God and the pandemic

 

God and the Pandemic.  

Tom Wright (formerly Bishop of Durham) has written an excellent book which I thoroughly recommend.  These notes are a short summary of the book, with a few of my own thoughts included. 

 

Supporting 'the family'

In ancient times when a disaster happened, people assumed that the gods were angry and needed to be appeased.  They usually tried to placate the gods by sacrifice - in some pagan religions they would even sacrifice their own children.  Any support they gave to one another would be most likely within their own extended family.  But there was no concept of supporting the community at large.

 

One of the  great steps forward brought about by Christianity was that believers in Jesus tried to follow his teaching by supporting one another as a Christian family in hard times.  Thus the concept of 'family responsibility' was extended from blood relations to the Christian community at large.  Jesus reached out to help people, even before they became believers.  There is no recorded instance, for example of Jesus turning away someone who sought healing. When he fed the 5000, no-one was excluded from the meal.   So Christians followed this example too, feeding the hungry, giving a drink to the thirsty, clothes to the needy, visiting the lonely and the imprisoned.   They did this, and still do so, following Galatians 6.10:  So then, while we have opportunity, let us be working good to everyone, but especially to the family-members of the faith.    Our heritage from this today includes hospitals and schools, as well as numerous Christian charities supporting the poor and needy, and those afflicted by disasters, irrespective of whether the needy are themselves Christian, though the first responsibility of a Christian is to fellow-believers.

 

In the current pandemic, sorrow is arising from the whole world like a pall of smoke and we hardly dare ask the question 'Why'?   Actually the best answer has been not to the question 'Why?' but to the question 'What can we do?' When the government asked for people to help the NHS as volunteers, half a million people signed up almost at once. They were doing what Christians have done over the centuries in times of disaster. Christians copy Jesus in supporting the poor the needy and the sick. In  Britain and other countries with Christian roots people have followed these inherited principles, though many nowadays have dropped the religious bit. No matter; the response has been heartwarming. 

 

Inappropriate Christian responses.

Some Christians have jumped to the conclusion that the pandemic is a sign of the end times. Others have thought that it is a wonderful opportunity to get people to think about heaven. And yet others think that God has brought disaster upon us in order to get us to repent of our evil ways. This follows the simplistic idea that good things happen to us when we're good, and bad things happen as a punishment when we're bad! Life, however, is not as simple as that.

 

A look at the Old Testament

if we look at the Old Testament we might get the impression from the Babylonian exile that the people of Israel were being punished for their evil ways. And indeed they were. But this was due to a specific covenant relationship between God and Israel. The nation had disobeyed God. They had been warned and had ignored the warnings. Exile was the outcome. There are plenty of other examples in the Old Testament of bad behaviour resulting in a bad outcome and good behaviour being rewarded by a good outcome.

 

Nevertheless the Old Testament operates at two different levels. Many of the Psalms include cries of distress by decent people who wonder why bad things are happening to them. Moreover the book of Job - perhaps one of the most ancient parts of the Old Testament - is a story describing bad things happening to a good man. His friends come to entirely the wrong conclusion by believing that his ill-fortune is a result of bad behaviour or sin. The story has a happy ending, but is only partially resolved. What is absolutely clear though is that Job's sufferings are brought upon him by a dark power which has nothing to do with his sinfulness. We do not understand that dark power whom we call Satan. We are at liberty to cry out  in distress if we too suffer for no apparent reason - as did the psalmists many times, and as did Jesus himself as he approached his crucifixion.   But the story of Job tells us clearly that the power of evil was only allowed to go as far as God permitted - and God had his reasons for this which may often be beyond our understanding.

 

Jesus and the gospels

The arrival of Jesus on the scene was a turning point in history. Now everything was going to be different. The Kingdom of heaven was at hand. in some ways Jesus was like the Old Testament prophets: warning people that unless they changed their ways and repented disaster would come, as indeed it did when the Romans devastated Jerusalem 40 years later. 

 

But in another way Jesus was not like the Old Testament prophets. When asked for a sign, he usually refused to give one on demand. The only sign he would give them was the prophetic sign of Jonah. Jonah disappeared into the belly of the whale and then came out alive three days later and Jesus said that was the sign that would tell his generation what was going on. (It's recounted in Matthew 12.40.   The sign of course would be subsequently when he died and returned to life on the third day.)

