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.