“PREPARING
FOR DISASTER”
[A sermon following publication of
“Preparing
for Emergencies: What you need to know”]
|
A sermon preached at Readings: Gen
7:1-10, Mt 24:1-8,29-31 |
“I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights,
and I will wipe from the face of the
earth every living creature I have made”
(Gen 7.4)
So we
read of one the first and greatest Biblical disaster stories –
there were many more to follow.
In
the news this week, there have been at least three stories
relating to our need to prepare for and meet potential disasters.
1. On
Monday the Government published
its latest Civil Defence leaflet entitled “Preparing
for Emergencies”
advising people what to do in the case of major terrorist attacks.
Basically stay inside, listen to radio 4 on a battery radio
and stock up on tinned foods.
Quite what you do when Radio 4 goes off the air
and Tesco doesn’t re-open within a couple of weeks is not specified.
2. News
also emerged this week of a new British “DNA Ark”
This is a new initiative to deep freeze
and preserve the DNA of endangered species.
Sir Crispin Tickell, project patron,
said that Noah would have been proud of the project.
Unlike Noah, who actually saved the animals themselves,
the British scientists are preserving the DNA for future use.
It is estimated that perhaps a quarter of all known mammals
and a tenth of all known bird species
(not to mention huge numbers of less cuddly but equally important insects)
could become extinct in the next 30 years.
Hence the need to preserve their genetic fingerprint –
certainly for research and possibly later for cloning.
3. In a
week when BBC News 24
has run a major 3 day series on Global warming,
a story has come in from the village of Shishmaref
in Alaska
saying that the permafrost is melting underfoot,
the glaciers are melting,
and the villagers have had to abandon their village –
the first refugees of global warming.
It
seemed appropriate therefore that this evening
we might compare 21st Century and Biblical approaches to imminent
disaster.
The
Bible might sometimes seem a long catalogue of warnings of calamity –
from our first reading (in which Noah is warned of the impending flood)
via countless prophetic warnings of invasion, destruction and exile,
through to our second reading and Gospel predictions of global calamity
(wars, rumours of wars, earthquakes) as the end of the world approaches.
So
as we read of potential terrorist strikes,
large scale extinction of wildlife,
and cataclysmic global warming,
what does the Bible say to us about impending disaster?
Let
me answer with four words -
1.
Honesty
The prophets fought a battle to
let the truth be known
about the crises facing the land.
They battled against the “false
prophets” at court
whose job was to reassure corrupt and ineffectual kings that all was well.
Do our governments tell the truth about potential disaster?
Clearly they cannot win –
1.
if their
leaflets are too bland
(like the famous Macmillan government leaflet
that advised anyone walking out into a nuclear blizzard
to wear stout shoes and a hat)
they are accused of trivialising the problem;
2.
if they are too
graphic
they are accused of frightening people into re-electing them.
In fact I suspect our successive governments
have largely been unwilling to tell it the way it really is.
·
The 1960s film
“The War Game”
gave a realistic and graphic description of life in England after a nuclear
attack –
it was banned from TV broadcast for 20 years
for fear it would frighten people too much.
·
In 1975 a
public information film was made
for screening in the event of nuclear attack.
Entitled Casualties, it contained rather more
dramatic information that this week’s leaflet -
with for example advice such as the following:
“If anyone dies in your fallout shelter, label their body with name and
address,
cover it tightly in polythene, paper, sheets or blankets and move it to another
room.”
The film was deemed so disturbing
that it should be shown only at the very last moment before the TV transmitters
failed.
(cf Alan Hamilton, Times,
27 July 04).
I am put in mind of the Biblical false prophets
who would cry “Peace” when there was no peace –
and were rebuked by the true prophets for giving false comfort to the people.
Maybe in 21st Century Britain (as in Jeremiah’s Jerusalem)
if we are to get people to take the present and the future seriously,
they need to be aware of the dangers we face.
2.