 

In the Old Testament, signs were usually negative ones such as the great plagues in Egypt. By contrast the signs that Jesus gave were positive: water into wine, healings, food for the hungry, sight for the blind, life from the dead.  

 

One thing which Jesus was very clear about was that if a person suffered it was not necessary to assume that it was a punishment for sin. In John chapter 9 he was asked about a man who was born blind. 'Teacher, whose sin was it that caused this man to be born blind? Did he sin or did his parents?'   'He didn't sin', replied Jesus,  'nor did his parents.  It happened so that God's works could be seen in him.'   So Jesus was not looking back to why it happened but forward to what God was going to do about it. That meant that Jesus himself was going to do something, which indeed he did by healing the blind man.

 

Us. What are we going to do?

Some Christians may think of the current pandemic as a sign from God. But we don't actually need signs of this sort from God. The ultimate sign was Jesus himself, his death and his Resurrection. Jesus gave us what we now know as the Lord's Prayer. In it he tells us to pray 'thy kingdom come'. He also tells us to pray 'forgive us our sins'.   This is all we need. We need to be Jesus centred, and consider in the light of our faith in Jesus Christ what we are going to do about the situation in which we find ourselves in this pandemic. We can and should pray for forgiveness from our sins. We can and should pray for God's Kingdom to come. Actually, God's Kingdom has already been inaugurated by Jesus. But the power of evil has not yet been destroyed and we should seek to let God's power work through us as we fight against the enemy.

 

If God is almighty, why doesn't he intervene and stop the pandemic?

God is sovereign. but if we believe this we have to try and understand what it means. If God is sovereign why doesn't he stop the pandemic? Why doesn't he abolish suffering? The story of Jesus and Lazarus is very instructive here. The sisters of Lazarus blamed Jesus, saying 'If you had been here Lazarus would not have died.' Jesus himself wept genuine tears at the tomb of Lazarus, weeping because he knew of the real suffering that had occurred as a result of Lazarus' death. Yet out of and after the suffering came new life. Jesus himself suffered on the cross. And sometimes we too will be expected to endure suffering before we reach the promised land. (I'm reminded of Churchill's speech In  June 1940 when he said 'The Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. …The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be freed and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands'.)      Whilst the power of evil still exists there will be suffering and we shall be expected to share in this. In Romans 5,  Paul suggests that we should rejoice in suffering. What he means by this is that we should rejoice that our suffering is not pointless. God will use our suffering to the good purpose of developing our endurance and our character.

 

Early believers and their response to disaster.

We can look at the New Testament story to see how early believers responded to disaster. For example when Agabus in Antioch predicted a worldwide famine, people did not try to interpret whether it was a sign from God. Nor did they play the blame game, questioning whether anyone was at fault, or whether the famine was a punishment for the sins of any group of people. No. Their response was to consider what they could do about it and whom they could help. They were fulfilling a principle which was beginning to restore God's Kingdom to the way it was meant to be. God always wanted to work in his world through loyal human beings. This is part of the point of being made 'in God's image'. 

 

In the Lord's Prayer we pray 'thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.' And here already in the early church we see that Kingdom being launched. The way it is happening is by God working through people of this sort. And these people are being energized by the Holy Spirit. 

 

The call to repent is of course a big theme in the New Testament. But it is not linked to warning signs such as plagues, famines, or earthquakes. It is linked solely to the Lord Jesus Christ, his death and Resurrection. This is what Paul carefully taught for example when he was summoned to the Areopagus High Court in Athens. From the time of Jesus onwards we see Jesus's followers telling people about God's kingdom and summoning them to repent not because of any subsequent events such as famines or plagues but because of Jesus himself. The message was, and is, that Jesus came and died for our sins, and then conquered death. This is the only sign we shall get. We should respond by repenting of our sins, giving our lives to Him and becoming active soldiers in his kingdom.  When we pray 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done' we should remember that the Kingdom of heaven is already here and we can be part of it.  There is more to happen yet: the power of evil is yet to be finally crushed, but God calls us to share with Him in fighting against this evil.

 

But why doesn't God intervene and do something?

During this pandemic there are many people who are asking why doesn't God do something about it if he is in control? 

Now let's ask several questions. 

·       Why did Jesus weep at the tomb of Lazarus?

