"I believe in God the Father, Almighty..." Do you now?
The other night I was watching "Studio 60 on the Sunset
Strip." The scene was in a hospital where one of the heros is
awaiting word on his fiancé after particularly dangerous surgery
and the birth of their premature daughter. Danny is not
particularly religious - in fact, he is not religious at all.
But his friend and co-worker who is there with him in the waiting
room is very religious, and she volunteers either to simply sit
with him or to teach him to pray. "Teach me," he says, and she
suggests finding the chapel.
They arrive at the chapel and she tells him to get down on
his knees. Why? "Respect," she says.
"See, this is my first speed bump," he answers. "I would
think that if I were God, I wouldn't have any ego problems. I
wouldn't need 'O Lord, creator of the universe, most powerful and
merciful and handsome of all the deities,' there's a baby that's
two weeks premature, a mom who can't stop bleeding...If he needs
ten minutes of sucking up before he'll fix this, I don't want to
work with him."
Danny's friend responds by explaining that getting down on
our knees is not for God's benefit - it's for us. We, and
especially we who are wealthy and powerful beyond most peoples'
imagining, need a level of humility. Danny is still not sure
about this whole enterprise and finally asks, "If he's real...He
is, she interjects...and he loves me...He does, she adds...why
not just fix it?"
"I don't know," she answers. (1)
And suddenly we are confronted this morning with the phrase
from the creed, "God, the Father, ALMIGHTY..." Right! We hear
wondrous claims of a world in the care and keeping of a loving
heavenly Father, then look around and see one catastrophe after
another. There is Danny's question: "If he's real and he loves
me, why not just fix it?"
Lots of folks wonder about that. Of all the barriers to
belief, none are quite so strong as this one: if this almighty
God is so loving, why do so many terrible things happen?
Hurricanes, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, nine firefighters
dead in Charleston? Is a loving God in control of this world?
The orthodox answer is YES. In our Westminster Confession
of Faith we affirm, "God...alone [is the] fountain of all being,
OF whom, THROUGH whom, and TO whom, are all things; and hath most
sovereign dominion over them, to do BY them, FOR them, or UPON
them, whatsoever himself pleases." (2) God is in charge...of
EVERYTHING! The sovereignty of God has always been the bedrock
of Reformed theology.
There is an oft-told story of a little boy who offered up
this simple prayer: "God bless mother and daddy, my brother and
sister; and God, do take care of yourself, because if anything
happens to YOU, we're all sunk." That is a child's way of
acknowledging the sovereignty of God.
In a way, it may seem like whistling through the graveyard
to continue with that affirmation. Awful things constantly
happen. Some years ago, while we were living in south Georgia,
our town was stunned at the crash of a small plane that took the
lives of a father, a mother, and their young daughter. I did not
know the parents, but I did know Beth. She was a sixth-grader,
one of my David's classmates. She had performed with Erin in the
local Community Theatre and had become my daughter's good friend.
Beth was a gorgeous and vivacious child, one of those who would,
as the years progressed, be certain to make many a young man's
heart flutter (a process which, I am told, had already begun).
I remember Erin being particularly devastated by the news.
She sobbed and sobbed as the terrible truth sank in. It made no
sense to her that something like this could occur. In the middle
of her pain, she began to feel angry. Sunday School theology had
taught her that God rules this world, which meant that God
controls all that happens - even plane crashes. As she sat on my
lap, she lashed out through her tears in a way that only an
eight-year-old could: "God is not very POLITE!"
Later that night, as she lay in her bed and talked with me
before saying her prayers, the weeping began again. I tried to
explain that even though Beth was no longer here, she was with
Jesus - no crying, no pain, a wonderful place. She responded,
"God may be happy now, but I'M NOT!" I replied that God was not
happy about this. God did not make the plane crash. God does
not do things like that. It was a terrible accident, but now God
had picked up the pieces and brought Beth and her mommy and daddy
home to heaven. Erin was not mollified - good theology, but cold
comfort. Erin missed her friend.
I remember David telling me that one of the class
assignments he and Beth had for English was to keep a journal,
and one of the reflections was to deal with those things of which
they were afraid. Beth had written that she was afraid of dying
young. How ironic!
There are too many ironies in this world for my taste. Bad
things happen to good people, and I do not like it. Then how can
we continue to preach and teach the sovereignty of a God who
loves us more deeply than the most devoted parent..."I believe in
God, the Father, Almighty"...with any intellectual or
philosophical or even theological integrity?
This is not a new question. In fact, there is even a three-dollar word attached to it - THEODICY. It refers to our attempts
to show that it is possible to affirm both the "almightiness" of
God and the love of God when we are confronted with so much that
is awful in the world. There are lots of answers.
Some want to say that what appears to be evil may not be
evil at all; for example, an aborigine from the wilds of the
Australian bush who is suddenly transported into a modern
operating room may see a masked man with a knife about to slice
into a helpless patient's flesh and presume this is TERRIBLE...
but we know it is not. Perhaps you and I are in the same
predicament with some of the things we see. Perhaps.
