Tag Archive for: evil

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.

Extra Contrast

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Armodoxy for Today: Contrast

What is darkness? Very simply, it is the absence of light. Darkness is only definable in the presence of light.

What is evil? Very simply, it is the absence of good. Evil is defined in reference to the good.

Some take this one step further and define Hell as the place where there is the absence of God. With this simple definition it is possible to find Hell here on Earth now, not at some future time. Still, others will argue that by definition there cannot be a place where God does not exist.

Questions and ponderings such as these are more than mental gymnastics, they are brought to the forefront of our thoughts when light is threatened. It is part of our natural defense system because we are afraid of the dark. As humans, we want to stay in the light but sometimes the darkness can be so overwhelming that we succumb to its power.

The power of sunlight is so great, that its light enlightens our entire planet and heats it as well. Likewise, the power of Jesus, as Light of the World, is so great, that His Light overcomes the Darkness.

Jesus begins his ministry by referencing the prophet’s saying  –  “…The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

The Evangelist St. Matthew continues the narrative (chapter 4), “From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

We pray, Christ, the true Light, make my soul worthy to encounter with joy the light of your divine glory, on the day I will be called by you; and to rest in good hope, in the mansions of the righteous, until the great day of your coming. Have mercy upon your creatures, and on me, a sinner. Amen. (St. Nersess Shnorhali, I confess with Faith)

Evil via the Moon Metaphor

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Armodoxy for Today: Evil via the Moon Metaphor

God’s invitation to participate in the fullness is life is often questioned in the face of evil. The “Problem of Evil” is the question of “Why evil?” especially with the tradition of a good and omnipotent God?  While religion has presented an assortment of solutions to the Problem of Evil – known as theodicies – sadly, it has also fired up people to point accusing fingers to others as the authors of evil.

A quick glance at the moon on any clear night might help in providing an answer. The moon’s pocked-marked surface is credited to its lack of an atmosphere. Space objects have hit its surface, and the result Is evident. As for the Earth, we have an atmosphere protecting us from rocks and boulders that disintegrate on their way down. The price of this protection, we have to deal with atmospheric catastrophes such storms, hurricanes, tornadoes and the like. It’s all part of the deal.

Today’s one minute for Summertime.

Deliverance from Evil -10/10

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Armodoxy for Today: 10x One Minutes on the Lord’s Prayer, Part 10 -Deliverance from Evil

God provides the tools – patience, strength, willpower – to protect us from temptation and therefore the natural the follow up is a request to be delivered from Evil. Ancient authorities read, “the Evil One” but either way, it is clear that ours is to avoid evil or simply, that which is not good.

Over the last 10 days we studied the prayer offered to us by our Lord Jesus in parts. In conclusion, as a whole, we may say that it is an affirmation of our Faith in God, a commitment to the celebration of the life and world in which we live, and an acceptance of our responsibility to others, our world and to life itself. To which we may appropriately add, “Amen.”

Today’s one minute on the Lord’s Prayer, for Summertime.

What did they take?

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Armodoxy for Today: What did they take?

The fires around Los Angeles County have destroyed lives and property in large proportion. Yesterday, we asked, if faced with the order to evacuate your residence, what would you take? I hope you reflected on it and came up with some answers.

It was five days since the fire evacuated us from our house, and only two days since we returned. Thankful to have a home to come to, we began cleaning up the ashes that spread over our house and lawn like a gray blanket. It was Sunday and I was sent to Utah to celebrate the Holy Divine Liturgy for the small community of Armenians that live near Salt Lake City. Twice a year, our Diocese sends a priest there to tend to the spiritual needs of the people.

There is no choir and there are no altar servers. I took a deacon with me, so that he could assist me in the Liturgy and be a second voice in the singing of the hymns. I was thinking of all that happened over the last several days. In retrospect, it was all so surreal. Remembering the events of the fire was like a dream, or nightmare, I should say.

And there I stood, in Utah, with the make-shift altar, a table, candles and about one hundred people who were huddled into groups to pray in their language and according to the Tradition in which they grew up.  And it hit me. I had an answer, which was the answer for the Armenian People.

Armenians have faced the same issues of exile that the Angelinos faced at the fires. Armenians were exiled from their homes and villages, when temperatures got very hot, when wars and massacres left their communities in shambles. Not once or twice, but with regularity, sometimes several times within a century, and often enough that the population of the nation has not increased. The one thing that they’ve taken with them has been their Faith, and the expression of their Faith, the Holy Armenian Church.

I’m in the Mormon Capital of the World, with a group of people who weren’t supposed to have been here – that’s right in 1915, one of the perpetrators of the Armenian Genocide promised that there would be only one Armenian left and that Armenian would be on-display in a museum.  And here we are, eleven time zones away from where we originated – in Armenia – singing, praying and communing with God in our native Armenian language proclaiming that Christ is with us!

Everything else is temporary. Houses, cars, portfolios, will all come and go, they can be replaced. But the Faith that’s inside of us – the soul and spirit of our being – is irreplaceable. And it is the one thing that lasts beyond fires, plagues, wars, and even the worst manifestation of evil, genocide.

The night I left my home, I wasn’t certain if I would have a house to come back to, but I was sure that I had a home. That’s what Armenians have taken with them: their home, the Armenian Church.

