January 24, 2010

Dear friends, one of the greatest obstacles to faith, one of the largest stumbling blocks in the road to belief, perhaps the deepest ditch separating us from God is the problem of evil in the world.  Evil is any agent or event that creates or ends in suffering – any agent or event that stirs up, sloshes over, seeps out hurt, dread, fear, loss or pain.  The dilemma goes like this: How could, why would a loving, powerful, wholesome God allow evil to exist?  How could, why would a benevolent deity permit hurt and sorrow to infect his dominion?  How could, why would a caring, omnipotent force stand by, move aside, and give chaos and pain access into his perfected, idyllic universe?  The question is profound, pressing and real.  The question rolls off the atheist’s tongue in well-articulated arguments.  The question brings the saints to their knees in moments of weeping doubt. 

The reality of evil is inescapable.  History clearly demonstrates and our personal experience convinces us that there are agents and events moving in the world which induce and result in suffering.  This morning in Haiti, thousands and thousands of mothers weep for their lost children.  Thousands of children look for their missing parents.  Fathers and husbands, capable, strong men feel helpless.  Homes are gone.  Clothes are gone.  Toothbrushes, shoes, books, tools, toys are washed away.  Today, thousands of good, responsible, hardworking, prayerful people wake with nothing.  On the 11^th, they were about living their lives.  On the 12^th, they were undone.  On every day since, they’ve been moving or standing in dazed shock.  They know evil, they have experience with suffering.

In Costa Rica there is a vibrant, profitable tourist industry.  There is a magnificent tropical rainforest with colorful tree frogs, amazing orchids, chattering monkeys.  There are beautiful beach resorts and incredible coffee.  In Costa Rica there are also ghettos.  From their country next door where unemployment is 60%, Nicaraguans desperate to feed their children cross the border.  They take the jobs no one else wants.  They pick the coffee beans, they cut the pineapples, and they pluck down the bananas.  They live in 30 foot tin-sided sheds with dirt floors and no plumbing or electricity.  In a neighborhood in Guadari there are 5,000 teenage mothers between the ages of 12 and 14.  What will happen to those babies born of babies?  How bright is their future?  There is suffering in Guadari, Costa Rica. 

In Newton Grove, NC, there are farm worker camps.  There are acres of three room huts.  Each contains a bedroom lined with bunk beds, a bathroom with one shower, one sink and one toilet, and each has a small kitchen where a pot of shared soup simmers.  Fathers, husbands, and brothers come to pick our berries and our pickles.  After the harvest, they’ll move to Florida to pick oranges, then to Tennessee to pick apples.  For eight to ten months every year, they’ll live in those huts separated from family and home.  They’ll eke out a living and they’ll be incredibly lonely.  They’ll want a better future for their sons, but they won’t be optimistic.  In Newton Grove, there is suffering.

On Statesville Road, two miles from this church, evil persists.  Agents, conditions and events creating, supporting, allowing suffering are at work.  Every morning, 13 year olds arrive at Ranson Middle School hungry.  Every afternoon, 12 year olds go home to a trailer park where their mother pays more in rent for a dilapidated, tiny space than Mallard Creek folk pay for their mortgages on 2,000 square foot homes.  Those 12 year olds are innocents. 

In these pews, there is suffering.  In these seats, there is pain, loss, fear and anxiety.  There are people next to you who have cancer.  There are people next to you who bear the hurts and scars of dysfunctional families.  Not everyone under this roof had loving, respectful parents.  Not everyone in this lovely space has thoughtful, caring children.  There are folk gathered here worried about aging relatives and stressed marriages and paying bills.  This morning, as I speak, there are people weighed down by sad, hard things in their lives by worries and disappointments.  Yes, my friends, there is suffering in the world.  There is heartache and hardship far away and close at hand.  And I don’t know why.

 I’ve studied the question.  I’ve read the great theologies.  There is an entire course of academic endeavor centered on this problem: the existence of evil in a universe under the purview of an all powerful, merciful God.  The area is called Theodicy.  The writings are copious and detailed.  But in the end, the question remains.  How could, why would God permit evil and its hurtful effects to infect his beautiful, carefully constructed creation?  For now, we must be satisfied with Paul’s answer to the people in the church at Corinth.  He wrote, “For now, we see through a glass darkly.  But then, when we are standing in the presence of God, we will see all things clearly.  Now, we know in part, then we will know fully, just as we are fully known by God.”  Then our greatest questions will be answered.  For now, we must make sense and determinations with the information at hand. 

