Luck and/or Blessings

This excellent essay by Lois Johnson, appeared on her Facebook page today: https://www.facebook.com/lois.johnson1/posts/10165698956950092?from_close_friend=1&notif_id=1631813655592042&notif_t=close_friend_activity&ref=notif

When we were kids, we weren't allowed to say we were "lucky" because, as Christians, we weren't supposed to believe in luck.

But saying I was "blessed" was troubling to me because it implied other people were not blessed. From car wrecks or try-outs for some silly extracurricular activity, the implication seemed to be that those who were hurt (or worse) and those who didn't make the cut were somehow the opposite of blessed - cursed? Or perhaps worse, they were neglected, unthought of, unimportant to God.

So I muddled along for a decade or so, trying to work out, you know, the problem of evil (oh, that little thing!), the flourishing of life, and how to speak about both. Things like 9/11 and now Covid give us lots examples of how people talk about evil and life, and those who survive often say things like "God had a plan for me" and "I'm blessed" and so on.

Was God's blessing withheld from those still in the Towers when they fell? Is God actively focusing the bright light of blessing on one hospital bed right now while another is shrouded in shadow?

When I first came to Grand Rapids, my ears perked up when I heard people say they were "fortunate." Now, I won't put you to sleep chasing all the rabbits my own mind chased, but I'll tell you - this is the word I use now, and here's what I mean:

I say I'm fortunate because I believe God's blessing is for all of us AND because I am surrounded by people both actively channeling God's blessings to me as well as people who stay out of the way of God's blessings for me. "Fortunate" equals God's blessing PLUS a community or society that allows those blessings to come to me.

My blessings aren't stolen from me by thieves, they aren't actively blocked from coming to me by thoughtless, careless people who get in the way, and I (hopefully) don't leave my blessings laying on the table because I've been taught to recognize them by countless Sunday School teachers, pastors, authors, and friends.

So that means this person in a car wreck was fortunate because (1) God doesn't want that person to be hurt AND ALSO (2) our society used up a bunch of crash test dummies trying to figure out how to keep people safe in car accidents. God's blessings PLUS our good work.

This other person was hurt in a car accident because EVEN THOUGH God doesn't want that person to be hurt, we haven't figured out how to protect all people in car wrecks - not to mention all the other things like careless drivers, roads in bad weather, etc., etc. God's blessing of health and life was, let's say, stolen by the careless driver, blocked by our ignorance about how to build safer cars, or perhaps - if the injured person wasn't wearing a seatbelt - God's blessing of health and life was left on the table.

We had airline safety protocols to protect against hijackers who wanted ransom money on September 11, 2001, but we didn't have airline safety protocols to protect against hijackers who wanted to use a plane as a bomb. We build the Towers strong enough to withstand force and fire for a certain amount of time, but not enough time for everyone evacuate.

We've had brilliant scientists working on mRNA coronavirus vaccines for ten (or more?) years who converted that technology into Covid-19 vaccines in less than a year, but we didn't educate our public enough to keep them off of the conspiracy theory baby bottle - nor, dare I say, did we regulate pharmaceutical companies so that they, like all businesses ought to do, served the public first and therefore we could be certain that their bottom line wasn't their damn bottom line, but our health.

God did not want the car accident. God did not want 9/11. God did not want Covid-19.

God, then, you might say, must be very weak to be overturned by human beings, but this is entirely wrong, and you can learn this even if you only get through the first three chapters of the Bible. God creates a good world, puts humans in charge, humans screw it up. [Side Bar: Christians who don't think humans can destroy the planet via climate change, nuclear war, etc. because God won't let it happen - see the first three chapters of your Bible, please.] After we screw it up and introduce evil and death, God gives us a promise that evil and death will eventually be defeated - through us.

In other words, it's *serious* and *very real* that we are in charge here, AND it's *serious* and *very real* that God's will is to bless us alongside and through those who accept into their hearts - and thus exhibit in their lives - the promise and fulfillment of those good ends, this restoration, that blessing.

Today, Christians say that the Genesis promise comes to pass in the person of Jesus. Christians also say that all of Creation lives and moves and has its being in Jesus. If this planet, these events occurring around us, our lives exist within Jesus, then is it no wonder that in our mind's eye, his body appears bloody and wounded? Every blessing we steal, block, or withhold from others - whether on a personal level or society-wide - opens another wound, not only in those around us, but on the body of Jesus.

But there is another image that appears before our mind's eye, and that is the resurrected Jesus. His resurrected body still shows his wounds because this life is not a holodeck. The pain and disaster we bring on each other is real. But his resurrected body is also healed because God's promises are not playthings of a weak imagination. The healing and health we bring to each other is also real.

God's blessings are for all of us - for all of us together and for each of us particularly. If you look about and see someone who is not blessed, your first questions should probably be something like, "Why is this person not receiving God's blessing and what can I do about it?" Are their blessings being stolen? Are they being blocked? Have they not learned enough about how *not* to leave a blessing on the table?

We can't fix the whole world on our own, but it won't be fixed without us. We are not "the Lord," but we are called to "make straight the way of the Lord." We build bridges over valleys of despair and tunnels through mountains of burden for each other so that the way of the Lord is unobstructed.

I say I'm fortunate now. I have God's blessings plus a community that neither steals them nor blocks them.

Someday, I'd like to be able to say I'm blessed because it's just assumed that no community and nobody would ever steal or block God's blessings.

_______

Here are my thoughts, in response:

Buried beneath your thoughts here Lois are three contrasting conceptions of providence:

1) OCCASIONALISM: God is meticulously involved in everything that happens. He is the only agent in the universe; everything else (including human beings) are events. THus, there is no such thing as "luck."

2) DEISM: God created the universe but then gives up all agency to that which he has created. Thus there is no such things as "blessings."

3) CONCURRENCE: God is the primary agent in the universe, but has given human beings secondary agency. Thus, there are such things as "fortune" and "blessings."

You are rejecting the idea of God's meticulous providence (Occasionalism) and endorsing his concurrence with human actions. IMO that is the only way to make sense of scripture, and the Christian God.

-----------------------------

My husband once preached three sermons on God's providence:

CREATION: “It’s no Accident”   http://www.valleycovenant.org/sermons/providence/providence02.htm

COSNERVATION: ”On the Brink”             http://www.valleycovenant.org/sermons/providence/providence03.htm

           CONCURRENCE: “God At Work, 24/7” http://valleycovenant.org/sermons/providence/providence04.htm
        < So [we] find ourselves beholding the best act of God’s grace and now see that it is also a kind of  concurrence, a cooperation. God’s graciously cooperated with His creatures to the extent of letting them kill His Son. Then He was raised from the dead, so that we could see how God really was at work in Him, so that we might believe in Jesus and learn in Him to let our own lives cooperate with God.>

Lois writes, "Someday, I'd like to be able to say I'm blessed because it's just assumed that no community and nobody would ever steal or block God's blessings."

Eight years ago I had an interesting intercultural experience in children's church. We were discussing how Joseph's brothers were jealous of him, and threw him in the pit and sold him as a slave. JuEun, a young Korean girl, was puzzled by the story. "Why did they do that?" she wondered. "You can always get yourself a new coat...but you can't get another brother."

Thy kingdom is coming.