{"id":100367,"date":"2020-03-26T17:28:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T00:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100367"},"modified":"2020-03-26T17:31:32","modified_gmt":"2020-03-27T00:31:32","slug":"almighty-god-and-corona-virus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/26\/almighty-god-and-corona-virus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cALMIGHTY GOD\u201d AND CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Rev. Tom Honey <\/strong>was the Parish priest (vicar) of the Church of\nEngland in Oxford for more than 20 years and was highly reputed for his\nthoughtful sermons and the best perhaps being the one he gave in 2005, on Almighty\nGod and Tsunami Disaster\u201d after the devastation caused by the Indian ocean\ntsunami in which some 300,000 people died.  https:\/\/www.ted.com\/speakers\/revtom honey<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What he said then on god and the tsunami\ndevastation, is directly applicable to the present CORONA VIRUS HEALTH DISASTER\nas well. The corona virus pandemic has been spreading rapidly across the world,\naffecting more than 520,000 people by late March 2020, in 175 countries, with a\ndeath toll of more than 23,500. Numbers affected and death toll appear to show an\nincreasing trend, especially in European (Catholic and Christian countries),\nnotably Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, UK, Netherland,  Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Turkey, Austria,\nDenmark and among non-European countries, the most affected are in China, USA,\nIran, Brazil and South Korea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Tom Honey, <\/strong>the British Parish priest said in his sermon, How can the existence of evil be reconciled with an\nalmighty God who is also all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful? <\/em>I have been a parish\npriest in the Church of England for more than twenty years. For most of that\ntime I\u2019ve been grappling with questions about the nature of God. I\u2019m very aware\nthat when you say God, most people within and outside the church, still have a\npicture of a celestial controller, a policeman in the sky who orders everything\nand causes events to happen. He will protect his own people and answer the\nprayers of the faithful. In the worship of our church the most frequent\nadjective when we address God is \u2018almighty\u2019; but I have become more and more\nuncomfortable with this common perception of God over the years. Do we really\nbelieve in the male boss that our liturgies proclaim?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Two weeks after\nthe tsunami, Sunday morning 9th January. I found myself standing in front of my\ncongregation, intelligent, well-meaning, thoughtful Christian people. I needed\nto express, on their behalf our feelings and our questions. This is what I\nsaid. Shortly after the tsunami I read a newspaper article, written by Rowan\nWilliams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, about the tragedy in Southern Asia. The\nessence of his words was this: the people most affected by the devastation and\nloss of life do not want intellectual theories, about how God can let this\nhappen. If some religious genius did come up with an explanation of exactly\nwhy all these deaths made sense, would we feel happier, or safer or more confident\nin God?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the man in the\nphotograph holding the hand of his dead child was standing in front of us now,\nthere are no words that we could say to him. The only appropriate response\nwould be compassionate silence and practical help. It isn\u2019t really a time for\npreaching or theology, but for tears. This is true, and yet we are here,\nsemi-detached from events so far away, with our faith bruised, and we want an\nexplanation from God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some have concluded that\nwe can only believe in a God who shares our pain. In some way, God feels the\nanguish and grief, and physical pain that we feel. In some way the eternal God\ncan enter into the souls of human beings and experience the torment within. And\nif this is true, it must also be that God knows the joy and exaltation of the\nhuman spirit. A God who weeps with those who weep and rejoices with those who\nrejoice. This seems to me both a deeply moving and a convincing restatement of\nChristian belief about God. For hundreds of years the prevailing orthodoxy, the\naccepted truth was that God the Father, the creator, is unchanging and\ntherefore cannot feel pain or sadness. The unchanging God feels a bit cold and\nindifferent to me. I wonder if you agree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The devastating events of\nthe 20th century forced people to question the cold unfeeling God. The\nslaughter of millions in the trenches and in the death camps, caused people to\nask, \u2018Where is God in all this?\u2019 And the answer was, God is in this with us, or\nGod doesn\u2019t deserve our allegiance. If God is a bystander, observing but not\ninvolved, then God may exist, but we don\u2019t want to know about him. Many Jews\nand Christians now feel like this, I know. And I am among them. So, we have a\nsuffering God. A God who is intimately connected with this world, and with\nevery living soul. I very much relate to this idea of God. But it isn\u2019t enough.