There has been a lot written since the tragedy in Pittsburgh. I have written other pieces as well. But I was just asked to do this for the Washington Post. Where was G-d? Here is my answer…

Last week on Monday I received a call from the police department to attend a death scene as a chaplain. You never know quite what you are walking into. Tragically, this was a 16 year old who died from leukemia having just completed his last round of chemo. The mother was understandably upset. She kept leaning over her boy, “Breathe. Just breathe.” It was heart wrenching. Gut wrenching.

She was very, very angry with G-d. I understand that. And my G-d can take it. But I don’t believe that G-d caused it. And I don’t believe that G-d needed another little (he wasn’t quite so little) angel. It is OK to be angry with G-d.

Where was G-d?

On this past Shabbat, Jews around the world read the story of Abraham and Sarah and their wide-open tent to receive visitors. It is a story of audacious hospitality. The haftarah, the section from the prophetic books, tells another story of audacious hospitality. Chapter 4 of II Kings, tells another story, where the rich woman prepares an upper chamber for her guest, Elisha. He promises her that like Sarah before, she will conceive and bear a son. And she does. But one day, that son had a horrible headache, sat in her lap, and died. She summoned the holy man Elisha, and he was brought back to life.

This past weekend, just as we were reading these very words, others were dying in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Murdered while praying. For being Jews. Again the question.

Where was G-d?

This week the Washington Post asked just that question. I decided I would try to write, between my own tears and my own anger. Just 800 words.

Where was G-d?

G-d was with Cecil and David Rosenthal as they practiced their own audacious hospitality, wishing everyone who entered Tree of Life Synagogue, Shabbat Shalom, a Sabbath of peace.

G-d was with the first responders whose voices you can hear calmly answering the dispatchers questions—and those calm dispatchers responding. I know, I spend time in our own communications department at EPD where it is often eerily calm, including when I called in on Saturday morning.

G-d was with the doctors and nurses, some of whom were Jewish who treated the victims, including the shooter, even has he hurled anti-semetic rhetoric.

G-d was with the wider community who showed up, on no notice, often bearing flowers or baked goods or a hug or a note.

G-d was with every preacher who preached. Every person who stood silent in a vigil. Every one who lit a candle or sang a song. Hiney Ma Tov–how good and how pleasant it is to dwell together. Olam chesed yibaneh. Build this world on love.

G-d was in our tears and our screams and our rage.

After 9/11 I was asked this very question. I was living in a suburb of Boston and some of the victims were my neighbors, my co-workers, my friends. How could G-d let this happen?

Where was G-d?

I learned this very lesson from my UCC minister colleague, Rev. Larry Zimmerman. G-d wept with us.

G-d didn’t cause those planes to crash. People did. So like Rabbi Harold Kushner who wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People, I believe that G-d gave us free will. Once we choose to do something evil, G-d, having given us free will, can’t then step in and stop it.

Most rabbis changed their carefully crafted High Holiday sermons that year. I did too. On the first day of Rosh Hashanah we read the story of Hagar. She cries out to G-d, “Don’t let me look on while my child dies.” G-d hears her cries and the cries of the lad. G-d opens her eyes and she finds a spring of water.

This story, too ,was part of the portion we read on Shabbat last week.

We all need to open our eyes and find another way. Another way that may have been there all along, like that well of water of Hagar. We need to keep trying, again and again and again.

In this case, we need to find the wellspring of love. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “Love the stranger in your gates.” Over and over and over again this is the message. 36 times in the Torah, that very Tree of Life as the Torah itself is called, it tells us to love the stranger. That is where G-d is. In acts of baseless love combatting baseless hatred. Who will join me…because that is where we will find G-d.