Faith and Natural Disaster
Several years ago I wrote a short article for pastors on how to preach after a natural disaster – on that occasion it was the earthquake in Haiti – that came to mind after hearing the news of the devastation wrought in the Philippines by the typhoon that has just passed through there. It struck me that several elements of that piece might be more widely applicable, and so I’ve adapted it for this post.
I think it’s important to stress that in the face of tragedy we are invited as Christians to be honest; this in at least two ways. First, the human tragedy and wreckage that natural disasters leave in their wake never fail to stun us. Never mind the grim images we’ve seen at other times of suffering and pain, the current pictures and stories seeping out of Philippines — in part because we never get used to such images and in part because we know they reflect the experience of persons right now — are simply overwhelming. They also raise profound and at times heart-wrenching questions: How could this have happened? Why didn’t God do anything? Where is God amid such pain and suffering?
I think it’s important that we be honest about these questions and the range of emotions they convey. Doubt, even anger, is an understandable response and denying such emotions – or, worse, quashing them by calling them unfaithful – is fair neither to ourselves or to the biblical witness. Lament is a significant category in Scripture and there is nothing wrong with adding ours to the catalogue already contained in there.
Second, in addition to being honest about our emotional reactions to the events playing out before us in the Philippines, it’s also important to be honest about our limitations. We will not be able to answer many of the questions we voice. On such matters, we see through a mirror dimly and are best admitting our limitations. If the past is any indicator of future behavior, undoubtedly some Christian leaders will seek to stem the unsettling tide of questions by confidently tracing God’s causal activity, attributing the calamity to God’s desire to warn, test, or punish. Such attempts, quite frankly, are unhelpful at best and often do great damage. More importantly, such attempts to see the hand of God causing human suffering do not tell the truth about the God we know in Jesus Christ. The simple if manifestly unsatisfactory answer to many of our questions is that we do not know, and in making this admission we take our stand with faithful believers from prophet to psalmist and from Job to Paul.
Further, I don’t think that we offer lament primarily to get answers in the first place, but rather to be joined to others and to God through our lament. Note that in Job the ones who have all the answers – Job’s friends – are the ones who get it wrong. Even when God appears in the whirlwind, it is not so much to give Job an answer as to honor his questions and restore relationship with him. We should not believe that we are somehow unfaithful if we fail to find answers to questions that cannot, this side of the eschaton, be resolved.
But not having all the answer is not the same as being helpful. There are thing we can do here and now. Here are three suggestions:
First, we can refuse to look for God behind tragedy – causing mayhem and havoc out of a perverse desire to punish – and instead seek God’s presence amid tragedy. One of the constant affirmations of Scripture is that God suffers with us and for us. This is nowhere more clear than in the cross of Jesus, where God was joined to the fullest human experience of loss — suffering an unjust and cruel death — out of love for us. God is present: not causing chaos but entering into it, not sending calamity by suffering through it, not standing over us but holding tightly onto us and promising never to let go. Wherever there is human tragedy and pain, the incarnate and crucified God is there.
Second, God does not only suffer with us, but also works through us. Paul’s assertion that we are the body of Christ is, when you think about it, a bold and profound statement of faith. To confess that we who are broken, limited, and sinful are those persons and people through whom Christ is active in the world is incredibly empowering, as God simultaneously sanctifies, commissions, and sends us into the world to bear and to be Christ’s healing and helping presence. Even in the face of a calamity this immense, we are not helpless. We can donate to trustworthy and effective agencies like the Lutheran World Relief and the Red Cross. We can, as the time becomes right, travel to the Philippines to assist with relief work. We can, as the needs there are clarified, participate in clothing or food drives. Today and in the weeks and months to come, we can assist in multiple ways with the restoration and rebuilding of the communities affected by this typhoon. We are the body of Christ and agents of God’s redemptive and restoring love in the world.
Third, in addition to making donations to relief agencies, we can pray – right now – for the people suffering in the Philippines, for the government and relief agencies that are struggling to help them, for all those throughout the world who can offer their support in the days and weeks and months to come. We can pray also for God’s presence with those who suffering, providing them some measure of comfort, hope, and courage amid what must be incredibly dark days. Never underestimate the power of prayer, for the God we know in Jesus Christ is always on the side of the afflicted. And that is most certainly true this day.
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