Where Was God When the Tsunami Hit?
Job 1:13-19, Luke 13:1-9, John 9:1-3
January 9, 2005
First Baptist Church, Wilson, NC

I have been trying to find some way to make my mind comprehend the enormity of the disaster around the Indian Ocean. I have tried to imagine a city the size of Durham with all its inhabitants killed. I have tried to imagine a population equivalent to the Triangle with all its inhabitants injured. I have tried to imagine half the population of North Carolina homeless. The scale of the suffering is more than the mind can take in.

I received some e-mails this week that have made a personal connection to this vast misery. They came from a Baptist minister in India, Dr. Kunjumon Chacko. Sound familiar? His son is Biju Chacko, who was our Global Missions Day preacher last month. Biju relayed his father’s messages to me. The Chacko family lives about fifty miles from where the waves hit the Indian coast. They tell of close family friends who had to run from the beach for half a mile to escape death. They tell of a friend on a pilgrimage to a famous church at the coast who was washed away along with a thousand other people. In Dr. Chacko’s home state of Kerala, thousands are missing. People who had commuted inland to jobs in towns and cities returned to their homes but could not find them. One mother came to Dr. Chacko and said, "Sir, I was holding my baby in my hand while clinging to the coconut tree, but the rushing water snatched my only baby." The news channels have told us a hundred stories like these, but to me it makes a difference to hear from someone we feel a connection with. Dr. Chacko says he could no longer stand there. He prayed with several of them, cried with some of them. One man who lost his house and wife and two children cried to him, "Why is God so cruel to us?" That’s the question, isn’t it? There is a Psalm that goes:

Have you ever stood on the beach and watched a glorious sunrise and said to yourself, "Who can see this and not believe there is a God?" Today people stand on the beaches of Kerala and Bandah Aceh and see the destruction and ask "Who can see this and believe there is a God?" The evidence we see is a mixed bag. "My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God."

Six months ago this past summer I stood before you as our community grieved for two young women who had been murdered in two separate tragedies, Julia Briggs and Brittany Willis. Back then we wrestled with this same question, "Where is God when evil strikes?" Back then the question was a little easier because human choice played a part in those tragedies. It was a question of moral evil. There were persons we could point to and say, "They did it." But today there is no person to blame for the evil that has happened. All we can point to is a geological fault on the ocean floor, a part of God’s creation. Now that is a problem, the problem of natural evil. It’s the same problem that hit Job in that terrible moment when a messenger ran up to him and reported:

I have been listening on the cable channels as religious authorities have tried to deal with the problem. Their shouting matches with each other have been embarrassing. Some of them have declared that the tsunami came as God’s judgment upon a sinful people. Some Christians say the victims’ sin was that they did not believed in Jesus Christ. Some Muslims say the victims’ sin was that they had taken up the evil habits of western Christians and forgotten Allah. But the Book of Job teaches us that the calamities that came upon Job had nothing to do with his conduct. The tsunami that struck people from Sumatra to Somalia had nothing to do with their conduct. So we are back to the problem of natural evil. Where was God when the tsunami hit?

Philosophers and theologians have tried to answer this. Here are a couple of their ideas:

1) Creation is an unfinished product. God is not finished with the world yet. In fact, God has given the world over to us so that we might continue God’s creative work. After all, if the world were perfect, what would there be left for us to do in it? It is as if God has given us an eighth day of creation in which we are to finish the job. It is as if God had built a house, and put us in it, and given us a punch list of details to finish up, such as disease, such as earthquakes. So millions of health care workers make it their calling to get rid of things like cancer and heart disease, just as they have already gotten rid of diphtheria and typhoid. And millions of scientists and planners make it their calling to construct warning systems, so that when earthquakes and floods come we have enough time to get out of the way. Obviously the work God has given us is not done yet. The world is not finished yet.

2) God’s power in the world is not perfect in the sense that God directly pulls the reins to all powers in nature and humanity. Rather God’s power is perfect in the way that God’s love will ultimately draw all things to himself. Human beings and forces of nature are not powerless, dependent, and determined. God in the miracle of creation has given power to each of them and does not dictate to them. God’s power is not a mechanical power that pulls every string. God’s power is a personal power that draws every thing with love.

These two ideas are the best answers I have found for the question of natural evil: that creation is not finished yet, and that God’s power is not dictatorial nor mechanical but personal and loving. But if I had to stand on the beach with that man who lost everything and asked, "Why is God so cruel to us?", I think both those answers would fall flat, and I would the same thing Dr. Chacko did: cry and pray. Even the best answers we have are partial and incomplete. I must be honest with you, if they were was all that I had to keep me going, my faith would fail.

In fact, the only thing that keeps me here is the suffering of Christ. If I had any suspicion that God had allowed these destructive forces of nature, and then had turned his back on it all, then I would turn my back on God. But the suffering of Christ is a window into the character of God. Think of all that Jesus went through. No sooner was he born than he became a homeless refugee. As an adult he was lonely, ridiculed, abandoned, tortured, and killed. And then Jesus was swallowed up in the deep waters of death. In short, he knew just about every torment that a human being could know, because he was with us. He was truly with us. And he promised us that while bad things would surely come to us, he would stay with us through it all. The Christ who suffered then is the Christ who suffers with us now. And, as I’ve said, that suffering is a window into the heart of God. God is with us, and God suffers with us. If it were not for the suffering of Christ, I would turn my back on it all. But because of the sufferings of Christ, I draw near to him.

And I also draw near to the words Jesus said when asked about why bad things happen to people. Once a tower in Jerusalem’s city wall had fallen and killed eighteen construction workers. You could say this was a combination moral evil (bad construction) and natural evil (gravity). When Jesus was told about the eighteen who died, he responded: "do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." (Luke 13: 4b-5)

There’s a word of grace in there, and a word of warning. The word of grace was that this disaster did not come because of people’s sin. The eighteen were no worse sinners than anyone else. God had not singled them out. That word of Jesus confronts those Christians and those Muslims today who try to blame sinners for the tsunami. And then there is Jesus’ word of warning: that life is short and there are no guarantees that any of us will see tomorrow. So if anyone needs to change direction and turn to God, the right time is now.

There was another time Jesus was asked why bad things happen to people, in the Gospel of John:

Who sinned, Jesus? No one, he said. This is not a time to figure out whom to blame. This is a time to do the work of God.

Now that’s the truth for today. This tsunami disaster is no time to lay blame on sinners. This is time to do the work of God. In Raleigh, the editor of The Biblical Recorder, Tony Cartledge, has already packed up his things and headed for the area to keep North Carolina Baptists well informed of the need. Baptist Men are gathering help. In the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, some missionaries were displaced and threatened by the waters, but came through alright. Now they are beginning to aid their neighbors. CBF is now coordinating its response with the Baptist World Alliance, with Habitat for Humanity, with World Vision, and with the Indian Evangelical Mission. Your special gifts will be directed to these efforts.

And in India, in the state of Kerala by the sea, Dr. Kunjamon Chacko continues to cry and to pray with his people. One danger now is what will happen to the children. Some are being forced into child labor and severe hardships. In his ministry, Dr. Chacko runs five orphanages. Now he has decided to adopt ten children who lost their parents. This is a time to do the work of God.

Almost always I conclude my message with an invitation to respond to the gospel. Here is my invitation for today. Dan Vestal, who will be with us later this spring, is calling upon churches to set aside today as a day of intercession, mourning, and reflection. So I invite you to join with me in a time of silent prayer, which I will begin with more words from the psalm that I began this message with, Psalm 69: