“A Grief Shared: A Response to the Tragedy at Virginia Tech”

The Appomattox Court House Presbyterian Church Pulpit
Rev. Cameron S. Smith
The Lord's Day, April 22, 2007
Deuteronomy 29:29

"Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made."

COMPARING NOTES
     Yesterday, it was such a privilege to attend the funeral of Marshall Goin's mother, Alice Goin. It may seem odd to hear someone say that it was a privilege to attend a funeral; but let me explain: Mrs. Goin was, by all accounts, a wonderful woman -- rich in love and faith. As she lay on her deathbed early last week, I'm told that she was more concerned about the needs and well-being of others rather than herself. And speaking of others, as I looked around that packed church at Walkers Presbyterian Church, it was chock-full of her family. For the record: 11 children, 31 grandchildren, 35 great grand children and 3 great-great grandchildren. What a tremendous blessing!
     A story was told that one of her granddaughters was in the midst of a pregnancy - I don't recall exactly who -- and she was apparently having a rough go of it; so she asked her grandmother how in the world she ever made it through 12 pregnancies? Mrs. Goin said, "I don't know, but I don't think I could do it again."
     But one of the remarks from the presiding minister, who also just so happens to be one of her grandchildren, couldn't help but catch my attention: (I paraphrase) "Even in the midst of the kind of senseless violence that we find in our world in these days, she was still unchanged and still managed to brighten her own world."
     That remark stuck with me as I continue, as I am sure you do, to think about and process the week we have all just been through, namely the senseless violence at Virginia Tech that snuffed out 32 lives on April 16th.

GONE IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
     One of these victims, I am told, participated in some Bible studies at the church I belonged to when we lived in Blacksburg in the late 1990's. I never met her, but because of her association with Blacksburg Christian Fellowship (BCF, as it is affectionately known), I feel like I too, lost a family member!
     Her name was Lauren McCain. I took note of her Myspace page. It was clear to me that this young lady had Christian convictions through and through, and she seemed to have so much going for her. (Indeed, we could well say the same of the other undergraduates and graduate students who perished last Monday: So much to live for.) Her life had really just begun. What might she have done with her God-given gifts? Sadly, we cannot now answer that question.
     What then are we to make of one kind lady living to the ripe old age of 94, blessed to see four generations ahead of her; and on the other hand, a 20 year old young lady in college with her whole life ahead of her going to a Monday morning German class and poof, it's all over? In the words from one of the friends of 20 year old Nicole White: "I never imagined she would be gone in the blink of an eye." [The above information gleaned from MSNBC online during their ongoing coverage of the tragedy]

COMPASSIONATE OR ARROGANT?
     Many words have been offered this week, pondering the same list of hard questions that inevitably come up when dreadful things like this happen. I get the nagging sense that many writers coming from a viewpoint indifferent or even hostile towards faith in general and/or Christianity in particular, seem to believe that those who are religiously oriented have never bothered to give serious thought to the difficulties that follow from tragedies such as we have just experienced in Blacksburg.
     Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. This week, Bishop N.T. Wright, who is Anglican, shared some of his thoughts on the Washington Post/Newsweek Blog "On Faith":

"My faith tradition (ordinary Christianity) doesn't really try to explain the origin of evil either in general or in particular awful situations. Part of believing in a good Creator God, as Christians do, is to believe that evil is essentially absurd, irrational, a denial of the goodness and meaningfulness of creation -- which is of course all the more graphically the case when faced with multiple, random murder."

     Many of the responses to the Bishop's remarks were extremely uncharitable. Many self-professed agnostics and atheists leveled the charge of "arrogance" on what they perceived to be Christian know-it-all-ism. These unbelieving critics seem to be blissfully ignorant of their own sneaking hypocrisy in the matter, for they themselves too, are making some fairly absolute judgments on the nature of life and death in the real world!
     At the very least, Christians must always and ever profess a dependent certainty on the God who has revealed himself clearly in the Bible, and most definitively, in Jesus Christ. Those who make no such claim, must source their predications in their own authority. Now really, who's being arrogant here?!

WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE
     Since the 1st century, not even more than a decade removed from the resurrection of Christ, the Christian Church has been wrestling with the problem of evil, what we could more specifically call the theological concept of theodicy. Theopedia, the religious counterpart to Wikipedia, defines theodicy as the attempt to explain "how the existence of evil in the world can be reconciled with the justice and goodness of God." If it sounds like a tall order, it is only because it truly is a doozy!
     One popular way of unpacking the problem of evil came in a very popular book written by Rabbi Harold Kushner back in 1981, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Kushner's conclusion, as I recall, was that God has nothing to do with the bad things that happen to people -- premature death, illness, handicaps, personal setbacks, etc. The fact is, God is limited in what he can do by human free will and natural evolutionary processes. (Whether God chooses to limit himself in the matter or is sincerely limited in what he can do is not really clear to me so many years after my initial reading of the book.)
     Kushner, it seems to me, aims to defuse the problem of evil by taking God out of the equation, that is to say, that God is not culpable for the misery -- so that ministering to and comforting a grieving or angry family might be somewhat possible.
     But, the reality is, Kushner's seemingly brilliant deflection creates more questions about God than it answers, at least in my mind! How can anyone read the Hebrew Scriptures and deny God's absolute sovereignty? Indeed, to take but one prime example from the Old Testament: Does God not repeatedly affirm that he is behind the pain and suffering of the exile? No doubt due to the actions of the Israelites; but God clearly says that the kings of Assyria, Babylon and Persia are but instruments in his mighty hand, doing his bidding rather than their own.

