Act of God
When I was a youth, I remember stumbling upon the phrase “act of god.” I believe it was in lower case and I think it was in some document, insurance papers or a newspaper story I had read, I don’t remember which. But what I do remember was that it caused me to think. I asked my Dad what it meant and he gave me the common understanding of the phrase. It has little or nothing to do with ascribing the random acts of nature to a god, or to God. Essentially it is a way of describing and event that has no direct human cause. It comes in handy if you are in the insurance business as it gives you and escape clause for what seems to be the random events of life that no actuary could ever calculate. Here is a little Wiki blurb if your interested.
This came to mind as I was preparing to teach my confirmation class. We are going through the Bible this year and we are now covering the period of the Kings and Prophets. In the preparation materials I came across this statement. “In a prescientific era, every turn of fate, every natural event, was seen as coming from God’s hand and intention. This is not how we interpret our world. We know about the moral indifference of natural disaster, for example. It is not divine punishment for the sins of the people. We understand that history unfolds as a collision of circumstance and human power.” So God is not responsible for “acts of god?”
Ok, I understand the broader implication here, and don’t entirely disagree, but something sticks in my craw. Back in my seminary
days, pre-pastor hood, we had long lingering conversations about listening for the small still voice of God. We would sit around in class or the caf with a cup of coffee and ponder how God is at work in so many ways so many small ways in peoples lives often in hushed tones of awe. We talked about how God is a creating God who is still at work in our world everyday, but often the emphasis would be on the individual, the small the personal.
Now I don’t disagree with any of what I have just written.
But I don’t wonder if we haven’t sold God short on things.
From our modern theological understandings God can and still does miracles, God and still “does.” But big scale things, things that happen that upset our sensationalists, well those, those we can not jibe with Jesus supposedly and thus they come under the “act of god” clause. But the very base of the Christian faith stands firmly on a a pretty big event, something that flies in the face of any possible insurance policy, and that would be the resurrection. That is an act of God and God wants us to know that it was His doing.
In our modern world is it so very hard to understand that God is still at work on the small and personal scale as well as on the epic scale of all creation. We might not always see why things happen, we may call things that occur great tragedies and those things happen everyday, is it so hard to understand that in the midst of all this God who is the Alpha and Omega the beginning and end of all things, maybe active to achieve His will which very well maybe beyond our scope of understanding?
When it comes to the stories of the Old Testament that can seem so punitive and manipulative from our vantage point is it so hard to see through the eyes of Christ that God really does know what God is doing? Later these same confirmation materials state: “Yet the confession of these stories is that God is deeply invested in God’s people. What happens in our national life together, how we manage our relationships with each other, both personal and civic, makes a difference to God. We are called to faithfulness, to focus our perspective, energy, and time on God’s will and way.”
I have no beef with that statement, but I think it draws God up short. God is not only invested in God’s people, but all of creation is His and there we have to trust in his promises to us, for us. We may not have any control over “acts of god” but we do have the promise that in the midst of life’s storms, and tragedies we have a Savoir.
My last thought is if we are going to stick God with all the bad stuff are we equally willing to give God credit for all the wonderful unexplained things that happen too?
Subtle
Quick, what is black and white and read (ahem) all over?
I know, I know, it is a newspaper… but when I was young all I could hear was red, not read. So I never really got the joke until I was much older… too old… I am not going to tell you when the light bulb finally went off!
Ok, so maybe I am not the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but as I read my devotions today, a thought dawned on me. When we pray “save us from the time of trial” might we not be asking not for total absence of trials, which made sense to me, but rather when we are enduring these trials that we would be saved?
Like I said, maybe everyone views it this way. But I guess it just really dawned on me today.
Yes I suppose it would be nice to be saved from having a trial in the first place… but trials do come don’t they? In our book of faith 40 day Lenten Journey devotions, the author talked about when the first disciples read this they were thinking apocalyptic (I spelled that right first time out! woot!) … end of the world kind of thoughts… they were pretty sure after Jesus rose from the dead, God was done and was soon to send in the mop up crew. These were the trials the first disciples wanted to be saved from, and who can blame them.
hehehehe
To this day we hear rumors of wars and experience earth quakes and other great signs and terrible portents and we get spooked! People have been going on about the end times since… well, since I think shortly after the beginning of time. Our current culture wants to be saved as well, how else can you explain the whole Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins publishing juggernaut?
Honestly I side with Martin Luther on this one (surprise!) who when asked what he would do if he knew that the world was going to end tomorrow. In response he said something like “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” In other words he would keep on living has he had been living. Such was his faith in the Lord who taught us to pray “save us from the time of trial.”
It has more or less been my understanding for some time. When I was a kid the threat of an atomic Holocaust was much discussed and fretted about. After a time, I came to the realization, that you can not live in fear. That when the Lord comes, we will be saved from that time of trial. Oh we my undergo trials, but we will not be found wanting. When we see the trials that the world is under we are called as the children of God to go out into those places and save those who are under trial. We do this because our salvation is sure in Christ, the one who has undergone all trials and has not be found wanting. In Jesus we have one who has been tested as we are and yet has not found the testing more that God’s love can handle.
We are tested there are no two ways about it but as I talked about at the start of this entry. We can pray in sure and certain confidence that we will be saved from the time of trial, in Christ. And when we understand that in faith we are saved from sin, death and the devil and living in Jesus’ love and forgiveness each day, we are enabled as the body of Christ to save others in their time of trial! Whoa!
A loaf of bread, a hunk of cheese a can of lemonade and thou…
Perhaps one of the most memorable meals I have ever eaten, was not so much of a meal as it was all we could scrounge up at the time. Kristi and I had just flown into London and taken the train into town to try and find our hotel. It was a long trip, and I was wedged between the bulkhead behind me and a lady who insisted on reclining her seat. On the best of flights things are tight, but by the time we got to London, I had the two semi-permanent divots in my knee caps from the little metal bars on the seat back in front of me. Anyway… once we landed we were ready to begin our adventure. So, with luggage in tow… we wondered out of the train station and on to the streets of the first foreign country we had ever been in. Fine, I know its England and they speak English, more or less, but still!
Anyway we were trying to get our bearings and after wondering around a bit, we were still lost, but we or at least I discovered I was very hungry! So 
we found a little shop just off the Thames, bought what we thought we could afford for dinner, it amounted to a Baguette, a hunk of cheese and a big can of a lemonade-y type drink. We walked back up to the river and ate and looked and soaked it all in.
Glamorous? Not really, it was London, not Paris! Memorable? Absolutely! Would I have remembered this if I was all by myself, well maybe, but what made it really memorable was that I was with my wife!
As we looked at daily bread in our book of faith devotions today it brought up the fellowship aspect of our daily bread. It talked about all those people Jesus ate with, and the somewhat interesting fact that most of the people Jesus ate with were not, how shall I say this, hmmm… well they were people your mother would most likely frown upon you hanging out with.
Yet, these were the very people the Gospels tell us over and over again that Jesus actually invited and accepted invitations from, to share meals. There is a whole ton of cultural stuff that “breaking bread” brings with it in Jesus day and ours, and I am not going into it here. But suffice it to say many of the memories about what Jesus taught and where he taught it, revolved around food. Then there are all the comparisons between heaven and the most outrageous all you can eat buffet that you have ever seen! The best part is that everyone is invited.
With that in mind, think about the most memorable meals you have ever had. Who was there, what made them memorable. Have you had a memorable meal because someone was there that you would rather not have eaten with? How does it make you feel that person has an invitation to the heavenly banquet just like you?
Ok, more questions than anything else today, but it is Friday, my lap top is giving me fits, but the question mark key still works well! Blessings!
Built-in Time Machines
We all have things that evoke strong memories. Sights, smells, songs… other words that begin with s… um… well you get the point, we all have triggers that act as time travel devices. Once you experience one of these triggers you are instantly transported back in time.
For me one of those triggers is this picture. No matter where we lived for years this picture hung next to our dining room table. I cannot see this picture and not remember meals shared and time spent with my family.
The official name of this picture is “Grace” as in saying grace, before your meal. But it has another name as well, and it is “Daily Bread.” The themes of thanksgiving and daily bread are tightly interwoven and right fully so, but daily bread means more than just being thankful.
Our book of faith – 40 day Lenten devotions today say that as we pray “give us this day our daily bread” it begs the question, about “our” bread. We do not ask for my bread, but that our daily bread would be 
granted. So what does the our mean for you.
