Lamentations 2:11-12, 19, 3:31-33 – My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city. They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they fainted like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom. … Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginnings of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of the children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. … For the Lord will not reject forever. Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.” (NRSV)
When a cataclysmic tragedy like the one unfolding in Haiti confronts us, it can make us feel physically ill, with churning stomachs, full of bile. The wretchedness of the situation – already so tragic on a daily basis and now compounded by utter devastation of what little there was before – simply defies easy comprehension. The footage on television repeats an endless cycle of mind-blowing suffering that we are tempted to turn away from. We knew, before all this, that Haiti was the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, but it’s taken an extreme disaster to truly command our attention.
In moments of historical disruption like this, we all become theologians. Where is God? The biblical witness shows us that the very human impulse to find a cause, to assign blame, has been with us for centuries. Some may blame God, while others may blame those who are suffering, implying that they did something worthy of such punishment. The Book of Lamentations is full of these very human assumptions, mixed in with its beautiful poetry evoking compassion for those who suffer.
But despite our inclinations, in contradiction even to portions of scripture, the witness of Jesus Christ teaches us that we will not find God in the midst of the blame game. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus demonstrated for us, once and for all, the truth of how God relates to suffering: God longs to relieve suffering, and God shares in the pain of all who suffer. Where is God? In the streets of Haiti, crying in the night and fainting from hunger. Where is God? In the souls of all those who will reach out to help, being transformed by the experience of opening their hearts to another’s pain. Let us join God there.
Collect for the Week: God of Compassion, who took on our pain that we might learn how to respond to others’ suffering, grant that our hearts might be made strong and faithful in the face of tragedy, that we might offer help and hope with your hands. Through Jesus Christ and in the communion of the Holy Spirit, we pray, Amen.
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