My Father’s World

The coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in South and Southeast Asia has been virtually continuous since the day the tragedy began.  The sights we have seen on television have been things we have never seen before and the numbers have been so staggering that we cannot even begin to comprehend their magnitude.  It has left some of us numb.  But this week, many people have emerged from their shock and numbness enough to begin asking, “Why?”  They are questioning where God was on the morning of December 26… how God could allow such a thing to happen… and where God is today within the devastation that remains.  So, I felt compelled to share with you what we as Christians… as Presbyterians… believe… and what I believe.  In doing so, I will take you to places where you will be uncomfortable … where your first instinct will be to reject what I share with you.  I did when I first heard these things… because there are things about God… and about ourselves… that we just don’t want to hear.  But I will also take you into the heart of God… and show you a stunning picture of this One who is the God and Father of us all… who loves us… who lives with us… who suffers with us… who cries in our pain.  And so let’s begin.

In our opening hymn today, we sang the words, “This is my Father’s world.”  That one phrase says so much more than the words of the hymn can communicate.  This is God’s world.  And what I need you to hear in that sentence is simply this:  This is not our world.  This is God’s world.  It was created for God’s pleasure… as we were created for God’s pleasure… and not the other way around.  God is not this supernatural vending machine in the sky who spits out whatever we want… whenever we think we should get it.  God does not exist to please us.  On the contrary, we exist to please God.  God is our Creator… the creator of the universe… and it is from God that we receive everything that we have… everything that we are.  The food we eat… the houses we live in… all that we possess… even our very lives … are a gift from God.  Our Westminster Catechism asks the question, “What is the chief end of man?”  The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.  We are not God.  We are not in charge.  We are not in control.

We are not God…we are human.  While we are created in God’s image, we are not God’s equal.  And with our humanness, comes finitude.  That simply means that there are limits to what we can do… to who we can be… to what our minds can comprehend… to everything about us.  We are finite.  While we are like God… God is more… and always will be more… than we can ever be.  We cannot live like God… act like God… or even think like God.  Even at our best, we are, as scripture tells us, just a poor reflection of the One who is God for us… God with us… the Word of God among us… Jesus Christ.

But, oh, how we struggle with this concept of finitude.  We don’t want it… and we reject it.  Any thought of our own limitations is repugnant to us.  And so we struggle against it… and we have from the beginning of time.  Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden of Eden was not eating the fruit of the tree, it was their desire to be like God… to have the mind of God… to be God.  We always want more… and most of all, we want to be in control.  And I know for me… and I think for all of us… to accept that we are not in control… and that there might be things that are beyond our comprehension… is something that drives us crazy.

So, point number one, we are not God.  Point number two, we are human and finite.  Point number three:  God created the world.  And, as our scripture tells us, the world was created good.   Now, when God created the world… the universe… and all that is in it…God designed this world to be self-sustaining... to be a living thing… to be alive… to be dynamic… to change… to breathe… to adapt to new circumstances … and not to be static… dormant… or dead.  And so, over millions of years, our world… and the universe in which we live… has always been in a state of change.   What was fertile ground a million years ago is a wasteland today and vice versa.  We know this because we have found the fossils of sea animals in the desert.  In another example of change, the Hawaiian Islands are emerging from the depths of the sea.  Volcanoes on those islands are making new land that never existed before.

Our world is constantly changing.  Do we know how all of this happens?  Do we know all the variables that can change the face of the earth that we live upon?  And can we accurately predict what will happen next… or when it will happen?  No.  While we have some of the answers, we are still learning how our earth is growing and changing…and what some of the signs of that growth and change might be…and how to predict what might happen next.  And why don’t we know all this?  Because we are not God.  We are human and there are limits to our knowledge.  Does our lack of knowledge mean that God is bad… is evil… or does it simply mean that we are human … and finite in our knowledge of the world in which we live?  Oh, yes, our knowledge is increasing exponentially, but it is still incomplete.  All has not yet been revealed to us.  As the Apostle Paul says, “Now I know only in part… then, I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

So, point number one, we are not God.  Point number two, we are human and finite.  Point number three, our world, created by God, is self-sustaining and constantly changing.  Point number four… and this is the hardest one for us to hear… sometimes the way in which our world changes triggers events which are disastrous to those who live in particular places.  As humans, we call those events natural disasters… because they are disastrous to those who are affected by them.  And, in the case of the earthquake and tsunami two weeks ago, millions of people were affected by them.  But did it happen because those people were evil and deserved to be wiped out?  No.  Did it happen because God was angry and was rendering judgment upon Asia?  No.  Did God will this to happen?  Did God cause this disaster?  Well… on one hand, yes… and on the other hand, no.  You see, if we say that God created this world… and our universe… to be self-sustaining… and built within that plan all the natural laws that guide the way in which the earth adapts to change… then, God did… in an indirect way… cause this disaster… and every other natural disaster that happens.  But, if we say that God woke up on Sunday morning and decided that this would be a good day for a disaster… and then specifically created this earthquake and tsunami for God’s own entertainment… or out of God’s anger… then, we are way off base.