Frankly I think our devotions over play the justice side of this a bit. That doesn’t mean I don’t see injustices in how daily bread is handled they do exist. But when they equate this justice matter to a sacramental level by comparing it to Holy Communion, I am troubled. These lines from the devotions got me thinking: “Everyone regardless of his or her station of life, gets the same small piece of bread, the same small cup of wine. The “haves” do not get the whole loaf while the “have-nots” get the crumbs, as so often happens in the world outside the church.”
Um…I don’t get the cup nor the bread at many houses of worship. God’s justice is bigger than our human understanding of this sacrament, this wonderful gift.
You can argue that our Lord’s intent is that everyone of his baptized children should receive communion, and I believe that to be true, but it doesn’t work that way.
So in comparing the justice of “daily bread” to how humans actually handle this gift from God, may not work so well. I don’t have a complete answer to this… it is a struggle.
But in all these things I trust that God does in fact supply my daily bread, your daily bread, and daily bread for all of creation. I guess my simple prayer is that I might not get in the way of God doing what God does out of Love for all he has made, and if I am lucky, I just might get to be a part of providing others their daily bread.
Buzzie and flaps are talk’n theology.
Conflict of Interest
One of the great perks of being a parent is that you get to watch children’s’ movies, with no social judgment. Not only do you get to watch the current ones, you get to re-watch the ones you might have seen when you were a kid. I know I watched “The Jungle Book” when I was a kid, most likely on “The Wonderful World of Disney” as I have no idea where the closest movie theater might have been. Anyway… I don’t remember it being particularly funny as a kid, but there are lines in that movie that as an adult, I find a riot! One of those lines is a dialog between the buzzards as they hang out on branch. It
goes like this:
Buzzie: Hey, Flaps, So what are we gonna do?
Flaps: I dunno. What’cha wanna do?
And on and on it goes… It is perhaps only funny, because; as an adult I can’t think of the times when there wasn’t anything on our schedule and my wife has turned and said to me “So David, what’cha wanna do? And I say I dunno. What’cha wanna do? And on and on it would go!
Today we continued the look at the “your will be done” phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. I have found often that it isn’t that we don’t know what God’s will is, it is just usually, we have other ideas. These ideas are not on the surface evil, or even bad, but they are not always God’s will. I mean, how many times have you turned to God in prayer and said, “What’cha wanna do?” Well…
Technically every time we say the Lord’s Prayer that is what we are doing, but do we really mean the words we are saying? Our devotions say we should take a look at Paul’s words in Philippians 2:4-7.
Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was* in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.
If God’s will is that we empty ourselves and serve others, to have the same mind as Christ Jesus we may hit re-dial and ask “um… are you sure that’s what you want us to do?” In this world of “look out for Number 1,” and “you deserve a break today,” we are called to care for the other. Every Christian, from the smallest to the tallest, pastors, plumbers, homemakers, the whole lot of us are all in this together.
It seems like a pretty big conflict of interest. Our will vs. God’s will. God’s will seems to be a pretty big challenge, it can seem so much easier to go with our own will and hope that God doesn’t mind too much. But Jesus doesn’t teach us to pray “your will be done, if it isn’t too much of a bother for me.”
The good news is that six verses later Paul writes “It is God, who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure”
Wow! God is at work in us! That is news we all need to hear. We are not doing this on our own, it is not just a human thing, it is a God thing, and that is why we can pray with confidence “your will be done.”
Can’t get it out of my head
We went to the Choraliers Home Show yesterday; they are a show choir and managed to squish CATS into a 25 minute show. They did a really good job, but the whole event was over three hours long because the Junior High show choir performed and they had “features” in which the kids did their solo and ensemble pieces. Thus the length of show, which for me is a long haul on a Sunday afternoon! One of the songs, is one of my least favorite of all time… “Send in the Clowns.” I just can’t stomach the song. Well, as it would happen, my dear wife couldn’t get that song out of her head today… it nearly drove both of us nuts!
I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t had that happen. A song, one you like or if you are unlucky, one you are not overly fond of, sticks in your head and you just can’t shake it! Why this happens is a mystery, but it is usually a song you heard quite often. I have a number of songs like this.
One song that gets stuck in my head from time to time was one that was in heavy rotation back when I was a kid in Sunday School. “The will know we are Christians by our love.” Today in our devotions it talks about walking humbly with God, “then God’s will must be that those of us who are doing just that help others get to the same place.” We call this evangelism. But for many evangelism has gotten a bad rap.
