Just recently, the community of Buffalo experienced a great tragedy when passenger flight 3407 crashed and killed all 51 passengers and crew on board. It was a shock to the community and called forth a response from the community of faith in the Buffalo area to help the affected families and the community at large in coping with such a great loss.
In our church, our pastor spoke from the book of Job and gave maybe one of the best messages that I have ever heard on why tragedy happens even though we believe that God is ultimately sovereign. Among many different points that Jerry covered, one of them is that we don't know why God allows tragedy. We know that for true love to exist, that choice must also exist which opens the door to risk, but ultimately we don't know why God allows one plane to miraculously land in the Hudson River and another to crash just 8 miles from the airport.
As I have wrestled with all of this, I came to the conclusion that being forced to say "I don't know" is ultimately what makes us human before God. It is one of the many things that makes God "other" or "holy". It is what makes God a mystery and it forces us to have a childlike faith in a God that we don't always understand but allows us to trust a Father who's character is always good.
Somewhere in the past century, "I don't know" somehow became an unacceptable answer especially in the intellectual and even theological community. It has caused theologians to feel the need to force interpretations of seemingly contradicting scriptures through the grid of their preferred theology to create interpretations that really don't explain what the scripture is saying in it's context. Having to know, eventually causes one to have to choose a side, which in turn leads to finding others who are on your side, and next thing you know you are the "Second (enter denominational name) Church" that is just across the corner of the same intersection from the "First (same denominational name) Church" because you decided that you couldn't agree on every theological issue that the Southern/Central/Reformed/ (same denom. name) Denomination believes which happens to be the denomination of the "First (same denom. name) Church"
But maybe it's not such a new problem. As I have read the book of Job, I see Job's friends doing the same thing. They get angry at Job because he refuses to acknowledge that his troubles are a result of God punishing his sin. The reason that this angers them is because it completely flies in the face of the common theology of their day that basically stated, "if you are prospering then you are living righteously and you have God's blessing, if you are experiencing hardship, then you are living in sin and you have God's hand against you." So if Job does not admit that their is sin in his life, the Job's friends will have to reckon with the fact that their understanding of who God is may not be correct.
To go back even further, I think one of the enticements that Satan offered to Adam and Eve was that by eating of the forbidden fruit, they could "know" the things that God knows. They wouldn't have to stay in the dark regarding the ways of God and could be like Him in "knowing".
I think there is a great place of comfort in being able to say "I don't know". It is a reminder that He is One who is totally other than me. He is mysterious and He is far more brilliant than I will ever comprehend but He is infinitely good. And as I rest in that goodness, I can say with full assurance and confidence that "I don't know".
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A few years ago, I read several books that tried to explain why God allows tragedy, and none of them really gave a satisfying answer. It's the one issue that really bugs me most about my faith because I can't explain it, and I'm always afraid that I won't be effective in defending my faith if I can't. But maybe the people I talk to would rather hear an honest answer -- "I don't know" -- than to hear me repeating unsatisfying explanations.
On a slightly less related note, my cousin & his wife died in the Flight 800 crash a while back, at the ages of 30 and 29. The family asked the pastor to preach on Jeremiah 29:11 at the funeral. Talk about a tough sermon!
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