Previous | Next 

VIEWPOINT
Do we mean what we sing?

George Whitney

“Our God Reigns” is a beautiful hymn, and when it is used in the church I attend, it is obvious that the congregation enjoys singing it. The melody rises triumphantly: “Our God reigns! Our God reigns! Our God reigns!”

However, the question which is always going through my mind is: Where does our God actually reign? (The dictionary says that to reign is “to be acknowledged as supreme”.)

God certainly does not reign in the nations of the world – not in Kosovo, nor Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Burundi, India or Israel, but also not in Britain, the US or Canada, where one of the greatest understatements ever penned is wildly applicable: “In the last days, people will be . . . lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4). God cannot be said to reign in the cities of the world – Moscow, London, Beijing, New York, Chicago, Belgrade – not even in Toronto. He does not reign in the governments of the world, nor in the world’s business and financial centres. And not in the world’s weather system, where hurricanes, typhoons, mudslides, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes take a terrible toll in human life continuously.

It is difficult to see that God reigns even in the church, where 80% of the attenders are willing only to sit through an hour on Sunday morning, then race to join the unbelieving throng outside, and, shoulder-to-shoulder and arm-in-arm with them, spend the rest of the “Lord’s Day” in fun and recreation.

Yet, when “Our God Reigns” is announced, the congregation belts it out loudly and confidently. Do they know something I don’t know? Or are they just not thinking?

Where does our God reign?

George Whitney is a member of Christian Fellowship Chapel near Orillia, Ont.

Previous | Next 

Last modified May 26, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
Masthead and usage information.