I live and work in the southern suburban area of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro. I had been at work no longer than fifteen minutes when I saw news footage of the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It was odd, seeing the bridge I frequently crossed while attending the University of Minnesota lying in the Mississippi River.
For whatever reason, this tragic scene immediately brought to mind the words of Christ in Luke 13:
Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
I then recalled two very different Christian responses I had read in regard to another recent tragedy: the tsunami of 2005.
On January 5, 2005, John Piper wrote the following:
“From pulpits to news programs, from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal, the message of the tsunami was missed. It is a double grief when lives are lost and lessons are not learned. Every deadly calamity is a merciful call from God for the living to repent.”
“The point of every deadly calamity is this: Repent. Let our hearts be broken that God means so little to us. Grieve that he is a whipping boy to be blamed for pain, but not praised for pleasure. Lament that he makes headlines only when man mocks his power, but no headlines for ten thousand days of wrath withheld. Let us rend our hearts that we love life more than we love Jesus Christ. Let us cast ourselves on the mercy of our Maker. He offers it through the death and resurrection of his Son.”
(Read entire article here.)
Probably one year later, I stumbled onto this article written by Lynn Green, the International Chairman of Youth With A Mission’s (YWAM) Global Leadership Team. The difference is stunning:
“We have the hope of final redemption of everything in Christ. In the meantime we still have God’s commission to us in the first chapters of Genesis to go and take dominion (to rule) over the earth.”
“…what might we do if we decided to re-direct most or all of our spending on armaments? What if those billions were spent on helping each and every region of the world, to grow more and better food, to prepare for potential natural disasters; what if some of that money went on research and facilitation of reconciliation between tribes and nations that are hostile to one another? We know how to construct flood barriers, if we set our collective minds to us, we could protect every area that is at risk.”
“Many Muslims and some Christians have the idea that God’s sovereignty extends to micro-control of all events and, therefore, everything that happens is somehow His will. But if we look to the Bible for our understanding of God, we see One who grieves over suffering, One who regrets the painful and evil paths that some people take. We see a personal God who loves the powerless and poor.”
So, if I may paraphrase Mr. Green, God is not a micro-manager (read: not really sovereign) and we (man) can do better. With all due respect, I heard almost these exact sentiments from Oprah. “Make love (or better tsunami/earthquake detection systems), not war!” is not a Christian response to tragedy. This is the response of the world.
Does this mean that I believe we should not strive to feed the hungry and protect the poor from the ravages of nature? Of course not. Should we learn from the recent tragedy here in Minneapolis and build better bridges? Yes. However, this is not the primary response of Christ. Christ said, “Repent.” He did not say, “Geesh! You guys should really build better towers!” This is the response of a world living for today. A world consumed with prolonging this vapor of human life.
Christ’s response to the Minneapolis bridge collapse is this: Repent. All of us are fast approaching death, whether by bridge collapse, cancer, car accident, etc. These tragedies should remind us how completely dependent we are on divine grace. That I was not driving that bridge at 6:05 PM on 8/1/2007 is grace. I should not presume that this grace will last another day, let alone another half-century.
…
(Interestingly, Mr. Green and other YWAM leaders recommend the work of authors Greg Boyd (Open Theism) and N.T. Wright (New Perspective on Paul). I think both of these heresies lend themselves toward this kind of response to tragedy. Open Theism denies God’s sovereignty in willing all events, while the New Perspective minimizes/redefines the Gospel by denying the doctrine of justification by faith (note that Mr. Green’s response fails to even mention repentance or faith in Christ).
There also seems to be a hint of Dominionism in this response. If only we would get our act together, we could rid the world of pain and suffering altogether.)
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