On March 12, 2009, four members of one family were brutally murdered in our county.  I have reflected three times about this tragedy.

• The first reflection was a Q&A to a young woman in our congregation who was friends with one of the victims.
• The second reflection was a draft of a newspaper article several days after the murder - an attempt to offer a pastoral response to the question, “Where is God?” 
• The third reflection (below) was a revision of the newspaper column after the news break that the members of the murdered family were part of an international drug trade.  The issue in many minds became less one of “Where is God when innocent people die” and more one of, “How do people of faith process this horrible, complex event?”

Four Perplexing Deaths

                Everyone who watches or reads local news has felt “headline shock” in the last week.  Four family members murdered.  A mother and three children, including a little boy.  Asian family.  Killer on the loose.  Motives unknown.  America’s most wanted.  Murderer tracked down in Utah.  Murder-suicide.  International drug ring.

How does faith respond?  No simple answer will solve the confusion, deaden the pain, or erase the fear.  But faith cannot say nothing.

The Bible defines faith as holding on to hope and embracing truth in the midst of what we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1).  We desperately want to understand and explain.  It is precisely when we can’t that faith steps in.

Most of us will never be able to understand or explain the extent to which each family member was involved in illegal activity.  Faith steps in to say we don’t have to.

We must have faith in law enforcement and in our judicial system to sort it all out.  Ultimately, by extension, our faith for ultimate and final justice is in God.   

We cannot understand or explain the complex web of personal, family, and cultural factors that resulted in these tragic deaths and destroyed lives.  Faith steps in to say that we don’t have to.

Faith refuses to stereotype people or further distance ourselves from the responsibility to love in word and deed.  Criminal activity, family dysfunction, abuse, hate, and violence cross all social boundaries – race, class, and creed.  Love, shock, grief, and regret are common to all of us because we are made in God’s image with the capacity to love and be loved, to think and feel.  Survivors and friends need our compassion – not our condescension.

Any story like this one needs to turn the searchlight of conscience inward.  Where are the hidden pockets of evil in me?  Am I protecting those I love from an exposure that feels risky but is far preferable to unchecked and ongoing wrongdoing?

We cannot understand or explain God in the midst of this kind of tragedy.  Faith steps in to say that we don’t have to.  His ways are higher than ours.

We have a lot of questions, and that’s OK.  We want to know “Why?” and so did Jesus on the cross (Mark 15:34).  We want to know “How long?” and so do the martyrs who wait for justice in heaven (Revelation 6:10).  We want to know, “Where is God?” and so did Job (23:3).

Our questions presuppose faith in God.  Atheists don’t struggle with “Why?” because their universe is random and meaningless.  When we ask the hard questions about how a God who is loving, wise, and all-powerful could let this happen, we show we do believe.

We cannot understand or explain human nature that perpetuates addiction, that profits from destruction, that turns into deadly violence when betrayed or cornered.  How can human beings do that to one another?  We don’t understand.  We cannot explain.  Faith steps in to say that we don’t have to.

Faith instead stands in awe that God sees the mess we have made of his world, and still reaches out in love.  He came to us in Jesus Christ, through whom alone we can find forgiveness, hope, and life through his death and resurrection.  Our faith is in him.