There is a phrase that goes “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.” Back when I was in High School, there was a kid in choir that had a tee-shirt that said “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t hunt id down and kill it.” Ok, maybe it is kind of sad, but I thought it was funny at the time and still do a little because it just shows us how upside down we have it. Evangelism isn’t about dragging someone to God’s saving love kicking and screaming, it is about bring them good news for that is what the word evangelism really means. Evangelism isn’t coercion, it isn’t about power or authority, it is basically “one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
One quote I also love that speaks to this loving spreading of the good news is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi who said “Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words.” Walking humbly with God does not mean we are to be bull horns for Christ, we are to show God’s love in our daily love for the other. Our devotions quoted Mother Theresa saying we are all “a little pencil in the hands of God who is sending a love letter to the world.” When you are loved, you want to let others know about it don’t you? You almost can’t help but tell those people closest to you what this means to you. When we pray “your will be done” we are asking for the strength, faith and courage to live God’s will and to invite others into this incredible relationship.
Humble Hotdishes
I smell of cheese and sausage. I have washed my hands but the smell just won’t go away! You see I just got done slicing 3 metric tons of cheese and one honking enormous summer sausage for part of our volunteer appreciation celebration tomorrow at St. John. I have lived in Wisconsin for well over half my life, but I still don’t think I could eat cheese and sausage at 9:15 in the morning unless eggs and toast were also involved.
Today the book of faith devotions talked about the walking humbly with God part of Micah 6:8. Perhaps there are no better examples of those who walk humbly with God than those we celebrate tomorrow. Ok the term volunteer and church don’t always work for me. Yes I know people volunteer their time, but the work done is ministry. Walking humbly with God is making yourself available to do God’s will. That could be setting up bars and coffee for fellowship time between services, making a hotdish
THE Tater Tot Hotdish, the gold standard of hotdishes
(that is a casserole for those of you non-Midwestern Lutheran types) for a family who is in crisis, folding newsletters so that they might go in the mail, ushering, singing in the choir, setting up tables and chairs for a potluck (an event where hotdishes are served) and nearly anything that brings the kingdom into this world.
I don’t know anyone who slices cheese and sets out the salads for a funeral luncheon who does it in hopes that someday Martha Stewart will show up and discover them so they can have their how HGTV show or whatever. Walking humbly in my view has to do with doing tasks large or small not out of any hope for heavenly brownie points, but simply standing humbly at the foot of the cross, and gazing at God’s ultimate gift to us, it is the least we can do. Walking humbly means constantly turning away from ourselves and returning our gaze to God. I think it is interesting how many times returning to God involves reaching out in love to others. It is doing things that normally you wouldn’t do on a bet, and doing them for the sake of others. The funny thing about humility is that you never really know when you are doing it. It just flows from you. The second you stop to think “am I being humble,” anything resembling true humility vanishes. Humility comes from walking with our eyes fixed on God and his will for us, trusting that God in his love will guide us and provide for us… but now I am getting ahead of myself…
Blessings and thanks for journeying with me this lent. I would love to hear if you have any comments, corrections or questions. I hope on some level to make this less about me pontificating and more about a conversation of faith, and life as we all become what we already are in Jesus Christ.
Spiderman and the will of God
I have been slaving away on my sermon for this weekend. Ok, slaving away is an exaggeration, as my daughter said; “and watching Spiderman 3 helped you write your sermon?” The kid has learned well from her parents 
Our devotions today continued to focus on the will of God particularly focused on the loving kindness part. It seems so simple, but I was reminded after watching Spiderman 3 (gotcha!) how often can we look into the face of ugliness of the world; hate, fear, violence, revenge, hunger, injustice, and pain and not curl in on ourselves in self protection? Loving kindness demands vulnerability, it calls for us to step out into this world to do God’s will not necessarily our will. We do ask in this prayer that God’s will becomes ours even as he strengthens us by his life giving spirit each day.
In doing my prep work for the sermon I came upon this next piece. It didn’t really fit the particular direction I was going but it is too good not to use someplace. It was attributed to a Dr. Ted Loder, from his book, GUERRILLAS OF GRACE. I hope it blesses you.
My will be… er…ummm…
Not gobs of time for reflection today. Like so many days, I start off with many goals, dreams and ambitions. I make plans, lay out ways to achieve these things and at the end of the day I pour myself into bed with nary a check mark next to my haughty plans and wonder what happened to the day.
