From my cozy office overlooking an autumn palette crowned with an icy blue tiara it’s easy to see how God made the world and called it good.

Then there’s Haiyan, Syria, and the Midwest’s own tornado alley. There are crack babies, Alzheimer’s patients, and pimps who peddle little girls. There’s Detroit, Congress, and Obamacare. One need not look very far to figure out that things are broken – really broken. Were we to condense the world into a college engineering project, there is not an instructor in the world who would hand out a passing grade. What gives with this ‘good’ God and this busted world?

This weekend the Church celebrates Christ the King Sunday – in which we hear the story of Jesus hanging on the cross. Here we catch the image of the God who’s in charge - a God who would rather suffer love than punish the unloving. It’s a God whose dominion over the world is best expressed by the words, “Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” It’s a kingship we don’t fully understand, but are irresistibly drawn toward.

The desperate brutality of the world raises questions to which no one has good answers. Christianity is no different.  But what we do have is a story.  It’s a story that finds its fulfillment in the selflessness and altruism of a God who saves by sacrifice and sanctifies by suffering.

While it is tempting to allow our preoccupation with the unanswerable to keep us from opening up to God, the Spirit is calling us elsewhere.  The time is short.  We are being compelled to be part of the solution, to give of ourselves to others, to heal, comfort, and love.  May this love fill our hearts and strengthen our faith, with confidence that whether or not we ever get the answers we seek, God will use us to spread that love all along the way.

Reading

Unapologetic – Francis Spufford

The Social Media Gospel – Meredith Gould
Luke for Everyone – NT Wright