Emmanuel Church, Bungay, Suffolk

The Minister's Sermons

"In the Aftermath of the Tsunami" by Revd Bruce Waldron - 2nd January 2005 Job 27:1-6 & Romans 8:28-39
I have been absolutely staggered by the generosity of people in their giving for the earthquake and tsunami appeals. The response from Britain, both from government and from the people has been terrific, and I have no doubt it will continue for a long time. Today, in the Emmaus Room there are two bowls. One is for donations to the Earthquake appeal through the Methodist Church Relief and Development Fund. On the 27th I received an email, a precis of which is printed in your Service Sheet. Further to this were added this information ...
Kevin Fray, MRDF Supporter Relations Co-ordinator , said "many of us were shocked to see the scenes of destruction after the earthquake and waves struck across a wide part of the Asia Pacific region. MRDF will send the funds raised to the local relief agencies who need it most. We will as usual work closely with Action by Churches Together (ACT) to ensure that donations go quickly and effectively to those who are suffering."
MRDF partner Action by Churches Together (ACT) has already started aiding efforts by ecumenical church groups to provide food, shelter and medical supplies to the affected areas. In Sri Lanka, where more than 5,800 people are said to have died, the National Council of Churches in Sri Lanka (NCCSL) reports that two truckloads of essential food items and water will leave today for Muttur in Trincomalee and the other to Thirukovil in Batticaloa, two of the worst hit areas.
In India, ACT member Church's Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA) reports that 12 teams have been deployed, both assisting and assessing needs of people in the coastal areas. Four strategic operational points are being set up: two in Tamil Nadu at Trichy and Drinamvenny, one in Andhra Pradesh, and another one in Kerala to assist some 50,000 families. The official death toll in India so far is more than 4,000 people. CASA however reports that the churches in the coastal regions are reporting more deaths as news trickles in from smaller and more remote villages and areas.
In Indonesia , where more than 4,400 people are believed to have died, ACT members Yayasan Tanggul Benkana (YTB), Yakkum Emergency Unit/CD Bethesda (YEU) and Church World Service (CWS) are co-ordinating their response to the emergency. CWS will conduct a rapid assessment mission to Aceh this week, working with a team from YEU. YTB reports that figures received from Aceh province puts those displaced at some 150,000 people. YEU will also be sending an assessment team to North Sumatra.
The figures are now five to ten times higher than were thought at the time of this email.
The other bowl is for an appeal begun by Father Edward from St Edmunds. The family who run the SPAR store are from Sri Lanka and their village has been destroyed by the tsunami. The Catholic Church have opened an account to bring direct help to that village. After the service today you may like to make a donation to either the wider fund administered through the Methodist Church or to the St Edmund fund which will be devoted to helping in a more locally relevant manner. Of course, many of you will be making donations through other means and I don't think God will be jealous if you don't use the churches' systems.
On the Saturday 5th February we are going to hold a Variety Charity Concert here and there is a meeting at my home tomorrow evening to set that event in motion. I expect many people will come to that concert to support the cause. Details will be in next weeks service sheet and in the local newspapers. I am deeply impressed and I think we have cause to be thoroughly heartened by the generosity of the British people in this extraordinary time.
I chose the reading from Job for this morning because it is a story about a man who has his whole life collapse around him. It is a story that begins with the question, where will Job's faith be if all his resources are stripped away. How real is his faith in the face of utter misfortune. The rest of the book describes how some people expect Job to respond and how he handles his grief and other people's simplistic and pious solutions. It seemed a relevant text for us, as we come to renewing our Covenant with God in the face of the horrific events of last week.
Whenever a disaster happens, people want to know why. To know why gives us the illusion that we have some power over circumstances that have confronted us with our vulnerability. We like to feel we are not vulnerable and sometimes try to find religious ways of avoiding something that is a part of our existence. When disaster struck Job, there were a number of people who gave Job their pet theories as to why the disaster happened. Each of them wanted to say that God had done it to Job for some reason that had to do with Job's sinfulness.
I am always a little nonplussed that insurance companies tend to label any natural disaster an Act of God. I am inclined more to the belief that the book of Job portrays, natural disasters are a part of our humanity.
We must continue to remember that we live on a volatile planet, made up of tectonic plates floating on a molten core. Tsunamis, sunspots, volcanoes, earthquakes, storms and fires are a natural part of this planet's life, and they simply have to happen. We humans are creatures that inhabit the planet and we also have to live with its volatility. We also have to live with the reality that because there are three times as many of us as there have ever been before, we have tended to inhabit unsafe areas in huge numbers. Natural disasters will affect many more people than ever before, because there are many more people on each square mile of land than ever before, and we are inhabiting land that once was thought to be marginal, too dangerous and unstable to inhabit.
Where is God in all of this and what does our faith mean.
Faith exists in the midst of our reality. We are vulnerable and faith doesn't serve as a means of evading that reality. We can be hurt by many things. Sometimes that which injures us comes from circumstances that are external. Sometimes we cause the circumstances that result in disasters and most events have their genesis somewhere along the continuum between those two points. Nearly always, we have considerable control over how we respond and how events affect us.
Something of that response and effect is seen in the way this nation is gathering in support. Our faith calls us to follow that path with some vigour and commitment. If our giving is to be Christian, it needs to be sacrificial and it needs to be between us and God.
Job's friends wanted to tell him that if bad things had happened it must be because he had been sinful and offended God in some way. Job searches his heart, his history, his faith and he concludes that this answer just doesn't make sense. Even though his visitors put a lot of pressure on him, Job holds onto his reality. Their answers make no sense. Bad things do happen to good people. And in the reality of his grief and sorrow, Job knows that it is not about finding a reason in some speculation about the mind of God. Despite the pressure from his visitors, he won't subscribe to that illogical theology that argues disaster is always caused by God's displeasure.
He proclaims defiantly "as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils my lips will not speak falsehood and my tongue will not utter deceit. Until I die, I will not put away my integrity from me." In the end of the story, it is this that rescues Job, that holds him together until things change for the better. And in the end, the cause of pain and suffering remains a mystery. But how Job lives and how he responds in faith, that is what makes Job a symbol of faith for us.
The apostle Paul takes the discussion a step further. He asserts in striking rhetoric that it is in the midst of disaster that we know God is with us, and this is the source of our strength and our hope. Paul defies the theology that grinds the victim down by saying "it must be your fault. God has deserted you." Paul points to the Christ of the cross, and reminds us that it is in the midst of suffering where God is most evidently present. When tragedy strikes, it does not mean that God has deserted his people. God is there in the suffering and the pain and calls his people to be there too.
Our faith does not prevent disasters. It guides us in how we live and deal with our vulnerability and our humanity, and advises us in how we co-exist with a whole network of creation that is also vulnerable. Our Christian faith gives us identity, hope and direction in the midst of that vulnerability, and it guides our responses and our initiatives.
The tsunami was not an act of God. It was a result of the processes of the earth's existence and human vulnerability, and such things must happen from time to time. But how we perceive suffering and how we respond may be an act of God, and we have God given power here and now, in our response. That is up to us, and depends upon whether we are listening to the voice of God and to the imperatives of our faith. May God enable us to respond effectively with all the physical and faith resources God has given us.