Stuff Happens – Reverend Donald Ng

March 18, 2001

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.

An errant 500-pound bomb dropped by a Navy fighter over Kuwait on Monday tore apart an observation post filled with military personnel, killing six and seriously wounding seven others, U.S. officials said.

Airplane crashes—no survivors. Wildfires leave hundreds homeless. Hurricane causes millions of dollars of destruction. A 15-year old boy kills two students and wounded 13 others in San Diego. Every week, we read about a new threat to our fragile environment. Terrorists threatening or killing more innocent people.

It seems that stuff happens!

Karl Barth taught Christians to carry a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. Maybe if Barth was with us today, he would say read your Bible in your Palm Pilot and keep an eye on CNN. Yet the problem is that while at times it is difficult to understand what God is saying to us through the Bible, it is much harder for us to understand what God is saying to us through the events that we watch on the Headline News.

In fact, the news for the past couple of weeks have featured tragedies in the world that have left us wondering where is God in the midst of all of this. Has God gone to sleep or taken an early vacation?

Why do bad stuff happens?

Theologians refer to this issue as “theodicy.” The problem of “theodicy” is framed like this: If God is good and all-powerful, how can evil exist? Because if evil does exist, that seems to imply that either God is not good or else God is not all-powerful.

In Thornton Wilder’s classic story, Bridge Over San Luis Rey, he begins with the collapse of an ancient bridge in eighteen century Peru which sent five people to their deaths. A Franciscan monk, Brother Juniper, witnesses this tragedy and is determined to discover the reason God singled out these five for premature death.

He tells himself, “If there were any plan in the universe at all, if there were any pattern in a human life, surely it could be discovered mysteriously latent in those lives so suddenly cut off. Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan.” The remainder of the book is the life stories of these five people leading up to the moment they crossed the bridge.

Brother Juniper’s quest to find an answer is a failed one. After adding up the totals for victims and survivors, he discovers that the dead were far more worthy of saving than those who lived.

Not long ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He tries to figure out why bad stuff happens. Specifically he tries to figure out why he and his wife, fierce and faithful Jews, have lost their 13-year old son to a disease that ages a body overnight and leads to painful and premature death. Kushner’s answer to this basic question about suffering is interesting.

He decides that God cannot be both all powerful and all loving. His thinking goes something like this. If God is all powerful, then that means that God causes all the suffering and agony in the world. Such a God, for Kushner, is unthinkable. So, the answer must be that God is not all powerful. This all loving, always compassionate God is unable to prevent suffering and pain. Instead, God chooses always to be with us in the midst of the agony—sharing the pain of what a powerless God has been unable to prevent. Kushner’s answer is intriguing. But from a Christian perspective, he does not go quite deep enough.

Why, Jesus?

In the Gospel lesson for today, we see that people asked Jesus the same questions that we are asking today. Why, Jesus? Why were those particular Galileans murdered by Pilate in an act of terrorism with their blood mixed in with other sacrifices? Were they bad people? Were their sins greater than other people’s? Why, Jesus?

And why were those eighteen innocent people killed when the Tower of Siloam toppled onto an unsuspecting crowd? Had those folks done something particularly awful that led God to punish them? Each one of us could probably add our own examples?

Why, God? Why did my two brothers in the prime years of their lives died from sudden heart attacks before they even had the chance to enjoy life? Why did my father die so early in his life that his many grandchildren and great grandchildren never knew him? Why, God? Was it my fault? Was I being punished?

Why after giving the command of “Cleared, hot” to the F/A-18 pilot to release the bombs did God didn’t just grant a few more seconds for the pilot to hear, “Abort, abort,” so that it would not be too late to save innocent people?

Were those people picked out through some sort of divine lottery to endure tragedy and injury, and death? Jesus, come on. Tell me, tell us, why?

Read Related Sermon Cross Carrier

Jesus Answers

Jesus, “Why do bad stuff happens to good people?”

We want to have a discussion with Jesus about the sources and reasons for tragedy. We want a justification of the ways God treats humanity. But Jesus does not answer the “theodicy” question. Jesus refuses to have any of this and instead moves us to a discussion about our sin and our need to repent. We want to talk about the misdeeds of God in creating a world where there is suffering and pain. But Jesus forces us to talk about our misdeeds and our need to confess and to change.

Instead of focusing solely on what we should believe about evil, Jesus wants us to focus on our own lives in light of the fact that evil exists. Jesus does not make evil the center of our attention.

When Jesus answers these questions this morning, we hear both good news and bad news. The good news is simple—you don’t suffer because of your sin. The people you love don’t suffer because of your sin. God just doesn’t cause bad things to happen to good people.

But having delivered this good news, Jesus counters with what sounds like bad news—or at least troubling news. God doesn’t punish us or make us suffer arbitrarily. BUT, Jesus does say, if you do not repent, you, too will perish—like the unfortunate victims of Pilate, like the unlucky people buried under the Tower of Siloam.

Building up Credits

Sometimes we think that if we were able to build up enough credits or assets, we might be able to avoid bad stuff from happening to us. We find ourselves believing that if we came to church faithfully or read the Bible daily or pray or even perform random acts of kindness that we are accumulating enough credits to receive God’s protection.

Paul in his letter to the new Corinthian Christians was warning them that even though they are baptized, even though they share in the Lord’s Supper, they still sin. He reminds them of the story of Israel’s wanderings in the desert. The Corinthians’ ancestors all passed through the Red Sea, all were baptized by Moses, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; but what happened? Even with all of this spiritual reinforcement, the Israelites let God down so God was not pleased with most of them. They were struck down in the wilderness. Some really bad stuff happened to them.

