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Winter came with a vengeance this year and it has made daily life difficult at times. Then, in mid-January, we heard news of terrible destruction in Haiti. The earthquake there put our troubles into perspective. Events like this can help remind us that we have a great deal to be thankful for, but they also raise some hard questions from a faith perspective.
Whenever a major natural disaster takes place. in which many lives are lost, many are injured or left homeless, then some people question how we can believe in a loving God. The situation may be compounded by selfishness, wickedness and greed, such as the actions of developers and councils in Gloucestershire who built homes in areas prone to flooding. In Haiti many buildings had been erected without proper regulation of the structures in a known earthquake zone. However, severe quakes cause destruction even in areas where the human population is well-prepared. So who is to blame? God?
In Britain we are in a culture of blame. Whenever anything goes wrong, the media (and many of us) want to blame someone. That's not so in all cultures. And not so with Jesus. Yes, there are many times when things go wrong because someone was careless, negligent or acted badly. But when Jesus talks about an accident, a tower that collapses and kills eighteen people (Luke 13:4), he is not inclined to blame anyone. Particularly, he rejects the idea that this was some kind of judgment of God on the wickedness of the people who died. (And in years past some Christians have suggested that disasters are God's judgment on a nation or group of people).
When faced with a man blind from birth, Jesus will not blame the man or his parents. And, by implication, he would not blame God either. Instead of blaming, Jesus says that God is going to work in the tragedy of this man's circumstances to do something wonderful (John 9:3). The emphasis in the Bible is on the power of God to work for good in the lives of people, even in times of suffering and difficulty. I don't find any explanation in the Bible for why most natural disasters happen. They are a fact of the world we live in. Instead what I find is a confidence that even the worst circumstances can work for good in our lives: "in all things God works for the good of those who love him" (Romans 8:28).
In the autumn I read comments about this subject in a couple of different books. The first was an autobiographical work by a top scientist in the field of human genetics. He was reflecting on his journey from atheism to Christian faith. In the early days of his faith, he was vexed by questions about suffering in the world. These included natural disasters, both big scale and more personal (like the birth of a child with a genetic disorder). He comments that the conditions that enable the development of life on earth and the flourishing of human life are the same natural processes and laws of science that include unpredictable weather, earthquake-inducing movement of tectonic plates, and the misspelling of a crucial gene in cell division. In other words, it is an inevitable part of the way the universe is. The same forces used to create human beings also produce things such as tornadoes, tsunamis, cystic fibrosis and AIDS viruses. Trying to blame God or someone for the existence of such things is futile. The issue is how do we cope with their reality?
That's where Chris Wright's book, 'The God I don't understand', comes in. I found his handling of this issue very helpful. After looking at some misguided attempts by Christians to explain natural disasters, he writes:
"There is not, as far as I can see or find in Scripture, any 'right' explanation as to why such things happen. Science can tell us their natural causes ..... But neither faith nor science can give a deeper or meaningful reason or purpose for a disaster. We are left with the agony of baffled grief and protest. God, how can you allow such things? Why don't you stop them?'"
What Chris Wright goes on to say is that, although there is no answer to these questions, the Bible affirms that it is OK to ask them or scream them out. This is the language of lament and protest. It is prominent in books such as Job, Jeremiah, The Psalms and especially Lamentations. These writings can help us express our response to disasters and the anguish they bring, not just individually but also together in worship.
There is a mystery to terrible things that happen that we can never understand. But there is a voice that can help us express our sorrow, our anger, our protest It is the voice of lament.
'To lament is to risk living with one's deepest questions unanswered" (Nicholas Wolterstorff)
Richard
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