Everything Happens for a Reason?

Romans 8:26-30 New International Version (NIV)

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, the day we all celebrate the Latino culture by consuming Mexican cuisine. Today, we are all Mexican. We haven’t done this for several weeks now, you know, since we all pretended we were Irish and ate our corned beef and hash. In July we celebrate the American culture by eating hot dogs, and then in October we all get a little German just in time for Oktoberfest.

These holidays have become a celebration of heritage and culture over the last few years, and I don’t have a problem with that. But these holidays were actually established for a different reason. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the Mexican army’s victory over France. St. Patrick’s Day has nothing to do with corned beef, and it also isn’t about St. Patrick chasing all the snakes out of Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day is the feast day of St. Patrick, a missionary who helped bring the gospel to…Ireland of course! And the story is that he used a three-leaf clover, or a shamrock, to explain the Trinity to the people of Ireland.

I think that we hear these ideas about holidays, like Cinco being about Mexican culture, or St. Patrick’s Day being about snakes, and we never really question them. That sounds plausible, doesn’t it? Who is going to question the story about the snakes? We pass those explanations on from one person to the next, and they really don’t question the explanation. Maybe you heard it from someone you trust or believe, a friend or a relative who isn’t going to try to lead you astray. So you pass it on to the next generation, and they believe St. Patrick’s Day is about getting rid of snakes, or what ever it is that you might be discussing at the time. You didn’t pass on this bad information trying to mislead people or do them harm. You probably passed it on trying to help someone else.

Today we are going to look at some phrases that are kind of like those holidays. They are phrases that sound biblical, in fact they sound biblical enough that we don’t really question them. We probably hear them from a relative or a well-meaning friend. We probably even pass them on to someone else when it seems appropriate. But the phrases that I want to look at aren’t actually found in the Bible, and some might actually be harmful. That doesn’t mean that someone means harm when they say it to us, but that it may cause harm to someone.

For instance, you’ve all heard that cleanliness is next to godliness. Can you tell me where that is in the Bible? 2 Hezekiah 12:14, right? No, that’s not in the Bible, though it does sound like it could be a Proverb. But that little phrase might be helpful when you want a child to clean their room or wash behind their ears. Now, who could be hurt by such a phrase? I’m thinking about those who don’t have access to a hot shower or to laundry facilities. Imagine being a child and hearing that cleanliness is next to godliness, and then meeting a homeless person. Would a child, or an adult for that matter, assume that a person living on the street was a sinner. This “dirty person” could seem the furthest from godliness since they are far from being the cleanest person.

Today I will be focusing on a phrase that I’m borrowing from a book title. The book is called Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved, by Kate Bowler. I have a number of concerns about this phrase, and I’ll address them as I have the chance. But first a little background on the book.

Kate Bowler is a professor of church history at Duke Divinity School. Her specialty is the historic documentation of the rise of the prosperity gospel. She studies the churches that claim God will give you money and heal your sicknesses if you pray hard enough and believe with every bit of faith you can gather. The irony of it all is that Bowler, an expert on the prosperity gospel, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer at the age of 35, an age when her career and family were just starting to bloom. The book is her memoir of wrestling with death, disappointment, and the possibility of leaving behind her husband and two-year-old son. Along her journey, especially in her prosperity-minded congregations, Kate was told she just needed to pray more, pray harder, and claim it in the name of Jesus (whatever that means). And of course, well-meaning people told her that everything happens for a reason.

Kate Bowler doesn’t really go into the theology of that phrase; that’s my job this morning. My concern is 1. To suggest that everything happens for a reason is to suggest that someone or something has caused everything to happen. 2. It suggests that there will always be a positive outcome from every situation, sometimes you just have to look hard for it. 3. More than anything, I’m concerned about how this makes God look. Let’s start by looking at Romans 8, a passage people often turn to in times of trouble.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This passage can be a helpful reminder for people going through a rough time that God is still present and still working through the mess. This is a Good Friday verse that promises resurrection.

When we read Romans 8:28 in context we find that God is present in the suffering of all creation. When we hurt, God is there. When creation suffers, God is there. God does not cause the suffering, nor does God cause the pain. But God is present through it all.

However, when people say that everything happens for a reason, they are also saying that someone or something caused that thing to happen. For something to have happened for a reason, some being intended for it to happen. There was a reason I got in my car this morning: to drive to church. There is a reason I brushed my teeth: so I don’t get cavities. This is often the way that we hear the church approach issues of theodicy, which is just the fancy word for why bad things happen.

When something bad happens, we often hear these well-meaning Christians say things like, “God’s ways are not our ways.” And “We can’t always see the entire picture.” They then follow that with the “Everything happens for a reason.”

