Last week, before I began putting together this sermon series, I found myself wondering why God had put this subject so heavily on my heart. Even as I delivered the first part last Sunday, I still wasn’t sure why. Then early this week, as the huge disaster called Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast of this country and the incredible amount of suffering associated with this catastrophic event was made known, the answer to my question was made abundantly clear.
What a week this has been. The television images from Louisiana and Mississippi have been forever burned into my brain. 90,000 square miles of complete devastation, people suffering unimaginable misery, total communities utterly destroyed, images that look more like they are from some third world country instead of our own United States. Pictures of human grief and despair like I have never seen before have impacted and changed life in all areas of this country. And the questions are asked, as they always are in times such as these:
Since God is a loving God, how do we account for the suffering caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes or hurricanes like Katrina? The Bible doesn’t spell out why any particular natural disaster happens, but we do find in the Book of Job that God does occasionally allow Satan to bring that type of evil to bear upon human beings.
Recently, scientists have determined that some natural disasters actually play an important beneficial role in the order of the Earth’s ecosystem. For example, lightning which accompanies bad storms and accidentally strikes and kills human beings, also creates a valuable fertilizer that humans cannot produce efficiently. This fertilizer helps support the rainforests, which produce a large portion of our oxygen. Earthquakes and volcanoes both allow minerals vital to plant growth to come to the Earth’s surface in order to replenish those minerals that have been depleted.
But in spite of any benefits that they may have, we humans mostly regard natural disasters as causes of destruction, pain, suffering and death. Indeed, that is the case with Hurricane Katrina, and rightly so.
Why did this happen? I cannot answer. But I wonder if a better question would be, “Why doesn’t God allow major disasters like this to happen more often than He does?” We turn our backs on Him, we thumb our noses at His very being, we violate His teachings and commands at every turn, and then we wonder why He allows occasional disasters to happen. One thing is for sure. By allowing occasional disasters like this to take place, God makes us think about and reckon with His existence.
Given the rampant homosexuality, profuse gambling and free-for-all Mardi Gras lifestyle of New Orleans as a whole, one could make that case for the city itself. But we must not jump to that conclusion about every individual person involved. Jesus tells us about this in Luke 13:4-5. In those passages Jesus describes a tower that fell on and killed 18 people (apparently not believers). He tells us to understand that those people did not die because they were more sinful than anyone else, and also that all of us will perish as those people did if we do not turn to God the Father, through God the Son.
For those of us who are His followers, Jesus tells us to have the faith to trust Him when disaster strikes. We need to reach out beyond this world to God for understanding, knowing full well that we are told in Isaiah 55:8-9 that in this world there are some things we will never be able to comprehend fully, even if God explained them to us. Ultimately, we must choose to build our faith and trust completely in God’s ultimate control and plan even though we may not be able to understand His purposes right now.
As this past week moved on, we not only saw the desperation, pain, suffering and death of the people involved directly with this disaster, we also have seen the mighty works of God displayed in the testimonies of people who were miraculously saved from destruction in the storm and flooding. We have also seen God’s love displayed by people from across this country who have given their money, their resources, their time and their lives in order to bring relief to those poor souls who are in a seemingly impossible situation.
Through all of this, we must do what we can to help. We must pray for those who have been adversely affected by this catastrophe, for those who survived the storm but may now be wishing they had not, for those who have lost loved ones, for those who perished in the floodwaters, and for all of those involved in the relief process right now and for years to come.
In the end, we must keep in mind that God knows what is best for each of us as individuals, for all people around us and for humanity as a whole. Amen.