Earthquake Shakes a Theodicy

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent – Earthquake Theodicy

On December 7, the earth shook in the town of Spitak, Armenia, sending ripples a half world away. We felt the shockwaves in our souls and psyches as the stats began to come in.

The year was 1988, the Soviet Union was still intact. It’s president, Michael Gorbachev was visiting the United States, engaging in high level talks with then President Ronald Reagan promoting Glasnost and Perestroika. Gorbachev cut his trip short on the news, and returned home and to Armenia to assess the damages. Anywhere from 25,000 – 50,000 people were presumed dead and thousand more injured. Although this number is great by any standard, it is particularly significant for a small country with a small population. Two percent of the population in Armenia and one third of their land mass was leveled that day. By comparison, if an earthquake in the United States killed 2% of the population, we would lose about 7,000,000 people and one third of the United States leveled, would be from the Rocky Mountains to the Western coast!

When facing such devastation, it is only natural to ask why? Even more, why did not God spare the good Armenian people?  Why did He not intervene? Why the Armenian people? The same ones who were the first to accept Christianity, the ones who have so piously observed the faith for centuries, the ones who defended the faith to death, why them? When the history of a people, such as the Armenian’s, is plagued by devastation and tragedy, the questioning goes deeper: Why believe in a God who cannot save us from these dangers?

Through my years in the ministry, I have heard many different answers – theodicies – from people trying to make sense of it all. Some feel God has abandoned the Armenians for some divine purpose and plan. Some doomsday forecasters claim the earthquake was part of the “signs of the times.” Still others believe it to be “God’s will,” as a punishment or for some other divine plan.

As for me… I do not shy away from the science of earthquakes. Why did the earthquake happen? Because the earth shifts. Why did people die? Because people were trapped under the rubble of buildings which were constructed poorly. Why didn’t God step in and save the Armenian people? I don’t know, but I venture to say that things just don’t work that way.

So, the more important question becomes, why believe in a god that cannot save you from the perils and dangers of this world? And for our Advent Journey, the question is why celebrate the revelation and birth of a god who is powerless against nature?

We look at that answer tomorrow, and the answer may surprise you to find that without God, we may not have survived.

We pray Psalm 27, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. Amen.

All fingers bleed

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent – All Fingers Bleed

On our journey through Advent, we are dealing with the “Problem of Evil,” dictated by the Sunday Gospel reading this week from Luke chapter 13.  A theodicy is an answer to the problem, defined by the incongruity between the statements that God is good, God is all powerful and yet, evil exists. In the Gospel message, Jesus clearly states that evil is not a punishment from God for our sins and mistakes.

Still, we are people and raise questions when we notice incongruities in life order and so we question: if God is all powerful, why doesn’t He merely do away with evil once and for all? And, if God is all good, why would He not want to do away with evil?

Our query begins today with an understanding of what we believe. What are the definitions of our Faith? Much of our understanding of God comes from images and concepts that are brought to us courtesy of Hollywood. And most of those ideas are formulated on misreading and misinterpretation of Old Testament stories. Jesus came with a simple message to tell us we are all children of God and there are no favorites for God. In Armenian folklore, a mother is asked by her children which one she loves more than the others, to which she replies, “Which one of my fingers, if I were to cut, would not bleed?” They all bleed equally and so is a mother’s love for her children: equal for all. Even more, our Heavenly Father, Jesus tells us, “Makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Thus, we must be careful in defining someone as evil, or even as good, because we do not have the vantage point of God.

We often confuse God with a character who appears this time of year, someone who rewards good and punishes evil. We’ve created a folklore around him and even written songs about how he makes a list and checks it twice and “Knows if you’ve been naughty or nice.” Gifts to good boys and girls and a lump of coal to the bad ones. That’s Santa Claus! While Santa Claus may help us with our sense of dealing out justice, God’s justice is His own.

The other day, a celebrity with a history that would make some people uncomfortable, made a donation to a charity. Someone commented, “We don’t want your filthy money.”  How presumptuous! First, that you have the right to reject someone else’s goodness, second, that there is such a thing as non-filthy money! Jesus is clearly delineating a Christian stance when he says, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

God’s judgement has its own time and own method of being administered. Why God doesn’t vaporize the evil people and do away evil once and for all, the step we take tomorrow in our Advent Journey.

We pray, Heavenly Father, You know our needs better than we can ever know or understand. Calm my heart and my spirit so that I may find comfort in Your care and help me to not go beyond the limits of what is my responsibility in this world. Amen.