We even get creative examples, like where God plays the part of a chef. The eggs don’t know why they get cracked and scrambled. The eggs don’t understand the heat of the oven. But when that cake comes out, we all sense that the master chef was doing something even beyond our understanding. God’s ways are not our ways, and we can’t always see the entire picture. But everything happens for a reason.

Again, the problem is that there is some truth to that. There are verses that tell us that God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are beyond our thoughts. And I’m not going to deny that there are times when God is doing something that we cannot see or comprehend. But when we start applying that to every situation, we run into problems.

We don’t have to stretch too far to see this. We continue to see shootings and bombings at schools and places of worship, the places where people should feel safe. At least 50 people were killed in a series of mosque bombings in Christchurch, New Zealand in March. Nearly 300 people were killed in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday as they gathered for worship on the holiest of days. Just over a week ago, a “Christian” opened fire in a synagogue in California.

We also don’t have to look too hard to find stories of suffering in our families. Last Sunday a family in Harrisonburg laid their 10-year-old daughter to rest after a brief illness. She was just weeks away from her 11^th birthday.

Whose life hasn’t been affected by illness, death and tragedy? Again, I’m not denying that God’s ways are not our ways and that often we can’t see the entire picture. But that does not mean that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes things just happen. And if there is a reason that they happen, that reason often isn’t because God willed it to happen.

Sometimes bad things happen because of the choices that we make. If I decide to drive 100 mph down the interstate, and I get into an accident. The accident happened for a reason: that was my choice. Sometimes bad things happen because of the bad decisions that other people make. The person that I hit as I drove 100 mph down the interstate is the unfortunate recipient of the consequences of my bad decision. Maybe we could trace back reason for a synagogue shooting or mosque bombing to a time when someone was frightened by someone different from their self. Maybe we could place the blame on someone who empowered that person to carry out an act. I’m not sure, but maybe the Easter bombings were a retaliation for the March killings in the mosques. Maybe we can trace an infection back to a poorly-sterilized piece of medical or even gym equipment. But sometimes stuff just happens, and that is all we can know for sure.

One of my greatest concerns with phrases like “Everything happens for a reason” and the suggestion that God has caused something bad to happen for a greater end result is that it makes God out to be a heartless monster, and we turn out to be little more than pawns in some greater chess game.

If you have played chess, you surely know that not all the pieces are of the same value. Each piece has its strengths and weaknesses. Some can move multiple spaces and directions, others jump. The most valuable is surely the queen. Always protect the queen (she protects the king). Don’t bring your queen out too soon! But the pawns, they only move a space or two forward at a time, and they are limited in how they are able to take an opposing player’s pieces. Often, an experienced chess player will set up their opponent, baiting them into taking one of their pawns so that they can go after that player’s more valuable pieces.

If God caused something to happen, like a death or an illness, for some greater purpose, that makes us pawns in this great chess game of life. God is thinking, “Sure, I’ll sacrifice a church here, a mosque there, maybe a 10-year-old. All for a bigger purpose.” But unlike chess, we don’t—or we shouldn’t—value one person more than another. Each and every person is created in the image of God. As Paul reminds us in Romans 5, Christ died for all, not just for the most valuable among us. There are no pawns in this game. No, we are all valuable. As we read in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

I think where Romans 8:28 comes into play isn’t to tell us that God caused something to happen, but that God will continue to work through those situations. If we let him.

Even though I don’t think God caused a 10-year-old girl to die, I do believe God can draw people closer to him through this experience. I believe that God can make some of the rest of us slow down and spend more time with our children. God may not have caused this terrible thing to happen, but God can use it.

God might not have caused these murders in the various places of worship, but God can use these situations to bring us closer together. We soon have to realize that this isn’t a Muslim problem, a Jewish problem, or a Christian problem. These killings show an issue with the human condition, which affects us all, regardless of race, color, creed, or religion.

I believe that there is no reason behind these extreme cases of suffering, but that doesn’t mean that there can’t be value in them. And as I read through Kate Bowler’s memoir, I realized that though she wasn’t trying to explain why bad things happen, and she wasn’t trying to see the reason for her suffering, ultimately, she did indirectly explain how she got through it. One of the few positive outcomes of negative situations is that these times can bring us together. Bowler describes feeling of the well-timed laying of a hand on her shoulder, and the embrace of a life-long friend. The help with babysitting. The shared meals. In time of tragedy, for this scholar of the prosperity gospel, the thing that got her through it wasn’t some well-meant words. It was the love and support of her community of family and faith.

No, I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason. Some things just happen. But how we respond to tragedy isn’t random. It is my prayer that we will be the kind of community to comes together in good times and bad, so that when tragedy strikes, we will know exactly what to do.