Coming Untrue

In Tolkien's book "Lord of the Rings," Sam discovers that his friend Gandalf is not dead, as he believed. With joy, he cries, "Is everything sad going to come untrue?"

As Christians, we view life through the lens of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We see life in reverse, from eternity to the present moment. When Christ rose from death, he gave us hope that everything sad will come untrue. Christ's mission was to grasp the darkness of our world and bring it into the light.

Yet this message has not reached many people in our world. The problem of evil and suffering is the most common reason people give for not believing in God. Recent surveys show that 16 percent of Americans claim no religion (eight time higher than 50 years ago). There are more people with NO faith in our country than all Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists and Lutherans combined. That's a disturbing statistic. Two-thirds of people who have no religious affiliation still believe God exists, they simply question organized religion.

So we need to answer this question: Why is there pain and suffering in this world? Here is my short answer.

1. The world is good AND the world is fallen. God has given us free will, which means that we can choose what leads to life OR what leads to death. The shadow side of the gift of moral freedom is that we will sometime choose evil rather than good. Evil is a corruption of good, which violates God's moral will. Much of the Christian gospel is designed to help people choose good and stand against evil.

2. God could eliminate pain once and for all, but instead God sent Jesus to join this world of pain. Christ's life set in motion a slow, less dramatic solution to the problem of suffering . . . that crucially involves us. (See Philip Yancey's book, What Good is God?) The Apostle Paul said, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12)

3. While every form of pain cannot be removed, it can be redeemed. God has the power to bring good out of suffering. This happens over and over again, when those who have been victimized by hardship join together to pass laws or change structures so that others will not suffer.

4. When we ask the question, "Where is God when it hurts?" we should also ask, "Where is the Church when it hurts?" We are here to care for those who suffer, to relieve the pain of those who hunger and thirst, those who are sick and imprisoned and persecuted.

5. Apart from God, what can humanity achieve on its own? If you abandon belief in God, it does not make the problem of evil easier to handle. If we reject religious values and virtues, what is our moral compass? Where do our concepts of justice, goodness, kindness, mercy, compassion and humility come from? They derive from faith.

On this Christ the King Sunday, I celebrate the good news of the resurrection. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Through the power of God, everything sad will come untrue.