Why?

Why?

It is often during times of crises when we question the presence and even the goodness of The Lord.  Israel and Judah asked this often during their bleak periods before and during their respective exiles, and the Word came to them through prophets; men (and probably some women) designated by The Lord to bring His Word to them in their fear and dismay.  However, if that Word did not give them what they desired and thought they needed, that Word was not received … and the prophets who brought that Word were killed.

Hear what Jesus affirmed: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem; the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  See, your house is left to you, desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38).

There have been self-proclaimed prophets even in recent history who tried to tell all who would listen that 9/11 was Judgment.  Others have suggested natural disasters are Judgment.  While there may have been some truth to these, perhaps even now in what we face, The Lord spoke to the prophet Elijah in a way that challenges our notions of big disasters always being Divine Wrath.  There may well be that, but there is also always more.

Recall Elijah was running for his life.  In his distress, even after being “zealous for The Lord” in the face of an unfaithful Israel which had violated the Covenant and “killed the prophets”, The Lord spoke to him: “Go out and stand on the mountain before The Lord, for The Lord is about to pass by’.  There was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before The Lord, but The Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind, an earthquake, but The Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but The Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence” (1 Kings 19:10-12).

Bad things happen; some by the hands of humans, some by natural means.  I think, though, this is more evident of the reality of the broken world in which we live.  Yet because we get so caught up in the big things, we fail to heed the “sound of sheer silence”.  It was that “sheer silence” in which Elijah got an assurance as well as his marching orders from that moment.

A wind that would “split mountains and break rocks” would certainly get our attention!  So would an earthquake and even a fire.  Note, however, that The Lord – at least in this narrative – is not “in” any of these disasters.  He told Elijah He was about the pass by, but the text continually reminds us The Lord was not “in” any of those things.  It begs the question, then: if The Lord was not in those things, did He cause those things?

We are not told one way or the other.  We are only told these things occurred.  If we were to read it literally, it could be inferred The Lord commanded these things in Elijah’s presence to make a point.  Remember, however, Jesus calmed a storm rather than that He caused it!  Like with the natural disasters Elijah witnessed, The Lord was found in the peace, the calm, the silence which followed.  We need all these things in order to hear.

So it is not so important that we concern ourselves with whether The Lord had a hand in this Virus or even to ask why.  What we must be searching and listening for is the “sheer silence” which always follows.  Our world is filled with evil, with disease, with death; but the “sheer silence” is our hope and His assurance.  Even so, by our theology, we generally say a choice was made in the Garden when Man and Woman chose to live in a world of their own making rather than to be content with the World which had been made for them.  By this, we believe we are “by our own nature inclined to evil, and that continually” (2016 UM Book of Discipline, ¶104, pg 67, Article VII).

Evil begets evil, and evil comes in many forms.  Evil is not merely the opposite of good; it is the absence of good.  As when Israel and Judah fell, we cannot say every soul of society had turned their backs on The Lord.  We can reasonably say, however, that even good and righteous persons got caught up in what befell society through no direct fault of their own.

Though I do not see The Lord “in” the Virus as He was not “in” the wind, the earthquake, or the fire which Elijah had witnessed (and I could be wrong!), we can all hear Him in the calm.  In the end, I suppose it falls on us to “be still” and learn to listen; for it seems to be that The Lord was indeed in the “sheer silence”.  Whether we think we deserve this or that others do deserve this, the truth is we are, quite literally and spiritually, in this together.  Yet The Lord also revealed to Elijah: “I will leave … all the knees that have not bowed to Baal (the ‘gods’ of this world) and have not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18).

The righteous will survive and even thrive not only because The Lord loves those who seek after Him – but because The Lord needs His righteous to produce righteousness for the sake of the many who live in darkness and cannot hear or even appreciate the “sheer silence”.  Sometimes, it seems, we all need a slap on the head to be awakened.

Michael