It was the last few months of World War II. Stuttgart, Germany, was in ruins, the result of frequent Allied bombing raids on Nazi strongholds. There was one church left standing. Soon, it would be reduced to rubble and the congregation gathered in the church hall. Its pastor, Helmut Thielicke (1908-1986), was preaching a series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer. He had previously been a theology professor at Heidelberg but was ousted by the Nazis. His people asked how a loving God could permit such horrendous things to happen. Helmut wondered why they were so resistant to letting go of their fanciful faith in human progress.
Helmut toured the United States in the early 1960s, visiting churches and seminaries. When reporters asked for his impressions of America, he had favorable things to share about western culture. When asked to reflect critically on the western church, he had this to say, “American Christians have an inadequate view of suffering.” His remarks are no less true today. Christians in America still have a deficient view of suffering. Our unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has morphed into entitlement. We have come to expect a life of universal good fortune in prosperous America. Yet, there is no denying it: everyone suffers. The Bible never offers a neat, tidy explanation for why people suffer, but it does declare unambiguously that God redeems suffering. The cross is proof that God can take the worst thing that possibly could happen (Jesus’ death on the cross) and turn it into the best thing that possibly could happen (our salvation to eternal life).
Helmut offered suffering congregants this counsel, “We can entrust this present day to the Lord because the future and the last day belong to him.” As he concluded his sermon series, he prayed: