Acts of God?

In the face of the recent floods in Queensland, and Victoria and the 500 lives lost this week in the floods in Brazil and Sri Lanka, it must raise the spiritual question for us of just where God is in this. 

I found this excerpt from a sermon written just after the Tsunami a helpful reflection.

"  The phrase “act of God” was adopted by insurance companies to refer to natural disasters.  Earthquakes, for example.  Or tsunamis, floods, hurricanes, tornados.  As an insurance term, I suppose it’s fine.  As a theological construct, it’s troublesome at the very least.

Yes, God created the universe and all its laws of physics, the tectonic plates and how they move together and apart.  But does God really decide to send a disaster on one of the poorest countries in the world (or any place else, for that matter)?  The Bible raises the question over and over of why bad things sometimes happen, from the book of Job to the gospels.  And it never gives us an answer.  If the scriptures don’t answer this question, then why do we think we can?

So, are there acts of God when a natural disaster occurs?  Absolutely.   The acts of God are when someone shelters a child who has suddenly become a homeless orphan, when food is shared, when people donate money or goods, when neighbors use their bare hands to dig through the rubble in search of the living or the dead, when prayers are lifted out of desperation or hope. 

Is God present in this disaster?  Yes, of course.  But not in the sense of causing it or using it as some sort of judgment.  God is present in the good done by those who go about doing ordinary and extraordinary things.

Those are the acts of God."

http://melissabanesevier.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/the-acts-of-god/