This past Tuesday we held the memorial service for Laura Worsham. As long as I had known Laura, life for her was a struggle. She had a peculiar liver condition that often caused her pain that would disable her from a normal routine; and then just a few years ago she was critically injured by a gunshot wielded by a disturbed man, probably under the influence of drugs, a random and meaningless act, that left her unable to walk. I thought that she had been given much more than most of life’s suffering. We all encounter suffering, but she, like others I have known, seemed to be singled out for a disproportionate share. What kind of a lesser god would order things that way? I don’t believe that her suffering was a part of “God’s Plan.” (I don’t believe God has a plan, but that’s another subject!) For whatever reason, if there be one, she had to face life’s hard edges, the darker iterations of the created order, if order there be.
Theologians over the centuries have asked the question: If God is a loving God, and if God is good… then why is there suffering and evil in the world…. and to put a finer point on the question: If Jesus brought salvation once and for all, why is the world still broken? The question has a fancy name among theologians: Theodicy, which, ironically enough, means ‘God’s justice.’ Laura’s suffering and that of others I have known, seem anything but just. The church has been pondering the why of things for millennia. Augustine and Calvin encompassing seven centuries of Western Christian thought attributed the presence of suffering to human free will… that our suffering is brought on by our depravity, our sorry state of being fallen from grace. Absurd!… right?
So perhaps the question of ‘why’ is a waste of time. Maybe the universe is truly a random unfolding of reality, both destructive and life giving. Perhaps we should spend our time and energy on another question…. ‘What’ do we do in the face of reality that is both light and dark, that encompasses both joy and pain. The poet Wallace Stevens proposed that it is the human imagination that gives order to the randomness of the universe. The creation myth in Genesis I think is saying the same thing: “God looked upon what God had created and called it good.” It is good because God calls it good, names it so…. This story is as much a projection as to the human imagination as it is about the creative attributes of God. But let us say we are made in the image of God, and in saying so, it is for us to imagine the random and raw beauty of the world into goodness. Love is the means, like sacrifice for our sister and brother; ascribing dignity where there is shame; to respect our fellow sojourners who suffer by virtue of being human; telling the truth. Love is what gathers reality and makes it meaningful, gives it order… renders it beautiful no less, despite the rough edges.
In the presence of Love the mystery of creation entire seems to make sense… and our complicated lives in it as well. As we search for the ‘real’, let us choose Love, because without it the world is just…. unjust.
Thank you Rev Flowers for stopping a false and hateful message delivered by Bradley Byrne .It was not only wrong and an attempt
to instill false fear but his statements were far from the Christian loving embrace of all people
I am from Birmingham and am a member of the Cathedral Church of the Advent. It is not about politics but about stopping the hate and anger and ill will
toward others. Bonhoeffer saw hate leading to evil and acted. Thank you for your
courage in speaking out. We have to actively try to end all this hate.
Blessings to you and your congregation in your missions to spread the love of God.
Tandy Graves