A sermon based on Luke 13:1-9, Rev. Dr. Jon Diefenthaler, Sr Pastor Emeritus, Our Savior Lutheran Church.
One has only to turn on the TV these days to witness the destructive effects of natural and human disasters in our world, including hurricanes, tornadoes, wild fires, floods, earthquakes, as well as the shocking wartime damage in places like Ukraine and Gaza.
Such disasters raise the question of “theodicy.” This fancy word points to our attempts to explain the seemingly evil footprints of adverse events in a God-created good world. Where is God at such moments?
Why would God allow this to happen to us? What did we do to deserve this? These are questions that people of faith in God find themselves asking.
In the Old Testament, Job was a God-fearing and prosperous family man who lost everything. Some forty chapters are devoted to this man’s quest to understand why God would permit this to happen to him.
In today’s Gospel lesson Jesus gives His answer to the question of “theodicy” in the wake of a couple of disasters that occurred in his day. He also tells us how we might best respond to them in our time.
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