Jesus asked them, “When eighteen people ‘died when the tower in Siloam fell on them, do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?’ (As though there’s always a direct connection between calamity and responsibility) ‘I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:1-5
Lord Jesus, center and settle me, for my dander is up and my blood pressure is rising. Arm chair theologians, meteorological soothsayers, and political fear mongers are scurrying to attach a meaning to Hurricane Milton, (as with Helene), to serve their bias and agendas. It’s so much easier to serve an agenda than to serve families, children, and communities devastated by a storm. Have mercy on us all, Jesus. Today is a day for neighbor love and sacrificial service. It’s also a day to repent and make sure we know you—as you taught in today’s Scripture.
If I follow weather-pundits logic, countries that are enjoying meteorological stability, prospering economies, and well-functioning infra-structures are under your blessing and good national government. And countries that are subject to climactic upheaval, great poverty and a steady stream of calamities are under your judgment—or the control of the “other” political party. That contradicts everything you reveal about yourself in the Bible, and it gives mere people more power than you have given us.
Jesus, you taught us God “gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike” (Matt.5:45). The same is true with typhoons, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Indeed, some of the wealthiest, weather-friendly, “stable” countries in the world primarily worship gods other than you. And some of the poorest, crisis-riddled, instable countries on the planet have the largest percentage of those who passionately love and follow you, Jesus. Today—and for the foreseeable future, may people realize we are your disciples by the way we love and serve them, period. So Very Amen.