Why didn't God stop it?

That was a question that someone asked me earlier this week regarding the tsunami, and it’s a question that I’m sure many of us have asked ourselves. “Why didn’t God stop it?” It’s a very simple question, and at a time of crisis it is very understandable that people want a very simple answer. People have been writing to newspapers during the past few days with some of them:

• “Why didn’t God stop it?” …because there is no God. The tsunami was just an accident of nature, …in fact the whole world is just one big accident. There is no creator who designed it, and no God who looks after it.

• “Why didn’t God stop it?” …because God doesn’t get involved in the details of the world. Yes he exists, and yes he made the world, but that’s all. He’s now sitting back and just watching what happens.

• “Why didn’t God stop it?” …because God sent it! He knows that the world population is growing to fast, and this is God’s way of reducing it. It’s very sad, but God has to be cruel to be kind.

• “Why didn’t God stop it?” …because God sent it to punish people. God is upset with the growing rise of fundamentalists in the Muslim world, and the tsunami was God’s act of punishment.

I’m sure you’ll agree that these are very simple answers, …easy to understand. You may have read other simple answers too. But I strongly believe that they are all wrong. I know it’s a cliché to say, “there are no simple answers”, …but I believe it to be profoundly true.

I’m not saying, “I’m still looking for a simple answer, but so far I haven’t found it.” Instead I’m saying, “There is no point in even looking for a simple answer, because I’m certain that there isn’t one.” That means if you think you’ve got a simple answer, I’m sorry to say that I think you’re wrong.

For me, I firmly believe that there are no simple answers to the question “Why didn’t God stop it?” And I say that as a statement of faith.

Why do I believe that?

Its because people have been asking the question “Why didn’t God stop it?” for over 2000 years.

• “Why didn’t God stop the planes crashing into the twin towers?”

• “Why didn’t God stop the Aberfan pit disaster?”

• “Why didn’t God stop the Nazi’s killing millions of Jews”

• “Why didn’t God stop the first century Jews from killing his Son?”

Granted, the scale of the tsunami is bigger than anything we have witnessed in recent years. But the issues that it raises for Christians today are the same as those raised by other tragedies down the centuries. No simple answer was found then, …and that’s why I believe that none will be found today.

It’s not that Christians haven’t got any answers, (and I’ll come back to this in a moment), its just we haven’t got any simple answers. And the lack of a simple answer has been a problem for Christians right from the beginning of our faith. We sometime call it “The problem of suffering.”

For some religions suffering is not a problem. Think back to the religion that was around in Rome in Jesus’ day. The Romans believed in many gods:

• Jupiter, the king of the gods

• Mars, the god of war

• Neptune, the god of the sea, (and ironically the god of earthquakes),

• …and so on.

But these gods were very temperamental. You had to keep on the right side of them, by offering sacrifices, …for if you upset them they would send some calamity.

The existence of human suffering caused no problems to those who believed in Roman gods, …it was simply a fact of life.

It’s only a problem for Christians because of what we believe about the nature of God.

• First, we believe that God is all-loving. His love knows no limits, and his love us unconditional. God loves every man, woman, and child on this planet, …no matter what they have done, or what they are like.

It was that love that made him send his Son Jesus into the world. He doesn’t just sit back and watch all our troubles, …he wants to help.

• Second, we believe that God is all-powerful. It was God’s power that created the world, …and it’s God’s power that sustains it.

And that’s why any kind of suffering causes Christians a problem. Because it raises the question, “If God is all loving, and God is all-powerful, why is there so much suffering in the world?”

That’s the more fundamental question that lies behind the specific question of “Why didn’t God stop it?”

The Daily Telegraph published a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury in response to the tsunami disaster. In it he said:

The question: "How can you believe in a God who permits suffering on this scale?" is therefore very much around at the moment, and it would be surprising if it weren't – indeed, it would be wrong if it weren't.

The traditional answers will get us only so far. God, we are told, is not a puppet-master in regard either to human actions or to the processes of the world. If we are to exist in an environment where we can live lives of productive work and consistent understanding – human lives as we know them – the world has to have a regular order and pattern of its own. Effects follow causes in a way that we can chart, and so can make some attempt at coping with. So there is something odd about expecting that God will constantly step in if things are getting dangerous. How dangerous do they have to be? How many deaths would be acceptable?

The point he is making is that God has created a world that follows the laws of nature. There are causes and effects. If I let go of this book it will fall to the ground. (Drop it!)

I knew it would! …it’s the law of gravity.

If I let go of this book 1000 times it would do exactly the same thing every time. God has built a regular order and pattern into this world that we can rely upon.

But imagine a world where that was not the case. Imagine a world where gravity worked some times, but not others. Where sometimes I could let go of a book and it might just float there! Or it might fall upwards instead of downwards! What sort of world would that be?

It would be a world with no science or engineering, because science depends upon gravity working the same way every day.

There would be no houses, because we wouldn’t know how to build them. One day gravity might be 10 times stronger than yesterday, and houses would collapse.

It would be alright if there were never any gravity, (like in space), …we could cope with that. But what we couldn’t cope with would be gravity that worked one day, but not the next. Such a world would be full of chaos and confusion.

But in his goodness, God has created a world where there is a regular order and pattern. Not only can we rely upon the law of gravity, but also upon all the other laws of nature.

Causes have effects, in ways that we can measure, and increasingly understand.

The tsunami was one of those causes and effects of nature. Caused by the natural movement of two huge plates on the earth’s crust. It came as a terrible shock, but it was no great surprise. Scientists have known about the danger for many years, …it was simply a matter of when, not if, it would happen.

At that point God could have stepped in and stopped it. If at that point he had temporarily switched off the law of gravity there would have been an earthquake, but no tidal wave, …and everything would have been OK.

But as the archbishop said:

…there is something odd about expecting that God will constantly step in if things are getting dangerous. How dangerous do they have to be? How many deaths would be acceptable?

Should God switch off gravity every time that someone falls off a mountain, or slips from a ladder? If he did, the world would be like the chaotic one that we imagined a moment ago, where we couldn’t rely upon anything.

(pause)

I’m not saying that God never acts outside the laws of nature, …but rather, that he rarely does so. Jesus feeding the five thousand, turning water into wine, and raising Lazarus from the dead are all examples of God over-ruling the laws of nature, but it doesn’t happen very often. When it does we call it a ‘miracle’, …because it is not what we would normally expect.

As Rowan Williams goes on to say:

So why do religious believers pray for God's help or healing? They ask for God's action to come in to a situation and change it, yes; but if they are honest, they don't see prayer as a plea for magical solutions that will make the world totally safe for them and others.

It’s one answer to the question “Why didn’t God stop it?” …but it’s not an easy answer, and it’s not a complete answer.

What I do know is that God has chosen to work with frail human beings, like you and me. Right from the very beginning God gave us the world and told us to take care for it, (Gen 2:15). The world is not a perfect place, but God has helped us to understand it, including the laws of nature, …and he wants us to work together to make it more like he intended it to be.

We might want to ask God, “Why didn’t you stop it?” …but I think God wants to ask us “Why didn’t YOU stop it?” …because we could have done! Which is where we will continue this sermon next week.