Half truth: Everything happens for a reason
Preached by Pastor Pam Northrup on July 8, 2018, at St. Philip Lutheran Church, Raleigh, N.C. Scripture readings: Deuteronomy 30:19-20a and Mark 4:35-41
This morning, we conclude our sermon series on Half-Truths, familiar statements which sound Christian, sound biblical, but really aren’t.
Today we turn our attention to the statement “everything happens for a reason.” You’re probably familiar with that and similar sayings like: It was meant to be. Or It must have been their time. Or It must have been the will of God.
For me, this notion that everything happens for a reason is the hardest half-truth of all, the one that troubles me the most; maybe for you too.
If by saying “everything happens for a reason.” we’re acknowledging that we live in a world where cause and effect shape our lives, then this statement is true. For example, I gain a pound because I drank too much sweet tea. Or, my knees hurt because I haven’t exercised for a couple of days. Applying the logic that everything happens for a reason would mean that drinking too much sweet tea is the reason that I gained a pound and skipping my exercise routine is the reason for my stiff knees. If, this is what we mean when we say “everything happens for a reason” then this statement works.
But I don’t think this is how we typically use this phrase. I’ve found that It’s usually said by well-intentioned people, attempting to offer some bit of comfort or hope to those in terrible, heart-breaking situations.
Usually, when Christians say, “Everything happens for a reason,” they mean that God has a plan. We can’t see the plan yet, but God has a good reason for the suffering you’re going through now. So just trust God. That sounds pious, right? It seems logical at first, of course, this is what Christians should believe, should say, right? Probably not. I encourage you to remove this statement, and all others like it, from your list of things to say when trying to comfort someone and here’s why.
When people hear us saying things like “everything happens for a reason” and ‘it must have been the will of God,” they are left with a picture of God who wills evil and suffering rather than an impression of God who is abounding in steadfast love and compassion.
It’s easy to understand why so many people have turned away from God when they’ve been taught that every disappointment, every tragedy, every loss, and every painful experience was the will of God, that it happened for some reason, for some purpose, that only God knows about.
This morning, I offer three challenges to this idea that everything happens for a reason.
First, it removes personal responsibility. If I believe that everything happens for a reason, and that reason is that God has a plan, then whatever happens, by virtue of the fact that it happened, is the will of God.
I can’t be held responsible for my actions because I was only doing what I was supposed to do, according to some great plan of God. Sure, I drank that second glass of sweet tea, but it wasn’t my fault because it was God who put me up to it, to fulfill some greater purpose, in some plan that I can’t see. I was only doing what God planned for me to do.
The next challenge is closely related to the first – saying that everything happens for a reason removes a person’s personal responsibility and makes God responsible for our mistakes, our bad choices, our sins. This also makes God responsible for everything that happens in the world – both the good (a beautiful sunrise) and the bad (a terrible wildfire). If everything happens for a reason, then ultimately God willed and caused each thing to happen. Let’s apply this way of thinking to some current events.
Last week, 5 people were killed by a lone gunman at the Capital Gazette newspaper office. What started as a typical workday for these employees, their families, and coworkers became a senseless tragedy. Was this God’s plan?
Today there are 12 boys and their coach along with some divers and rescue workers deep in a cave in Thailand. What started as an excursion has become a life-threatening nightmare. Was this God’s plan?
So, does every suicide, every rape, every murder, every act of child abuse or domestic violence, every war, every terrible storm or earthquake that claims the lives of people, every child that dies of starvation, every family that is separated at the border, happen because God plans it and wills it? I don’t think so.
Thinking that whatever happens is part of God’s plan, can lead to fatalism and indifference. Fatalism says we are powerless to change what happens in life, so why even try. You might remember the song by Doris Day, Que Sera, Sera. Whatever will be will be. If God has everything all worked out in a plan, that I know nothing about, then why should I care. Why should I care about my life and the lives of others? Why should I do anything to make myself successful, to make the world a better place, to care for those in need? Whatever will be will be. Nothing I do will change anything.
Following this line of thinking then, there is no reason to wear a seatbelt—if you are meant to die in a car accident you will. If you aren’t, you won’t. Why work out and take care of your body? After all, when it’s your time, it’s your time. Diagnosed with an illness? Don’t dare see a doctor and consider treatment—you are resisting God’s will. In fact, the entire medical profession, far from being God’s instruments of healing, would seem to be working against God’s plans.
Why should you spend time studying for that test or practicing for that sport, God has already determined the outcome? That just doesn’t seem right, does it?
When we simply and nonchalantly say that “everything happens for a reason” we are saying all sorts of things about God and God’s interactions with us and all creation. Things that I don’t believe to be true.
