Pastoral Reflection: Believing In God when bad things happen
April 2020 — Holy Week — the year of the coronavirus pandemic
I heard that over the weekend Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that this week is going to be “the hardest and saddest of most Americans lives.”
Wow.
I’ve already said this (and I’m sure it’s far from original) but I just can’t get over how that comment comes this week of all weeks — Holy Week in the historic church calendar — the week we remember Jesus entering Jerusalem, embarking on the great suffering of his story. And here we are in the midst of a great suffering that will be a part of all of our stories now.
As our church has taken this Holy Week to discuss “Believing in God when bad things happen” (like global pandemic, but also like the individual sufferings of any of us), I think the best way to describe my overall pastoral reflection is this:
We should have called this “Confidence in God when bad things happen” instead of “Believing in God when bad things happen.”
Confidence in God is what I’ve realized I, as a pastor, want for you all most (and think will serve you all most) when it comes to this topic.
When we’re considering the hardest things of life, the issue is not really whether or not you and I believe in God, because if that God is morally suspect or not reliably good and trustworthy — if that God is the removed, blueprint-drawing, puppet-master God we’ve been distinguishing as NOT the God Jesus shows us — then so what!? What’s that going to do for any of us?
The issue is whether or not you and I trust God, whether or not we feel confident putting our hope for a future in this God’s hands. Is God reliable? Is God consistent? Or will God do something that seems unaccountable or arbitrary?
I want you to believe in the God that is consistent and reliable and trustworthy, that is worth putting your confidence in. That is the reason any relationships in our lives work — trust and faithfulness, fulfillment of promises, consistency in character. And our relationship with God is no different.
This is why I think Jesus is such a helpful north star for you and me and everyone. Because it means the question of “confidence in God” ~is not left mysterious~ — God is true and faithful and keeps promises, and knows suffering intimately, and has a consistent character marked by self-sacrificial love. God is like Jesus.
The question of “confidence in human beings” — in other people — that sadly will always be mysterious — we can’t necessarily be sure. Hell, I can’t necessarily be sure about myself often.
The question of “confidence in systems and structures” — in our society, in our governments, in our institutions, in the powers that be — also mysterious.
The question of “confidence in our natural world” — in our beautiful yet chaotic environments, in our miraculous yet imperfect biologies — mysterious.
Life works in mysterious ways, that is so true. But not God. God is not mysterious. God is like Jesus. And, because of that, we can have confidence in God, even when bad things happen.