God is in Control

GOD IS IN CONTROL

Looking at the often depressing news on our television screens, it is very easy to get the feeling that the world is rapidly running out of control.

After all, we do not appear to be any nearer to peace in the Middle East; nor to controlling our global environment, nor to alleviating hunger and disease.

Despite the endless summits and ceasefires; international conferences on global warming, and money given to aid charities, suffering continues unabated.

As the flood waters rise up, the crops wither and die and people's lives are destroyed, it is very easy to think that the world is out of control.

That, my friends, is one way of interpreting the experiences of life.

However, the Church gives us another way of interpreting the experiences of life.

Take for instance the Book of Daniel. This was written in about the second century BC when the Jewish people were suffering persecution at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanos.

Despite the sufferings being endured, the writer suggests that God is still in control by giving a glimpse of the future.

In a vision he sees, "One like a human being, coming with the clouds of heaven, to whom was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His domination is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed".

A similar picture is also given in the Book of Revelation.

This was written towards the end of the first century AD, when the early Christians were suffering persecution at the hands of Emperor Domitian.

Many of the those Christians were beginning to lose heart and give up their faith. Despite all the suffering being endured, the writer assures them that "Jesus Christ ,.. is the ruler of the kings of the earth".

Both these apocalyptic writers of the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, using the language of imagery which would have been understood by their readers at the time, assure the communities to which they write that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, God is still in control.

And it is this same picture of God in Christ which we are also given in John 18.

When Pilate asks Jesus at his trial whether he is a king, he answers that his earthly rule is not of the kind which is easily understood by this world.

Whilst the Jews were anxious to make him a king in order to lead to the overthrow of the Roman occupying forces, Jesus was only interested in overthrowing the power of evil in the hearts of men and women everywhere. This, as far as Jesus was concerned, was the real cause of suffering and misery in the world.

Thus, when we look back at his life, we see him bringing wholeness to the sick of body and mind; opening up new opportunities by the forgiveness of sins; caring more for others' material needs than for himself; and befriending the oppressed and marginalised people of his day. It is through such actions that we catch a glimpse of the reign of God breaking into the life of this world and assuring us that God is ultimately in control.

Now I realise that this sometimes appears not to be the case. More often than not, we feel like the people in the Book of Daniel, or the Book of Revelation, who thought God had, temporarily at least, lost control or at worst abandoned his world as we witness the suffering in the world around us.

But God chooses not to overrule our free will, for to do so would be to treat us like puppets on a string or mechanical robots.

Rather, he chooses to work through us in order to establish his rule upon the earth.

He gives us a glimpse of how things can be. He invites us to be the means whereby that vision can be made into a reality. And he gives us the strength to do this, and never more so than, by sharing his very life with us in the Eucharist.

He does not force us to co-operate but rather waits patiently for us to do his will on earth, as it is in heaven, to quote the words of the Lord's Prayer.

William Temple, a former Archbishop of Canterbury during the Second World War, once expressed it like this:

"While we deliberate: he reigns.

When we decide wisely: he reigns.

When we decide foolishly: he reigns.

When we serve him in humble loyalty: he reigns.

When we serve him assertively: he reigns.

When we seek to withhold our service: he reigns.

The sovereignty of God in Christ is an ultimate from which there is no escape".

So when I look at the depressing news on my television screen, I do not lose heart, because I know that God is ultimately in control, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

That is not to say I don't get frustrated when I see one ceasefire after another collapse in the Middle East, or angered when I see the thoughtless destruction of the environment, or hot under the collar as endless streams of refugees wander aimlessly from one country to another looking for a home.

Nevertheless, I know that this is not the way things have to be, provided humankind co-operates with God and thus become the means of establishing his rule upon the earth, as it is in heaven.

And now to that God, he ascribed all might, majesty and power, today and for evermore.