Suffering is real and indiscriminate.  It cannot be explained or avoided.  It falls on good and bad alike.  It is ageless and persistent.  Suffering is a formidable adversary, but we are not defenseless nor are we undone.  We have strategies and tools, coping mechanisms and examples.  We have Isaiah’s promise of relief and Jesus’ fulfillment.  As our gospel passage reminds us, “He stood up to read and unrolled the Scroll of Isaiah where it was written: ‘the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because, he has anointed me.  I bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.  God has sent me and I bring sight back to the blind.  I bring relief and release to the oppressed.  I come and I proclaim the time and truth of God’s favor.”  Then he said to all those gathered, entranced by his words and moved by his charisma, “Today, these words and this promise have been fulfilled in your presence.  I am the relief, the balm, the antidote to evil. I bring good news, hope and tangible help to the suffering.  I remind them of their belovedness.  I say with sure conviction they are encircled within God’s loving embrace.  He has not forgotten them.  He does not despise them.  He wants good things and restful peace for them and He sends them help.  God Almighty, God the Father sends the suffering world – me. 

Jesus the Christ says there is healing and help and in my words.  There is peace and relief in my message.  The spirit of the Lord is upon me.  I pass that spirit on to my disciples.  They pass it on to their followers.  Those believers pass the father’s care and love on to the next generation.  God to Jesus, Jesus to the twelve, the twelve to the 5,000, the 5,000 to the 50,000, the 50,000 to the 2 million, the 2 million to us. 

Dear friends, there is evil in our world.  Agents and events pass hurt and torment onto God’s precious children.  Bad, sad conditions press upon innocents.  But those bad, sad conditions are not the final reality.  They are not inevitable truth.  As pervasive as suffering is, it is not insurmountable.  Agents of evil are no match for the emissaries of God.  Events precipitated by evil are no match for responses moved by God’s Holy Spirit. Earthquakes come.  Relief and development follow.  Ghettos rise up.  Bishops see a better vision.  Mission teams lay tile, build day care centers, teach skills and a new future is born.  Farm workers are wrenched away from their families and the church sends clothes, brings doctors, teaches English and their isolation eases.  Children arrive at school unprepared and under-supported, and leave with backpacks filled with school supplies and new uniforms, Thanksgiving feasts and Christmas wishes fulfilled.  People arrive on a hill burdened with secret needs and nagging worries and leave knowing there is a community ready to welcome them warmly, ready to hold their doubts and sorrow gently.

Evil approaches, goodness defends.  The why of the enemy is unknown.  The who of the response is clear.  God sent his Son.  His Son sent his disciples.  His disciples are us.  Evil approaches.  We are the goodness.  Brothers and sisters, the world waits.  The world depends on us.  Evil is the clear and present danger.  We are the only defense.  You, me, the people of St. Martins, St. Alban’s, St. John’s, Christ Church, Assurance Methodist, Cook’s Presbyterian, St. Thomas Catholic, the faithful members of temples, synagogues and yes, mosques, are the only answer to evil and suffering in this world.  We, the faithful, are the hands, feet, heart and mind of God’s goodness – empowered to act in this world.  The angels reign in heaven. We move on Earth. 

Inflamed by the Holy Spirit, we face off and vanquish pain, loss, fear and want.  We put down suffering in three specific actions.  We pray.  We pray long and we pray hard.  We pray continually.  We give.  We find places in our personal resources to give for the care of others in need and distress.  And we serve.  We put our hands and hearts into action.  We carve out time to be present to others in discouragement.  Yes, we are all busy folk with our own lives and our own concerns, but first and primarily, we are agents of God.  We are the defenders of hope!  When we accept that identify, when we pray, give and serve as a formidable force against evil – against suffering, as God is our witness, dear ones, the incidentals and the necessities of our lives fall into place.  When we look beyond our worries and serve God in the care of the broken world, God looks after our needs easily.  As the believers in Haiti proclaim – we do our part, God always does his.  Pray, Give, Serve.  Breathe in and accept the mantle.  Be God’s agent of good, for good and the suffering eases and the evil rescinds.

And for this good news, we say Amen!  Amen?  Amen!