Siloam

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Luke 13:1-5

This lesson on the tower of Siloam has been on my mind lately. The storm Puget Sound has just sustained left no one untouched by someone's discommodity, if not their own. Some experienced not even a flicker of their lights; others have been without electricity and water for days. Some experienced no disruption to their own routines but accommodated others; others are homeless, reeling from the sense of having barely escaped death, splintered trees lying atop their interior furnishings.

City people don't expect this. Some regard payment of their taxes and utility bills as sufficient disaster preparedness. But there are, as they say in the legal and insurance industries, "intervening causes."

Nothing seems as randomly distributed as storm damage. The untouched are not smarter, better people. Their prayers are not more or less faithful than those of people who lose property, homes, or their lives. The secret counsel of God's will is not disclosed in these situations: Snoqualmie, Washington was not under judgment more than downtown Seattle because its power grid was logistically less convenient to restore to safe operation.

Only the fact of God's sovereignty is brandished in extraordinary events, and only to those who see it in normal routine life as well. In other words, what we apprehend of God's will in normal routine life is what we will apprehend under extraordinary circumstances.

Matthew Henry observes that the tower of Siloam was built for protection, and resulted in destruction. The tower probably fell into the pool below, where debilitated people waited to be placed in the healing waters. Some of those people were probably those who died in this frightful event. But all men are under judgment for sin; all are appointed to die. The Lord is saying that those who died by the falling tower died for no greater sins than those who died by any other means, natural or extraordinarily terrible. All of these things are appointed by God, and all men are responsible to repent their own sin. We are not to judge others' sin by their providentially appointed circumstances.

Following the tsunami that took hundreds of thousands of lives in south Asia, and again following the storm that caused destruction and took life in Puget Sound last week, Pastor Lyon selected the one hundred fifteenth Psalm to be read or sung in the following service. We are called to remember that our God is in the heavens, and he doth what pleases him. While some religious leaders are frenzied trying to persuade their congregations that it's still worth coming to church--God won't abandon them if they only pray hard enough, give enough money, send enough blankets to Pakistan--we of the Reformed faith are at relative spiritual ease, knowing that God is sovereign and just and holy; that the law of the Lord is perfect, that his judgments are just and he does what he will. We are theologically equipped to weather the storm, which goes toward equipping ourselves to prepare in other ways, as well. This includes prayer and provision for brethren in need.

Any human preparation for the exigencies of life can be thwarted. Ultimately, we require a theology that glorifies God for who he is. God doesn't change with our experience of prosperity or trial. I do, which is one of a million or so ways I know I'm on the slow track of sanctification. But God doesn't change.

Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Psalm 90:15