I had been meaning to
write something about this for some time now, but had not got around to it,
until earlier this year, when The Church of England held its annual conference
(“Synod”).
I do not remember the specific
nature of the Synod debate, which I only followed for a few minutes. However,
in that time, I was reminded how divided the Protestant Church is, or at least
appears to be, on so many questions. The particular thought that struck me at
the time was Church Unity. The members will, no doubt, have prayed for Church
unity, which they will have regarded as self-evidently God’s will. This brings me
back to Barak Obama.
Christians would
probably consider both matters to be “God’s Will” (“Peace on Earth” and “Church
Unity”) and as self-evident. Obama has biblical back-up for his statement
(although there is a large amount of empirical evidence against it), with, for
example, the Angel Gabriel’s announcement to the Shepherds, on the birth of
Jesus. In this case, Gabriel added “peace to all men,….with whom He is well
pleased”.
If these two matters
are God’s will, then He is not having much success at the moment. Actually it
is questionable whether He has ever had much success in these areas. There are
plenty of other examples.
Of course, it is right
to pray about these matters, but looking at the history books, one wonders why
there is so little external success. The 20th century set a
historical record when it came to deaths and suffering in wars, under dictators
of various kinds. The 21st Century so far has some way to catch up,
but there is plenty of time yet.
My purpose here is not
to discuss the effectiveness or otherwise of prayer, rather to make the observation
that God does not seem to be involved in these areas. I baulk at suggesting that
He might be indifferent as to the outcome (Jesus made almost no comments about
the secular set-up of the world). And we hesitate to think that they are not
God’s will, but if they are not, then what is His Will?
I tread on very
difficult and dangerous territory here. Christians spend a lot of energy praying
about these and other matters, and then apologising for God and making excuses
for Him (and blaming themselves), whether these are in relation to personal
matters and matters that touch us directly or whether these are general matters
in the world at large.
As citizens of this
world, we attach a great deal of importance on what goes on generally. But what
if we have misunderstood the nature of this world? What if this world is only
context for our own lives?
He created us for his
own pleasure and not the other way around. He has chosen us, and not the other
way around. My thought is that in praying for matters that matter to us, but never
happen, we fail to understand the nature of God’s purpose. I am not sure that I
know what His purpose is, but it does not appear to be Peace on Earth or Church
Unity.
So I’m looking
somewhere else. While I am trying to find out what my job here on earth is, I
remind God (very humbly, you understand) that some things are His job and that
if He doesn’t do them, then I am not trying either.
There’s a cop-out for
you.
