To be told we are basically good, and we will get better with time with the evolution of the human mind and new technological aids doesn't fly when a loved one is on a ventilator and may die within a few hours.

The goodness of Man mantra wears thin when you can't put bread on the table, you've just been fired from your job and the rent or mortgage is due with nothing in the bank to pay it.

Palliatives offered by progressive theologians and preachers fail at the deepest level to reach, help, or heal the troubled soul. Prosperity preachers ring hollow with their promises that God will make you wealthy if you just give the preacher your last dime.

They may seem to work when times are good, when the mind is at ease, life is good, food is plentiful, and the bank account is well heeled.

The notion of a loving God can be soaked up with the midday sun on a beach. The idea of lament when it is all crashing and burning, fires up the mind quite differently. There are no liberals in COVID foxholes.

The truth is people crave absolutes when disaster hits.

They want to know that God really loves them, that their salvation is assured should the worst happen.

God is not merely "other". At times like this he becomes personal, a Father who reaches down and touches the deepest part of our being and offers us hope even as the sky is falling.

It is the God of the Psalmist we crave, not the God of aspirational hopes. Sermons on inclusion and diversity, even race ring hollow and hold little meaning or hope when your world is crashing and burning.

At times like this, the words of the Great Apostle ring with truth, "neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:39.

AMEN