I’m procrastinating on my sermom fine-tuning by posting here, but it is something that has been troubling me. If people in my congregation are having thoughts that I feel are theologically worrisome, do I let them continue in them, or just keep telling them my own over and over?
Specifically, this is about interpreting the string of natural disasters that have hit our world as warnings from God. There is a strong sense that we are getting ever closer to the end times and these tragic events are reminders to straighten up and fly right. And everything within my cries “no.” In the local UM pastors meeting, we talked about not judgment, not warning, but about God leading us throught the stormy waters, about the promise that the waters would not overcome, about Christ being the rock we cling to in these times…
it’s really a question of theodicy and God’s soverign power. Is God behind natural disasters, or not? Can God stop them? And if God can and doesn’t, what does it mean? I reside much more in the mysteriousness of God’s power and the reminder of God’s promises… whereas, my congregation holds fast to God’s power over all and unending desire to get us to obey… so we come out in different places. I’m gently urging them not to consider another person’s disaster as an intentional means of God speaking to the world… especially when so much life has been destroyed – to me, that seems so counter to the God I know and love and follow. But I still struggle.