Why we suffer and how God is powerful

An interview with Bart Ehrman on Fresh Air today is about the theological implication of human suffering. It got me thinking about a recent email conversation where a parishioner asked me how I make sense of the existence of natural disasters and disease in my faith life. This is what I wrote to him:

While suffering caused by nature is different than evil perpetuated by people, it's all about the classical theological question: is God all powerful, or all good? Because logically God couldn't be both. I don't think this is a paradox to be lived with in the name of "theological mystery" like the human/divine nature of Jesus is-- it matters too much to our ability to trust in God. I simply don't believe God is all powerful in the traditional sense. I don't believe God controls things like natural disasters or individual fates. Nor do I believe that God allows evil, in the letting-Satan-test-Job sense. I believe about God's power what is described in the New Zealand Prayer book's translation of the Lord's Prayer: God is the one that reigns in the power that is love.

That is the kind of power God has. God's power is the power to invite each one of us, in each moment, into personal transformation and into actions that transform the world into God's kingdom. In this view, prayer is the cultivation of a mindfulness that allows us to see that invitation and to take it-- to be transformed and transforming-- Christ's hands in the world-- the human-power behind God's power of love. I suppose that means in the kingdom of God, there will still be tsunamis, but not lynchings. Shit still happens, but how we react is different. I have evolved this way of thinking by reading process theologian like Marjorie Suchocki. Her book In God's Presence: Theological Reflections on Prayer is truly inspiring.

Lent is a good time to meditate on this theme, because the cross is a symbol of the kind of power God has: the power not to prevent suffering, but the power of life and love that ultimately defeats death.

photo by .eti