A Theodicy beyond Superman

Armodoxy for Today: Advent – Beyond Superman

We began this week of Advent with the Sunday Gospel message from Luke, chapter 13, where Jesus answer emphatically that evil is not the result of God’s judgement on us. He follows up with an invitation to repent.

Yesterday, I shared with you recollections of an earthquake which ravaged the Armenian landscape in 1988 and was responsible for 50,000 deaths and tens of thousands more injured. And I left you with the question, why believe in a god that cannot save us from the perils and dangers of this world, otherwise known as natural disasters? And for our Advent Journey – in preparation for Christmas – the question is asked, why celebrate the revelation and birth of a god who is powerless against nature?

Look no where else for the answer but the Armenian Church, a Church that answers the questions not by philosophical arguments, but with a steadfast drone of prayer and hymns that reverberate the pulse of humanity.  The answer is simply to look around and see God the presence of God around you.

In times of crisis, our mental image of God transforms Him into a kind of superman. After all, He is omnipotent.  But the order of nature is such that there is an imperfection built into this world. Lightning causes fires. Drought causes crops to wither and brings famine. The shifting and settling of the earth causes earthquakes. And sometimes, unfortunately, people die.

God is not some kind of superman. God’s power is not measured in strength to bend steel with his hands, to change the course of mighty rivers, nor to prevent the earth from shaking. The OG, the Original Gospel is plain: God is Love. Disasters will happen, but God is found in the reaction to the disaster. We see God in the reaction to the earthquake–in the love and support He provides us.

International communities stopped their fast-paced lives to aid in the aftermath. Turks, from across the border, left home and family to come and aid. God gives us the capacity to love. We express that love through our giving. Literal readings of Old Testament stories have skewed our notion of God, thinking of him as this great puppeteer who sends disaster to this world to see our reaction. No!  Disaster, pain and suffering are part of an imperfect world. Where we do find God is in the peace and love that only He can give in answer to that disaster. In this manner we understand that without God, we may not even survive the worst of calamities.

The feast of Theophany is the celebration of God becoming man so that man can know God. He took our form and went through all the motions of man. He suffered and died. He did not exempt Himself from this great suffering, for no one is exempt. However, He conquered death and promised the same to those who believe. What He left was His own peace, “not as the world gives.”

When the earthquake hit, we were all hurt. Where was God? We saw Him in the love and support from the four corners of this world.

We pray the 15^th hour of St. Nersess Shnorhali’s pray, “Christ, guardian and protector of the faithful, let your right hand shelter and protect us, by day and by night, while at home and while away, while sleeping and while awake, so we may never fall. Have mercy on your creatures. Amen.”