Praying for rain

Feb 11, 2018

You may have seen comments attributed to evangelist Angus Buchan this last week regarding the drought in the Western Cape. Buchan apparently said that “God is not happy with Cape Town” - and this is why there has been no rain. I’ve only read the newspaper article, so I don’t know if there is a larger context to that quote, but that statement on its own surely needs to be interrogated.

Is there a drought in Cape Town because God is angry with the city’s people? Is the line between cause and effect so clear in this case? Does the converse then apply that God is pleased with cities that have plenty of water? And if there is no food on my table or roof over my head is it because I have angered this God?

Actually, the Scriptures make it clear that there is seldom such a neat formula for grappling with human suffering. For starters, Jesus teaches that where people have wronged God, or angered God, he does not treat them as one would expect. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: ‘But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’. (Mt 5:44-45)

Likewise, the psalms are full of prayers complaining that God is not angry enough with the wicked! and questioning why it seems that the wicked often prosper while the righteous struggle. A theological attempt to wrestle with the reality of human suffering (the technical word is a theodicy) is not as neat and formulaic as is sometimes implied.

What are we to do then in the midst of suffering? Angus Buchan calls us to humble ourselves and pray, and I think he’s right. And as we pray, we acknowledge that some of these things are clouded in mystery, but we don’t let what we don’t know about God obscure what we do know. So we pray as trusting children; we continue to cry out to God for rain in the Western Cape.

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