Pastors' Blog

The word that stumped him was “quaquaversal.”  How these kids survive as long as they do in the Scripps National Spelling Bee is beyond me!  Ten-year-old Tony Incorvati of Ohio made it to the third round a few days ago, until he ran into that amalgamation lurking in the bowels of some dusty dictionary.  And no matter how hard he squinted, it wouldn’t come out right. Quaquaversal—“turning and dipping in every direction.”  And while it won’t become a household word, it certainly is an appropriate one to describe life on this planet of late, isn’t it?  Just when you think one crisis headline is tucked away and taken care of, the very next news cycle dips and turns, introducing yet another breaking story from somewhere else on earth.  And while admittedly the news media hype disasters and major in crises, nevertheless the “talking heads” seem perplexed over the crescendo of these breaking headlines:  tomatoes, oil, gasoline, floods, Wall Street, Greece, the Middle East—the “quaquaversal” collection from just this week, to name a few. Someone asked me the other day if all of this amounted to a harbinger, a collective alert regarding earth’s disintegrating future.  And at the same time, someone else wrote and wondered if there is any point wondering if it did.  Actually doesn’t the Second Law of Thermodynamics itself predict such disintegration?  Known as the principle of entropy, you might remember from high school physics, this law describes the entropy or break-down of energy in the universe, resulting in increasing disorder and eventual disintegration.  Is our earth on some sort of entropic path? Isaiah was an ancient prophet, not a physicist, and yet tucked near the end of his  prophecy is a line that describes such entropy.  “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath.  For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, the earth will grow old like a garment” (Isaiah 51:6).  Growing old like a garment, tearing at its ecological seams, ripping at its geological faults and plates.  Is that what the headlines pronounce?  Our planet’s entropy? But to the thinking man or woman of faith, isn’t there more than thermodynamics behind this litany of “quaquaversal” headlines?  After all, didn’t Christ himself predict global entropy?  Didn’t he link the promise of his return in Matthew 24 with a growing disintegration in nature (see vv 7, 29, 32), in politics  (v 6) and in morality (vv 4, 9-12)?  But rather than ending with a whimpering depletion of energy, Jesus predicts in the end an explosion of light and energy in his physical return to earth—“and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power [Greek: “dynamite”] and great glory” (v 30). So are we doomed by the headlines?  Hardly!  In fact, the greater the entropy around us the deeper the certainty can grow within us that the God who has called us friends will journey with us until that grand climax:  “See, I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).  Which means that no matter how “quaquaversal” the journey may yet become, we’ll never be alone—which is the greatest headline of all!

“Scientists at loss to explain busy, severe tornado season.”   So read Wednesday’s headline in the South Bend Tribune.  “‘Right now we’re on track to break all previous counts through the end of the year,’ said warning meteorologist Greg Carbin at the Storm Prediction Center.  And it’s not just more storms.  The strongest of those storms—those in the 136-to-200 mph range—have been more prevalent than normal, and lately they seem to be hitting populated areas more, he said.” Just another fluke of unpredictable Mother Nature?  Perhaps.  But a week ago I went to www.dlinquist.com to track earthquake frequencies.  The graphs begin in 1973 and climb gradually from 5,000 to 10,000 recorded earthquakes per year until 1995, when they spike to between 25,000 to 30,000 quakes per year by 2001 to 2005.  2008, only half through, has already logged around 25,000 seismic events (the most recent, of course, the May 11 national tragedy in China). Just another fluke on our unpredictable planet?  One could so conclude.  The massive human catastrophe of the cyclone in Myanmar’s delta region can be explained the same way, no doubt. But as the AP report about this year’s spike in tornados observed, “The nagging question is why.  Global warming cannot really explain what is happening, Carbin said” (Ibid). At the risk of sounding like Noah, who for 120 years warned civilization of impending disaster (see Genesis 6 and 7), thus risking the taunt of the scoffers who have ever been quick to declare, “‘All things continue as they were from the beginning’”  (II Peter 3:4), I am compelled to interject this reminder into the news media’s reporting of the recent spate of natural disasters.  Jesus predicted that before his return:  “‘There will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the seas and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of the heavens [and the earth—Matthew 24:7] will be shaken’” (Luke 22:25, 26). Do these disaster spikes prove true Christ’s prediction?  Or does his prediction provide the interpretive paradigm for understanding nature’s crescendo?  Obviously the answer will depend on the questioner.   It is in the accumulation of spikes—natural, economic, political, moral, religious—that the discerning mind of faith hears the call of Christ, “‘Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near’” (Luke 22:28). And that’s why, unlike the headline, faith is not at a loss to explain its confidence.  For its bedrock is not the accumulating global numbers in the end, but rather the person and promise of Christ, “I will come again” (John 14:3).   The spiking statistics are simply a reminder that the end of earth’s heartache and misery is nearer than ever before, which is reason enough for faith to hope and love like never before.