Some want to say that the evil we experience is God's way of
keeping us from even greater evil. For example, some years ago,
one of the teenage girls in our congregation was killed in a
tragic Saturday Night automobile accident. Several months later,
her mother and I were talking and she opined that perhaps this
happened to prevent something even worse from happening to Ashley
in the future - a rape or horrible murder or such. I neither
agreed nor disagreed, but you get the idea.
Some want to say that suffering is an inevitable piece of
the human condition - God cannot be blamed for that. It is human
to love, and love is wonderful...but love can also cause great
pain (ask any teenager). Yes, bad things come, but only because
we encounter them in pursuit of the good. OK.
You may have heard the story of the only survivor of a
shipwreck washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed
feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the
horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he
eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to
protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.
But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home
to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the
sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stung
with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me?" he
cried.
Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of
a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue
him. "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his
rescuers.
"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.
Good lesson. Remember it the next time your little hut is
burning to the ground - it just may be the smoke signal that
summons your deliverance.
As I say, there are lots of ways people try to understand
the existence of evil in a world we say is in the control of God,
the Father, Almighty, some of which make more sense than others.
For what it is worth, folks have been struggling with the issue
for thousands of years. The Bible has one whole book that deals
with the subject - Job. It is one long poetic compendium of the
questions people raise when confronted with catastrophe: Why?
Why me? Why him? Why them?
Job's story, of course, you remember. Here was a successful
and prosperous man, a man whose life had always been right side
up, suddenly confronted with the destruction of his property,
even the death of his children as their house collapsed on them.
Soon Job lost his own health - more suffering in a short time
than most of us ever endure in our entire lives. And he and his
neighbors raised those questions. Why? Why you? Why me?
Finally, after Job and his friends had talked enough, the
voice of God broke in. "Tell me, Job, where were you when I laid
the foundations of the earth? Who hung the stars in the sky and
how did he do it, Job? Who tells the dawn to break and the night
to fall, and how does it happen, Job? How does the wind work,
Job? How many clouds are there, Job?" One unanswerable question
after another with our hero finally responding, "Uh, uh,
uh...Gee, Lord, I guess are lots of answers I don't have." And
the Lord says, "BINGO, Job! And there are some answers you will
NEVER have."
I like the way Dr. Albert Winn, a wonderful pastor and
former President of Louisville Seminary, deals with this issue. (3)
He notes that at the heart of biblical faith we do not find air-tight arguments sealed with a "therefore" - all is right with the
world, therefore, let us have faith; therefore, let us praise
God. Rather at the heart of biblical faith we find things that
do not logically follow at all, sealed with a "nevertheless."
Much is wrong with the world, the mystery of evil is great,
NEVERTHELESS let us have faith, NEVERTHELESS let us praise God.
Perhaps we can better understand the miseries of life if we
remember NEVERTHELESS.
"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty..." God is
sovereign. God is in control. We continue to preach it, teach
it, and confess it. But the question remains: Are we just
whistling through the graveyard? Are we like little children,
trying to affirm what we are afraid is not true by tightly
closing our eyes and trying to make our dream real by endlessly
repeating our hope? Is this a great collective self-deception?
Not at all.
When I need a reminder, I look at the calendar. I see the
first day of the week and I remember what happened one Sunday so
many years ago...that first Easter, the day of resurrection.
What preceded it had been awful. There was that illegal midnight
trial, the taunting and torture. The trek through the city
streets under the weight of the wood. The thud, thud, thud of
the hammer and the blood that spurted from nail-pierced hands.
The agony of the cross being elevated and then dropped with a
thump as flesh was torn from the shock. There was even a moment
when a casual listener heard Jesus mumble what at first blush
sounded like a cry of utter despair: "My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me?"
Was it despair? Or was it an affirmation of confidence?
As you know, the words "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me"
are the opening phrases of the 22nd Psalm. The words would have
been as well known to Rabbi Jesus as "The Lord is my Shepherd" or
"For God so loved the world" are to you and me. Just as those
passages are so familiar to us, Jesus knew not only the beginning
of the Psalm but the rest of it as well. Yes, it starts off in
the depths of despair..."My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?"...but quickly acknowledges, "In you our fathers put their
trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you
and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed,"
and then finally soars to,
For dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the
nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and
worship; all who go down to the dust will kneel before
him-- those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him; future generations will be
told about the Lord. They will proclaim his
righteousness to a people yet unborn -- for HE HAS DONE
IT.
YES! This was Friday, but SUNDAY was coming, and it was
that day that guaranteed for time and all eternity that "the
wrong shall fail, the right prevail." Remember, as we believe,
so we behave. I STILL cannot adequately explain why bad things
happen in a world in the control of a good God, NEVERTHELESS I
finally let my faith take over and sing,
This is my Father's world
Oh, let me ne'er forget
That though the wrong seems oft' so strong
God is the ruler yet. (4)
"I believe in God the Father, Almighty..."
Amen!
1. Aaron Sorkin, "Episode 21: K&R III," Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, NBC, 6/21/07
2. "Westminster Confession of Faith," The Book of Confessions, (Louisville, KY: Office of
the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church, USA), 6.012
3. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press,
1990), pp. 79-80
4. Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901
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