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First off, all my apologies for not getting this post done sooner. Our whole Congregational Care team has been moving into our new suite of offices. We invite you to come by for a tour this next Tuesday, July first. The hours for this are 5:30 to 6:30, open house, 6:30 worship, and 7:30 pie and entertainment. We’re planning on having a great time.
Now back to the Will of God. Last blog I mentioned Leslie Weatherhead’s little book, The Will of God. The study of how evil of the world collides with the understanding of a good and loving God is called theodicy. Theodicy boils down to how people understand the will of God. Weatherhead has three ways to look at the will of God: Intentional, Circumstantial and Ultimate.
I’ll try to explain these with the use of an example of someone’s tragic death. Say it is a young person killed by a motorcycle accident. God’s intentional will was that the person enjoy the ride…hundreds of them if the person was doing no harm and enjoying life. God intends for us to have happy moments.
God’s circumstantial will is what happens to us when the situation runs amuck. Then in those circumstances God hopes for the best. If there is an accident, God would hope for no one to be hurt but if they were hurt that they would be healed. If healing is not possible then the wish would be for no suffering. God is still hoping for the best no matter what the circumstances. Amanda who works in our department, told me that her mother received two kidneys from people who had been in motorcycle accidents. So from this terrible circumstances, a great life-saving blessing came to another person.
The third way that Weatherhead explains it is known as the ultimate will of God. This is the place where despite evil or pain that happens in the world, God’s purposes will be achieved. So that even if the young person tragically died, somehow there would be great good that came out of the tragedy. Perhaps a scholarship would be established to honor the young person, or perhaps a biking school for bikers. Lastly, and most importantly of course, we must remember that death does not have the last say. This is seen throughout the scriptures, but particuarly in I Corinthians 15:50-57, where Paul says (my words) that we all will have to take off these mortal bodies at some time and put on the our new immortal body. (I liken it to taking off an old coat that no longer fits us.) Then we put on a new body. And he ends the scripture triumphantly, “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where O death, is your sting?”
So in a nut shell, our loving God of the scriptures intends for us to have long lives, but circumstances of the world can go badly, yet God still is hoping for the best out of whatever comes our way. Lastly, God intends for us to end up in heaven. So that even if the worse comes against us…an untimely tragic death…we will be with God.
I hope that all of this makes some sense for you. Take time to ponder it and just remember the little book. “Stuff happens” for all of us……and we need to be able to make sense of it somehow.
God is good, all the time. All the time….God is good.
Welcome to my blog! I’m excited to have this opportunity for on-going commmunication with you about such things as theological issues, current happenings in our congregation, upcoming events, and life issues.
Today I’d like to start with a few reflections about the will of God (aka, providence of God). This is in response to the numerous untimely deaths that we have experienced in our congregation. When the unlikely happens whether it be death, accident, job or relationship loss, or natural disaster, we can find ourselves asking the question, “Why?” And we deserve to have a place where we can wrestle with this question.
I would offer to you some scriptures that relate especially to to untimely death: John 14: 1-6a; Romans 8:35-39; I John 4:7-21; and Revelations 21:1-5. These are a few of the key ones. If we start with the Gospel of John chapter 14, you can see that Christ assures us that this life is not the end, but rather there is a place that God is preparing for us. We can imagine that must be a unique place for each individual. Then the eighth chapter of Romans offers hope in the unseen. This whole chapter is worth reading! It offers the understanding again that this is not the end, “nothing can separate us from the love of God.”
I John 4 is a great chapter to help us as we ponder the “why” question. It assures us that the God of love is not punishing people. The God of love is not a puppeteer pulling strings to make bad things happen to certain people, but rather the God of love hopes for a long happy life for us. The God of love offers us strength and hope in the midst of life’s greatest challenges. God sent to us Jesus who gives not only a model of divine love and how to live, but also the assurance that eternity is a certainty as we see Christ conquer even death through the resurrection. Our God of love will see us through anything!
Lastly, in Revelation 21 we are reassured that God is making all things new. All things! So whatever we are facing, God can take death or defeat and reassure us that God will be with us through all things.
There are some great books out there to help you think fully through all of these points that lead to God’s promise of hope as we walk through whatever life will hand us. One of my favorites is The Will of God by Leslie Weatherhead. In this thin little book, Weatherhead helps us think through the phrase, “the will of God” which is used so loosely in conversation. He talks about the intentional, circumstantial, and the ultimate will of God. I highly recommend this little book that was written as a response to the World Wars of the 20th century.
Another text that has multiple stories throughout that has blessed me greatly in the past week is a little book that Kevin Barth gave to me. Kevin lost his lovely wife Lisa this past week to brain cancer. Kevin said this book gave them great assurances of eternal life. It is called Final Gifts by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley.
What questions do you have about the providence or will of God? What books have blessed your life as you have pondered this question? Please, share that others might be blessed. Next time I’ll cover in more detail the different aspects of Weatherhead’s book.