I get nervous when I hear people say that God is directing every aspect of their life, both the profound and the mundane. That God leads them to the best parking space because God positioned the car in the right place and at the right time.
For people looking for certainty in life, for everything to work out perfectly, the idea that God is in control of everything seems appealing until something bad happens that shakes the foundations of this belief. Maybe it’s the loss of a job, a health crisis, a natural disaster, or the sudden death of a loved one that brings this understanding of God into question. It’s then that we wonder where God is in the midst of this suffering and we ask, why didn’t God do anything to stop or change things.
This theological position, known as theological determinism, sees God as a micromanager who is controlling every detail of everything. This way of thinking seems to make us puppets in some great divine drama – where there’s no freedom, where human beings have no capacity to use their God-given gifts and skills to interact with the world and with each other.
There are other people who believe that God created the world long ago, set some natural laws in motion, gave humanity dominion over the earth, and then stepped away, like an absentee landlord, to see what would happen.
This theological position, known as Deism, makes no room for God to be involved in our world at all. If we hold to this way of thinking, then God did not free the Israelite slaves from Egypt. God did not speak through the prophets. God did not send Jesus to show us the way or to save us from ourselves. God does not guide us through his Spirit.
I believe that God governs creation not as a micromanager who manages every tiny detail, nor as an absentee landlord who watches from afar, but as one who gives people freedom and empowers them to make their own choices, even if at times they make the wrong decision.
Throughout scripture, God lays out the right path and warns of pursuing the wrong path. We see this in a passage from Deuteronomy 30:19-20. Moses had just recited the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law challenges the Israelites: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you, life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days.”
If people were simply going to do whatever God put on their heart to do, what was the point of this powerful and compelling challenge? The Israelites had a very real choice. They could love, hold fast to and obey God and find life. Or they could turn away and find death. Why call them to choose if, in fact, they could not choose? Why implore them to exercise their freedom to choose life; to choose to live faithfully in relationship with the God who creates and loves them, if God had already made all the choices and decisions for them.
The extremes of seeing God as the micromanager or God as the absentee landlord miss the overarching message of scripture. Christianity asserts that by God’s mercy and grace God did come to us in Jesus to save and deliver us because humanity demonstrated time and time again that we could not, and cannot, save ourselves. In matters of salvation, God accomplishes everything that is needed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Christianity asserts that through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, God is active in our lives, blessing us with what we need to be in this world, guiding us as we seek to live faithfully, giving us strength and help to face the challenges, comforting us in our pain and sorrow, and renewing us day-by-day with faith, hope, and love.
God created human beings with a mind to reason and a heart to feel. God calls us to live in community with one another. God calls us to be good stewards of all that God creates. God gives us the freedom to make choices. Sometimes the decisions we make collide with the laws of nature. Sometimes our decisions and choices lead to good things and other times they lead to pain, heartache, and loss for ourselves or for others. That is the nature of being a human being.
God is actively participating in the world, not forcing everything to happen according to some plan – rather God is working in and through us to bring about the goodness, transformation, and reconciliation that God longs for.
The Rev. Leslie Weatherhead, in a book titled The Will of God, calls this God’s circumstantial will. Weatherhead looks at God’s will through three lenses. First, God’s intentional will where at creation, there was life, peace, and harmony. But that was broken when Adam and Eve exercised their personal wills and ate the fruit that they were told not to eat. This ushered in God’s circumstantial will where God works amid our circumstances, both the good and the bad, to bring about restoration, reconciliation, wholeness, and goodness, to gather humanity into God’s ultimate will which is a return to God’s intention of living in peace and harmony.
Christianity does not promise that we will not suffer, but it does promise that suffering will never have the final word. As you are being tossed around by the storms in your life, know that God is with you, holding you tightly. Hear Jesus rebuking the wind and the sea, rebuking the disease that is harming you, rebuking the troubles that have come your way; rebuking the pain and anxiety you are feeling; rebuking the heartache and loneliness that consumes you. Hear Jesus crying out “Peace! Be Still! As Jesus calms the troubled waters.
So, do not lose heart, for God is your refuge, a very present help in times of trouble. The same God who freed the Israelites from slavery, is the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, is the same God who walks with you through all the ups and downs of this life. This same God doesn’t want or cause bad things to happen in your life. This same God loves you and cares for you completely. Today and every day. Amen.
You may watch this sermon at https://youtu.be/1eUsgio6elo
Preacher’s note: I give thanks for The Rev. Adam Hamilton whose book, “Half-Truths: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn’t Say” helped to shape this preaching series.