In our church services, I invite people to text any comments or questions they have. At the end of the sermon, an "editor" inputs the questions into powerpoint and they are displayed on the screen and I answer them.
Often the questions are quite probing. (The editor is responsible for filtering questions are are not directly related to the sermon.)
This last week some asked, "You say God loves everyone and is working for their best good. I can believe that God is working in my life, but how do I make sense of the mega-tragedies that fill the news? How can I believe that God is really in control given the horror in Haiti and other third world countries."
It's a great question. I don't have a great answer.
What I said: "I don't know how to answer this question. It is a question that I ask personally all the time. So I fall back on the faith of the church. The church believes God is good and is working all things for the good of all people. I don't know how to defend that assertion rationally so I retreat to the faith of the church. This is what "we" believe. The church carries me when I face this question with my own inability to give a convincing "personal" answer.
My question to other clergy: How do you handle the difference between what you "know" as an individual and what you "believe" as a member and representative of a believing community?
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But if you have no answer, than is the question really valid?
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