\nI need to ask some more questions, and I hope they are questions that some of\nyou want to ask as well, some of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last few weeks I\nhave been struck by the number of times that words in our worship have felt a\nbit inappropriate, a bit dodgy. On Tuesday mornings we have a Pram Service for\nMums and their pre-school children. Last week we sang with the children, one of\ntheir favourite songs \u2013 The Wise Man Built His House on the Rock. Some of the\nwords go like this the foolish man built his house upon the sand\u2026\u2026.and the\nfloods came up\u2026\u2026and the house on the sand went crash\u201d. Then at a funeral there\nwas the familiar hymn We plough the fields and scatter\u201d. In the second verse\ncomes the line, the wind and waves obey him.\u201d Do they? I don\u2019t think we can\nsing those words again. So, the first big question is about control. Is God in\ncontrol? Does God order each moment? Does God have a plan for each of us? Do\nthe wind and waves obey him?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From time to time one hears\nChristians telling the story of how God organised things for them, so that\neverything worked out alright. Some difficulty was overcome, some illness\ncured, some trouble averted, a parking space found at a crucial time. I can\nremember someone saying this to me, her eyes shining bright with joy, as a\nwonderful confirmation of her faith and the goodness of God. But if God can or\nwill do these things, intervene to change the flow of events, then surely, he\ncould have stopped the tsunami happening. A local god who can do little things\nlike parking spaces, but not big things like 500mph waves. That\u2019s not\nacceptable, and we must acknowledge it. Either God is responsible for the\ntsunami, or God is not in control. After the tragedy, survival stories began to\nemerge. The man who surfed the wave. The teenage girl who recognised the danger\nbecause she had just been learning about tsunamis at school. Then there was the\ncongregation who had left their usual church building on the shore to hold a\nservice in the hills. The preacher delivered an extra long sermon, so that they\nwere still out of harm\u2019s way when the wave struck. Afterwards someone said God\nhad been looking after them. So, the next question is about partiality. Can we\nearn God\u2019s favour by worshipping him or believing in him? Does God demand\nloyalty like any medieval tyrant? A god who looks after his own, so that\nChristians are ok, while the others perish. A cosmic us and them, and a god who\nis guilty of the worst kind of favouritism. That would be appalling, and I\nwould have to hand back my membership. Such a god would be morally inferior to\nthe highest ideals of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, who is God, if not the\ngreat puppet-master or the tribal protector of Christians? Perhaps God allows\nor permits terrible things to happen, so that heroism and compassion can be\nshown. Perhaps God is testing us, testing our charity or our faith. Perhaps\nthere is a great, cosmic plan that allows for horrible suffering so that\neverything will work out in the end. Perhaps, but all these ideas are\nvariations of God controlling everything. The supreme commander toying with\nexpendable units, in a great campaign. We are still left with a God who can do\nthe tsunami and allow Auschwitz. Almighty God is just incompatible with loving\nGod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his great novel The\nBrothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky gives these words to Ivan, addressed to his\nnaive, devout younger brother Aly osha, If the sufferings of children go to\nmake up the sum of sufferings which is necessary for the purchase of truth,\nthen I say beforehand that the entire truth is not worth such a price\u2026.we\ncannot afford to pay so much for admission\u2026.it is not God that I do not accept.\nI merely most respectfully return him the ticket.\u201d Or perhaps God set the whole\nuniverse going at the beginning and then relinquished control for ever, so that\nnatural processes could occur, and evolution run its course. This seems more\nacceptable, but it still leaves God with the ultimate moral responsibility for\nhuman behaviour and natural processes. Is God a cold unfeeling spectator?\u2026or a\npowerless lover, watching with infinite compassion things God is unable to\nchange?\u2026..Or is God intimately involved in our suffering, so that God feels it\nin his own being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we believe something\nlike this, we must let go of the puppet-master completely, take our leave of\nthe almighty controller. Abandon traditional models. We must think again about\nGod. Maybe God doesn\u2019t do things at all. Maybe God isn\u2019t an agent in the sense\nthat we are all agents. Early religious thought conceived God as a sort of\nsuper human person, doing mighty acts all over the place. The God of the Old\nTestament fought for his people, drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea, wasted\ncities, and wiped out the enemy down to the last woman and child. The people\nknew their God by his mighty acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if God doesn\u2019t\nact? What if God doesn\u2019t do things at all? What if God is in things? The loving\nsoul of the universe. An indwelling, compassionate presence, underpinning and\nsustaining all things. What if God is in things? In the infinitely complex\nnetwork of relationships and connections that make up life. In the natural\ncycle of life and death, the creation and destruction that happen continuously.