Good God, Bad World

We started the sermon series "Good God, Bad World" this past Sunday. We'll be spending five weeks trying to answer the question: How can a loving God allow suffering in the world? You can download the audio by following the link or read the text below. Hope to see you this Sunday as we will be "Pondering Pain." Does God communicate through pain? Is it a punishment for sin or a message from above?

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0422mznttir/Good God Bad World.mp3

“Good God, Bad World”
Brimfield Faith UMC
January 10, 2010

Genesis 3:1-7; 4:6-7; Psalm 55:1-8

INTRODUCTION
I remember the day vividly. I was in my first year of seminary at Ashland. I was in Cleveland for the weekend and I got a call Sunday morning from my old college roommate, Ian. Ian told me that one of our friends and fraternity brothers, Brent, was in the hospital. The night before there had been an argument and a scuffle between Brent and another fraternity brother. During the confrontation, Brent fell and hit his head on a metal door handle which resulted in a fractured skull. When I heard the news, I intuitively feared for the worst. After about a week of treatment, Brent’s injuries resulted in the loss his life. It was a terrible tragedy that deeply affected the Baldwin-Wallace campus and our fraternity.
Brent’s death was so senseless and untimely. Brent was a young man full of life. He was a biology student that was engaged to be married that June and was hoping to go to vet school in fall. The hardest part of the experience was when I traveled to the funeral to mourn the death of a friend. Due to the circumstances surrounding his death, Brent’s family was understandably angry. Brent had died as a result of a fight. I remember some of him family members approaching the fraternity brothers that were on the floor that night. They asked them why they hadn’t done more, why they hadn’t stopped the fight, why they hadn’t saved Brent’s life. There were no good answers to the question. Rightly so, nothing would have satisfied their grief in the situation. While the family interrogated the fraternity brothers, I think the bigger question being asked that day was to God: Why God didn’t you do something? Why didn’t you stop the fight? Why didn’t you save Brent?
Being a seminary student, these were questions that I wrestled with as I tried to make sense of Brent’s death. All of us have probably experienced a similar type of tragedy during the course of our lives. Whether it be the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, or a debilitating illness, we know pain and suffering. In that pain and suffering, we often find ourselves turning to God, interrogating him, and asking WHY? God, if you are as loving as they say you are, why have you allowed such suffering in the world? This morning and for the next several weeks, we are going take a closer look at the issue of pain and suffering in the world. A small disclaimer as we embark, I don’t promise to have all of the answers to this dilemma. Instead, together we will search for answers and I fully expect that we will see God along the way.

TWO WAYS
In response to the question of God’s role in tragic situations there are typically two responses. The first is called Deism and the second is called Theological determinism. Deism is the notion that God is like a clock maker. He created the world, set it into motion, and does not interfere in its events. When bad things happen, God doesn’t stop them because he doesn’t act in the world. While this philosophy is appealing to some, the Scriptures do not testify to a God that operates in this manner. Instead, we see a God from the very beginning who is intimately involved in the lives of his creation and human beings.
The other response is that of determinism. Theological determinism is expressed in tidy little clichés like: “It must be God’s will” and “Everything happens for a reason.” I have the opportunity to do a number of funerals and occasionally hear these sentiments shared with the grieving family members. It seems like a kind and compassionate thing to say. Yet, there are several problems with this approach. I think for most it raises more questions than it answers. If everything is God’s will, why God kill someone? Does God cause suffering? Did God take someone’s life so someone would give her life to Christ at the funeral? Also, if God preordains and directs the actions of humans, when a criminal commits a horrendous act, God is ultimately held responsible for it. God not only allowed it to happen but God willed it to happen. This definitely doesn’t sound like the plans of a loving God. So where do we go from here

