Act(s) of God - Psalm 41:1, Romans 12:15

Flooding in Texas, North Dakota, Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia.  Earthquakes in California and Idaho.  Landslides in Minnesota. Hail in Tennessee and Texas.  Tornadoes in California, Alabama, Texas, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma.  All natural disasters that have happened this month.  Unfortunately, as men and women walk through the devastation left by some of these events, they will be labeling them, either knowingly or unknowingly, with a poor theological statement.  David King in Texas, Val Brown in North Dakota, and Jim Wilson in Oklahoma will be looking at these events and be among the many people who will be labeling them as “acts of God.”  Their employment gives them no choice but to make this theological assertion, regardless of their beliefs.  They aren’t preachers, though…they are insurance agents.  Somehow, somewhere along the line, someone decided that the best term for destruction caused by a natural disaster was to label the event as an “act of God.”

While King, Brown, and Wilson, do not have a lot of choice in their legal terminology until a change is made, there are some who do have a choice and either directly or indirectly suggest that these natural disasters are acts of God being used to punish folks for their sin—many of them serving as ministers in churches around our nation.  This past week after the massive destruction in Moore Oklahoma, while not directly connecting the two, the ministry of Florida “pastor” Carl Gallups repeatedly puts forth that the day after Gay Pride Week was announced in Oklahoma, the F5 tornado struck.  To be fair, they do not say that God sent the tornado, their exact statement: “For those who know the Word of God - this seems like an ominous connection. We are simply pointing out the correlation.”    I am not going to outright say that they do not know their scripture, but if they cared to read the words of Jesus in the Word of God, particularly a passage we have read after past natural disasters, Luke 13:1-5, they might rethink their statement:  “At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.  Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’”

In the past ministers like Pat Robertson, Oral Roberts, and others have made comments along those same lines, about hurricanes, earthquakes, and other disasters, directly suggesting that God was sending those storms or disasters to punish folks in Florida, New Orleans, and other parts of the world because of some particular sin or for somehow turning their back on God.  Though Robertson has improved to a degree (he still implied that the folks in Moore failed to stop the destruction because they weren’t praying strong enough), he still made the statement that God does not send destructive storms like tornados and hurricanes to punish folks, but like I have been saying for years, we build our homes in places where we know there is an increased chance of destruction in a storm.  However, because of Robertson and others past statements and folks like Gallups currently, people outside the church “hear” Christians saying that these storms are “acts of God” punishing folks, regardless of what is said.

For instance, this past week, after the destruction in Moore, OK, Rev. John Piper tweeted two passages from Job.  The first was from Job 1:19—“Your sons and daughters were eating and a great wind struck the house and it fell upon them, and they are dead.”  Folks read this passage and jumped all over Piper accusing the conservative pastor of implying that the people of Moore, OK were getting just what they deserved.  These people were used to folks like the others making those kinds of statements.  What they failed to see was two-fold.  First, was waiting to read his second statement from Job 1:20—“Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.”  Reverend Piper’s intention was to connect folks to the Scriptures in such a way as to say that there are people of the faith who can completely understand and identify with what the folks in Moore were feeling, and to offer them a model of response, enduring suffering the way Job did, without blaming God, and seeking a clearer understanding of God.  The other thing I think Piper’s critics were guilty of was to think Piper’s connection of the storm and Job was to imply God was using the tornado to punish, when it is clear from a reading of Job that God does not send the storm upon Job’s family, it was the work of Satan in the story of Job, trying to get Job to denounce God.

All of this said, what should be our response to these disasters—to what insurance agents and poor theologians call “acts of God”?  I think it is two-fold.

First, is the response that Jesus calls us to in Luke.  We are not to examine the lives of those who were killed looking for a reason that they may have been punished, but to examine our own lives.  We are called by Jesus to look at where we are sinful and repent.  Jesus said that the folks who suffered in the disasters he addressed were no worse sinners than any of the people who didn’t die—they just failed to repent and enjoy the forgiveness that God offers and live joy-filled lives in the grace and strength of God.  It’s not that deathbed conversions, or final opportunities to embrace the loving arms of Christ aren’t legitimate.  The issue with waiting until a disaster is upon you to surrender your life to Christ is that we lose the joy of a full life with Christ before our end is imminent.  It is the difference between facing a disaster as an unrepentant sinner when there are two options before you…death and eternal separation from God or simply death and nothingness if the person doesn’t believe that God exists; and facing the storms and possible death with the peace of someone who has surrendered their lives to Christ and seeking to live out God’s will, having the assurance that neither the storm nor anything else, not even you house collapsing down upon you or being ripped off from above you, will be able to separate you from love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The second thing is to look for what are truly acts of God in connection with the disasters.  Where do we see those “acts of God”? 

We see acts of God in the teachers who used their bodies as shields over the children closest to them at Plaza Towers Elementary School to protect them from the tornado and falling debris.

We see an act of God in the man in Moore who placed his wife in the bathtub in their home and then lay over top of her, protecting her before the winds of the twister ripped him away, but left her safe—the bathtub the only thing left standing of their home.

We see acts of God in the bank employees who calmly guided customers into the vault and then closed themselves in, saving all.

We see acts of God in community members who began, as soon as the twister had passed, digging with their bare hands trying to pull survivors from the debris.

We see the acts of God in Team Rubicon, a group of military veterans, who enter communities hit by natural disasters to help the communities recover.

We see the acts of God in teams from the Salvation Army descended upon Moore with food and water…

We see the acts of God in the response of the United Methodist Committee on Relief as they delivered generators, bedding kits, water, saws, shovels, and storage bins and volunteers from First UMC Moore came to unload…and as recovery teams from United Methodist Churches across the country line up to help…knowing that the UMC is in for the long haul (as I just learned this past week that the UMC is one of the last remaining faith-based groups that continues to help with the ongoing recover of Hurricane Katrina).

The acts of God are seen in those, as the Psalmist says, who consider the poor…

The acts of God are seen in those, who, as Paul says, “rejoice with those who rejoice,” such as those rescuers who help a family find a lost or trapped family member…and “weep with those who weep,” coming alongside and grieving with those who grieve the loss of a loved one.

My brothers and sisters…a tornado, earthquake, and other disaster comes along and we do truly see, not just one, but many “acts of God,” not in in the destruction caused, but in the sacrifices made, the love shared, the compassion offered, the aid given, and in the hands and feet of those who respond.

My friends…when what the insurance companies call an “act of God” hits, may we, God’s people, truly reveal to the world what acts of God look like.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.