God and the Tsunami  
By Dr. Daryl C. Greene

Many people are wondering why the Tsunami happened. According to one video recording the incoming tidal wave lasted less than 45 seconds. It then swept everything it covered back into the sea. How could the lives of more than 170,000 innocent people be blotted out in less than two minutes? Naturally, many people call into question their faith in God.

There is no one "Christian" answer to why the Tsunami happened. One Biblical approach is to suggest that God made it happen as a statement of judgement against the sinfulness of humanity. From this perspective we may imagine that God pushed the continental plates and caused the Tsunami at just this moment in history. Or we may imagine that God failed to exercise his supernatural powers to stop the tidal wave because he wanted to make a point. This theology follows in the tradition of the stories of Noah and the Flood and of the Plagues of the Exodus in which God is portrayed as the God of the storm: a God who uses the power of lightening, thunder, wind, fire, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters to punish people and nations and to awaken the rest of us to a fearful, reverent respect for God and his demand for obedience to his will.

A second Biblical approach is to see the Tsunami as a "secret sign" of the "end times". From this perspective there is a great struggle between God and the forces of evil - but history is in God's hands. God "made the sea roar" as a sign to the faithful that this struggle is about to come to an ultimate climax. Those who follow this theology search through the apocalyptic teachings of Daniel, Jesus, and John in the Book of Revelations to see if such a cataclysmic disaster had been "foretold" in the scriptures and is therefore a "big sign" that God is getting ready to come with his angels and redeem the world. From this perspective God sent the Tsunami not only to punish humankind, but to "awaken" the faithful to a greater zeal and obedience in these evil and troubled times.

A third Biblical perspective helps us to see God in a completely different and more positive light. It suggests that the God revealed in the first Creation story and in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is one who created the world with its own life-giving vitality. What God has created, he then blesses with the freedom to be. The primal "goodness" of God lies in the fact that God has given mother nature its own freedom to bring forth life.

Here Christian theology meets the Earth Sciences. Indeed, scientists have discovered that there is a pattern for the weather. The wind and the rain follow their own laws of cause and effect. They give rise to all life; but the extremes of these weather patterns sometimes also destroy life. Likewise, we land dwelling creatures stand on continental plates. These plates are the ground of being for all land life. But the plates themselves are also alive, they move and breathe. Therefore, from time to time earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and Tsunamis will happen. From this perspective, people might be killed by natural disasters. However, the God who fosters all life through the life-giving freedom of nature does not interfere with the natural laws and dynamics of the Earth, lest the whole delicate balance be destroyed.

This perspective does declare that God is a Spirit. God is with us in the midst of disaster. Like his son Jesus, he grieves when the innocent suffer. There will be miracles - stories of how people were warned in a dream, or turned from their plans and so were saved. These are the signs of God's presence in the midst of disaster, along with all the merciful acts of compassion God inspires us to show to those who have survived.

From this perspective the natural disaster awakens us to the Christian teaching that life is transitory. As quickly as the striking of the Tsunami, it can be over. Just to be alive is a tremendous blessing - a blessing from the hand of God, who sustains us from day to day through the power of the Earth. This blessing is to be celebrated and savored - and lived in thanksgiving and in loving obedience to the teachings of Jesus.





Dr. Greene is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and a resident of Richmond, IN. He is also the author of Feeling Better: The Wisdom of the Doc, You Can Feel Better: How to cope with chronic pain and physical disabilities, and co-author of Walking Free: the Nellie Zimmerman Story.


For further information about his books, please visit www.densmorereid.com

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