It Is Later Than You Think

“It is later than you think” reads an inscription on a sundial.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America may have discovered just how true that saying is at its recent convention. While debating whether practicing homosexuals could be ordained (the convention voted they could, the Bible teaches they should not), a tornado hit and damaged the center where the convocation was being held.

What was particularly odd about the occurrence is its rarity. No tornado had been experienced in Minneapolis, the site of the convention, for ninety years. No severe weather warnings had been announced. Just “ka-boom!”, a tornado out of the blue.

Or was it really out of the blue? Jesus warned against seeing what we call “disasters” as tokens of God’s judgment (Luke 13:4-5). Even acknowledging the words of Jesus, it still seems more than coincidence to me: a rare tornado appearing at this specific time and place and while this particular issue was under discussion. Can it be that God is beginning to close this age of grace and return to a more stern control of mankind?

Maybe the guy holding the placard in the cartoon is right – “Repent now, because it is later than you think.”

I found the news report interesting that while the tornado appeared in Minneapolis and was striking the convention center, Lutheran Bishop Mark Hanson was reading Psalm 121 to the “nervous assembly”. I would think “frightened assembly” might be a tad more accurate. It is ironic that this Psalm, speaking of God’s power and concern for His child, would be regarded in the crisis of the tornado, and other scripture that address appropriate lifestyle and moral choices would be later flagrantly ignored in a vote – after the tornado had passed. But then, isn’t that really the spirit of our time? Make the Bible and morals a cafeteria: pick what you want and leave what you don’t want.

God can use nature to bring people to repentance. He used a thunderstorm and a lightning strike to convict Martin Luther (for whom the Lutheran Church is named) of sin. The Minneapolis tornado provided a thought-provoking point: the winds and the seas are at God’s beck and call and they can be used to call people back to Himself. If we really believe that God is all He claims to be, then we would conclude that this tornado was no coincidence. It was what Bible students called “providence.” God let it happen, willed it if you please, for a reason.

One conclusion is that this tornado was a divine warning that we repent from personal sin and that our churches quit condoning destructive behaviors.

God wills certain providences in our lives also. These providences are not always as dramatic as a tornado. Nevertheless, they are all intended to remind us of our dependency upon God, our mortality and our need to repent from personal sin and destructive behaviors.

This time as I write it, I may be closer to the truth than anyone thinks, or even than the sundial or guy holding the placard would have us believe. Repent now, because …

It is later than you think.