No Rest For The Wicked (Or Anyone Else)

Today's readings: Psalms 12; 146; Isaiah 52:1-12; Galatians 4:12-20; Mark 8:1-10

Like it or not, the wicked exist. No matter how much our Savior calls us to love our enemies, no matter how hard we try to see Christ in everyone we meet, no matter how desperately we cling to the belief that people are basically decent, the wicked remain among us. From mass murderers to character assassins, from people who steal life savings of the elderly to those who steal innocence from children, our headlines, our communities and even our families suffer from their presence. As the faithful we glorify God for the beauty and love woven through creation, yet only willful blindness or ignorance could keep us from seeing the wickedness that exists alongside it.

The authors of the Psalms wrestle honestly with this wickedness. The author of Psalm 12 wails that there are no godly people left (v 1), and begs God to cut off flattering lips and lying tongues (v 3). He asks for protection against the wicked who prowl on every side and stand exalted in the world (v 8). He feels as we sometimes feel: attacked and overwhelmed by the evil in the world. He also clings to God's pure promises (vv 5-7).

As we struggle with the presence of evil in God's creation, let's remember the psalmists, the prophets, the evangelists and Jesus himself faced the same struggles. In the midst of their despair, even while they asked how God could abandon them, to the point of death itself, they kept insisting on the promises God had made. Those who dismiss the possibility of a loving God because of the presence of evil, or those who dismiss evil by saying everything is God's will, miss the message of scripture from today's psalm through the crucifixion: the world can be a terrible place, and God is our refuge in that terror.

When we need to, we should wail along with the psalmists. And like the psalmists, let's praise the glory, beauty and love that exist simultaneously. One of the mysteries of faith is that as we let go of our need to define and explain, the more we know and understand. Wickedness threatens from without. God strengthens from within. And our lives are the miracles crafted in that tension.

Evening readings: Psalms 36; 7