What Should a Christian Ask after an Earthquake?

Sermon for North Hill, January 23, 2010

Early this week I check on a faucet we use for filling a cattle trough in the back field. It's in a hole in the ground, covered with boards to protect it from freezing. When I checked it, the hole was full of water. My first reaction was an exasperated question: “Who did this?”

Of course, I knew the answer. Bonnie and I are the only people who ever touch that faucet. The faucet is difficult and she has been known to fail to completely turn it off.

I stuck my hand down in the water and cranked on the faucet handle. It didn’t move. I then checked a shut off valve up by the barn that is supposed to be closed during the winter except when we’re actually filling the trough in the pasture. The valve was properly off.

So who filled the hole? Surprise! God did!

The water in that hole was caused by an “act of God” 5600 years ago when a massive chunk of Mt. Rainier detached from the mountain, liquified and poured down the White River valley and out across what is now southeast King County. Geologists call it the Osceola Mudflow. It’s one of the largest such lahars (volcanic mudslides) known anywhere in the world. The soil that has formed on top this mudflow is so dense with clay that rain water does not penetrate more than a few inches into the ground. From November to May, the entire Enumclaw plateau formed by this mudflow is a soggy sponge.

A hundred years ago farmers crisscrossed the entire plateau with drainage ditches in an effort to get rid of the water so they could work their fields. Still, even though our field and the fields of our neighbors are ditched every hundred feet or so, the ground holds so much water that any depression stays full of water all winter. Even cow footprints fill with water.

So who filled up my faucet hole? If you want to be silly, you could say God did it since it is the result of natural law and God created nature.

If you are serious, asking, “who filled up the faucet hole with water” is an unfruitful question. There is no way to answer it. The hole was not filled by a “who.” It was filled by a “what.” And the “what” is best described by the science of geology.

Bonnie did not fill the hole with water. God did not fill my hole with water. The faucet hole in our pasture was filled by rain falling on a particular kind of soil which was created by a mudslide that swept down from Mt. Rainier 5600 years ago. This is not a very exciting answer. However, it is the truth.



There was a devastating earthquake in Haiti last week and some preachers are trying to answer the question: Who did it? Which means they are talking nonsense. If you what to make sense of the physical reality of the earthquake, you’ll find the answer in geology not in theology.

Haiti is located on a plate boundary. Plate boundaries are precisely the places where most earthquakes occur. If you go to the website of the USGS (United States Geological Survey) you can find a map of the locations of all the earthquakes that happened over the last seven days. The map shows the vast majority of earthquakes happen in places like the Aleutian Isalnds where there are hardly any people. Which would be a real waste if the point of an earthquake was to punish or warn sinners.

Who caused the earthquake in Haiti? It may be a natural human question. For a preacher to ask it out loud is a demonstration of profound ignorance.

But then someone might ask, what about the Bible? Doesn’t the Bible teach that earthquakes are signs of God’s disfavor?

In the official history of Israel–the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles–there is only one single mention of an earthquake. It occurs in the story of Elijah. The Bible specifically states that this earthquake was NOT a message from God.

All through the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles there are stories about all sorts of supernatural intervention. God causes wars and disease, famines and other catastrophes. But there is not a single mention of earthquakes as a divine act anywhere in the entire official history of Israel.

We know earthquakes happened in that region. The prophet Amos mentions one that happened during the reign of Uzziah (Amos 1:1). And Zechariah mentions the same earthquake. But they give not the slightest hint the earthquake was caused by God.

Earthquakes happened. But God didn’t do it.

Who filled my faucet hole with water?
Who whacked Haiti with an earthquake?

Wrong question. In both cases the only appropriate question is “what?” not “who?” To get an intelligent answer, we must ask a geologist not a theologian.

Let’s turn to something much more personal. How shall we think about personal tragedy? What is the wise Christian response to pain and tragedy in our own private lives?

Once upon a time a widow came to the prophet Elisah. Her husband who had been a prophet had died. She had no income, no relatives to help her. Her late husband’s creditors were threatening to seize her two sons and sell them as slaves. What to do? She was desperate.

Elisha tells her to go to her neighbors and borrow every container she can.

So she filled her house with empty containers. Then Elisha told her to start filling these containers with oil from the little bottle she had. She did. And the oil kept flowing until she had filled every container.

Now she had a house full of oil–which was very valuable. She sold the oil, paid off her debts and lived happily ever after.

Notice, this woman’s predicament is not described as being caused by God or by the devil. Death happens. In our world, husbands have heart attacks. They get killed rarely in auto accidents. They die of cancer. They get killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. When someone we love dies, it is natural to ask, who did this? Usually that natural question is utterly unhelpful. God didn’t do it. The devil didn’t do it. It happened. The truth is it will happen to all of us sooner or later. So how do we as Christians thing about the random tragedy that strikes believers and unbelievers alike?

Elisha is a perfect guide for us. He did not say to the widow. If your husband had not been such a hypocrite, he wouldn’t have died. Elisha did not give her a lecture on the evils of debt. There is no hint of condemnation in Elisha’s interaction with the woman. Death happens. Bad stuff interrupts the flow of life.

What is the proper response to these facts? “How can I help you?”

The job of the church, the role of believers, is to do all within our power to ease the suffering.

In the story of Haiti, you will not find any useful insight into God by asking about the mechanism of earthquakes. You might find some useful insight into the mind and heart of God by paying attention to the work of ADRA or MercyCorp or the millions of others who have responded to the tragedy.

When catastrophe happens, whether it is a very private catastrophe in your personal life or in the life of someone you love or it is a massive catastrophe like the earthquake in Haiti, the best question to ask is what is God calling me to do now? That question will lead to action, to ministry, to meaningful life.

Asking “who did this” will do you no more good than it did me when I found water in the hole in my pasture. Water in holes happens in Enumclaw pastures. Earthquakes happen along the edges of tectonic plates. So?

When Jesus disciples saw an especially pathetic human situation they asked Jesus, “Who sinned?” Whose fault is this man’s predicament?” Jesus said their question was misplaced. The right question in the face of human tragedy is Now what? (John 9)

The answer to that question always circles back to the great commandments: Love God with your whole being and your neighbor as yourself. This is our job when things are going well. This is our calling when life is painful and difficult.

When earthquakes happen, whether literal earthquakes that shake the ground or figurative earthquakes that shake our lives and loved ones, don’t get distracted by asking, Who did this? Who caused this? Instead, ask, What can we do? That’s a question we can answer. Here. Now.

(And we won’t have to check with a geologist to see if we got it right.)