It seems God has been having a rough time the last couple of weeks. At least, that's what a few people in the media would like you to believe.
First, Kathy Griffin took time out of one of her career highlights to insult Him, or at least the people grateful and pious enough to thank God for all He has given them. During her acceptance speech for her Emmy award, she said while many people thank Jesus when they receive an award, she said he had nothing to do with her getting the award. She then said, "This award is my God now."
Then, a state senator in Nebraska, Ernie Chambers, decided to file a lawsuit against God, which according to Kathy is an Emmy that presumably sits on a shelf somewhere in her house.
I never know whether to laugh or cry when this stuff happens. Part of me really wants to laugh. I want to simultaneously laugh with them and at them. I can see their points. A skeptical and cynical side of me could really care less to see actors, some of whom receive Emmys for participating in spectacular garbage, use their moment of sunshine to display their piety.
Something makes me wonder about Matthew 6, and Jesus' warning about praying in the market places to be seen. There just may be better ways to live out one's faith, than to list Jesus alongside the name of your make-up artist. Of course, it took Kathy's rant to get me thinking about that. And she gave me something to write about, so I do have some things to thank her for.
Yet, as a Christian I am saddened for Kathy. I won't boycott her, nor will I rant about what kind of language should be allowed in public. I'm not about to force my religious convictions on anyone. I'll let them answer to God for that sort of thing when they finally meet Him face to face. I would rather share in that same freedom of speech, and be able to say what I want in the public square. And one thing we Christians know, is that what we have to say is never popular in the public square. A reading of Acts chapter 17 will give you a sense of the gospel's popularity in the public square.
But, I am saddened for Kathy. People who act out like that tend to be people who have been disenfranchised from the church at one point or another. It betrays a sort of bitterness toward God. People who don't believe in God don't rant at Him. I do not know if this is actually the case with Kathy or not. But I think we all know people like this; people who have had a falling out with God. Or maybe they just had a falling out with someone in the church, maybe even the pastor, but they thought it was God. Maybe they got in an argument about something, and so they left the church to avoid the person they argued with, and became bitter against God. Or maybe they think God let them down. They asked God to save their marriage, and ended up divorced. They lost a parent at a young age and could never understand how a loving God would do that.
Nothing weighs heavier on my heart as a pastor, as when I let people down and they stop coming to church for it. Nothing weighs heavier on my heart than to think I might have been able to say something in a better way, or handle the matter differently, and the outcome might have been better for that person's soul. We've seen this sort of thing happen in the church. It is nothing new, but it is sad to see them take their frustrations out on God, and blame Him for whatever happens in their lives.
Which brings us to State Sen. Ernie Chambers, who has decided to sue God for "making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons... and causing fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects and the like."
That is quite a tally. But here again I have to laugh. For either he doesn't believe there is a God, which brings up the question as to why he is doing this -- a frivolous lawsuit to draw attention to frivolous lawsuits -- or he realizes how futile it is to blame God. In fact, this is nothing more than a publicity stunt based on a variation of Hume's argument against the existence of an all-powerful, all-good God, and this argument is as tired as it is faulty.
The argument says that there can't possibly be an all-powerful, all-good God as long as there is evil in the world. For a definition of evil, see Ernie's complaints against God. Hume would argue that there can be a good God, but as long as evil is permitted He can't be all-powerful or He would do something about it. Conversely, if He is all-powerful, he must be evil if He lets evil happen. This faulty argument fails to take into consideration all that the Bible tells us about God, ourselves and the history of this world. In short, it blames God for that which is our own fault.
It is because of mankind's sin that bad things happen in the world. And it is actually due to God's love that this world continues at all. He could stop it at anytime, and most of us are thankful that He doesn't. We like to spend time with our family and friends. We like to go hunting, fishing and camping. Some of us even like to go to work. No, we don't like everything this world hands us -- death of loved ones, family squabbles, divorce, disaster, bankruptcy -- that can make this life almost unbearable at times. But for the most part we tend to enjoy life. And even though I know I have a better life waiting for me in heaven, I like to think I have a few more days here to spend with my wife and son, and a few more Sundays to preach the Gospel. I like to share the Gospel with people, no matter how unpopular it is. The Gospel tells us what God has done about evil in the world in order to save us from it.
You see, God loves the world, and you and me so much that He doesn't want to destroy the world and the evil in it until He knows that we are safe. That is why He sent His son Jesus Christ to die for us. So He could save us from our sin, washing it away with His blood. He did this for you, for me, for Kathy and even an ungrateful Ernie Chambers. And every day Ernie wakes up in this world he thinks is so awful, is a day of grace in which God has spared us His judgment, so that yet one more soul -- maybe even Ernie's -- can hear about the salvation we have in the cross of Christ. It is one more day we Christians have to share God's love, forgive the people who hurt us and ask forgiveness of those we hurt, so that in the end we all might be saved and live eternally and happily with our Father in heaven.
Bror Erickson is pastor of the First Lutheran Church in Tooele. He is a graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary located in Ft. Wayne, Ind.