Downtown New Orleans, 30 Aug 2005
“Why?”
One minute the world seems to make sense, and then something terrible happens. This time it is Hurricane Katrina. When the power of nature rises up and brings such destruction, we humans (yes, we who have conquered the skies and landed on the moon) find that we are powerless to stop it. We who were once masters of our world, suddenly find ourselves feeling very tiny and vulnerable. Our world has not only lost the meaning it once had, but has become dangerous as well.
“Why?”
Some people believe that when natural disasters strike, they do so because somehow they are the will of God. While the disasters bring death and destruction, they are seen as divine tools to fashion a greater good. So, in the end, it all balances out, with a little more weight landing on the “good” that comes out of the disaster. There is a sense that somehow, it was all “worth it.”
I am not one of those who believes that.
I do not believe that natural disasters are God’s tools for bringing about the death and destruction necessary for a greater good. I do not pretend to know “why” natural disasters happen. But regardless of what I or anyone else believes about the “why” of natural disasters, they happen nonetheless.
God is love. That’s what I believe. That influences how I see such things in the world. It also influences how I respond to the world around me.
God is love. It is a central Christian emphasis. It is what we’re called to proclaim. But, surrounded by the howl of tsunamis and hurricanes, our voice is often drowned out and we feel stifled. How can we be heard? How can we declare that the God who is love is not silent, but still speaking?
St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Proclaim the Gospel, and, if necessary, use words.”
To all who suffer, to all who mourn, to all who weep in the meaninglessness of it all, to all who will listen, we declare God is Love.
I have snagged the following news article from the UCC website. It is important to know how at least one church is declaring God’s love in the darkness, as well as a few ways that we can do our part.
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“UCC begins disaster response to Hurricane Katrina”
Aug. 29, 2005
Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 hurricane, stormed ashore the U.S. Gulf Coast this morning with extraordinarily strong winds and heavy rains. Extensive wind damage and flooding is anticipated along the projected track of the storm from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio River Valley. Katrina crossed southern Florida on Friday resulting in 9 deaths and extensive flooding.
One Great Hour of Sharing is rushing $25,000 to Church World Service for the initial response to Hurricane Katrina.
"At this point we pray and wait. We are grateful to have One Great Hour of Sharing offering funds and UCC Disaster Network in place so we are able to respond as soon as it becomes safe to do so," said Susan Sanders, Minister for Global Sharing of Resources.
UCC National Disaster Ministries' staff have been in contact with Conference Disaster Coordinators, Alan Coe from South Central Conference; Will Rabert from Southeast Conference; Bill Wealand from Florida Conference and Shari Prestemon, Executive Director of Back Bay Mission, Biloxi, Mississippi to express concern and offer One Great Hour of Sharing financial support for clean up and recovery in aftermath of this storm. Contact has not yet been made with staff of Dillard University in New Orleans.
Back Bay Mission staff have evacuated to safety away from the coast and will return to Biloxi as soon as it is safe to do so.
Will Rabert and Alan Coe are prepared to travel to the disaster area as soon as possible to provide assistance to UCC congregations, institutions and local communities as they assess recovery needs.
Church World Service Disaster Response and Recovery Liaisons are on call to work with local agencies to organize and to address the unmet needs of those affected by Hurricane Katrina.
How you can help:
1. Pray for people who live in communities affected by hurricanes.
2. To help those affected by disasters you may send gifts payable to your congregation marked for "Emergency USA " with the request they be sent through your Conference office on to Wider Church Ministries.
OR
3. Send gifts payable to Wider Church Ministries and marked in the memo portion "Emergency USA" to the Office for Global Sharing of Resources; Wider Church Ministries; 700 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44115.
OR
4. Make a secure on-line donation now by clicking on the Emergency USA button on [the UCC homepage].
5 comments:
I guess I can try to agree with you on this. But aren't you forgetting that God has made natural disasters in the past? But God did create rainbows for a reason. Yet there is also a few passages in Revelations that talk of natural disasters. Maybe its just my way of interpreting it. This could be quite and interesting topi9c to discuss. LOL
Yes, you are right; there are many passages in the Bible that describe natural disasters as being caused by God. When I approach these ancient texts, I try to do so recognizing that they were written in the context of ancient religion, which understood everything as being caused by God (or gods, depending on where they were), both good and evil. Their theology (understanding of God) and their cosmology (understanding of how the universe worked) were woven together appropriately for their time.
However, through the ages, our cosmologies have changed. For example, we no longer belive that the divine realm ("heaven") was up above the sky, or that there are four corners to the earth. When today's cosmology (which includes such things like quantum physics, chaos theory, and dark matter) is brought into dialogue with our Christian traditions (as recorded primarily in the Scriptures, and secondarily in traditional theology), and especially with the identity of God as revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ (God as other-centered, justice-oriented, and self-giving Love), I believe that new meaning comes out of it all.
So when I look at the Scriptures, I primarily see them as an inspired record of how the people of God have wrestled with trying to understand how God is at work in this world in order to plug in. It's more about a process of interaction and discernment for me than documents of literal historic events.
The most important part of it all for me, however, is using Jesus as the lens through which we understand the "who" or "what" of God. From a "trinitarian" perspective, the "character" of the Son reveals the "character" of the Father. Jesus did not seem to be the type to unleash mass destruction to the innocent and guilty alike. It's sort of a "What wouldn't Jesus do?" kind of thing. If the Son wouldn't do it, then neither would the Father.
And, as a side-tangent (since we're there), this works for interpersonal discernment too. When people claim to be operating in the Spirit, we have to remember that the Spirit reveals the "character" of the Son. That which is not in line with the character of Jesus by default doesn't get to be attributed to the Spirit (to do so would be to enter into a form of "tri-theism" which sees the divine Persons as three separate dieties). And that which is contrary to the Spirit of Holiness is traditionally called "sin."
I hope that helps to understand where I'm coming from.
Ok I guess you got this thick headed person to kind of understand where you are comming from but you have left a ton of questions running through my mind.
Ok now for this one once again since this topic has come up in other blogs. I just would like to heare your points of view on God's wrath that has plagued for centuries. Do you feel its not actually God's wrath but its the wrath that man has placed upon himself? I mean that is what the disaster in New Orleans is actually. It wasn't truly from the hurricane but the man made levees.
The other question I have for you is this.... If God is all Love as you say yet he is the great creator. Why did he create the Ebola virus and other deadly diseases?
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