Aurora Shooting Speaks

Bury My Heart in Aurora

It used to be Wounded Knee, the place of massacre.  Then it was Columbine.  Certainly the World Trade Center.  Intentional slaughter.  Man’s inhumanity to Man.  Strange how that question has been turned back on God with the title of a bestseller—Why do bad things happen to good people? 

Let’s be very clear.  For us, this is a question.  For those who lost loved ones, it is sheer agony and heartbreak. I want to approach the question so we can frame a response, perhaps pray for a different world. 

Rabbi Kushner, in his book--When Bad Things Happen to Good People,  told the heart rending story of his son dying prematurely frompregoria—where you age years in months. Why would God allow this to happen?  Kushner really depicts the problem well.  His answer does not work for me.  God is not perfect, evolves, and we need to forgive God.  

The shooting in Aurora is different.  The slaughter of people by people.  We can say that we have free will, and for it to be really free and not automatons, God must allow free action.  The problem is that if God is all powerful, why does he limit his power to grant us freedom?  

The Book of Job answers all of the above by saying that Job as the creation cannot know the reasons of the Creator.  Jesus himself died the innocent man with no explanation from God.  The example he gives is to be the “sons and daughters of God” and let God be our Father.  Live into that relationship. 

Out of that relationship as sons and daughters of God emerges a far greater mystery than why bad things happen to good people.  The mystery is that in a world where all things can go wrong, when they do, very good people do very good things that transform tragedy.  Don’ get me wrong.  That’s not rationalization.  The Cross is still the Cross.  But if we ask the theological question, the answer needs to be one of faith.  We are led by good people with good actions beyond the cross.  We see resurrection before we literally die. 

I like the following poem from the middle of the 19^th c. It gets across the reality of living in a relationship with God and shaping our expectations.  

God hath not promised Skies always blue, Flower-strewn pathways All our lives through; God hath not promised Sun without rain, Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain. But God hath promised Strength for the day, Rest for the labour, Light for the way, Grace for the trials, Help from above, Unfailing sympathy, Undying love. Annie Johnson Flint, 1866-1932 American Teacher and Poet

Is it up to us to be God’s heart and hands in the world that can go wrong?  Maybe we have  already been blessed to receive some of the  the gifts listed above.  They always come through other people. Maybe we cannot change the world. But I promise you that your hands can give God's blessings in your world wherever that may be.