5th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 7

Jesus did not answer the age old question: "Why do many innocent people, including little children, suffer and die prematurely? Why does God allow it to happen?" 

His message (about sparrow) was to assure us that God did care, did feel in the Divine heart the pain of every fall and the grief of every death. from SermonNuggets

I did not preach on this subject, but it does pose an interesting question.

We do have innocent suffering all around us. Is it the will of God? I don't think so. Jesus did not say what caused that sparrow to fall, but when it fell, God was concerned.


And the story below, I think, speaks well to the subject.

Dr. William Sloan Coffin of New York's Riverside Church said this in the April 20,1984 Lutheran Standard after the death of his son, Alex."The night after Alex died, I was sitting in the living room of my sister's house outside of Boston, when a middle-aged lady came in, shook her head when she saw me and said, "I just don't understand the will of God."

Instantly, I was up and in hot pursuit, swarming all over her. "I'll say you don't, lady!!" I said. (I knew the anger would do me good, and the instruction to her was long overdue. )

I continued,"Do you think it was the will of God that Alex never fixed that lousy windshield wiper of his, that he was probably driving too fast in such a storm, that he probably had had a couple of 'frosties' too many? Do you think it is God's will that there are no street lights along that stretch of road, and no guard rails separating the road and Boston Harbor?"P>

Dr. Coffin continues in the article, "Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seemingly intelligent people to get it through their heads that God doesn't go around this world with his fingers on triggers, his fist around knives, his hands on steering wheels. God is against all unnatural deaths. And Christ spent an inordinate amount of time delivering people from paralysis, insanity, leprosy and muteness. As Alex's younger brother put it simply, standing at the head of the casket, "You blew it buddy. You blew it."

Dr. Coffin continues:"The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is,"It is the will of God." Never do we know enough to say that. My consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's was the first of all our hearts to break."

In the link below, I have a sermon which I wrote on innocent suffering.

Link