Blogging Towards Sunday, March 23, 2023
Theodicy is a theological word meaning the ‘vindication of God.’ It comes from two Ancient Greek words: 1. θεός theos, “god” and 2, δίκη dikē, “justice.” Theodicy is an argument that attempts to resolve the problem of evil that arises when all power and all goodness are simultaneously ascribed to God. In modern English, thanks to the work or Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, we talk of this as why do bad things happen to good people?
Our scripture from the prophet Isaiah offers an image of God as loving and present, hungry for relationship and intimately close. The poetry is beautiful and full of meaning, even more so when we remember that Isaiah spoke and wrote his prophecies in the 8th century BCE when Israel was captive and exiled in far away Babylon, facing cultural genocide. Many thought that God had abandoned them, or punished them with the exile.
Jesus speaks to a crowd about the news of two horrible events. A massacre in the Temple and the death of innocent bystanders when a building collapsed in Jerusalem.
How do you understand or seek to accept such terrible calamities. Are they punishments for sin? The consequence of human actions? Related to karma? Or is there no way to explain why such terrible things happen? Is God all loving, but not all powerful? Or do you imagine God as all-powerful but not all loving, choosing to visit some people with good and others with calamity? What does Jesus say in Luke 13?
Questions for Reflection & Examen:
• What word, phrase or image grabs you in this reading?
• How do you find hope or encouragement in the prophetic poetry that the ways of God are higher than our ways, different than the human way of thinking, seeing and being?” Isaiah 55:8-9.
• It was common belief in the day of Jesus that suffering and calamity was a direct consequence of sin or punishment for wrong-doing? What do you think?
• As you hear the story and reflect upon the parable in verses 6-9 : 1. Are we the fig tree? – trusting in God’s grace and steadfast love/mercy? Or 2) are we the vineyard workers? – call to radical solidarity with other people, that they might repent?
• What invitation do you hear the Spirit of God speaking to you – or to us, as a church – to act, speak, be, or change, through this word of scripture?
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