Continuing Advent with Evil

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Theodicy

This week of the Advent Journey is dedicated to what theologians refer to as, “The Problem of Evil.” Simply put, it’s the incongruity of believing in a good God, who is all powerful and being faced with the reality that evil exists in the world. In other words, given that evil is real with headliners such as cancer, war, molestations, earthquakes, and famine, either God is not all good or God is not all powerful. Why would a good God, who is all powerful, allow evil to exist?

Evil is a problem which has perplexed people since the first-time villagers had to pick up after a devastating earthquake, or a lightning bolt created a forest fire that wreaked havoc for people and all the members of the animal kingdom. In this day and age, when we understand that earthquakes are caused by the shifting of tectonic plates, and lightning bolts are the result of charged clouds grounding, God doesn’t need to enter the equation. However, for theologians and clergy who make a case for a good and omnipotent God, forming an answer is called a theodicy. It follows that if God allows this evil, then is it possible that evil is a punishment from God? People of good faith can easily reach this conclusion, and figure illness or death are paybacks from God for wrongs you have committed. And so, the question was brought to Jesus.

On this Sunday of Advent the Church offers the Gospel reading from Luke chapter 13:1-9. Here, there were two incidents that people perceived to be delivered as punishments from God. The stories – one of Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices and the other was of a tower which fell in Siloam causing the death of 18 people – were the focus of this inquiry of Jesus. On today’s scale, it would be like us asking Jesus if the Indonesians who died in last month’s earthquake perished because they were sinners? Or was it because of the sins of the Ukrainians that bombs fell on their cities?

In the passage, Jesus answers, Do you think that they were worse sinners than all the other because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Under no uncertain terms, Jesus gives the definitive answer that evil is not the punishment of God upon us! The idea that God sits in heaven waiting for us to make a wrong move so he can blast us with a lightning bolt is as absurd as it sounds. And Jesus emphatically gives us a big N-O!

So then, why evil? Can’t God vaporize all evil? Or is it that he just doesn’t want to? We will pick up with these questions tomorrow, on our journey through Advent.

We pray Shnorhali’s 15th hour: Christ, guardian of all, let your right hand protect and shelter me by day and by night, while at home and while away, while asleep and while away that I may never fall into sin. Amen.

Thanksgiving Daily

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent – Thanksgiving Daily

If the retailers can extend Black Friday to the entirety of the month of November, we certainly can extend Thanksgiving beyond the traditional one-day commemoration to a series of thoughts on the subject.

Thanksgiving is not prayer. Thanksgiving is an acknowledgement of something greater than yourself. As such, it falls into the category of worship. In the Armenian Church, worship takes place seven times a day. From the early morning hours to the moments before restful slumber, there are seven hours of worship. For a people who have known very little peace and prosperity, that have been attacked, raped and murdered, it is extremely unusual that this group of people offer so much thanksgiving. It is unusual, unless viewed under and through the lens of Armodoxy. Thanksgiving, and therefore worship, is not about stroking God’s Ego. The Evangelist John tells us God is love. Accordingly, love has no ego-issue. Love is giving and sacrificing. When we worship and give thanks, we are acknowledging the power of love. The words of the Apostle (I Corinthians 13) come to life, “Love is patient; love is kind,” and we are forced to come to terms with the power of love, as St. Paul writes, “Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

Love is God, God is Love. Thanksgiving is, in fact, about acknowledging God, and therefore acknowledging the power of love.

Let us pray, Bless us with Love, O Merciful God; that we may Love as you Love. That we may show patience, tolerance, kindness, caring and spread love to all. Amen.

 

Masis: A Puzzle Piece at Thanksgiving

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Masis: A Puzzle Piece at Thanksgiving

Next Step #809 – November 27, 2025 – Thanksgiving Edition. A fun and personal exploration on Thanksgiving morning, putting pieces together around the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Fr. Vazken discusses personal memories and how they contribute to filling in the puzzle of life, faith and ultimately, peace. From Genocide survivor to a parade, from a wishful lunch date to our first-world problems, a set of questions and answers that will have you reflecting, asking and connecting.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2025
Thank You Very Much, Scaffolds
Cover Photo Varoujan Movsesian, 2025
Produced by Suzie Shatarevyan for Epostle.net
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Thanksgiving During Advent

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent and Thanksgiving

In America, the country takes a break every third week of November to celebrate Thanksgiving. And although the claim is made that the United States is a secular country, the word thanksgiving would have you believing otherwise.

Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving, and it is more than appropriate that if falls in the Advent period of the Church, since the corporate worship of the Church is rooted in the act of thanksgiving.

To give thanks implies there is someone, or something, to which you offer appreciation. And while it is fashionable to negate God from the conversation, thankfulness also implies the appreciation is directed toward someone or something greater than the self.

Jesus shares this story with us, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’”  Jesus then tells us, “This man went down to his house justified rather than the other…” (Luke 18:10-14)

Often our thanksgiving resembles the prayer of the Pharisee. Unlike comparison shopping thankfulness is not about comparing things we do or do not have with those things that others have or do not have. It’s easy to look at the blind man and be thankful for our sight. Or to see the street person and be thankful that we are not homeless. Or hear of hunger in countries threatened by famine or war and be thankful that we have food and peace. Thank God, we might say, that I am not like them!

In the history of the Armenian Church, you find that the prayers of thanksgiving are offered at times of abundance as well as times of scarcity, at times of peace and at times of war and even genocide. Thankfulness is the ability to put the ego on hold, in check, and understand yourself as a part of something greater. It is the beginning of religiosity and ultimately peace.

Today, let our prayer be for those things that are blessed in our life – family, love, beauty. We pray Psalm 26. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart. For Your loving kindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth. I will wash my hands in innocence so I will go about Your altar, O Lord, That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works. Amen.

Happy Thanksgiving.

No Worries is Not Child’s Play

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Armodoxy for Today: No Worries is Not Child’s Play

Jesus’ statement regarding worry seems childish, naïve and, well, unrealistic. What does it mean don’t worry about tomorrow? In a world that’s defined by long-term strategies, investments, and future payouts, the idea of living for today is absurd. With homelessness on the rise in every major metropolitan city, the idea of not worrying about what to eat, drink or clothing seems to contribute to the ever-growing problem.

At the beginning of this Advent journey, I suggested that you keep a journal of your travel toward Theophany. Reflect on the earlier teachings from the Sermon on the Mount. This statement on trusting our Heavenly Father is merely the logical follow up and conclusion to what Jesus taught earlier. Yes, if God feeds the birds of the air and clothes the flowers of the field which today are and tomorrow are gone, how much more will he take care of you?

But there is more to this than just not worrying. Anxiety, and the fear that causes it, are the opposites of faith. Fear is the biggest obstacle to your living a productive life. Fear is the opposite of faith. If you have faith you have trust. If you have trust then you diminish the power of anxiety because you completely submit to God. Of course, this all comes together when applied on the foundation established by Jesus earlier in the Sermon on the Mount. For instance, understanding that true treasures are not those on earth or discovering the true blessing in humility, these are the foundations upon which you escape the worry and the fear of this world.

Trusting God means to completely submit to His will. It means to allow God to be Father and for you to be His child. It means to enjoy the life that He gives you, to fly with the birds and to be clothed like the lilies of the field. Remember, in the old covenant God was known as Lord, but Jesus set up a new relationship, unlike any other, so that we dare to call God, “Father.” And not only my Father or your Father, but Our Father who art in heaven… Believe He is our Father. He takes care of every single part and aspect of the universe.

Certainly, you will always have fears and apprehensions of tomorrow, but you need to diminish them and the only way, the only cure for that is faith. To strengthen your faith, to really look at the examples that He gives us, look also at all of the examples that are plainly around you. Alongside the birds of the air and the lilies of the fields are the simple smiles of your children, the warm embraces of your loved ones, the monumental signs of the mountains, the crashing waves, the moon and stars, each of them telling you, as Albert Einstein says, “God does not play dice with the universe.” Life has not haphazardly been caused by an accident. God loves us and takes care of us.

Today we pray Psalm 37 (vs 3-5), Trust in the Lord, and do good, dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Amen.

 

Advent Out of Worry

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent – Worry

Worry is not a topic that will be explored once, neither during the Advent season, nor during the rest of the year. Worry is just as reoccurring as a topic as it is as a menace to good health. Worry contributes to stress, a cause of diseases of the mind and body. It was no different in the times of Christ, and of course, even before. Since the beginning of time, when man contemplated his own mortality he succumbed to worry. Whether it was dodging the attack of a vicious animal in the wild, or avoiding a diagnosis of cancer, worry has been a part of the human condition.

We begin to look at worry in the context of our Advent Journey by reading the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded by St. Luke (12):

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Striving for his kingdom is the first step toward ridding ourselves of worry. Nice words, and it sounds simple enough, but what does it exactly mean to strive for his kingdom? And how do we do it? The Armenian Church has sung hymns of praise for the kingdom during times when world governments and principalities have imposed their will on the people. The hymn of victory has been pronounced within the walls of the Church while the sounds of hatred and intolerance were spit upon its exterior. The simplicity of seeking the Kingdom is held inside Armodoxy and the Advent Journey leads us there.

We pray, Lord, set my heart on Your Kingdom. While worries and fears abound, I look to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and know that You hold us all in your hand. Let me feel the certainty of our Love. Amen.

On the positive side

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Armodoxy for Today: Advent, the Positive side of things

We started the first week of our Advent journey meeting the “Rich Fool,” a character in one of Jesus’ parables (Luke 12). In a sense, he is what we may call a negative hero, in other words, he’s the main character of the story who teaches us what not to be. Negative heroes are all too common in religious stories as well as in real life. In politics, some may vote for a candidate because s/he is not the other candidate. In business, some may choose to trade with one firm because it is not the other company. In so doing, we focus more on the negative attributes of one, instead of the positive attributes of another and in turn, we start seeing our religious obligations and responsibilities in terms of what not to do, rather than what to do.

The Advent Journey is a time for us to prepare ourselves for the message of Christmas. At the end of the journey is waiting Christ, as Gift, as Light, as Savior. The extreme and most positive expression in life will be waiting for us and we will react to that gift. That reaction is a movement, it’s a step forward in our life.

Over the past few days, we studied the Parable of the Rich Fool in different ways. At the end, if we are truthful with ourselves, we will discover that the Rich Fool is, in fact, us. Like the Rich Fool, we are each consumed by the riches and possessions which are polished by our ego, by our wants and desires. And all of these prevent us from experiencing the fullness of God and, therefore, the beauty of life.

Jesus prefaces the parable with the warning, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Taking this to heart, the first part of the Advent Journey is to inventory those things that matter and are important in your life and proactively, that is, take an action to celebrate the abundance of those things that matter in your life, such as your relationships, your love for others, the beauty of life that surrounds you. These are simple treasures that are accessible by all.

For today’s prayer I’d like to share with you a variation of Shnorhali’s prayer of the 9th hour, with an accent on the positive: All provident Lord, give me the clearness of vision to look at the beauty around me, the sharpness of hearing to listen to and hear the music of nature, the courage to speak words of truth, the clarity of heart to think goodness, strength to my hands to work toward justice and to my feet to walk in paths of righteousness. Guide me always. Amen.

 

Too Many I’s

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Armodoxy for Today: Too many I’s

Our Advent Journey continues with the parable of the ‘Rich Fool,’ as told by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12. Over the last couple of days we have looked at this parable as the starting point for the Advent season. If you remember, on our first day of examining this parable I asked you to pay particular attention to the words expressed by, whom we now understand as, the Rich Fool.

The entire parable is all of 120 words uttered by Jesus himself. Of that count, 62 of the words, that is over 50% of the words are those attributed to the Rich Fool. And of those 50%, every one of them was about himself and articulated with I-s and My-s!

… ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?… I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’

In fact, the Fool has no regard for anyone or anything beside himself. The great minister of the Gospel and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. once answered the Fool by suggesting that he could have stored the extra food, the abundance of crops, in the bellies of starving children! But any hope of extending the bounty to others is wiped out by the abundance of the I-s and My-s in the Fool’s vocabulary.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus cautions against calling anyone a fool, yet he has no problem designating this man with this title, for in fact a person who doesn’t see life beyond themselves is a fool.

Armenian Orthodoxy grew in a world where sharing the abundance of the land was a rule of life. When we see beyond ourselves, we then mimic God because we begin to speak the language of love. “Love does not seek its own,” says the Apostle (I Corinthians 13:5). We understand the beauty of the Christmas message that God so loved the world, so much so that He gave His very best. (John 3:16). When we remove the I-s and My-s from our vocabulary, we make room for so much more, especially for words such as We and Us.

Let us pray a prayer that comes from the Wedding ceremony of the Armenian Church, a ceremony that ties two into one. It is a simple prayer, “Lord, plant me as a fruitful olive tree in the House of God.”