An Act of God

On occasion, I preach at local churches, providing pulpit supply when the pastor is away or needs a break from the week-in week-out task of sermon writing. I was recently asked by a pastor friend if would preach on a topic in a sermon series he was planning called Core Christianity. The idea was to explore the fundamentals of Christian belief at their most basic. Was I interested in taking a Sunday? Sure I was. How about the topic: God?

Never one to balk at a challenge, I agreed. Almost immediately my sermon title came to me: “Have you heard the one about the dyslexic agnostic?” You know the punch line: “He couldn’t sleep, so he stayed up all night wondering if there really is a dog.”

Ka-Ching!

Open with a joke, then explore the common beliefs about God of the Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Islam and Christianity – before looking at Christianity’s unique contribution to the understanding of God, namely that the One true God is a Trinity of persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

“Nice,” I thought as I put the finishing touches to the sermon on Saturday night. “How’s that for getting God all neatly defined and ready to go.”

Imagine my shock when we woke up at 5 the next morning to find the new RAV4 had been damaged by an “act of God.” Strong winds that had rattled the windows all night had broken off a large branch from the tree on the parking strip and hurled it at the roof and windshield of the car! Lots of nasty damage to the roof and hood and total destruction of the windshield. The interior lights were on, dangling out of their ceiling mount casing like a pair of eyeballs on springs you see in Hallowe’en funny glasses.

Feeling like Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” I looked heavenward and asked “What? What have I said in my sermon you don’t like? Is it the joke or the comparison with Judaism and Islam? I have to preach in three hours, so I don’t have time to change much.”

In the end, I decided to take my own advice, which I freely dish out to people in distress at my hospital or in grief support groups. “I don’t believe God is punishing you by making bad things happen to you.”

So I preached my sermon as written. As expected, I got a laugh about the dyslexic agnostic. But I got an even bigger one telling the story of the “act of God” that disabled my car. Oh, and the guest speaker fee almost, but not quite, covered the deductible on my auto insurance.

Ultimate lesson learned? Don’t park on that side of the street when strong winds are expected.

Note to self: Park far away from tree on Pentecost. – David