33 people, including himself dead -- that left countless others wounded -- that left families looking for answers as they grieved and buried their sons and daughters -- and that left a nation wondering "Why?"
-- later in the week, we were greeted with the news of a massive bombing in Iraq, that took the lives of over 182 people in just one day -- more casualties added to an ever-growing number in a war that has divided this country as no war has since Vietnam
-- and finally, we had disaster and calamity strike close to home, as a massive wildfire erupted southwest of Waycross -- rapidly spreading to cover over 35,000 acres -- destroying 18 homes and causing the evacuation of over 1000 people -- threatening the Okefenokee Swamp - and causing smoke to affect people as far south as Jacksonville and Daytona Beach, Tampa, and central Florida
-- this fire still continues to rage virtually unabated this morning, despite the efforts of the Georgia Forestry Commission and local, state, and federal firefighters
-- it was a week of unprecedented disaster -- on a global, national, and local scale

-- it is during times like these -- when tragedies and calamities and natural disasters strike -- that we find ourselves calling out to God in the middle of the night -- asking not so much for comfort and peace -- but crying out for answers from a God who seems all too distant
-- Why? -- Why would a loving God -- a just God -- a righteous and benevolent God -- Why would He allow this disturbed man to shatter the peace at Virginia Tech and end the lives of 33 students and teachers? -- Why would God allow the violence to continue in Iraq, as we seek to restore order and peace to a region freed from the cruel rule of a dictator? -- Why would God refuse to send rain to stem the wildfire that threatened families and homes in our very own community?
-- Why did this happen -- and, more importantly, where was God when it happened?

II. Theodicy
-- the answer to the first question -- "Why?" -- has haunted mankind from the beginning of time -- it is a question that scholars and theologians and all of us have struggled with from time to time in our lives
-- the technical term is "theodicy" -- from two Greek words that mean "God" and "justice" -- but it comes down to this -- how do we reconcile the presence of evil in this world and in our lives if God is good and right and just
-- or, to put it another way, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" -- How can an all-knowing -- all-powerful -- all-loving God stand idly by and allow school shootings and bombings and wildfires to disrupt the lives of His people?
-- Dr. Al Mohler -- the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary -- put it this way in a message to students at the seminary after the events of 9-11 -- "How could a good God allow this to happen? How can a God of love allow killers to kill, terrorists to terrorize, and the wicked to escape without a trace?"

-- this question inevitably leads us to one of three possible answers:

1. There is no God -- that is, of course, the answer of the world -- the answer of the atheist -- both good and evil exists and occur at random times and in random places for no reason at all -- and since there is no God, there is no one who can stop evil from occurring
-- of course, as Christians -- as those who have experienced the living God in our own lives and in the world -- we reject this answer to the question of theodicy as invalid
-- but still, it continues to be proposed as an answer -- one day, a man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed -- As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists."
-- "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. -- "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering
nor pain. I can't imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things."
-- The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.
-- Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept -- The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? I don't believe that barbers exist."
-- "How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber."I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!" -- "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man
outside."
-- "Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me." -- "Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

2. God is not all-powerful and can't stop the evil from happening -- in other words, God only has a limited ability to affect other people and this world -- He can't prevent people from doing evil things any more than He can prevent nature from sending hurricanes into communities or wildfires into our forests -- all He can do is watch as it happens and cry with the victims who have been affected
-- of course, this vision of a limited deity -- of a God who is not all powerful -- does not square with the message of the Bible -- surely a God who can create the universe and all that is in it in six days can control a hurricane or stop a wildfire -- surely a God who created man from the dust of the earth and breathed into him the breath of life would be able to control what he does
-- Psalm 34:17-19 says, "The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. -- The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. -- A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all"
-- a God who is not all-powerful would not be able to rescue the righteous from all their troubles or save the world from their sins -- so we cannot accept this answer to the question of theodicy as valid either -- which leaves us only one other choice

3. God has allowed the evil to occur for His own purposes -- this answer, while the hardest to accept, is probably the closest to the truth that we will ever arrive at as humans -- there are just some things about God and His ways and His purposes that we will never understand -- as He told the prophet Isaiah -- " "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways -- As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
-- there are just some things that we can never know of understand about our God -- why does God allow evil to exist? -- why does God allow natural disasters to come upon us?
-- once again, Dr. Mohler puts it better than I ever could -- "We dare not speak on God’s behalf to explain why He allowed these particular acts of evil to happen at this time to these persons and in this manner. Yet, at the same time, we dare not be silent when we should testify to the God of righteousness and love and justice who rules over all in omnipotence. Humility requires that we affirm all that the Bible teaches, and go no further. There is much we do not understand. As Charles Spurgeon explained, when we cannot trace God’s hand, we must simply trust His heart."
-- we may never know this side of heaven, why God allowed Seung-Hui Cho to kill 32 people at Virginia Tech last Monday -- we may never understand why God allowed terrorists to fly planes into the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 -- we may never fully settle in our hearts why God allowed Hurricane Katrina or the Waycross wildfires or any of the other tragedies and calamities that strike our homes and our families to occur
-- our only response can be to trust in Him as an all-knowing -- all-powerful -- and all-loving God -- and trust that in all these things, God will work for the good of those who love Him -- who are called according to His purpose -- even if we never understand the answer to the question, "Why?"

