Monday, March 15, 2010
Remember Haiti
“If the world is a vale of tears, Haiti is the best watered corner on the globe. Since I was born Haitian, sainthood seemed to me to be the only way to attract Christ’s attention to a planet without tenderness or consolation.”
Haitian poet, essayist, and educator, Rene Depestre, from the short story, “Rosena on the Mountain,” in The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, p. 119.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Where is God in Haiti?
by Rich Stearns, President of World Vision United States
Last week I stood in the streets of Port au Prince Haiti weeping at the scope and scale of human suffering. Tens of thousands died – men, women, children, mothers, fathers, pastors, priests – no one was exempt. Hundreds of thousands wandered stunned, hungry and homeless in the streets, who while still alive had their lives taken from them. Who of us in these past days has not asked the question, ‘Where was God?’ or ‘Why God?’ The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seems to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?
There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten and hanged on a cross. And people asked where God was then? …come down from the cross and save yourself!" They mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, "but he can’t save himself!
If He was God, why didn’t he save himself – why not prevent this suffering from happening – why not save the Jewish people from their bondage to Rome - why not face this evil and turn it back? But God had another way. On that cross we are told that Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon Himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live. Out of his own suffering, the prophet Isaiah looked forward 700 years to this God in human form.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God,smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53
Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He is not indifferent or detached. He does not look upon usfrom far away. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless through the camps hungry and unfed. He weeps uncontrollably over the child that He has lost.
Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross,… ‘a man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering’. But where is hope we might ask? Where is justice for the dead the broken and the grieving? Here, alas we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when …. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation.
We live in the ‘not yet’ but God sees the ‘already’. We see today and yesterday but not tomorrow. But God sees all three at once. In Him, those crushed in Haiti are alive already. In Him, those orphaned in Haiti are reunited with family already. In Him, those broken in Haiti are healedalready. In Him, those grieving in Haiti rejoice already. Jesus Christ is...… the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all thingshave been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
He is no distant God who turns His back on us. He is no callous God who sheds no tears. He is the God who… so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. He is God, who shed His own blood for us.
How then should we think? How then should we live? What then, must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the ‘already’ and ‘not yet’… and we must wait ‘until then’. Until then, we are commanded to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves’. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted, give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with thegrieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien and the stranger. We are to let our light so shine before others, that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, ‘We are therefore Christ’sambassadors, …as though God were making His appeal through us.’ Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.
Last week I stood in the streets of Port au Prince Haiti weeping at the scope and scale of human suffering. Tens of thousands died – men, women, children, mothers, fathers, pastors, priests – no one was exempt. Hundreds of thousands wandered stunned, hungry and homeless in the streets, who while still alive had their lives taken from them. Who of us in these past days has not asked the question, ‘Where was God?’ or ‘Why God?’ The sudden deaths of so many innocent people and the staggering human suffering that persists seems to mock the very notion of a loving God. Where is God in Haiti?
There was another time that God was mocked in the face of suffering and evil. It happened on Calvary as our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, God’s own son, was spat upon, beaten and hanged on a cross. And people asked where God was then? …come down from the cross and save yourself!" They mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, "but he can’t save himself!
If He was God, why didn’t he save himself – why not prevent this suffering from happening – why not save the Jewish people from their bondage to Rome - why not face this evil and turn it back? But God had another way. On that cross we are told that Jesus faced all the evil that ever was or ever would be. He took upon Himself the sins of mankind, the evils of injustice the pain of suffering and loss, the brokenness of the world. He felt every pain and took every punishment for every person who would ever live. Out of his own suffering, the prophet Isaiah looked forward 700 years to this God in human form.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God,smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53
Where is God in Haiti? Christ is not distant from us in our times of suffering. He is not indifferent or detached. He does not look upon usfrom far away. He lies crushed under the weight of concrete walls. He lies wounded in the street with his legs broken. He walks homeless through the camps hungry and unfed. He weeps uncontrollably over the child that He has lost.
Where is God in Haiti? He hangs bloody on the cross,… ‘a man of sorrows, and familiar with our suffering’. But where is hope we might ask? Where is justice for the dead the broken and the grieving? Here, alas we need to see something not easily seen from human perspective. We, not God, are trapped in time. We, not God, see only in part and cannot yet see the whole. We, not God, must wait for that day when …. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation.
We live in the ‘not yet’ but God sees the ‘already’. We see today and yesterday but not tomorrow. But God sees all three at once. In Him, those crushed in Haiti are alive already. In Him, those orphaned in Haiti are reunited with family already. In Him, those broken in Haiti are healedalready. In Him, those grieving in Haiti rejoice already. Jesus Christ is...… the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all thingshave been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
He is no distant God who turns His back on us. He is no callous God who sheds no tears. He is the God who… so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. He is God, who shed His own blood for us.
How then should we think? How then should we live? What then, must we do? Unlike God, we live in the time between the ‘already’ and ‘not yet’… and we must wait ‘until then’. Until then, we are commanded to ‘love our neighbors as ourselves’. Until then, we are called to comfort the afflicted, give food to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Until then we are to shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, and grieve with thegrieving. Until then, we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien and the stranger. We are to let our light so shine before others, that they might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven. Until then, as the apostle Paul wrote, ‘We are therefore Christ’sambassadors, …as though God were making His appeal through us.’ Until then, we must show forth God’s deep love for Haiti.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
