Summer 2008

“This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all…”
Paul’s 1st Letter to Timothy

Dear Members and Friends,

The earthquakes and storms that have taken so many lives in Myanmar and China must surely be profoundly disquieting in the hearts and minds of every compassionate human being. How quickly can the structures upon which we all rely erode and evaporate into piles of rubble and dust, making that which appeared so secure all but instantly disappear.

Whether global or personal, when incomprehensible calamity strikes and we seek after a cause, I believe we are on much firmer, safer ground when we stay away from hasty moral assessments and theological pronouncements and stick with parameters that are more geological, meteorological, biological or medical.

God is indeed the First Cause of all creation, but we must also give due consideration to the physical elements of secondary causality that are part and parcel of this world. Otherwise, the sins I have deliberately committed, I could blame on the One Who created me with free will and the strength to carry it out! Actually, because Adam and Eve attempted this type of strategy in the Garden, with a singular lack of success, I have learned to chart a different course.

The fact is that the continental crust that we take for granted and commonly call terra-firma represents only 0.374% of Earth's entire mass! Indeed, the ice, upon which we all skate, is not only thin, it’s moving! What remains to be seen will be if the tangible support of wider nations will be steadfastly reliable beyond the remaining floods and frightening aftershocks.

Beyond all this is the truth and the hope that those who perished so far away from our shores, are our sisters and brothers, for whom Jesus died and with whom I hope to be saved. My faith tells me that the Cross of Christ throws a long shadow, spanning the ages and mending the unutterably profound rifts and wounds in the human predicament. The scriptures tell us the earth shook when Our Lord gave His life on Calvary. Perhaps this was a volcanic antiphon in response to the Creator become a Redeemer.

We have been laid deeply low in the pit of human frailty. But I believe we may never sink so deep that we cannot be uplifted by the unshakeable Gospel of eternal life in Jesus Christ. I cannot speak for the faith of those who have been lost, but I hope and pray that somehow by the surpassing grace of God in Jesus Christ, they may be forever found.

Godspeed,

From Reverend William J. Keane, Senior Minister of First Baptist Church of Branford