FREE WILL
To tackle any problem we must first understand the facts and implications. The Scriptures rightly teach us that God is good and loving. We have not been misled in this regard. The Scriptures also show us that God is Sovereign that is he is in control of the entire universe. Yet, we have experienced that the world does not seem to reflect God’s nature. This leaves us in a dilemma with several choices. The first choice is that God is not good but neutral: Deism. The second is that God is not sovereign: Scripture eliminates this as a possibility. The choice of determinism simply leaves us confused.
I think there is a middle way between deism and determinism that can provide the framework for us to talk about the presence of pain and suffering in the world. It is the assertion that humans have free will, that our actions are not predetermined. The opening pages of the Bible in the Book of Genesis, we hear the story of how God created the universe and humans.
While God gives Adam and Eve the run of the Garden, he instructs them to refrain from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God doesn’t put a fence around the tree. He doesn’t remove the tree from the Garden. He simply says, “Don’t eat from that one.” Adam and Eve are given the ability to choose right or wrong. Of course, we know that Adam and Eve choose to disobey God and broke their relationship with him. They allowed sin to enter the world, and with sin, pain and suffering also enter. From Adam and Eve, we have inherited the gift of free will and also the curse of sin that accompanies it.

FREE WILL AND LOVE
From this point, I know the question in my house is, “If free will permits sin and pain to exist, why did God give it to us?” or “Why did God allow Adam and Eve to have the choice to eat the fruit?” I think this is a difficult question to answer but it has to do with the close relationship between free will and love. In 1 John 4:7 it says, “Let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God… for God is love.” The nature of love is such that it can only exist if there is choice involved. We inherently know that love is an act of will; you cannot force a person to love. Love comes from the depths of our heart and is a choice that we make. Therefore, since God is love, God was propelled to create a world and to form a people who had the ability to choose. Ultimately, it was more important for God that we knew what it meant to love than to be pain-free. God’s longing for us to experience the wonders of relationships meant he must permit free will, knowing full well that pain and suffering were the risk involved with that decision.
Thankfully, God did not just let us loose in a chaotic world. Although sin and pain exist, God created the world with laws to govern it. He gave us the ability to reason and to make choices. The reality of this freedom allows us to make both good and poor choices. God allows us to do dangerous things, like drive cars too fast and get into fights. God allows us to make decisions that bring pain and suffering into our world. God also allows us to experience loving relationships with one another and with him. We have the ability then to choose between right and wrong.
In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel bring offerings to the Lord. Cain’s offering is rejected and he becomes upset and angry. In response to Cain’s anger the Lord says, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” But you must master it. The word “must” here is interesting. In the King James translates it, “You shalt master it.” The NKJV says, “You should rule over it.” The Message says, “You’ve got to master it.” I’ve read some commentators that suggests it should read, “You may master it.” I like the idea that we may master sin.
When we fall short of God’s standards, God still wants us to choose him. We are invited to receive the gift of life through Jesus Christ. Through Christ, we have an ability to choose whether or not we will master sin. The gift of free will allows us to turn towards God and to live or to turn away from God and to die. Cain chooses to turn away from God and killed his brother Abel. Both he and his ancestors suffered as a result of this decision. Each day we are faced with the reality that sin lurks as the door and desires us. We must make the choice to choose life and to choose God daily.

CONCLUSION
Admittedly, free will doesn’t answer all of the questions related to the pain and suffering we experience. There are plenty of issues that still exist, but I hope we can start to understand the nature of God and the brokenness of the world. In short, pain exists because sin exists. Sin exists because free will exists. And free will exists because love exists. I haven’t fully reconciled the implications of this entirely. But instead of questioning the nature of God, I find myself asking different questions. Questions like: how do I cope with pain, how do I respond to suffering, how can my faith strengthen me through it all? These are some of the questions I hope to answer over the next several weeks.
At the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses is talking to the people of Israel and he says: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obey him, and holding fast to him;” The Israelites have been through a tremendous amount of pain and suffering. They were enslaved by Egypt. They wandered in the wilderness. They feared drought and famine. And Israel was going to experience much more hardship in their future. Nonetheless, they were exhorted to choose life and blessings.
God doesn’t promise that life will be free of pain. Instead, God wants us to exercise our free will in a way that will allow us to enjoy the benefits of a loving relationship with God. God wants to guide us and to be with us with through the pains and tragedies of life. It brings me comfort to know that God doesn’t will pain and suffering in my life. It would be hard for me to trust in a God that wanted my friend, Brent, to die and a God who causes people to suffer. While I don’t like pain, I can bear it if I know I get to experience the depths of love. So let’s begin to discover how we might experience love in the midst of pain and suffering.
Let’s pray.