From the Vicarage - April 2011

NATURAL DISASTERS

As I write, the death toll from the Japanese earthquake continues to rise. We are again seeing horrifying scenes of human suffering, as we did in the Asian Tsunami, with death and destruction on an appalling scale. Yet again, the question is raised, why does a good and powerful God allow such things to happen? For many people this will be another nail in the coffin of an already fragile faith.

EARTHQUAKES

As the author of Ecclesiastes wrote, “there is nothing new under the sun”. Most of the great questions we wrestle with, have been struggled with before. The 18^th Century was the great Age of Reason. The Western philosophers believed the existence of God was self evident and could be proved from the “reasonable” nature of the Universe and its natural laws. However, the Lisbon earthquake on All Saints Day 1755, drove a coach and horses through this reasonable view of the world. It is clear that the world was not so tidy. It was not always easy to reconcile the purposes of a benign creator with the realities of the world. The immense forces in the world and in the universe, do not always have a benign effect on human life. For those without faith, this is, in a sense, not a problem. It is just the way the Universe is. But for people of faith, it raises questions about the moral purposes of God. Why does a good God allow such suffering? Job and the Psalmist struggled with the same question centuries ago.

ANSWERS?

As Job observed, all the philosophers’ “explanations” of suffering are no answers at all. All human suffering remains a mystery. Some are able to reconcile their faith with the harsh realities of life. For some, their experience of the pain of life shatters their faith beyond recovery. As we enter this holy season of preparation for Easter, we are drawn under the shadow of the Cross. We see how Jesus walks with us in the suffering of the world. He is alongside the victims of earthquake and flood. He is alongside those dying in the cancer ward. He is alongside the innocent victims of human violence and unjustice.  For the ultimate revelation we have of the love of God, is of the Crucified Lord. As Canon Vanstone wrote,

“Therefore he who shows us God,

  Helpless hangs upon the tree;

  And the nails and crown of thorns,

  Tell of what God’s love must be.

Here is God: no monarch he,

Throned in easy state to reign,

Here is God, whose arms of love,

Aching, spent, the world sustain.”

STEPHEN CARTER