Disasters show we're not made of diamond and steel

What is going on when the planet, acknowledged by the Creator as "good" (Genesis 1.31), seems to turn in fatal fury on its human tenants? And what sense can we make of frail humanity, made in God's image (Genesis 1.26), when error, negligence or hostile intent destroys hundreds, thousands, even millions of innocent lives?

In the last 30 years, Australia, a comparatively safe place to live, has had its fair share of disasters, both "natural" and human caused. Australians have also been involved in overseas disasters including the most recent natural disaster, the tsunami.

At the time of a disaster, everyone is affected to varying degrees emotionally. We try to make sense of the chaos and disruption and attempt to fit what we see as the obscenity of death and destruction into a theological framework.

When the disciples asked Jesus: "Master, whose sin caused this man to he born blind? His own, or his parents?" (John 9.2) they were struggling to explain the apparent contradiction of a kind Creator inflicting suffering on his children.
Jesus' reply: "Neither, but so you may see God at work"! is puzzling. It sounds like Jesus is saying God intentionally visited the blind man with an infirmity so as to give Jesus the opportunity to make him better. That is not, at first glance, the loving Father who is infinitely capable of caring for his children. Yet in a subtle way, Jesus is hinting at the answer to the fragility of life: in the frailty of the human condition we see God's true greatness.

At great pain to himself, God has made his children capable of feeling pain, in order to be able to grow, to be alive. If creatures were not organic, flesh and blood, but rather made of diamond and steel, if we were computers lacking in emotion, or robots incapable of being hurt, there would be no such thing as suffering and grief. If we were unable to make choices, life would be more predictable. We would do what we were programmed to do, not hurt ourselves or others or be hurt by them. But then we would not be alive.

God gives us the freedom to choose. The cost to him of the mistakes we and other people make is that he has to watch us suffer. By not magically interfering in the day to day events of life, the Creator subjects himself to the helplessness of human parents or grandparents who long for the best result for their children but often have to endure the worst.

There is no place for the assumption that suffering is a punishment from God. Rather when we contemplate the tragic reality of human suffering as we do in regular pastoral groups, we have to conclude that to be like Christ is to suffer!
We are aware that organic growth, or emotional, social or spiritual development, requires change and that change is usually difficult. Every worthwhile achievement is accompanied by effort and there are few human milestones that happen without a degree of suffering. Pain, distress and struggle are inevitable for growth, whether we are talking about childbirth or sporting prowess.

I am encouraged by God's answer to Paul's fervent prayer that God would take away his "affliction" (2 Cor 12.7-9): "I'm afraid you are stuck with it, Paul, but I will give you the strength to survive".

The individual and global responses to the tsunami highlight an amazing, unexpected caring reaction from across the community.

While no-one would, or should, agree with the proposition that the Creator singles out some particular sinners for spectacularly severe punishment, we can acknowledge that somehow in the tragic events of life we see most clearly the seeds of hope for true humanity!

Alan Galt is a Uniting Church Mental Health Chaplain. He also coordinates the New South Wales Synod Disaster Recovery Committee.

To see the full version of this article, or to learn more of the role Uniting Church plays in disaster recovery go to http://nsw.uca.org.au/disaster-response/