Redemptions-R-Us

  This is the back side of the previous post in which I complained about the inappropriateness of the pat answers we give when our friends encounter tragedy.  It doesn't feel like "God is good all the time" when we have lost a loved one.  And when we are hurt at the hands of another human being, it's hard to believe that "God is in control".  We know who was in control, and it wasn't God.

  But here's the other side of this thing that I did not address in the previous post: God really does very often seem to redeem tragedy and bring good out of it.  I'm not saying it happens every time, and I'm not saying it's what God had in mind in the first place, but I have personally experienced many times in my life when apparent good has come on the heels of a terrible calamity, rather like the story of Job in the Old Testament, but for me, never on such a grand scale, thankfully.  Job lost his wealth, his family, and his home all in one day, but later it was all restored to him, and several times over.

  One of my favorite names for Jesus is "Redeemer".  I think it's his middle name, perhaps, because this characteristic has been so evident to me so many times in life.  I don't understand how God can relinquish control of his human creation by granting him free will, then when things get totally messed up, employ his redeeming power to save the day.  It's one of the mysteries of existence that seem to be impossible, yet real.

  One small example that is very much on my mind, as it was the catalyst for this blog, was the experience of my own exile from the institutional church.  When my local congregation blew up, forcing 150 exiles into the religious wilderness, it was evidently the result of the selfish actions of a few power mongers in the church leadership who had to have things their way.  They told us that God was in control, but it was obviously not the case; they were firmly in control and expecting the submission of all their underlings (see my earlier posts on Harmful Hierarchy and others).

  I was absolutely sure that God had not had his way, that men's free will had trumped the will of God, and that scores of displaced believers were victimized in the process.  You know this if you have read my earliest posts, 'cause you can see my disgust with the behavior of these people.

  But now, several years after the fact, I am in a place of unimagined freedom.  I have a completely new understanding of the role of the church in the world and the standing of the individual believer with the Lord.

  All my life I sang songs about the glorious freedom of the believer, and while experiencing that freedom in my personal life, I wondered why it didn't seem to exist within the walls of the church.  I would exult in my relationship with the Lord when I was alone, only to have my salvation taken away on Sunday by men who preached a works-based redemption that somehow depended on my ability to pull myself up by my own bootstraps - with God's help, of course.

  Staying outside the walls of the local church has been the best thing that could have possibly happened for my spiritual well-being.  There really is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and who aren't inside the church building (Romans 8:1 - sort of).  Go figure.  When my friends and I were ejected, we were confused and bewildered at first.  But no more.  We are loving it.

  And here's the thing:  Many of us are wondering if God had this in mind in the first place.  Would he purposely blow up a congregation in order to get us out into the community like he intended?  Did he intentionally harden the hearts of the church leaders like he did with Pharaoh at the original Exodus so that he could accomplish a mini-reenactment at a little country church in rural Michigan?  (Actually this is happening everywhere.)

  Or was this a redemption of a sorry situation where out-of-control church leaders blew up a church and then God brought good out of it anyway?

  We are still not sure, but many of us are saying he meant for this to happen.  One thing is for sure: We are in a wonderful place, and we will never go back to the old life.

  Okay, nobody died in the scenario that I just described, so maybe it wasn't a serious enough example of tragedy being redeemed by God.  But it was a life-changing experience for my friends and me, and it serves to raise the question about how much of the bad that happens to us is the will of God in the first place or whether it is instead, the redeeming work of God bringing good out of evil.

  Anyway, I'm not changing my position on my earlier post; I still think we should be careful to mourn with those who mourn and not devalue their heartache with our pious platitudes.  I just thought I should acknowledge that these pat answers come from somewhere, and maybe they are rooted in the truth.  God really does have the power to bring good from bad, and he often exercises that power.

  Have you seen this happen in your life?  Is this God's built-in antidote for the destruction that's caused by human free will and our existence in a fallen world?