Matthew 24: 36-37
‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.’
For many centuries some Christians have interpreted either human or natural events as a sign of the coming end of all things or, even more disturbingly, associated a natural disaster or civil unrest with the sins of a nation or nations. Drawing direct correlations between the experiences of created life, sin and God’s judgement and/or Jesus return is highly problematic. Especially, when we do it from afar. Much suffering remains a mystery of which the best we can say is that God cared enough for our suffering that he shared in it in and through the life of Jesus.
Having said this we do know there are consequences for our actions and listening carefully for the suffering of others is important in this global community in which we live. In response to the recent typhoon in the Philippines the Filipino delegate to the climate talks in Warsaw expressed both his grief and conviction concerning the growing severity of such natural events which are clearly connected to climate change.
Yeb Sano speaks at Warsaw http://tcktcktck.org/2013/11/cop19-philippines-speech-moves-plenary-tears/5870