Recently on Wednesday nights, Jim Smith led a study of “The Shack.” Movie clips were shown, quotes were extracted, and Jim taught the theology behind the words. Jim and the author, William Paul Young, are friends and so Jim has had the insight scoop of all that went into the book which became a movie. My point in sharing this is that a primary theme of the book/movie is theodicy. That’s a fancy, formal word which means, “How do you reconcile bad things, even things, with a God of love and grace.” It is most often asked this way, “Why do bad things happen to good people?”
This is a very large topic and I want to admit in advance I cannot do justice to the topic but I want to touch on a few highlights.
Those of us who come from the Wesleyan tradition (followers of Jesus who have been influenced by the theology of John Wesley) do not believe that God is the orchestrator of all that happens, especially bad or evil things. I am going to be teaching this in Methodism 101 on Wednesday nights starting tonight. A statement I find helpful, even though it can be construed as a cliché is, “Not everything that happens is God’s will but God’s will is in everything that happens.”
It is not God’s will that Kobe Bryant died at the age of 41 and his daughter at age 13 and that God had pre-established the day/time/place of their deaths. Not for a moment do we believe that! If we did, we would all hate God if we believed in God or we would abandon all faith. This was an accident! Perhaps because of nature – dense fog, and perhaps a pilot who got disoriented because of the fog – and an accident happened and lives were lost and God grieves with us and promises to bring good out of this terrible tragedy. (Romans 8:28-31).
For the person who says, “Everything happens for a reason,” I have a response. It is true that everything happens for a reason but that does not mean that God makes everything happen for a reason that only God knows. A helicopter flying too low with low visibility in the midst of a mountain range will crash and that is the reason the crash happened but that is very different from saying that God caused it.
Almost always, someone will say to me, “Jeff, you are saying that God is not in control!” My response is always the same, “God is not in control. God is in charge. There’s a difference. Parents are in charge of their children, but if parents think they are in control…well! God is in charge and that is the witness of Scripture. That means, God always has the final say in every bad/evil situation. Death does not have the final say – God does – and it is a word of hope and resurrection! As Martin Luther said in the famous hymn he wrote, “The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still. His Kingdom is forever!” We live in the unshakeable Kingdom of God on earth and that does NOT mean we are exempt from tragedy or evil or harm or any kind of challenging situation – it DOES mean God is with us, God is for us, God loves us – all of which God reveals most poignantly in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus! If I believed that death has the final say, I would be a hopeless person. I am a hopeful person because, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will not fear any evil, because God is with us, God’s rod and staff comfort us and therefore, we are never alone!
I think the Roman Catholic priest said it well….”A friend texted me today to tell me that a friend of her’s attends the same Catholic Church as Kobe and saw him this morning at Mass. (Kobe and his daughter attended Mass at their local parish at 7am the day they passed from this life to the next) There can be nothing more consoling to those who mourn than to know that a loved one worshipped God right before his death, because worshipping God is what heaven is.”
Fr. David Barnes
I close with this true story…this pastor was called to a hospital because the couple he was getting ready to marry in a few hours experienced a tragedy. On the way to the church to prepare for their wedding day, the groom was in a horrific car accident and was not expected to live. The bride was already at the hospital when the pastor arrived. As we have all done, clergy or not, the pastor, out of a desire to be helpful and comforting said something really inane. He said, “The only reason God allowed this tragedy to happen is that God knows you are a really strong person.” To which she said, “Pastor, with your logic, if I were a weak person, my fiancé would still be alive!” He said, “I am just trying to tell you everything happens for a reason!” She said, “Why are you teaching me to hate God?”