Tragedy - it is an accurate word to describe the school shooting in Connecticut, but also seems to be inadequate. How can any one word capture the suffering, the horror, the sheer incomprehensibleness of someone walking through a school hallway, showering bullets on kindergarteners and teachers? Whether we knew any of the victims or not, we hurt for the people of Newtown. We feel the shock and the fear and the trauma radiating out from our TVs and newspapers, computers and smartphones.
At such times, our question is often, "Why?" Why did this individual do such a thing? Why didn't any of his family or friends see this coming? Why did he have access to deadly weapons? Why did he choose a school, and why that school? And perhaps most importantly for people of faith, why did God let this happen?
This is, of course, THE question that rings down through history. From the Black Death to the Holocaust, people of faith have wrestled with a loving God who allows horrible things to happen to people, even to innocent children. Some find comfort in believing that God causes such tragedy - but many of us, including myself, find such belief misguided. The God revealed in Christ and proclaimed through the centuries is compassionate and just, on the side of the poor, downtrodden, and weak. Such a God would have nothing to do with killing innocents, especially not little children simply striving to learn. So that leaves us with the question, why did God allow this to happen?
My belief is that God made us free - free to choose, and that means free to choose rightly or wrongly. For whatever reason, a troubled young man in Connecticut chose to commit a travesty. For a God who loved both the victims and the perpetrator of this crime, this broke his heart. Yet even in the midst of the tragedy, we begin to hear stories of other choices: teachers who hid students before they were shot; police officers and EMS personnel who responded to a dangerous situation; parents who are helping their children through this trauma. We will likely hear more stories in the days ahead - stories of people who used their free choice to respond with selflessness and love.
This is the risk of God's gift of freedom - it can go awry. Yet it can also be beautiful and full of grace. So to ask, "Why did God allow this to happen?" may be the wrong question. Instead, we might ask, where was God in the midst of this? Does God care?
The answer is, yes, more than we can know. You see, this isn't the first massacre of innocent children to happen. In fact, the very start of Jesus' life saw the murder of the innocent baby boys of Bethlehem. Joseph fled with Jesus to Egypt and kept him safe, but Jesus would have known that this is a world in which madmen kill babies - that's the price of freedom. All we can do is seek to overcome evil with good and pray.
Jesus spent his life overcoming evil with good. I can only imagine what effect the Bethlehem massacre had on him, but it is very possible that it had a formative effect on him. I can picture him thinking of it when he healed the sick. I can imagine him saying, "Not again" when he raised the widow's son from death. And as he walked the road to Calvary, I can imagine him thinking, "This is for all people - the innocent and the guilty - because they don't have to live that way. They can choose the new way of life I bring, where babies don't die and madmen don't kill. This is for them."
That way of life, the Jesus way of life, can be what guides our choices in life - can be what guides us to compassion instead of vengeance, peace instead of fear, life instead of death. And it also guides us, in times of inexpressible grief, to join Paul in prayer: "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." (Rom. 8:26)
When the bullets fly, sometimes that is all we can do.
In Christ,
Adam
At such times, our question is often, "Why?" Why did this individual do such a thing? Why didn't any of his family or friends see this coming? Why did he have access to deadly weapons? Why did he choose a school, and why that school? And perhaps most importantly for people of faith, why did God let this happen?
This is, of course, THE question that rings down through history. From the Black Death to the Holocaust, people of faith have wrestled with a loving God who allows horrible things to happen to people, even to innocent children. Some find comfort in believing that God causes such tragedy - but many of us, including myself, find such belief misguided. The God revealed in Christ and proclaimed through the centuries is compassionate and just, on the side of the poor, downtrodden, and weak. Such a God would have nothing to do with killing innocents, especially not little children simply striving to learn. So that leaves us with the question, why did God allow this to happen?
My belief is that God made us free - free to choose, and that means free to choose rightly or wrongly. For whatever reason, a troubled young man in Connecticut chose to commit a travesty. For a God who loved both the victims and the perpetrator of this crime, this broke his heart. Yet even in the midst of the tragedy, we begin to hear stories of other choices: teachers who hid students before they were shot; police officers and EMS personnel who responded to a dangerous situation; parents who are helping their children through this trauma. We will likely hear more stories in the days ahead - stories of people who used their free choice to respond with selflessness and love.
This is the risk of God's gift of freedom - it can go awry. Yet it can also be beautiful and full of grace. So to ask, "Why did God allow this to happen?" may be the wrong question. Instead, we might ask, where was God in the midst of this? Does God care?
The answer is, yes, more than we can know. You see, this isn't the first massacre of innocent children to happen. In fact, the very start of Jesus' life saw the murder of the innocent baby boys of Bethlehem. Joseph fled with Jesus to Egypt and kept him safe, but Jesus would have known that this is a world in which madmen kill babies - that's the price of freedom. All we can do is seek to overcome evil with good and pray.
Jesus spent his life overcoming evil with good. I can only imagine what effect the Bethlehem massacre had on him, but it is very possible that it had a formative effect on him. I can picture him thinking of it when he healed the sick. I can imagine him saying, "Not again" when he raised the widow's son from death. And as he walked the road to Calvary, I can imagine him thinking, "This is for all people - the innocent and the guilty - because they don't have to live that way. They can choose the new way of life I bring, where babies don't die and madmen don't kill. This is for them."
That way of life, the Jesus way of life, can be what guides our choices in life - can be what guides us to compassion instead of vengeance, peace instead of fear, life instead of death. And it also guides us, in times of inexpressible grief, to join Paul in prayer: "We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans." (Rom. 8:26)
When the bullets fly, sometimes that is all we can do.
In Christ,
Adam
Comments
Post a Comment