A PSALM IN A TIME OF EARTHQUAKES

I have preached following earthquakes and natural disasters and have often turned to the 46th Psalm. It speaks assurance that is comforting even though disturbing.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” It’s the kind of thing people want to hear even though they don’t know whether to believe it.

“Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change, though the       mountains shake in the heart of the sea…”

Commentaries don’t see this psalm as talking about natural disasters, but national and political disaster.

But commentaries don’t often stop preachers from riding great words and metaphors, especially when they lift up the possibility of a very present help in trouble. And right now, that’s what’s needed.

We have to brush aside the notion that some kind of God in the sky micro-manages nature and sets off these events to prove a point. Pat Robertson uses this kind of thinking to get into the news from time to time.

When Mt Saint Helens blew itself all over the Pacific Northwest some tried to suggest that the Almighty was making a statement. I’m appalled to think that anyone, not even a crazy terrorist, would stoop so low as to blow such a beautiful mountain into molten rocks and dust, much less the Almighty Creator.

I told people at the time that such events are creation in progress. I’m sure the authors of Genesis were misquoted when that said that in the beginning God “created,” like all creation was finished. It should have said something like in the beginning creation began and hasn’t ceased since. Nothing can stop it. It doesn’t pause to preserve dinosaurs or any creatures, human or otherwise. It doesn’t by-pass cities or save mountains.

Let’s say, God has some faults. Some of the faults run right under Haiti. Millions in California live above similar faults. We in the Northwest have the great San Juan fault off our coast waiting to ruin our day. Earthquake insurance won’t change it. The world as we have it has had a tumultuous time getting here. It’s quite a wondrous place, faults and all. It’s a work in progress.

Another line for preacher’s to grab in times of turmoil ─ like I probably did when preaching in Los Angeles during the Watt’s Riots ─ is this one that works for Haiti now as it did for LA then:              There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God…              God is in the midst of her…

What if our government ─ both Houses, both parties ─ responded to Haiti in the feeble political, partisan, lobby-driven way that it is doing in response to the health care disaster in America? The thirsty would die, the hungry would starve, the sick and injured would be left in the rubble. Where is that river whose streams make glad the city of God?

To think of God in the midst of rubble and heaped bodies is a big time stretch, but if you think of whatever God is as within us (also a biblical idea) maybe the metaphor works. The earth shook and mountains tumbled and the spirit of compassion and humanity was aroused. That’s the kind of river that can make God glad.

The American health care system is shaking and crumbling and leaving people in the rubble. Where is that river of ethics and morality and humanity that might make God glad? ─ Art Morgan, January 18, 2010