Responsibility
The
Bible almost invariably saw natural disasters
as the judgment of God on a wilful and disobedient people.
We may not be so willing to picture God as a judge in the sky
doling out floods and earthquakes in strict ratio to sins committed.
But that does not mean that issues of responsibility can be avoided.
Genesis
saw the flood as a direct consequence of the sins of the people –
and certainly global warming and its floods
are coming as a result of the greed and recklessness of the rich world
in its burning of fossil fuels and destruction of the rain forests
and all that contributes to global warming.
And
if this week’s terrible floods in Bangladesh
are more easily described as a “natural” disaster,
we still have to ask whether they would have happened at all
if world resources had been shared more evenly and less greedily,
and money had been available for flood defences etc.
And turning from ecological to military disaster -
the Biblical prophets saw foreign invasions from Babylon and Assyria
as a direct consequence of political and moral failure.
We might look long and hard at the military and terrorist calamities of recent
years
and wonder how many might have been avoided
had Western leaders and their people shown true wisdom and integrity,
and a real willingness to share the good things of the earth
with our poorer and increasingly alienated brothers and sisters
in the Islamic world and elsewhere.
3.
Action
God did not just tell people to pray –
he also told Jeremiah to buy a field, he told Noah to build an ark,
time and again he told his people to live godly lives,
to walk justly and fear the Lord.
The DNA bank may only be a small thing –
Friends of the Earth have pointed out
that we should be saving species not just saving DNA –
but if Noah could have got his head around it,
I expect that in his sober moments he would have approved.
But as the Biblical witness constantly
reminds us,
the threat of disaster should prompt action in many ways –
·
We should be
striving for peace, for mutual respect amongst peoples
(for an end to bloodshed and terror)
·
we should be striving
to be good stewards of our planet
(to end global warming and the extinction of species)..
4. Trust
Everything we have said so far,
about Truth, Responsibility and Action in the face of potential calamity
can be found in the Bible –
but also echoed to greater or lesser extent
in many secular commentators on our current crises.
But at the end of the story there is a point
at which the Scriptures strike out alone.
For secular writers the matter is ultimately
one of life or death for the planet and for the human race –
and as such it is either survival or oblivion.
For the scripture writers the scene is different.
Whether they are talking of Noah’s flood, or the destruction of Jerusalem,
God is always there to be with his people even in disaster and calamity.
And that is not a relative or limited promise.
Matthew 24 speaks of the horrendous happenings at the end of the world.
We don’t know when that will be,
and it isn’t profitable for us to speculate.
But as our globe begins to spin out of ecological control,
and as the on-going violence of human relations
is linked to greater and greater technological power,
the possibility of the end of life on this planet
becomes less and less fanciful, more and more a real possibility.
At which point we do well to read from Mt 24 –
how after the war and the earthquake and the ultimate terrestrial disasters,
after cosmic chaos amongst the sun and moon and stars -
30"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will
appear in the sky,
and all the nations of the earth will mourn.
They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky,
with power and great glory.
31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call,
and they will gather his elect from the four winds,
from one end of the heavens to the other.
Do not ask me what that
means in detailed historical terms –
this is rich poetic language
seeking to explore what is beyond our comprehension –
the last times.
But what I do read and know
here is this –
·
that as sure as God was with Noah on the ark,
and the flood did not ultimately prevail,
·
as sure as God was with his people by the waters of Babylon in Exile
and the enemy did not prevail,
·
just so even if this whole world is blown apart
by whatever sin or foolishness we bring upon it,
still shall God be there, riding the storm –
and still in another world, shall we know salvation.
So in conclusion –
1. Let us never be afraid to
look disaster in the face.
2. Let us examine our own
conscience and recognize our own responsibility
3. Let is strive to prevent
horrors happening –
but
4. at the end of the day -
be it a matter of global, cosmic or personal disaster -
trust the Lord –
for he will never desert us,
and in this world or the world to come,
his rainbow promise shall not fail,
and he will see us safe home.