Today's Scripture Reading (July 10, 2021): Job 12
Several years ago, the area in which I lived was
going through a severe drought. The rain needed for the growing of crops and
the feeding of animals had not come. And the people needed an explanation. They didn't have to look too far. The area, before the advent of man, had been a
desert wilderness. Humans had begun to change the land through irrigation and modern agricultural methods, but
that had left the essential character of the area unchanged. Crops had been planted, animals roamed on the
range, and usually,
there was at
least some rain to help the process. But this year, the drought had been even more severe
than usual, and even extensive irrigation was just not enough.
And so, the local Christian community decided to come
together in an outdoor service and pray for rain. The service was supposed to
take place in a local park on a Sunday Evening. I remember walking to the
service and meeting a lady attending the prayer service with an umbrella in her hand. She called it an act
of faith. She was right.
I am not sure what I expected, but the rain eventually came, although not on the night of the
service. And it continued, ultimately saving the growing season. A good friend suggested to
the Christian pastors of the area that we needed a second service to thank God
for the rain. But while gathering in a park on a beautiful Sunday evening was
one thing, trying to find a place for the Christian Church, across many
denominations, to gather to say thanks proved to be a more challenging task. And so, in the end, the Christians decided not
to get together for a service of thanksgiving.
The rain continued and continued. It changed into
snow in the winter months and caused floods the following spring. And one day,
as the rain poured, my friend looked at me and spoke one phrase; "We should have said thanks."
At its most basic, religion is an attempt to explain and gain a measure of
control over our environment. Storms rage, and we want to know why. Rains come or don't come, and we need an explanation and maybe a way to
change our
current circumstances.
We make sacrifices so that the rain will come or so that the earthquakes and volcanoes that threaten us will stop, often not understanding the reason for all that is
happening.
For Christians, our roots are bound in this same
simplicity, but Christianity adds a different dimension. It argues that we can
be better than we are. That we are broken, but that God wants to restore both
us and our relationship with him. In his "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus said that God "causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and
sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Yes,
we are to pray for what we need, but our faith isn't limited to just trying to
influence our environment. We are designed for more; we are intended for the
relationship that we share with him.
Sometimes,
the problem is that the "more" blinds us to the more simplistic
elements of religion, that it is designed to explain the world around us.
Christianity may extend to more, but it is still intimately connected with the
world that God created.
And
Job makes that point. If you want to know about God, ask the animals. They know
him in a way that we don't. Christianity can never be divorced from our
physical environment; we cannot build a separate world from the one we inhabit.
Job is correct, all of creation speaks out its belief in God, and we need to
stop and listen to what all of creation is trying to tell us.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 13
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