God of the Tsunami? By Revd. Trevor Jamison

God of the Tsunami? He utters His word, and the ice is melted;He makes the wind blow and the water flows again. 

Psalm 147: 18 So, is that all the explanation we need for the wave that has devastated a large area of northeast Japan?  God, creator of the world sent the wave?  Whether we are Christians or not, religious believers or not, many of us want explanations for why things happen.  Scientific explanations about shifting tectonic plates in an earthquake-prone area of the world provide valuable explanations about ‘how’ such things occur but lurking in the background is that human desire to ask not only about the ‘how’ but the ‘why’ of such an occurrence. 

Questions about ‘how’ and ‘why’ are luxuries we can afford since we are not the ones in the midst of this desolation.  Did you see and do you remember the Japanese woman, standing in the midst of the wreckage, unable to recognise her home town because all of the landmarks had been swept away by the great wave?  For her, I suppose, just trying to frame an answer to the ‘what’ precedes any about how or why this has happened.Christians (and others) want to know what role God plays in a situation like this, to say nothing of previous events in Haiti and New Zealand.  Some of the explanations that are offered we can reject.  God is not going about the world doling out punishment for sin in the form of earthquakes or other disasters.  In John’s Gospel we are reminded that God loves the world and that “it was not to judge the world that God sent his Son into the world, but that through him the world might be saved.” (3: 16-17) Other explanations contain a grain of truth.  Perhaps sometimes God does send or permit suffering because it helps us to grow.  Personal experience confirms what Saint Paul declares: “suffering is a source of endurance” (Romans 5: 3) and we sometimes emerge the stronger for a time of suffering.  On the other hand disproportionate suffering simply destroys the person.  Likewise, there is a grain of truth in the thought that suffering produces good, in that when we encounter the suffering of others we are moved to do good.  Christians (and others) are moved to respond with generosity when confronted with the sufferings of others, whether with their time, their expertise of their money.  But should I believe that God permits or causes others to suffer simply in order to make me a better person; that children should face the possibility of radiation poisoning to encourage me to increase my charitable giving?  I don’t think so. 

Despite the human desire for explanation (which I share) we are simply not able to give a totally convincing one for why such suffering occurs.  For Christians this should not come as a total surprise.  After all, we know that our understanding of this world and of God’s nature is partial (1 Corinthians 13: 12) and that total understanding will have to wait.  In other words we need to be humble, which is not a bad place for Christians to begin.  What we can (humbly) offer is hope, grounded in the faith that God loves the world, enough to come and live here, enough to put things right in the end.  Hope, faith and love (1 Corinthians 13: 13) may not constitute an explanation for suffering but, lived out in practical ways, they do constitute a Christian response. Trevor

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