We’ll continue on this thread tomorrow, for today, we end with this prayer from the Divine Liturgy,

This dwelling of holiness, this place of praise; in this habitation of angels, this place of the expiation of mankind; before these holy signs and the holy place that hold God up to us and are made magnificent, we bow down in awe and worship. We bless and glorify your holy, wondrous and triumphant lordship and, together with the heavenly hosts, we offer blessing and glory to you with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Good for Evil

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Armodoxy for Today: The Advent Series – Praying for Evil

Following Jesus’ commandment to not resist evil, these words are only a natural continuation of the sentiment. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48)

Once again, these words seem to go against the natural order of things. These words are exactly as they are said. In other words, there is no way to find other meanings to these words. Yes, they are opposite what you have been taught. Right off Jesus tells us that the natural order is overruled, by prefacing the commandment with the words, “You have heard that it was said…”

Everything here is predicated on the goal of being “perfect, just your Father in heaven is perfect.”

There are four sets of action and response.

  1. To do good to people who do good to you, or
  2. To repay evil with evil is only human.
  3. To repay good with evil, is itself evil. It is from the devil.
  4. To repay evil with good, is divine. It is from God.

Before we go any further, let the words of today sink in deep. It is the cornerstone of Jesus’ teaching. These words can only be said from a place of love.

Today we pray the Jesus prayer, as recorded in the Gospel of St. John, 17:25-26, O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. Amen.

Imagine…

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Armodoxy for Today: The Advent Series – Imagine

These last couple of days on our Advent Journey we have spoken about Jesus’ commandment to not resist evil. The champions of good, by virtue of that title, are the heroes of folklore, history and even fantasy. All of them have left their mark by opposing and fighting evil, hence, the great disconnect between the good guys in our life and Jesus’ commandment to not resist evil. In Jesus’ case, his opposition to evil is not defined by increased violence. His opposition to evil came without inciting more evil.

John Lennon, in a song widely regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time, challenged us to Imagine, there’s no heaven… above us only sky… people living for today. Imagine countries… nothing to kill or die for… no religion… no possessions, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man… Imagine all the people sharing all the world… and the world will live as one.

This song was written in opposition to the Vietnam War (1971) and Lennon himself regarded it as an “ad campaign for peace.”

In our encounter with Jesus’ commandments, and in particular with this one which asks us to not resist evil, we are understand that opposition to evil cannot come by adding evil to the equation. Evil + evil will never equal an absence of evil. We can’t fight fire with fire when it’s only reasonable (and preferrable) to fight it with water.

“Whoever slaps you on your right cheek,” Jesus instructs, “Turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” (Matthew 5:39-41)

Absence of evil is love and so “love your enemies” is a natural next step, and a necessary step on the road to peace.

Within the Armenian Church, the phrase “Peace unto all” is repeated often in its seven hours of worship, and most notably during its Divine Liturgy. Imagine that, a people that have not known peace, and at the same time have possessed no military power or elaborate military strategy, and yet they proclaim and offer peace.

We pause today with an invitation and an Advent challenge, in preparation for Christmas, can you imagine an alternative to evil to resolve evil? Jesus’ call to “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” (Matthew 5:48) implies that there are means that require us to use our God given talents to overcome the tragedies we identify as evil.

The Advent Journey is about preparing ourselves for the great Theophany, the Revelation of God. That preparation is through the struggle to understand – “imagine,” if you will – our existence as children of God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

We pray a prayer by Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. O God, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind; in whom to dwell is to find peace and security; toward whom to turn is to find life and life eternal, we humbly beseech Thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldst be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, Thy saving health unto all nations. We also pray for Thy holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and governed by Thy Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to Thy Fatherly goodness all those who are in any way afflicted or distressed in mind or body. Give them patience under the suffering and power of endurance. This we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

 

Resist Not Evil (2of2)

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Armodoxy for Evil: The Advent Series – Resist Not Evil, 2

Resisting Evil. In studying and learning the commandments of Jesus, his instruction to resist evil is the most disturbing of them all because it goes against our fundamental sense of justice. Good should be rewarded and evil must be punished to prevent it and/or stop it. If we do not resist evil, the argument goes, then evil will continue. We might even believe that not opposing evil is the same as rewarding it.

As children we are introduced to rewarding good and punishing evil with the friendly visitor at Christmas. Whether we call him St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, Gaghant Baba, Papa Noel, or Kris Kringle, he exists and functions on this temporal plain. He knows if we’ve been naughty or nice and dishes out rewards or punishments accordingly.

God is not Santa Claus. Think of all the kids who did not get the rewards that were due to them. It usually turned them against Santa Claus. And while they may grow out of their feelings of disappointment, they may never regain a belief in the good man from the North. What happens when we have expectation of God that are not met? Many end up with loss of belief and faith.

As we have learned on this journey, God’s Universe is large, and His children are all. By our human standards the measures of good and evil are defined by our circumstances and known reality. Going beyond these parameters, things might be and will be perceived differently.

Torrential rains, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes wreak havoc throughout the world. We agree that these are horrible examples of destruction. They all take place within the atmosphere of Earth. Should we then curse the atmosphere? What is the alternative? Take a look at the Moon and you’ll see a world without these disastrous weather patterns, for no other reason than the Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere. Consequently, no atmosphere means there is no life! Even more, no atmosphere permits space debris to pelts it, leaving the craters and the Moon’s iconic pock-marked surface. There is “evil” in both spheres – the weather conditions on Earth, and the crashing of meteors and the lifeless Moon, and that “evil” is a condition of the system. Let us agree, some systems do not even allow for the resistance of evil.

Today on our Advent Journey, we are asked to look beyond evil, to the conditions that give rise to it. Yes, we do want to control and eliminate evil, but is it possible that the system that gives rise to evil is in need of an overhaul?

Do not resist evil. We’re still not through, but for today, we pray a prayer from the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.  O God, we thank you for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank you for our foreparents, who’ve given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. Grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray.