Luke 13:1-9 Dear Partner in Preaching, Theodicy is a rabbit hole. And we don’t have to go down it. Yeah, that’s pretty much all I have this week. Okay, a word or two of explanation. First, this passage names questions pretty much everyone who thinks about God eventually asks. Why do bad things happen to good people? Does God cause calamity? Is tragedy – whether on the small scale or large – punishment for sin? These are questions we ask, I think, because tragedy and calamity – whether caused by nature, like the devastation of we are witnessing in Mozambique, or caused by humans, like the murders at the mosque in...

Luke 13:1-9 Dear Working Preacher, This passage is rife with both promise and peril. The promise is to address one of the persistent questions many of our people have: why is there so much suffering in the world? Or, put more theologically, is suffering connected to our behavior? Does God cause suffering? Is suffering or calamity a form on punishment? These are questions usually asked in moments of extreme suffering and loss and they are as poignant as they are important. And this week we have a chance to address them more reflectively than we can when asked in the emergency room or hospice center – that’s the promise of this week’s...