And God Smiled!

In the opening lines of the Bible, and from the Book of Genesis, there are two stories that mirror God as Creator, God Who created the world and everyone and everything on it.

The first story describes God creating the world in seven days, with man and woman created last but the best. The second story starts with the creation of man and woman and ends with both turning their backs on God.

In the first story, at the conclusion of each day, the words of Scripture sing a litany of all that God had made: “and God saw every thing that He had made and behold, it was very good.” (Gen. 1:31). And God smiled!

In the second story, when Adam and Eve foolishly attempted to rival God and think that they could be in control, instead of being cared for by Him, the story ends with God not smiling in the least.

As I muse on these thoughts with and for you, we are two days away from the beginning of the highly touted and long anticipated G-20 summit of leaders from 20 of the world’s economies.

On the one hand, there is cautious hope that the leaders will address the economies from a prism of perspectives that seeks to lessen poverty, reverse injustice, and turn the tide of economic relativism to global sharing. On such efforts, God would surely smile.

On the other hand, there is real fear about violent protests, dangerous outbursts, and widespread damage from those whose motives at best must be questioned and at worst must be condemned. On such efforts, God can hardly smile.

By the time you read this article, some of our hopes may be realized, and hopefully all of our fears dashed.

At the beginning of the week that would conclude with the G-20 Summit, something unprecedented happened. In our very own Saint Paul Cathedral, leaders and worshippers of all the Abrahamic faiths—Muslims, Jews and Christians—gathered to pray. In song, silence and speech we begged God to lead the G-20 leaders and all gathered and beyond to help the world be less a community that grabs the world’s resources for selfish pursuits. We prayed that the same world become more a family that shares our resources intentionally, generously, graciously and lovingly with and for those who have not. On such dreams, God smiles.

We joined together as a diverse community of faith but as a people of faith who have come to know, understand and love each other. Without ignoring our differences, or hiding our most fervent beliefs, we are a people who share a common ground, working together for the good of the community and praying together for a better world:

• for the wise use of the world’s resources;
• for human freedom;
• for the dignity of human work;
• for the poor of the world;
• for peace that is a true peace;
• and in particular for the inestimable value of human life.

What happened in Saint Paul Cathedral was a clear snapshot not only of what can happen but of what God truly dreams will happen in our response to the help of His untiring grace.

And God smiled—because of what we did in the Cathedral as people of diverse and different faiths. Hopefully, God also will smile on all that the G-20 leaders will do.

But both are just a beginning. Pray God we can each make God proud.

We must continue to thirst for peace, to thirst for justice, to thirst for charity, to thirst for hope.

And on all these—God smiles!!