The Bible teaches us that God is intimately involved with his world.  Not only did he plan and create it, he superintends all aspects of its ongoing life. We refer to this as God’s sovereignty because we see him as sovereign Lord of the universe.

Not only that, the Bible teaches us that because God is righteous, he remains deeply committed to the righteous behaviour of his human creatures. This expresses itself in his fixed determination to judge the world.

The final judgement of God will be comprehensive. From time to time, however, we experience his judgment in our daily lives or even in the life of our nation.

Early American President Thomas Jefferson said “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever…”. He was thinking particularly of the institution of slavery.

Our experience of God’s judgment can come through the natural order. The disasters and difficulties of life are used by God to chastise us and to awaken us to our follies and to his final judgment.

They may also simply alert us to the fact of how much we depend upon him.

At the present moment our State is still being deeply troubled by continual drought. I hope and pray that between the time when I write these words and they appear, our prayers for rain may be abundantly answered.

However, drought gives us the opportunity to reflect upon our position before God as a nation.  Whether or not we should attribute this drought to his judgment, it certainly reminds us of how much we depend upon him and how little we, as a nation, have acknowledged this fact.

It reminds us, too, of our stewardship of the land and the obligation we have to care for it and the animals.

So far we have seen little, even in the churches, by way of such reflection and, where necessary, repentance.

Sunday August 15th has been appointed in the Diocese as a day when we can pause to reflect on our position before God, our true dependence upon him, and to ask him specifically for rain (it may be, of course, that by then we will be giving thanks for rain).

I hope that in all our churches, special attention will be put to this matter on that day.

It may be that the ordinary course of teaching and preaching should be interrupted with sermons that remind us of the truths of God’s sovereignty, our sin, his judgment, and our dependence on him.

As well, we should be thinking of the needs of those especially in country areas whose livelihood is threatened by this drought.

I know that we have already been generous in supporting our brothers and sisters in the bush, but we need to continue our generosity, especially towards the parishes, ministers and church people of the Province of NSW.

I intend to launch a special appeal towards this end, and I trust that we will give generously.