You see, while we do not know everything, there are things that we do know about God that guide our understanding of God and the way in which God operates.  We know is that God is good… and that all God created is good.  So, the idea that God could create something evil… with malicious intent… is contrary to what we know about God.

If we can accept that God did not create this disaster, then the question that plagues us is “Why didn’t God do something about it?”  If God understands all these things… if God knows how the world works… how the universe operates… and therefore, knows when and where natural disasters will occur, why doesn’t God intervene?  Could God intervene?  Yes.  God could intervene.  God has the power to intervene.  Should God intervene?  I don’t know the answer to that one.  I don’t know, because I am human and I don’t know the mind of God.  God tells us through the prophet Isaiah, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”

What is dangerous for us, as humans, is to try to be God… and make decisions for God.  Let me try to show you how dangerous this can be by looking at natural disasters.  Let’s try to answer this question:  In which natural disasters should God intervene?  Just the ones that affect thousands of people… or, perhaps, a million people… or would just a hundred people provide sufficient reason… or just one?  Should God intervene in the natural disaster in this century… or also in the ones that happened hundreds of years ago?  Should God intervene in just the disasters that affect you… or me… or, perhaps, all Americans… or should God intervene in all natural disasters?  And, when God intervenes, should God spare those who died in ignorance… or should God also spare those whose negligence contributed to the magnitude of this disaster?  What about the humans who neglected to establish a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean?  And, what of future disasters?  Should God spare the Californians who live on top of the San Andreas Fault… even though a major earthquake has been predicted for that region for more than twenty years?  And should God spare those who are living on the beaches of California… even though we know that any major earthquake in California will create a tsunami of a magnitude that has never been seen before in that region?  Do you see what difficulties we can get into if we begin to play God?  Can you see how futile this exercise is?

The bottom line is that we do not know the mind of God… nor do we know what plan God has for us… for this world in which we live… or for the millions who live in South and Southeast Asia.  In Isaiah, God says, “as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  God created a wonderful world and set it in motion.  We do not fully understand it yet, but we are learning more and more about it every year.  The more we learn, the better we are able to predict what our world will do… and deal with its natural laws.

I want to return now to that first phrase: “This is my Father’s world.”  It is God’s world, but the phrase is not written like that, is it?  It says that this is my Father’s world… and that is what gives us comfort.  While we have talked about the sovereignty of God… and how God is not required to dance at our beck and call… how we are dependent upon God for everything… including life itself… we have not talked about that God as our Father.  When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River, a voice came from heaven and said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased.”  And so it is for each of us:  God claims each one of us in baptism… and becomes for us… our father.

But who is this Father who claims us… in whose world we live and move and have our being?  This Father is One who loves us… the One who has loved us since the beginning of time… who chose us… who claims us… who came to live with us… who consciously chose to become human for us… to be with us… despite our arrogance… our ignorance… and all our human finitude.  This is the One who gave his very life for us… who suffered and died for love of us.  This is the One who has promised never to leave us… to be with us in all adversity… to bear us up on eagle’s wings… in pain… in sorrow… in life… and in death.  This is the One who lives with us still.  Our Heidelberg Catechism asks the question, “What is your only comfort, in life and in death?”  The answer is simply, “My only comfort is that I belong… body and soul, in life and in death… not to myself, but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”  We belong to God.  And though we do not always understand what happens in our lives… and in our world… we know that God will never leave us… and so, we look for evidence of God’s presence in all that happens.  Do we believe that God was present in South and Southeast Asia on December 26… and is still present today?  Do we believe that God can create good from something that looks so disastrous to us?  Let me share with you just one miraculous story of these days.

There are a people called the “Sea Gypsies” who live in tiny villages by the sea in Asia.  Missionaries have been working with the sea gypsies for many years and there is a group that lived on the western shores of Phuket Island that have become committed Christians.  About a year ago, the provincial government in Phuket ordered that group of sea gypsies to move from their homes so that a new tourist resort could be built on their beach.  Over their protests, this group of Christians was involuntarily moved from the western shore of the island to the eastern shore.  Over many months, they managed to build new homes, re-establish their village, and find new fishing grounds.  On the morning that the tsunami hit Phuket Island, two of these sea gypsies on the beach mending their nets.  They noticed the water suddenly recede and ran to spread the news.  Yes, the waters came into their village and wiped out all their new homes.  But, because they were now located on the eastern shore of the island, the damage was not as great… and not a single life was lost among the Christians in that village.

God is with us… God is for us… and in life and in death, we belong to God.  As the words of the great psalm tell us: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, Thou art with me.”  While we may not always understand, we can take comfort in the knowledge that God does not will disaster… nor cause it to happen, but God will be with us through it.  And, out of disaster, God can create something good.  Amen.

Genesis 1:1-10, 31a; 1 Corinthians 13:9-13; Matthew 3:13-17