III. Where Was God?
-- however, even if the lack of an answer to the question, "Why?" leaves us unsettled and unsatisfied, there is an answer for the second question on the minds of everyone this week -- "Where was God when this happened?"
-- looking at the news coverage of the shootings and the bombings and the wildfire, it is easy to think that God didn't care and that God wasn't there
-- it makes us think of the time when Elijah went up on Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal for a test of fire to see whether God or Baal was God over Israel -- as they prophets of Baal surrounded their altar, calling on their god to light the fire while they cut themselves and sacrificed to him, Elijah taunted them -- "Call louder -- maybe Baal isn't listening -- maybe he is asleep"
-- where was God when Cho stalked the halls at Virginia Tech? -- was He asleep? -- was He not paying attention?
-- the answer, of course, is "no." -- Jesus tells us in John 5:17 that God is always at His work to this very day -- that means that last Monday, God wasn't absent -- He was there -- working
-- that means that in Baghdad on Thursday as 182 people lost their lives, God wasn't asleep -- He was there working
-- and that means that in the midst of the wildfire -- in the midst of Hurricane Katrina -- in the midst of the sickness or death that affects your family -- in the midst of the car crashes -- and the heart attacks and the injuries and all the tragedies of life -- God is there, working as only He can -- turning good out of evil -- beauty out of ashes -- love out of hatred and evil
-- the reason why we sometimes miss seeing God in the midst of the tragedies of life is because we expect Him to come in and solve everything in one fell swoop -- we think that God ought to be able to neatly wrap up tragedies and stop all pain and suffering in one hour just like on the t.v. shows -- we expect God to work on our time schedule and fail to see that He is working on His own
-- we are in a hurry -- we want it done today -- but God says, "I don't work that way -- I don't have to do it today -- I have My plan and My purposes and I will work them out in My timing -- even if that is a thousand years from now -- even if you aren't here to see it"
-- in a sermon one time, Dr. Frederick Wilson demonstrated how God takes care of the problem of pain and evil in His own time and in His own way -- Dr. Wilson talked about the time that he went to Rome, and the tour guide carried them by the balcony from which the dictator Mussolini spoke during the days of World War II when it looked like the evil axis of Germany and Italy and Japan was going to rule the world
-- Dr. Wilson reflected that everyone was worried about Mussolini and Hitler and they prayed for God to just step in and remove them from power -- but it didn't happen that way -- it took time -- God's time
-- and now if you go to Rome and see that balcony, they don't call it "Mussolini's Balcony" -- they call it, "The Balcony of Bad Memories" -- and they have purged all memory of Mussolini -- all street signs -- all statues -- all reference to him from their city and their country
-- God did take care of the evil of Mussolini -- just not in the time and not in the way that the world wanted -- just as the Bible says that God will take care of all of those who seek to perpetuate evil on His people
-- God is not absent -- or asleep -- or indifferent to the suffering of His people -- When tragedies strike -- when evil stalks our land -- when natural disasters threaten us or our homes or our way of life -- God is there with us -- working and accomplishing His will in the land -- bringing good out of all things for those who call upon His name -- who are called according to His purpose

IV. Closing
-- we may never know why God allows evil to come upon us -- we may never understand why God sometimes allows pain and suffering and death to come to people who trust in His name -- but we do know one thing
-- God is always with us -- He has promised to never leave us or forsake us
-- in the midst of the storm -- in the midst of the pain and suffering and death that comes through a fallen people and a fallen world -- God is there -- working in our lives and working out His purpose and His will for this world
-- though it may seem to us at the time that evil is triumphing -- that evil is holding sway -- the truth is that this is God's world -- and things will come out right and good will triumph
-- in fact, it already has -- lest we forget, the cross of Christ made all right again -- the cross of Christ defeated evil and sin and death once and for all time
-- and though Satan may send gunmen to our schools -- and terrorists to our cities -- and wildfires to our country -- God's answer rings through the words of Christ, "It is Finished," and is proven true by the empty tomb of Easter morning
-- how should we respond to events like those of this week? -- by affirming that God is all-knowing -- all-powerful -- all-loving -- and all-present
-- by recognizing that this is our Father's world and His Kingdom and that evil has no claim on it any longer because of the death and resurrection of Jesus
-- and by knowing that God's Will will be done in spite of how it might look to us at the time

-- I want to close this morning by sharing with you the words of David from Psalm 146:5-10

-- "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them-- the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
-- He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
-- The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
-- The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD."

-- let us pray