\nIn the process of evolution. In the incredible intricacy and magnificence of\nthe natural world in the collective unconscious, the soul of the human race. In\nyou and me, mind and body and spirit, in the tsunami, in the victims. In the\ndepth of things. In presence and in absence. In simplicity and complexity, in\nchange and development and growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this in-ness, this\ninteriority of God work? It\u2019s hard to conceive and begs more questions. Is God\njust another name for the universe, with no independent, external existence? I\ndon\u2019t know. To what extent can we ascribe personality to God? I don\u2019t know. In\nthe end, we have to say, I don\u2019t know\u201d. If we knew, God would not be God. To\nhave faith in this God would be more like trusting an essential goodness and\nbenevolence in the universe, and less like believing a system of doctrinal\nstatements. Isn\u2019t it ironic that Christians who claim to believe in an\ninfinite, unknowable being, then tie God down in closed systems and rigid\ndoctrines? Faith in God demands the huge step of saying, despite all\nappearances to the contrary, I trust that there is a loving presence, but I\nwill live without knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would one practise such\na faith? By seeking the God within. By cultivating my own inwardness. In\nsilence, in meditation, in my inner space, in the me that remains when I gently\nput aside my passing emotions and ideas and preoccupations. In awareness of the\ninner conversation. How would I live such a faith? By seeking intimate\nconnection with your inwardness. The kind of relationships when deep speaks to\ndeep. If God is in all people, then there is a meeting place where my\nrelationship with you becomes a three-way encounter. There is an Indian\ngreeting \u2018namaste\u2019, accompanied by a respectful bow which roughly means, \u2018that\nwhich is of God in me greets that which is of God in you\u2019. How would one deepen\nsuch a faith? By seeking the inwardness which is in all things. In music and\npoetry, in the natural world of beauty, in the small ordinary things of life,\nthere is a deep indwelling presence that makes them extraordinary. But it needs\na profound attentiveness, and a patient waiting. A contemplative attitude, an\nawareness of my own infinite value, and a generosity and openness to those\nwhose experience is different from mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I stood up to speak to\nmy people about God and the tsunami, I had no answers to offer them. No neat\npackages of faith with Bible references to prove them. Only doubts and\nquestions and uncertainty. I had some suggestions to make \u2013 possible new ways\nof thinking about God. Ways that might allow us to go on, down a new and\nuncharted road. But in the end the only thing I could say for sure was I don\u2019t\nknow, and that might just be the most profoundly religious statement of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DR ROWAN WILLIAMS –  THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of\nCanterbury<\/strong>, writes in The Sunday Telegraph UK, on 02 January 2005 a deeply\npersonal and candid article, where he says “it would be wrong” if\nfaith were not “upset” by the catastrophe which has already claimed\nmore than 150,000 lives. The Asian tsunami disaster should make all Christians\nquestion the existence of God,  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Rowan Williams admits that Prayer provides\nno ‘magical solutions’ and most of the stock Christian answers to human\nsuffering do not “go very far in helping us, one week on, with the\nintolerable grief and devastation in front of us”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Williams, who, as head of the Church of\nEngland, represents 70 million Anglicans around the world, writes: “Every\nsingle random, accidental death is something that should upset a faith bound up\nin comfort and ready answers. Faced with the paralysing magnitude of a disaster\nlike this, we naturally feel more deeply outraged – and also more deeply\nhelpless.” He adds: “The question, ‘How can you believe in a God who\npermits suffering on this scale?’ is therefore very much around at the moment,\nand it would be surprising if it weren’t – indeed it would be wrong if it\nweren’t.” Dr Williams concludes that, faced with such a terrible challenge\nto their faith, Christians must focus on “passionate engagement with the\nlives that are left”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane Rev. Tom Honey was the Parish priest (vicar) of the Church of England in Oxford for more than 20 years and was highly reputed for his thoughtful sermons and the best perhaps being the one he gave in 2005, on Almighty God and Tsunami Disaster\u201d after the devastation caused by the Indian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-daya-hewapathirane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}