St. John’s United Church of Christ
August 17, 2008
A Sermon by the Rev. John Krueger
The Window Into Your Theology Genesis 45:1-15
Not long ago I cringed as I listened to a mother whose soldier son was killed in Iraq. In the midst of her obvious grief she said some pretty awful things about God. Perhaps she didn’t mean what she said, about his death and about the part God played in his death, but perhaps she did. She said it was God’s will that this 20 year old died in Iraq, just at the beginning of his normal life expectancy. In her effort to find some meaning in this tragedy, she laid it all on God.
I’m not sure how this all works out for her, why her son was killed and those about him were spared. I remember hearing that some of our troops in World War II would say that when a bullet had your name on it, it didn’t much matter what you did, how risky or careful you were, the result would be the same.
To follow that logic, I don’t know who puts names on those bullets, including some names while omitting others, but perhaps it was comforting for some people to think that God had a hand in these otherwise random events. Adding God to some explanation for why things happen may be helpful to some, addressing the question of why some die and some are spared, in warfare and in other seemingly random happenings, but I am troubled by how that line of reasoning must end.
Does God cause bad things to happen to us, even to good people? Does God select some to survive a tornado, others to die? Is God as responsible for tragic events as God is responsible for the blessings of our lives?
I believe that each of us is a theologian, someone who thinks about God and has ideas about God. We all have some thoughts about a greater power who has fingerprints on the events of our lives. The quickest way to sort out our concepts of God is to question what part God is playing in our world and in our lives, especially in the tragic events around us. This story of Joseph and his brothers points us in one direction.
Joseph is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, their attempt to get rid of their obnoxious sibling, another case of questionable family values in the Bible. He is taken by Midianite traders to Egypt, becomes an interpreter of dreams and he wins the favor of the Pharaoh by accurately predicting seven years of bounty and seven years of famine. Adequately prepared, Egypt become the regional supply deport when famine sets in and the neighboring countries are in dismay.
The brothers come down to Egypt, hat in hand, to buy grain. Joseph plays some games with them as he recognizes them but they do not recognize him. Then we have this tearful reunion with the vanquished brother, the one they tried to kill.
You can imagine their amazement, chagrined, wondering what kind of retribution was coming. What revenge would he take? What sort of penalty is to be paid? But Joseph attributes all of their shenanigans to God – it was God who made all of this to happen as it did. “And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sent me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.” Three more times he asserts that God made all of this happen. God had a plan and they merely carried out God’s plan.
This is fully consistent with much of the theology of the Old Testament, for the Hebrew believer was a radical monotheist. There was only one God in Hebrew theology, one power, one divine force, with no pretenders, no rivals and no alternatives. God alone can cause the sun to rise and set, the seasons to change and people to act as they do.
That theology may comfort us in many ways, believing only God calls the shots and is the great power behind the wonder of this world. But it also means that God is responsible for the bad things as well. The fires in California are part of God’s design, as are droughts, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. God orchestrates everything, good and bad. Everything that happens to you and those you love can be attributed to God.
Later on in the Moses story, when the Hebrews have fallen from privileged status to serfs building pyramids, the Pharaoh refuses to free the Hebrew slaves. It is not the Pharaoh acting on his own but God who hardens the heart of the Pharaoh, necessitating the ten plagues. The Pharaoh is just another one of God’s actors, doing God’s bidding and not his own willfulness.
The mother of that 20 year old soldier killed in Iraq is on the same page, believing that God had a part in the death of her son, that his death was God’s will. That may be comforting to her, believing he is in a far better place, heaven, but the premise just doesn’t work for me.
I am more inclined to take the words of Joseph later on, in chapter 50. His father, Jacob, has died, and the brothers are still uncertain whether or not Joseph has forgiven them. They come to him, pleading for mercy in light of their previous attempt to kill him. “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today. So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” The brothers meant to harm Joseph, an evil deed of jealousy, but God found a way to work in the midst of their evil and sinful intentions to bring about something good.
This is the bedrock of my theology. God cannot be faulted for the bad things that happen around us, from car accidents to life-threatening diseases, nations at war, or unfaithful marriage partners or child abuse or whatever we think debases human beings, takes away their dignity, subjects them to pain, suffering or harm. God agonizes with us in the midst of these tragedies, seeking to bring something of healing and hope in the face of despair. Some may have meant it for harm; God always means it for good.
I grieve with that mother, whose son was killed, a life of potential shortened in such a tragic ending. But I caution her to not blame God, to not lay his death at God’s doorstep. Volunteering to serve in the armed forces puts life in harm’s way. The pay and incentives may be appealing but those are real arenas of harm and danger. Driving a car under the influence of illegal substances is tempting fate and I don’t think God is responsible for the outcomes. Not taking care of your own health, diet, exercise, medical care, is your business, your responsibility, and God is off the hook.
This is not to diminish God’s hovering presence. Certainly God is the anxious presence while all this is going on, but God doesn’t write people’s names on bullets. God doesn’t steer toddlers into pools or retention ponds. God doesn’t dismiss warning signals and play fast and loose with fate.
I don’t think God had a master plan that included the plot to kill Joseph and sell him as a slave so he could end up in Egypt and interpret dreams to endear him to the Pharaoh. Those brothers acted out of their own jealousy and willfulness; they were not mere pawns in some divine plot. The continuing miracle of that story, and many others as well, is how God is involved in the rescue efforts to transform human lives, to redeem the many stupid choices of human beings. A family is reunited, brothers reconciled, a grieving father given hope, for God always means it for good, and you can count on that.
So look whatever tragedy in the eye, grieve with the victims, and volunteer to assume some active role in seeking the good. Accept the reality that we live in a world with flawed human beings, and some do some amazingly foolish things, and work with God to salvage something that has life and worth.
See God’s hand in those events that lift up the human soul, that value life and possibility, that draw people together in love and mutual affection and that promote relationships of integrity and responsibility. Resist the quick but dangerous answers in a time of grief, seeking easy solace by assuming God is behind some tragedy so that the death or sickness or accident was not in vain.
The Window Into Your Theology is how you relate God to the bad things that are always around us. God’s fault? God’s doing? God’s will? Or is God hard at work to craft some healing and redemptive outcome, some glimmer of hope and promise in the midst of what it is we must face? God is always recruiting people like us to be partners in this noble effort of transformation and hope, people just like us.