"A Punishing God or a Comforting God"

Isaiah 40:1-11

January 16, 2011 + 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ

400 Glenwood Drive

Chattanooga, Tennessee 37404

A Summary of a Sermon Preached by David Brown on Sunday, January 16, 2011 in Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ.

When tragedy strikes such as the recent shooting in Arizona we are left in shock. How could this have happened? Soon after comes blame: who can we hold responsible? There is also a rush to find quick answers and easy fixes. None of this seems very helpful to me.

Moments like this can challenge us to get back to basics. What are our core values and deeply held beliefs? Who are we as people of faith?

It seems to me that Jesus’ words summarize my deepest conviction: we are to love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength and our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. Beginning first with the second part of Jesus’ teaching, what does it mean to love our neighbors?

At the very least it means to have compassion for those who are suffering: those still wounded and the families and friends of those who died. As our President reminded us at the public memorial service, each of them was a precious individual. Every life is worthwhile. We need to remember all of them in our prayers.

We also need to include Jared Loughner and his family in our compassion. I hope we can also be more concerned about the mentally ill in our nation. For many years we have cut back on mental health services and facilities. Would intervention have prevented this tragedy? We don’t know but clearly we all need to be willing to intervene if someone we know is clearly disturbed, particularly if we are frightened by their words or behavior.

Though it is not clear that the vicious words we hear on radio and television caused these shootings, we certainly need to restore decency and civility to American life. Harsh and hateful words do have consequences. I do not believe it is helpful for us to listen to fearmongers and hate-spreaders. That can poison our thinking.

I certainly believe that stricter limits on the manufacture and sale of guns and ammunition is perative. As a nation we are armed to the teeth. Do we really feel safer? Of course, not. I challenge all who have handguns and the like to turn them into the police as a symbol of our Christian commitment to nonviolence.

Moments like this challenge us not only to love our neighbors but also to love our God. Where is God in what has happened? What kind of God do we believe in? A God who punishes us for known or unknown sins? A God tries to teach us a lesson by causing a tragedy? A God who wills suffering for some purpose we will never fully understand in this life?

Personally, I do not believe that God causes events such as Tucson. Such things happen because of our human failure and folly. God is not to blame. We are. In times of suffering and tragedy God is not there to punish us but to comfort us.

At the time of their exile to Babylon, many Jews asked: where is God in what has happened to us? The great prophet of the exile who we call the Second Isaiah because we don’t know his name told the people that God was comforting God’s people. God had not forgotten or abandoned them in their suffering. Hans Kung, one the great theologians of the twentieth century put it so well: “God’s love does not protect us against all suffering, but God’s love protects us in all suffering.”

Our own Rex Knowles responded to a student who asked him: “Does God give man cancer to teach him about sin?” Rex responded: “No, we get cancer so that we can learn about God.”

When suffering and tragedy come to us in life God comforts and loves us through every dark valley. I am feeling that comforting love now and I hope you are, too.