·       Why, when we don't know how to pray as we ought, does the Holy Spirit plead on our behalf with groanings too deep for words? (Romans 8 27) 

·       Why did the king of the Jews hang suffering on a cross?

·       Why did God himself the controller of the universe come in the person of Jesus and show that leadership involves being a slave being prepared to wash one another's feet? 

·       And when Peter said to Jesus 'You shall never wash my feet' why did Jesus answer 'If I do not wash you have no part in me?' (John 13:8)

 

There is something about God being in control that we need to learn to grasp. And it's to do with suffering and groaning. It's also to do with true leadership involving servanthood. When there is suffering, God suffers with us. We see it most clearly in the suffering of Jesus on the cross. But until the power of evil is fully defeated the whole of creation will continue to suffer. …...

(Nb my blog entry of May 24th 2020 is on the subject of 'Is God in control?'

 

 

Groaning X 3. 

 Romans 8:22 ESV — For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

 

With creation in an agony of travail during this pandemic we have no great pronouncement to make about what it all means. Creation is groaning and so are we. And we are we are reminded in this Bible passage that God himself is groaning. One Day all this evil will be swept away, but for the time being God is with us in our grief. Our role is to pray maybe with wordless prayer and to stand alongside all who suffer. 

 

It's easy for Christians to misunderstand the meaning of Romans 8 28. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

A a popular interpretation is that in effect we can sit back and wait for things to come out well because God is going to work all things for our good. This is rather a stoical way of thinking. 'What will be will be, and it will all turn out alright in the end.'

 

But Tom Wright in his book about the pandemic goes into great detail to show that this is not what the phrase really means. A much better meaning is that God himself cooperates for good with those who love God. It reinforces this idea that we are called to hard work and suffering knowing that God is at work in us. We are called to be part of God's saving purpose for his suffering world. Paul is not proposing a Christian version of stoicism. He is offering a Jesus-shaped picture of a suffering redeeming providence in which God's people are themselves not simply spectators, not simply beneficiaries, but active participants. 

 

Note that there is one area where God is not fully in control.  This is because he has delegated a great deal of control to human beings. When they mess up, as is often the case, he grieves. When Jesus looked at the wickedness of Jerusalem he wept. It is the price that God paid for making man in his own image. 

 

Where do we go from here?

We must learn that it is right to lament. We are told to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. The world is weeping and we should weep with them, as Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. God is not sending further signs.Jesus himself was and is the sign that we all need, and if God sent further signs it would imply that the sign of Jesus was inadequate.. 

 

As we lament we must learn to accept that we do not understand the pandemic and may never understand it. As TS Eliot said "in order to arrive at what you do not know you must go by a way which is the way of ignorance." Suffice it to say that all such evils originate with the enemy the devil whose final defeat has not yet happened. Our role is to fight with Jesus against the enemy by both prayer and action where possible. God is ultimately in charge and even though evil stalks the land we can see from the book of Job that Satan, the author of evil, is limited  by God in what he is allowed to do. 

 

Something which should concern us as church members. 

The Christian community has in the past always been at the forefront of social action to benefit the needy. They have established schools and hospitals. More recently they have been at the forefront of hospice care. However, as the years have gone by, the state has taken over many of these functions; but it would be wrong for Christians to stand back and think that the only role remaining to them today is to teach people how to get to heaven! There is always plenty that we can do to supplement the work of the state authorities and to step in where the state isn't doing too well

There is a way of thinking which suggests that religion should be a private matter for the individual and should have no place in public Life. So worship becomes invisible. There is a danger that in these days of Zoom meetings this problem will be aggravated. So we should be praying for the day when our churches can function as they used to do. 

The battle of the false gods - and what we should be hoping and praying for.

Tom Wright imagines a battle going on between false gods.

Asclepius the god of healing

Mammon the money god. 

Mars the god of war

And Aphrodite the goddess of erotic love is never far away. 

Even now there is a tussle between those who support a total lockdown and those who want to get commerce back on its feet again. It's a battle between Asclepius and Mammon. And in the background the superpowers are still building up their armaments and threatening one another. Meanwhile the poor and the weak will go to the wall again. They always do. It's a time of lament but it should also be a time of prayer and hope. What we hope for includes the desire for wise human leadership and initiative which will, like that of Joseph in Egypt, bring about fresh and healing policies and actions across God's wide and wounded world.