One day Henny-penny was picking up corn in the rickyard when—whack!—an acorn hit her upon the head. "Goodness gracious me!" said Henny-penny, "the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the King…
The past few days on the Westcoast have been eventful. We were told a massive hurricane was coming our way in Southern California that would wreak havoc on communities and bring in an historic “100-year storm”—an event of such catastrophic proportions that imminent death would follow. Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency, well before the event even occurred. Is that normal? Costco saw long lines of people scrambling to horde water and generators, three at a time. Shelves at the local grocery store were soon found empty as people stocked up on supplies to prepare for what seemed to be the event of a lifetime. We had no idea of what to expect.
Sunday morning, as I was preparing for church, my wife handed me a picture of the Doppler Radar and asked, “where is this storm, I don’t see it.” Other images showed a massive swirl covering the Westcoast, but something seemed off. I then searched the news reports that continued reassure me that the storm was coming and that we should be prepared for the worst.
Then…it happened. The rain fell ever so lightly, and the trees swayed about, knocking down a few leaves, and it was over. I saw pictures of people online walking the beach during what was supposed to be the heart of the storm. All this media hysteria, and this was the extent of the “100-year storm” from which I was told to batten down the hatches?
Some areas did receive significant flooding, and I’m sure there will be reports of damage in desert areas, and even some death, but the most devastating eyewitness testimony I could find was this: "It's quite amazing. I've never seen anything like this," said Sean Julian, 54, a resident of the town. "I'm seeing a lot more trees down. And there's a big tree that just fell over there, and I probably shouldn't be out here." With that account, the article ended. A tree fell over and I probably shouldn’t be there?
Living on the Pacific Rim has always come with the threat of disasters, especially earthquakes and fires. But this is no less true wherever one lives in this world. After all, Jesus told us to expect these things (Matt. 24). While the news captures the worst of images, does this really compare with Atlantic hurricanes?
On the one hand I am thankful that the storm did not bring the destruction that we were assured would happen, but on the other, it’s always wise to assess the larger problem of what is driving our culture of fear.
God’s Light Hand Upon Us
One doesn’t have to look far to finds tracts and treatises of past theologians who wrote about God’s use of calamity and destruction to awaken people to repentance. I have in front of me David Clarkson’s, “God’s End in Sending Calamities.” People faced terrible things. Plague often wiped-out major populations and most people viewed these things as the scourge of God upon people for sin. Whether providence should always be read this way is for another article, but most pastors had no problem using catastrophic events to call people to Christ.
Daniel Defoe’s “Journal of the Plague Year” is a perfect example. Defoe describes the people coming to the churches in droves crying for prayer and help in the face of bubonic plague. They were certainly coming to the right place. The last thing Hurricane Hilary saw, however, was people desiring to come to church. People were more interested in saving their lives by gathering in long lines for food and water. It was all reminiscent of the same fear that governed the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the 90s, David Wells expressed that one of the great problems for people today is that God’s hand rests ever so lightly upon us. The lighter providences we have received in the West, in the face of past atrocities and calamites, has not made us a strong people. We have lived such prosperous lives, having at our disposal the best of medicines and helps afforded to us, that we are convinced that there should be no pain in this life.
A life of suffering, we believe, should not be so, and the god largely offered to the masses is a god of therapy. Someone once described him as a cosmic grandpa in the sky who has a big wallet. There is a reason why theologians have designated our modern approach to God as one of moralistic, therapeutic deism. God is a god of therapy who is intended to relieve all calamity and pain. That is his job and we have come to believe this is the purpose for his existence. We will worship him on those terms.
Combine this with that fact that most people in our society have not experienced actual war to any significant degree, we truly “do not know what death is,” quoting Denzel Washington. Maybe better said: we don’t know what death can be. This is true of course until we face our own actual deaths, in whatever ugly form they may come. But in our therapeutic culture what we have come to expect from our creator is a life of ease and comfort. Just ask what most sermons are about across America every week. They are about God solving all our “struggles,” aches, and pains. How many sermons do we have describing Jesus saving us from the “storms of life?” Few will tell you that Jesus actually led his disciples into that storm, on purpose.
The question is how this view of God affects us, even subconsciously, in what we expect from our leaders. Sure, leaders should attempt to relieve the suffering of their people. Yet, while we are quick to complain and detest our leaders, they truly are little idols of our own making, who we will gladly worship if they can save us from the tiniest of storms. This is why it would be simplistic to only blame the government for the present hysteria surrounding what are supposed to be catastrophic events.
The governments that we often complain about are simply a reflection of the state of the people who elect them. We look for reasons to explain our present hysteria and believe the issue is about power grabs and authoritarianism. Maybe. But have we asked why state of emergencies come cheap these days. There is most certainly a reason that governors hastily utilize emergency powers.
If we have come to believe God is our therapy servant, existing to relieve all evils from us, then why would we not expect his magistrates to be able to do the same, especially since they afford us a tangible, physical, and direct image for us to approach, just as the people of Israel sought for in Saul. It's hard for us to dissociate the God from the gods who govern us. If the god we have created is one we will bow to if our demands for immediate relief are met, then why not look to the ones who can actually make it happen now?
With the use of fear, they lead us around on a leash in whatever direction they want us to go. While we should be led to Christ and his church in all circumstances, instead we are led by them in fear to Costco to horde generators. They are tangible gods of relief from all ills and we will gladly afford our leaders whatever they want if they can make good on the promise to provide a pain free life.
The problem, of course, is that our conception of the true God of heaven and earth is a wrong one. He is the holy king of heaven and earth who does not exist to make our lives free of pain and suffering. He has told us that life under the sun will be the opposite. Why he has chosen to rest ever so lightly upon us is a question that belongs to the mysteries of his providence. All the Lord has to do is lift his hand ever so slightly and we will experience immediately how bad a predicament we are all in because of sin.
We can’t cry wolf on the little things forever and think that when the big thing comes, we will be fine. A much greater cosmic storm is coming, and one thing is for sure: it’s not one from which anyone will escape unless the storm of God’s wrath is pacified because of sin. That message should be clear to all.
“Put not your hope in princes” has always been the call of God to the peoples. If God decides again the rest his heavy hand upon us in providence, we will soon know how bad things can truly be. We might escape that storm scenario, or maybe not. But the best way to prepare for the final, cosmic storm is to repent and believe in the savior-king he has installed over all the earth.
With Jesus Christ there is forgiveness of sin, so that he may be feared. That is the fear that is most needed for our time.
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