One of
the great musical and dramatic moments of 1776, is a scene at a time when all
the various political issues and all the wheeling-and-dealing are up in the
air. The musical’s central character
John Adams is alone on stage and he poses the question (to his
fellow-politicians, to his fellow-citizens, to future generations, to God, and
to anyone who would listen) “Is anybody there?
Does anybody care?”
For any
person of faith, whatever the faith, this pair of questions is the central
religious question: “Is anybody
there? Does anybody care?”
And the
two questions go hand-in-hand. Even
though the writer Kurt Vonnegut once had a character in one of his novels who
was the founder of a religious sect called The Church of the Utterly
Indifferent God, very few people would want to worship a god whom they believed
was “utterly indifferent”.
Therefore,
in today’s Gospel lesson, when the disciples woke Jesus up, during a wild storm
on the lake while they were all in a small fishing boat, and they said,
“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”, they were asking Jesus the single
most profound religious question of all:
“Don’t you care?”
“Is
anybody there? Does anybody care?”
In many
ways, the second part of the question is the primary question. I believe a god who doesn’t care is worse
than no god at all. There would be very
few people wanting to sign up to become part of The Church of the Utterly
Indifferent God, … and rightly so.
“Is
anybody there? Does anybody care?”
At one
extreme of the faith spectrum are those who worship a god so remote as to be
totally removed from the concerns of our human life in any shape or form, a god
who is completed uninterested in the welfare of people.
At the
other extreme of the faith spectrum are those who worship a god who’s a bit of
a bully, a god who will send people off to be fuel for an eternal BBQ just for
getting their theology wrong (just as some politicians will deliberately
mistreat vulnerable people to get cheap votes from the underbelly of the
electorate).
In each
of these images of God, is a sense of an “Utterly Indifferent” god who, when
asked “Don’t you care?”, will blithely answer “Not really.”
For
many people out there in our wider community, the prevalence of these two images
of God is a principal reason for their disbelief in any god, in any form.
“Is anybody there? Does anybody care?”
All
major faiths worship the God who cares about human well-being. As Christians in particular, we worship a
Jesus-shaped God, God who took human form to demonstrate the divine compassion.
“Is
anybody there? Does anybody care?”
The
answer of the Gospel is “Yes!
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Constructive comments, from a diversity of viewpoints, are always welcome. I reserve the right to choose which comments will be printed. I'm happy to post opinions differing from mine. Courtesy, an ecumenical attitude, and a willingness to give your name always help. A sense of humour is a definite "plus", as well.