Paul noticed that the Corinthian Christians thought that since they were baptized and since they participated in the Lord’s Supper, they were immune from bad stuff happening to them. They felt they can go around following other idols, eating, drinking, and playing around with other women, testing and questioning God, and complaining about everything, and not worry. They thought that since their spiritual life has been taken care of by being a Christian, the body can be misused in having fun. Paul says, “Not so.”

Paul says, “If you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.” Even when you think that you have gotten all your assurances and good luck charms in place, Paul says, “You think that you are standing, but watch out, bad stuff can still happen to you.”

Stuff Happens because God’s Creativity

We want to know why bad stuff happens to good people. The answer to this theodicy problem is found in who Jesus is.

If you think about it, Jesus personifies this question. Why did the worst thing of all happen to this very best person, Jesus? Yet, both in his words found in Luke and in his example on the cross—Jesus refuses to honor or answer the question why? You see, for Jesus, the why question is not important. In the mind and experience of Jesus, stuff just happens.

In a world shaped by God’s creativity—freedom is central to the energy of that creativity. And freedom means that God gives up some control and power—not because God is impotent, but because God is loving. In other words, an all powerful God allows evil and suffering in order to preserve the freedom of creation. Stuff happens in the creative energy, the randomness, the freedom of natural law. Stuff happens in the perverse human freedom of moral law. And being true to the promise of freedom—God does not intervene. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care. Or that God is absent. Far from it. In fact, it was human fear and intrigue and jealousy and ambition that end up nailing God to the cross. And what does God do? God embraces the suffering. God endures the suffering. God confronts the suffering. And God transforms the suffering—into the creativity of new life.

The question is not “why?”—“Why do bad things happen to good people?” The question is how? How do we live and how do we endure in a world where stuff simply happens?

Repentance

Jesus tells us to repent from our sins and to turn to God. “Repent—or you will perish like they did.” Repent means to turn. Turn away from the “why” question and turn toward the “how” question. Turn away from blaming—blaming those in authority, or blaming God, or blaming the victims. Instead turn.

When we turn our lives around, how should we act? There are four aspects of true repentance:

First, true repentance means comprehension that something wrong has been done. Like the prodigal son who “comes to himself,” he realizes that he has done wrong. Recognition of sin is the first honest step in repentance.

Secondly, just recognition alone is not repentance. There must be some movement toward cleansing. Fasting is a physical, visible way of expressing our grief at our sin. These physical acts of humility may not be necessary for God to forgive, but they do seem necessary for us to realize the full benefits of our forgiveness. We do something to show our forgiveness from God.

Third, when we have these initial gestures happening in us, they produce a new yearning for God, a realization that without a gracious God, we are lost. We want to turn, return to God, once again to be rightly related to God.

Like Zacchaeus, once he turned to God, he wanted to have Jesus in his house as a sign of grace that has been joyfully received.

And lastly, we have changed lives. Repentance is more than a feeling. We must bear fruit. Our changed lives proved their repentance by our deeds.

With true repentance, we stay close. Stay close to God. Stay grounded and connected to God’s grace. Because when stuff happens—and certainly it will—God can and will sustain you. God will hang from the crosses of your tragedy and your deception, your doubt, and your despair. God will weep with you. And God will never, never, abandon you. You and I will suffer. You and I will die. But you and I will not perish—unloved and alone—when and if you and I turn and stay close to God.

Fig Tree

At the end of Jesus’ teaching, he tells a parable about the fig tree. He tells this story in order to remind us just what kind of God we have. God is not like a landowner who rips us out and throws us away when we don’t produce good fruit.

No, instead, God is like a wise and patient gardener—who gives us a second and a third and a fourth chance to root ourselves in holy ways. This gardener God prunes, digs around our roots and fertilizes us. Then God waits—waits for the seeds of divine creativity in us to finally blossom into fruitful life for the world.

Our God is a gardener who has all the time in the world for us to grow into spiritual maturity and ripeness. And, who knows? In God’s wisdom, the “stuff” that happens—the seemingly unfair pain and suffering and distress in the world—this “stuff” may just be the manure that gives nourishment to make our barren fig tree lives bear fruit!

This is a real story about Martin Gray who was a survivor of the Holocaust. Following the war, he married, raised a family, and became successful in business. But then, once again, tragedy struck his life. One day his wife and children were all killed in a forest fire that swept through their home in south France.

He was distraught after this senseless loss, and friends encouraged him to launch an investigation into how and why this horror had happened. Instead, Martin Gray began a passionate movement to protect nature from future fires. He explained to his friends that an investigation would focus only on blame—on accusing other people of being responsible for his misery. He wasn’t interested in asking “why?” He was only interested in asking “now what?” “How can I live into the future—in life affirming, and not life denying ways? How can I live for something—and not just against something?”

Today, Jesus presents us with the central dilemma—the choice—of Lent. Are we stuck in the past—or do we believe in the future? Are we living against something—or are we living for something? Do we want answers—or do we want God? Are we stuck with all the stuff that has happened in our lives or are we ready to repent and turn to God?

Today, Jesus is offering to lift us from our sea of sorrow, from our confusion, from our pain and suffering. Jesus is offering to lift us and turn us toward the mercy and grace of God. This is the Good News of the gospel!

Let us pray.

Dear Lord, we come this morning to present all of the pain and suffering that we have experienced in life; all of the questions and confusion that haunt us at night; all of our worries and despair about what may be in stored for us and we ask for your forgiveness. We are sorry for the times when we lost faith in you and ask that you grant us the grace to be your people. We pray in the name of Christ who gave of himself so that we may have everlasting life. Amen.