good and evil

it is hard for us in our society to wrap our heads around the idea of good and evil. and when evil resides in the heart of a person it is especially hard for us to call it as it is. we'd like to think that all in all every person is good who sometimes just make bad choices. but how do we respond when a person or a set of people are evil? how do wrap our heads around that reality even in the face of god's grace? dan allendar writes some good stuff on this topic and it was in seminary where i began trying to wrap my mind around this. dan works with sexually abused women and he is not afraid to call it or the perpetrator what it is: evil. i have a hard time with that especially in light of the fact that i'm a counselor. i'm trained to be patient and long suffering even when people refuse to change. don't get me wrong there is a fine line between being a person of depravity, who is scathed by the reality of the fall-- we all are that. but what about the person or persons who submit their heart to evil who choose time and time again that they will use others in degrading, dehumanizing ways to elevate their position and power? how do we reconcile that in our hearts and minds?

today at quest, eugene preached on exodus 10 (the plagues). as you know we are studying the bible together starting from genesis to revelations. if you didn't get a chance i recommend checking out the quest website (www.seattlequest.org) and listening to this particular sermon because if nothing else it really gets you to think-- it gets you to think about your own ideology's, your own question of god's benevolence and the state of our world. it's a difficult text to get your mind around because the question that inevetibly comes up is: is god compassionate? and if he is compassionate how can he allow such horrible things to happen and if his grace is for all why would he harden pharoah's heart? and i find myself time and again in this passage wrestling with those very questions. yet, somehow in the sermon for the first time i was able to see that even in god's predestined plan we all have a choice. we all have a decision to make. we can always, always turn away from evil and turn our face towards god. but then that begs the questions, 'why does god harden pharaoh's heart and how could pharaoh have any other choice in the situation with god's manipulation on his heart? how can predestination and freewill co-exist?' well first of all, i believe it does because i believe that god chooses all (predestination) but in that we have choice to refuse the invitation (freewill). he chooses all, thus sending his son to die brutally on a cross for all yet, allows us to freely accept his grace and relationship with him. i had a woman, who is the only christian in her family, say, 'sometimes i wonder why did god choose me? why do i have this burden? why not someone else in my family?' and i remember sharing i believe that god chose every single member of her family and it is them that will not choose him.

but as we see in exodus god hardened pharoah's heart and so today i had to go back and re-examine the text. i carefully read the passage of the plagues and i realized something. even from the very beginning with the nile turning into blood-- pharoah hardens his heart. with the frogs-- pharaoh's heart becomes unyielding. pharoah's magicians, his officials keep coming to him and saying this is the finger of god: give up your way. yet, pharoah continues to challenge god. it occured to me as i was reading this that if i was in pharoah's shoes and i was given this challenge to let god's people go... maybe i would rebel and harden, but after the power of god's work in the evidence of the water turning into blood i would fall prostrate not only out of the call to repent, but simply out of fear. can you imagine seeing what pharoah saw? can you imagine experiencing the sight of blood in the yakima river? can you imagine seeing frogs in your bed, in your slippers, in your ovens? can you imagine? can you imagine what you might be feeling? well, i know i would be feeling: freaked out... i would be completely and utterly aware that this power could break me. yet, pharoah is unrelenting. which makes me think: who is this pharoah? who does he think he's dealing with? and does he think he is truly going to win? his unyielding heart, his rebellion, his lack of fear and reverence to god's power is evil. a kingdom that functions under the system of genocide for 430 years is evil. a dictator that kills the first born of every son for 80 years is evil. was there any hope for pharoah? had is heart turned to stone years before this confrontation? i believe: yes. and the scary part is that reality is true today.

i just finished watching, 'invisible children'. it's a documentary on the children of northern uganda who travel every night from their homes to sleep in hospitals and buses out of fear that if they do not leave they will be abducted and killed. for 17 years a civil war has insued. the leader of the rebel army: The Lord's Resistence Army (LRA) employs children as young as 5 years old to fight on the front lines of this civil war. these children are brain washed, their trained to kill their familes, their neighbors, their friends. how will we deal with this evil? how will god intervene?

in burma where the dictatorship has been at several peace tables with u.n. diplomats, peace activists such as aung san su kyi and others when will they free the people? when will they cease fire? when will they stop killing and destroying other ethnic groups? when will they stop using children for slave labor? when will they stop raping the women in their plan to 'burmanize' the nation? when? and if they will not even after coming to the peace table, even after saying, 'yes, we'll submit to peace.' then when? and what should we do? how will god intervene?

that is what i pray for every day... god how will you intervene? how do you call us to intervene? when talks of peace are no longer working and people are being slaughtered and destroyed everyday-- then what should we do? how can we continue to sit aside waiting for evil to peacefully relent? what is our call?

you see we have modern day pharoah's among us in the joseph kone's (leader of the LRA in northern uganda), ne win's (lead general of the military regime in burma), hitlers and the list goes on... how does god deal with this evil?

and today we learned that god is waiting. he's waiting for every heart to come to him even those who have turned toward evil. but he will not wait forever. so what do we do in the in between? my pacifist friends would say, 'you peacefully protest and voice the human rights for all'. yet in that peaceful engagement people are in the middle of the streets being shot down and murdered, children are being sold into sex slavery, families are being pulled from their homes at night... can we afford to peacefully protest? human lives depend on change today, because with out it tomorrow they will die.

my final thought is this: even in all of this jumbled up mess i have faith that god is good. i don't understand. i can't comprehend. but i just know, because i know, because i know that god is gracious. i know that god is compassionate. i know that he loves all people. i cannot explain it. but i just know that god is god and he gives grace to all people.

praise be to god!