Part of God’s plan When someone experiences a loss or
God suffers with us
crisis, perhaps no religious platitude is uttered more oſt en than some variation of “T is is part of God’s plan.” It usually comes from a human desire to believe that, despite the pain and feeling that life is spinning out of control, God is totally in charge—but in ways no one can really understand or explain. But saying it usually doesn’t help. A sad consequence of this thinking is that it ulti-
and for us
to bring us life.
There but for God’s grace go I Really? Do I actually have more
grace than the next person? I’ve mostly heard this phrase
‘What gives me the right
mately liſt s up a picture of an omnipotent God who is arbitrary and oſt en cruel. Somehow the experience of losing someone in a car accident, a serious illness or any one of thousands of other sad scenarios is just part of God acting as grand puppeteer and manipulating the world. Although no one can tell us what the fi nal good will be, we are supposed to receive consolation knowing that our misfortune is really a good thing. Contrast that with the God we meet in Jesus. Rather
than manipulating our circumstances to accomplish some nebulous plan, the God we meet in Jesus enters into our circumstances (even the out of control ones). T is God suff ers with us and for us to bring us life, even in the face of death itself. Scripture tells us: “My grace is suffi cient for you, for power is made perfect in weak- ness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Some may encourage us to cling
to a God who is in charge even when it feels like life is out of control. But the God we meet in Jesus off ers persistent and costly love, present with us in all things and suff ering with us and even on our behalf.
Author bio: David D. Daubert, an ELCA pastor who lives in Elgin, Ill., is a managing partner of Day 8 Strategies.
used to refer to someone in a situa- tion that is “less”—less money, less health, less status, less dignity and so on. Having spent many years doing mission trips where I worked with people living in poverty and varying degrees of wellness, and becoming more aware of my state of health and poverty and “white- ness,” I wrestle over and over again with questions of “Who is really well?” “Who is actually living in a state of poverty?” “What gives me the right to think that I either receive or deserve more grace than anyone else?” Does this phrase elicit pity for someone else? Or,
to think that I either receive or deserve more grace
than anyone else?’
almost worse, gratitude for my elevated place of grace for no real reason other than where I was born and the family and people surrounding me in my lifetime? Either way it sounds like making God into a God who grants grace to some and not to others. One of the important statements that has guided my
life over the last few years comes from an aboriginal woman from the 1900s who said, “If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if your libera- tion is bound up with mine, then let’s work together.” It’s our common need to be well, our common
purpose to help each other, and our common state of grace that is the basis for the transformative work we do together. One-sided charity just won’t cut it. Simply writing a check won’t change us. Living in a privileged way won’t call us into the “we” that God intends. For the past 10 years our congregation has been
trying to “change our face,” embracing the diversity of race, culture, economic status, sexual orientation, gender, age and individual spiritual reality.
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www.thelutheran.org
Author bio: Christine A. Berthelsen is pastor of First Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minn.
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