On Moore College mission last year we were promised a 'door-knocking experience like no other - a positive one'. That's because we were only going back to visit houses that had been previously approached and had shown anything other than antagonism. In the end it wasn't quite as great as promised, but still better than most times. For me the best door-knocking I've done was on beach mission at Brooms Head. I had a visiting run of houses rather than tents, but still people were on holidays and relaxed, willing to talk. Often they were not in their regular homes or were renting so it felt less like we were intruding. Plus a lot of the time few people were home because they were down at the beach, so it ended up being a bit of a break from the hectic mission program.
Part of the art of door-knocking is intentional small talk. You need an 'in'. One of the strange things about Christmas time is that every other year there seemed to be a natural disaster. My first year on mission the national park around the town was littered with bushfires. My second year, we began mission the day after the Boxing Day Tsunami. It felt like a million miles away from sunny, quiet Brooms Head, but everyone was talking about it. So that was our 'in'.
'Have you been hearing about the tsunami? Crazy, isn't it?'
Most beach houses are white. There was this one house on our run which was a bit different to most of the white houses at Brooms Head because it was Greek influenced. The owner was a Christian man and woman who were always ready with a glass of water to refresh my mate Mike and I on our journey. Our brother in Christ in the Greek style beach house had an interesting response to the tsunami. He said, 'A lot of people are blaming God, but this isn't God's doing.'
So whose doing is it?
So whose doing is it?
One of the flow-on effects though is that this makes many churches in my circles less likely to directly address significant events that are occurring in our world, as they occur. So whilst we might pray for what we see in the news privately, and those leading prayer corporately will do the same, these events rarely are addressed through biblical reflection. Sure, our prayers are informed by our understanding of the events from God's point of view, but not in the same way that prayerful reflection of the Bible will do. Being too structured in our systematic working through scripture can prevent an adequate response when big events are happening.
Maybe it's a product of our time. What few old sermons I have read often do address quite directly specific issues of their time. But the great depression or a world war or two will probably do that to you. Now our wars are fought without conscription and more by air than land, so we keep relatively detached from them. If someone addresses Iraq in a sermon, they're more thought to be promulgating a particular political position than a theological one. Natural disasters likewise raise our concerns and our prayers, our financial support, but unless personally involved are unlikely to dramatically alter our world view, or our view of God.
Floods are covering the news. Except for in WA, where to highlight the land of extremes in which we live, there are bushfires. But Queensland is flooded. The sad death of a number of individuals has finally taken the media's focus off the purely financial implications of the event. My home town of Maclean in Northern NSW is bracing for floods as well, though the levee there should hold. So what should we say? Of course, we'll pray. Many of us will donate money. But how are our views to be shaped of these events in a way which reflects our relationship to the creator?
Perhaps this isn't the week to change your passage to Genesis 6-9. That would be tacky. But without a doubt whenever a so-called 'natural' disaster occurs, or 'mother nature' strikes, the view of most people, even most Christians like the man in the white Greek beach house, is shaped more by a view of chance than of a sovereign God.
If you are talking to friends who are blaming God, or wondering how Christians respond to such events, then in these instances my mind goes first to Luke 13:1-9. Don't go to Noah, go straight to Jesus. These words of Jesus don't provide all the answers. There are no simple answers. But Jesus' words do provide a framework for how to approach these disasters. Jesus is the one who gives certainty amidst uncertainty, the one who reminds us that repentance provides security, and the one who died and rose again that we might dwell with God for eternity.
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