A Tragic Week Before Thanksgiving… What do we do?

 

 

We have all joined a “club” that nobody wants to be a part of. We have endured a mass shooting. 12 lives lost – the shooter as well. Thousands of lives have been affected.

 

Before we could even begin to process the anger, the grief, the terror of what happened at Borderline, many of us were evacuated from our homes due to the wildfires.

 

It was literally a whirlwind of emotions. Many of us survived on adrenaline, courage, or sheer will. Our anguish and fear from the shooting turned to anxiety and constantly checking newsfeeds to see how close the fire was to us.

 

I’ve heard harrowing stories. I’ve heard people describe feelings of helplessness and of being overwhelmed. Lives are being uprooted in disorienting chaos, or worse, total numbness.

 

And now it is Thanksgiving week. What are we to do?

 

It isn’t the same.

 

Some families will be missing a loved one. Some families no longer have a home to share a meal in. There are still ashes on our cars and smoke in the air.

 

Are we supposed to just go on living and get back to normal?

 

There are no easy answers. Many questions cannot be answered after events such as ours.

 

But we still have the questions!

 

Am I safe?

How can I help?

What do I say to this person who has lost everything?

Where is God in the face of Evil?

 

What many of us long for in this moment is theodicy.  Theodicy is the intellectual defense of the love, goodness, and power of God in the face of evil and suffering in the world.

 

Examples of theodicy are lines like these:

Upon hearing that a mother lost a child due to SIDS –

God must have needed another angel in heaven.

 

Upon hearing that someone has lost their job –

When God closes one door he opens another.

 

Upon hearing about a mass shooting –

God is in control. He makes all things work out for his glory.

 

Theodicy is wrong on so many levels. First, it often makes God the architect of evil.

 

As if God kills children in order to have more angels. That is just absurd! Or as if God using hurricanes and mass shootings to bring glory to himself was helpful at all! Uttering such things as defenses of God is an act of evil in itself.

 

 

More often than not, theodicy blocks people from the redemptive care of God.

 

A God that can handle our tough questions, who shares in our heartache, who will sit with us in our pain, and can heal our broken lives is reduced to an overly simple and problematic defense.

 

So what do we do this season of Thanksgiving?

 

I recommend we sit with people, and sometimes in silence.

 

Just be present. Mourn with those that mourn, and rejoice with those that rejoice. You and I resolve the tension, but we can be present in the pain.

 

I recommend lamenting, which is brutal honesty with God.

 

The psalms are full of honest prayers. The author doesn’t hold back. God can handle our deep questions, accusations, and our whimpers for hope.

 

I recommend being hospitable.

 

Invite people to be close. Share a meal. Share a story. Share a cup of coffee or an evening cocktail.

 

Each of these action steps are in line with how Jesus lived among us. He shared in our pain. He sat with beloved friends in their losses. He asked hard questions of God the Father. He was radically hospitable to those in the margins.

 

This Thanksgiving will not be the same, but Jesus is still present.