Episodes
Sunday May 11, 2014
God’s Will and Evil
Sunday May 11, 2014
Sunday May 11, 2014
Rev. Dean Snyder
Matthew 6:9-13
The Lord’s Prayer gives us insights into Jesus’ theology … not theology about Jesus, which is what much Christian theology … but the theology of Jesus. What Jesus believed about God and the world and humanity.
As a way of exercising our faith core, I am encouraging us to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day for the month of May between now and June 2nd. I am encouraging parents to teach their children the Lord’s Prayer.
We have a number of different translations and paraphrases of the Lord’s Prayer on our website.
As you pray the Lord’s Prayer also allows the Lord’s Prayer to speak to you. Let a word or phrase dwell with you. Think about it.
And if you want to explore the Lord’s Prayer more deeply you will find a few book titles I’ve suggested on the Current Sermon Series page of our website.
Jesus begins his prayer by calling God Father. In Matthew the prayer begins Father of us. In Luke it simply begins with the one word Father.
Jesus begins with the assumption that the creator and Lord of the universes has the heart of a parent.
We all know what a parent is supposed to be like. A parent’s job is to be a protector, a provider, a teacher, a role-model. As a species we are wired to love and care for our children. The wiring doesn’t always work right so sometimes children experience abuse or neglect or rejection but we all know what the heart of a parent is supposed to be like.
Jesus begins his prayer with the assumption and belief that God loves us and cares for us like a good parent. Jesus teaches us to pray with this assumption and belief.
But Jesus is not naïve. Jesus is no Pollyanna. Jesus is a realist.
He also teaches us to pray the words: “Deliver us from evil.”
Jesus knew that there is great evil in the world.
One of the great theological questions, especially of western religions, is how evil got into the world. The technical term for it is theodicy. If God is good, and God is creator and Lord of all that is, how can evil exist? Why do bad things happen to good people?
N.T. Wright says that there are three common but unhelpful responses to the problem of evil in the world.
One is denial. To pretend that evil does not really exist or, if it does it does, it is not that significant or strong and it will all work out in the end. I had a parishioner once who was married to an avid Christian Scientist. She said that when she was in pain or ill, he would lecture her about pain and illness being an illusion merely in her head. She said every time he lectures her, she had an almost irresistible impulse to kick him in his shins as hard as she could.
NT Wright says denying or trivializing evil is like being in a burning house and saying, yes, it is getting a little warm but if we just take off another layer of clothing and have some iced tea things will just be fine.
A second way of responding to evil is the polar opposite of denial. It is to wallow in it and see it all over the place. Once you realize there is evil in the world and that it is real and powerful, you can begin to see evil in everything and everyone, especially those who are different from you. Every politician we disagree with is a Hitler. Every social plan is a step toward totalitarianism. Every business is concerned only with profits and doesn’t care about the welfare of the planet or humanity.
Interesting enough, Wright says the result of this is that when we start to think this way evil begins to dominate our lives.
A third unhelpful response to evil is to bifurcate it. To say, yes, there is evil out there but we are the righteous ones, we are good and so we need to fight evil. N.T. Wright calls it self-righteousness. “Lord, I think you that I am not like other people.” It is the popular justification for every war. There is an axis of evil out there. We are good. Therefore, we need to fight evil.
But what, NT Wright asks, if self-righteousness is just another manifestation of evil?
Jesus does not deny evil. He does not suggest that evil isn’t really real. He does not wallow in evil, seeing evil in everyone everywhere. Those whom others considered evil –Roman soldiers and co-conspirators like tax collectors—he treated like friends. He does not divide the world into us and them. He recognizes in his prayer that we are all susceptible to participation in evil.
In fact, who among us in pure? Who among us does not support poverty by our lifestyles? Who among us does not support war with our votes and taxes? Who of us does not participate in global warming every time we turn on our air conditioning and open our refrigerators? Who among us does not participate, at least by our passivity, in homelessness and the horrors of incarceration and state executions and sex slavery and human trafficking and racism and sexism and homophobia?
Jesus assumes in his prayer that we are all implicated. So he teaches us to pray to be delivered form evil.
Jesus recognizes the reality and power of evil. His response is not to deny, not to obsess, not to pretend innocence, but to confront the reality and power of evil with the reality and the power of the kingdom of God.
Even before he teaches us to pray to be delivered from evil, he teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come.”
God’s kingdom, God’s realm, is coming into our world in which evil is real and present and overcoming evil. The force of evil in the world is ultimately not as powerful as the power of God.
So Jesus teaches us to pray, to long, to hope for God’s reign to come into our world. To long and hope for it even more than we long and hope for our daily bread.
Jesus teaches us to pray for God’s kingdom to come before we pray for enough food to teach to make it through the day.
I have only been really, really hungry a few times in my life and it was because I was voluntarily fasting. When you are on your third or fourth day of a water fast, you really, really start to want your daily bread.
Jesus teaches us to want the kingdom of God, God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, even more than we want our daily bread.
Evil is real and powerful, but the kingdom of God is more real and more powerful, and it is coming into the world.
One of my personal core theological beliefs is that God is never coercive. We have total freedom. The universe has total freedom. This is why I believe evil exists. God has given us total freedom. Whatever you want to do God will not stop you. God is never coercive.
But God never stops loving. Resurrection faith believes that God’s love ultimately wins. God’s love is ultimately persuasive.
So evil is real and powerful. God’s kingdom is more real and more powerful. And we pray above all else, we long above all else for God’s kingdom to come.
Here’s what I want to suggest as we are praying the Lord’s Prayer this month.
Let’s start by asking how the kingdom of God might come into our families. How would we treat each other’s in our families if God’s will were being done in our families as it is in heaven.
Then our work places or schools. How would we treat each other in our workplaces and schools if God’s will were being done ion earth as it is in heaven?
Then our church. What would Foundry be like if God’s will were being done here as it is in heaven?
I think this would be an excellent prayer for each of us to pray as I retire and Ginger comes. Your kingdom come to Foundry church. Your will be done here at Foundry as it is in heaven.
Let us treat each other here at Foundry as though we were already in heaven.
I believe that eventually all of the evil in the world will be overcome by the kingdom of God. All of the pain and injustices of history will be purified and reconciled. I believe seeing and understanding our complicity in the suffering of others will be hell but there is a heaven on the other side of hell.
I believe we are invited into this process of ultimate reconciliation here and now.
Let Foundry be a taste of heaven in the midst of a world
where evil seems so strong.
Comments (0)
To leave or reply to comments, please download free Podbean or
No Comments
To leave or reply to comments,
please download free Podbean App.