THEODICY: THREE ATTEMPTS
     From the perspective of the Christian Church, three broad answers have been given in answer to the problem of evil:

There is, and once again, I quote from "Theopedia," "the unknown purpose defense, which suggests that suffering exists for a reason that is beyond our comprehension." Only God knows everything, and for some reason, he has not chosen to reveal the answer to our inquiring minds.
     But then, why would God be so secretive about things that perplex us in this world? Wouldn't it be better if we could make some sense of evil in the world?

The second perspective is "the free will defense, which suggests that God allows evil to preserve human free will." In order for us to be truly free, we must be allowed to make a mess of things, so to speak.
     This seems to protect God from being the author of evil, but what does it say about God's goodness to even allow such terrible things to happen? I mean, when I see my own children about to do something harmful to themselves or someone else, I rush to stop them. Why doesn't God do the same?

Finally, there is "the soul-making [theory], which suggests that God uses the evil to build character." We could never become what we ought to be without the sand in the mix. Perhaps we could crassly state restate this position as "No pain, no gain!"
     Now that's a good one to try out when there's a tragedy. Try going on campus in Blacksburg and using that line to counsel grieving students, parents and faculty!

NO EASY ANSWERS....
     In truth, there is actually a little truth in all three of these feeble attempts; but by themselves, they are grossly inadequate! Let's face it, when it comes down to the bottom line, we just don't have an air-tight, iron clad answer to the problem of evil.
     Even as we go all the way back to Genesis, we find this way too cryptic announcement about the entrance of evil into God's good creation: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made." (Gen 3:1). Where did Satan come from? Seems to me that he was on the scene way before Genesis 1:1.
     If, as some suppose from a few passing references in Isaiah 14:12ff and Ezekiel 28:12ff, some insight into Satan's original fall is discovered (i.e. the classic case of good angel gone bad); then even that doesn't get us any closer to the heart of the issue: Understanding all the Whys? and the Hows? of evil.
     If the testimony of our Scriptures tell us anything, they tell us that God is both sovereign and good - above everything else. We do not have all the answers; we will never have all the answers, period.
     But, this confession does not, must not, and will not consign us to the meaninglessness of life and the despair of agnosticism!

Why?

Because we do know God.

OUR ONLY HOPE
     I began this morning with a verse from Deuteronomy 29: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." I cherish that word because it speaks to my children; it speaks to your children; it speaks to those of you who will have children some day. The heritage of faith, the promises and the graciousness of God belong to you and your children, and we see that graphically in the waters of baptism.
     But there is that first part that is not so unconditionally welcomed: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God…."
     You see, when Moses spoke these words, he was looking out on a vast sea of people; a people who were ready to cross the Jordan River to claim the Promised Land -- the Land flowing with milk and honey.
     But, Moses was cautioning that there would be many things that would cause them to doubt the goodness and sovereignty of God. There would, for sure, be good times; there would be prosperity. But, just the same, in a fallen world, there would also be heartache; there would be death; there would be hardship. "The secret things belong to the LORD our God."
     Thankfully, none of us know the day of our own death. None of us know what will be the cause of our own demise. None of us know what will become of our friends, our family, our future, near or far. That is the mercy of God.
     But I want to re-direct our focus to the other side of the equation. You might call it the "so what" to the problem of evil. We do not have all of the answers, but we do have an answer, perhaps more to the point, the answer. We do have a way into the discussion. We do have an abiding hope; a hope grounded in the promises and faithfulness of God.
     I quote N.T. Wright once more:

"The church has always found…that the God we know in Jesus Christ is not…the lofty C.E.O. of the Universe, 'running' the world as it were at a distance, but the God who is strangely present in the midst of the horror, taking its main weight on himself and working from within to bring healing and hope."

     Wright goes on to note the proximity of this Blacksburg tragedy to the event of Easter morning. Indeed, thinking back to two recent tragedies: Colombine and the Oklahoma City bombing, all three of these tragedies happened within shouting distance of Easter. Wright sees this as "the clash between the church's Easter message and the reality of a rebellious world…acted out so plainly and horribly."
     But we know, as our faith has been nourished, that evil will not have the final victory. The head of the serpent has been crushed. The cross of Christ delivered the definitive verdict. The time that unfolds before the Second Coming of the Lord in glory contains far too many bloody skirmishes for our oft' times weak faith. But God's ultimate puposes and plans have never been in danger of falling short.
     Our hearts go out to all of those so negatively affected by the actions of a severely disturbed man. Our prayers go out to those who will minister in the coming days, weeks, months and even years in this tight-knit community. Our prayers go out to those who will pick up the pieces and move on. Our prayer is that in doing so, they will know that they are never alone. Finally, may we all draw closer to our God in Jesus Christ in the length of our days as we have life and breath to do so.
Amen.