What shall we do with our frozen emotions?  The litany of natural disasters that have hit this planet over the last few days—with a 100,000 plus dead or missing from the cyclone in Myanmar to 19,000-and-climbing dead from the earthquake in western China to the twenty-plus who died in tornadoes across our southland—after awhile the television images of such poignant and massive suffering eventually become just another bit of suppertime news, don’t they?  After all, how much can the human heart tolerate of suffering, even when it’s the suffering of strangers far away from us? Sociologists describe a “freezing” effect the constant reporting of local, national and global disasters or tragedies has on our emotions.  I.e., we freeze up—our sympathy and empathy, once fresh and quick, become calloused and hardened through the repeated witnessing (vicariously) of human suffering.  Logically, it makes sense, since the capacity of our minds to bear the trials and sufferings of others is necessarily limited.  (How many people can you genuinely emotionally care for at one time?) But psychologists also tell us that an effective way to counteract the “frozen emotions” of the disaster cycles we experience is make a simple, tangible response.  Tears of sympathy aren’t to be denigrated.  But making a physical response to Darfur’s starvation victims or Burma’s cyclone survivors or Iraq’s orphaned children can keep the heart tender to humanity’s plight.  What can you do?  Join the Crop Walk tomorrow and pledge a few dollars (or enlist sponsors) for every mile you walk on behalf of hunger relief.  Go the website of a international relief agency (such as the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, www.ADRA.org) and make a donation to their global disaster relief efforts.  Can’t reach out to the children of Iraq?  Then join the Benton Harbor Street Ministry in its weekly ministry to children of our own inner city.  The point is, rather than just watching and eating (during the supper news), you can do something tangible to alleviate the suffering of someone else on this planet.  Jesus’ final story before his death carries the punchline:  “Amen, amen [Greek] I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these children of Mine, you did it to Me” (see Matthew 25:40).   Can you think of a better way to keep our hearts “unfrozen” than doing something tangible for Jesus . . . right now?

The yellow and white flags of the Vatican are down.  But who will forget the unprecedented national fanfare that accompanied the first visit of Pope Benedict XVI to this nation last week?  Personally welcomed and greeted at Andrews Air Force Base by President Bush and his wife, feted at the White House with a regal welcoming ceremony attended by more invited guests than any previous such presidential event, two standing-room-only masses celebrated in a pair of iconic baseball stadiums in Washington and New York, adulated by the news media, an address to the leaders of the world at the United Nations—it was surely an unforgettable week for the pope as well!
And as a colleague of mine observed in his blog-letter to his readers, what was also noteworthy was the papal absence in this itinerary.  In a gala celebration thrown by the White House on the evening of the pope’s birthday, noticeably missing at that party hosted by arguably the most powerful political leader in the world was the guest of honor.  He was attending a prayer service with his bishops.  Though unintentional perhaps, the contrast was inescapable.
The point?  Moral leadership is what the world hungers for in this hour of history.  The protracted election campaigns of both parties in this nation have been a reminder that moral leadership does not naturally ensue from the pursuit of the highest office in the land.  Nor does winning that office ipso facto bequeath the mantle of moral strength to the occupant.

So in the face of a crisis, where is the world to turn for moral authority? 

It would be simple to simply answer, to God.  But whose God?  The God of the majority?  The God of the most powerful?  The God of the most persuasive?  While privately, citizens of the world naturally turn to their own God, history has taught that in a crisis nations turn to leaders—the world would do the same. 
Which being interpreted means that those who worship the Creator God have a window of opportunity that may not be long this open.  Now more than ever it is destiny’s calling to be about our Father’s business, declaring far and wide: “Fear God and give glory to him . . . . and worship him who made heaven and earth” (Revelation 14:7).

That’s the invitation of “The Sabbath” and “God’s Party” that end today.  Download the podcasts, ponder the teaching, and spread the good news.  For in a time of moral crisis and global need, it is the Creator alone who must move front and center.