On John Piper and tornadoes sent by God...

I pause for this commercial break in the New Exodus book blog, in part because I'm so terribly irritated by John Piper's recent blog and in part because this is one of those "teaching moments" which coincides with the narrative location of our recent New Exodus journey.If you'd peek at my library, I have about a dozen John Piper books.  When I was a seminary student in the mid-90's, Piper came and spoke, flooring us with both his powerful message and evident humility.  Over time, I've noticed that he has spent considerable ink on people he disagrees with - the Emergent folk, Greg Boyd, Tom Wright, and more.  Listen, that's cool.  I've learned a lot from some of those academic debates, finding myself more sympathetic (on the whole) with Piper when he debates Boyd, and a bit less sympathetic in his disagreements with Wright.  I've especially loved his historic windows into suffering saints, and (like many) was 'saved' through his invitation to Gospel hedonism.But Piper said something this past week that we've heard from the likes of Falwell and Robertson, and it's disturbing.  He placed himself in the control tower, monitoring tornado flights in and out of Sin City.  And he played God in the process.  That's not cool.  In his blog, he builds a series of premises in his tornadic syllogism toward a logical conclusion:  "The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin." Let's talk.  First, this business of who suffers and when they suffer is quite mysterious.  Indeed, suffering seems to be a clear mark, in the New Testament, of obedience, not disobedience.  St. Paul is literally chased down by literal storms and pharisaic stormtroopers.  Piper knows (and this is what makes this whole thing so baffling) that it's the televangelists who prey on a quid pro quo theology: have faith, be spared from suffering, and acquire great wealth!  It's clearly a mystery when we see a good (and godly!) family suffer the loss of children (think Samuel Rutherford, Dr. Piper), and an abusive Dad thrive in his life and business.  In this mystery, the biblical invitation is not to play "air traffic controller" for divine tornadic activity, but to pray and lament.  Only a few prophets along the way get to 'divine' God's ways......Which leads me to the second point.  Piper has been around longer than I have.  It probably requires a lot of gray hair to pronounce a "Woe to you" complete with tornadic proof.  I've wanted lightning bolts to hit the foreheads of sexually abusive fathers who recited prayers over their victims (yes, I've counseled people who have experienced this).  I've wanted God to strike down white-collared politicians who have turned a blind eye to the poor.  But it takes a lot of guts, and perhaps a divine mandate, to follow through with a "Woe to you."  Perhaps Piper has earned the chips in heaven to make prophetic weather announcements.  But it seems to me that these divine initiatives only take place when hurricanes place a bullseye on New Orleans, Tsunami's race toward pagan coasts, or tornadoes bear down on a denominational meeting where homosexuality is being debated.  Hmmm.  It seems that Jesus, the Tornado Incarnate, directed his deadliest winds at the religious establishment, choosing to blow gentler breezes in the direction of the sinners Piper is so concerned about.  Just saying...Third, in this instance, I suspect it would do much of us good to look hard at how we've further shamed, insulted, belittled, and alienated those who struggle mightily with gender identity (bracketing off for a moment what is 'right' and what is 'wrong').  I counsel people in these places of confusion.  They hear Piper's quotation of 1 Cor. 6:9-10 and either a) believe they're damned and descend into self-sabotage or b) recoil with anger at the church.  Few bother to explain that St. Paul was a follower of Jesus, who turned the law on its head and pointed the finger squarely at those who were self-righteous.  The adulterers, the immoral, the greedy, the drunkards - that's us.  Jesus so radicalized it that the thought of lust made us adulterers.  That said, we need to be careful to point the finger, making sure that those to whom we point it know that we're aware of our own junk.  Maybe Piper has a relationship with the ELCA leaders I don't know about.  Maybe he's done much more than I know to repent on behalf of all of us who in the name of Christ shame and mock homosexuals, using a few key verses to pronounce their very near damnation.  I apologize, Dr. Piper, if all of this has been done.  But from your blog, it appears that you are throwing stones, or more accurately, predicting divinely judgmental weather patterns.  This has the smell of a prophetic mandate.  And Jesus, being the Final Prophet, turned his tornadic activity in different directions...Finally, God is in the business of (mysteriously) using suffering in order to make us into something better than we are.  It can make us aware of how we've been hurt, and how we've hurt others.  Always, God is not surprised by it.  This is where I disagree with Boyd and agree with Piper.  Let's face it:  if you have a big God, you have to deal with big Mystery.  You can't explain away verses about God's rule over the bad and good in the world with an Oprah-like, "My God would never do such a thing."  That's great for your God.  But, reckoning with the hard realities of Scripture is more difficult.  Some people choose to re-write the narrative.  I'm with Piper in the stream of those who place themselves within it.  But like a good (but hard) Story, we don't always know the motives of the characters, let alone what the Author was divining.  We trust the Author.  We engage the plot.  We await its final outcome.  And along the way, crap happens, and we lament, cry, scream, beat God on the chest, and wonder along with the wisdom-writer why He blesses the evil doer and curses the obedient.  With the huge weight of our own junk and the world's mess, I hardly believe that Piper has time to pontificate on tornadoes and ELCA evil-doers who will not enter the kingdom-of-heaven.  If our right-or-wrong view on homosexuality is the litmus test, then I've seriously misread the Gospels.  If Jesus is right and we're all a mess, then by all means let us all look at the grand logs in our own eyes and get on with forgiving others for the speck in theirs.With that in mind, I'll end with an ever-present feeling of dread, knowing all-too-well that I'm so often very wrong.  Calvin himself said that our theological ramblings are but baby-talk.  If we'd take our theological forefather seriously, perhaps we'd be attempting to better play with each other as the children of God we are rather than criticizing the messes we've made in our diapers.  Piper, this one is worth a retraction.  You are too good of a man, preacher, author, mentor and more to be writing this stuff.  Retract, and then come out and play...even with those whose messes smell worse than yours...Grace and peace.