Oh, I am not perfect when it comes to single minded pursuit of my goals. I get distracted way to easily. But often what distracts isn’t the unnecessary flotsam and jetsam of life, it is something more. It just might be the will of God breaking into my life. But there are days when that doesn’t seem very fair.
I have a friend Mike who helps keep me centered even if he is Norwegian too! One of Mikes favorite things to say is; “want to make God laugh?? Tell him your plans.” There is much truth to this, but it is also true about our “wish lists.” Our devotions today focused on the passage from Micah 6:8 we talked about yesterday. Today they looked at the justice thing a bunch. Part of doing God’s will is doing justice, and part of justice is that everyone would have enough, for in fact God has provided enough.
But even in the midst of our economic struggles, we still suffer from “Affluenza.” My will is for more stuff, good stuff, stuff I like, and short of that stuff in general will do as long as I have more than the next guy. A thought that comes to mind in this area of justice is that we often equate justice with well… equality, sameness, uniformity and fairness. But this isn’t always the case.
Ok for instance, it would perhaps be fair that everyone get the same clothes so that no one would be without. Sounds just doesn’t it? Sounds fair. But take me and my associate pastor. I am 6’6″ she on a good day is at the 5′ mark. We could both own the same alb to wear for leading worship. However, if it was made to fit her, it wouldn’t work so well for me, or if it was one size fits all we would both look silly. (its late and it has been a long day so forgive me) Justice is not always about equality. It is about getting enough. Sometimes that means that others may get more than I have because they “need” it. I may want it, but it doesn’t mean I “need” it.
Ok, back to the will thing. Gods will is that we have enough, not more than, and not the same. But enough. So how do you know when enough is enough, and it isn’t too much… Uggg… exceptions and problems are popping up all over with this … maybe I need to get back to praying! Your will be done… ok, Lord please let me see and be a part of that will unfolding into this world each day for Jesus sake.
Humbly-mumbly
Ahhhh… peace and quiet. I love Wednesdays in Lent. Oh sure you say “because of mid-week worship, or is it the soup, bread and pie you had for supper?” Ok, fine, those things are a part of it, but what I love most is now… after all that. In the still quiet of the evening, I am alone in my house. The kids are at youth group, my wife is at choir and it is just me and the cats and right now they are not being demanding, it is lovely.
I didn’t get to the devotions earlier in the day; they had to keep until now. But it was worth it. I sat and read, undistracted, and unhurried in absolute quiet. Listening to what Micah 6:8 was whispering in my ear. Oh, I love this passage, have for years, I have read it over and over again. I have used it for devotions, sermons and to try and focus junior high kids on what it means to walk, live and breathe the Christian life.
It all sounds so simple, “God has told you, O mortal, what is good: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Easy, right? It is all laid right out there, no complicated directions, and no long list of rules just do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God. Piece of cake I can do that! Oh…humbly, humbly now… oh, that’s right… humbly…
How often do we get in the way of doing justice, or if not outright obstructing justice, just plain old not stepping out and doing it?
How often do we get in the way of loving kindness? I mean who has a problem with being kind, well except of course to those people who don’t deserve kindness, surely God can’t be talking about them?
How often do we, when we actually get around to doing justice and loving kindness, creep ever so slowly into the “look at me” mode of existence?
Our devotions ask, what if everyone who is a Christian and who prays the Lord ‘s Prayer and says the words “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” actually did the will of God in doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. In fact it states these points should shape our every action as a congregation, church and individuals.
I can’t argue with that, but I do know people, well, at least a little bit. I know that what I consider to be justice isn’t always what God would consider justice, what I consider to be kindness, is not always the kindness that God expects. Then there is that whole issue of remaining humble, I am not going there!
The brokenness of sin raises its ugly head once again, and I have a choice to make, I can either be crushed by the overwhelming demands that these three little statements place upon me, or I can lift up my eyes to the cross of Christ, and dust off the self pity and self centeredness and trust that I and all who are baptized are all becoming what we already are in Jesus Christ. I think that each day I need to “lift my eyes to the hills” and with the cross in full view ask God to guide me as I see to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with him as I seek to God’s will each step of each day.
There… got that done, no one is home yet and I am going to sit here in the silence for a while and just soak it up!
