No matter where you look, or who you talk to these days, it’s all about the coronavirus.
It certainly has impacted our lives; my daughter has been sent home from college for at least the next 30 days, all college classes now taken online. A doctor on TV recommends that people over age 75 give serious thought to not attending any public events; even to going to an exercise class. Should people visit my 96-year old mother at her nursing home? The doctor on TV says to “err on the side of caution” — that facilities should curtail all visits beyond necessary medical or other functional visits. The NBA has cancelled its season after a player tested positive. Another aspect of life that we’ve seen impacted is economic and financial. Beyond the stock market losing at least 20% of its value to date, and its impact on retirement funds, employment in any areas involving public events, travel, etc., I’ll use a couple of mundane (self-focused) examples: What about the significant money I’ve paid for college room and board, the facilities my daughter normally uses at the school, now unused? Will the coronavirus impact our family’s planned travel to see family? Is it too dangerous to fly? It’s more than money isn’t it? It’s time, and plans, and all the ways we organize our lives, or expect our lives to work transactionally — when I pay, something specific is supposed to happen, when I do this or that, I can expect this or that result. And then there’s the impact on our personal freedom: the quarantining of hundreds of people on ships; the fact that whole towns, cities, even most of Italy now, for example, is on lock down. Everything closed except grocery stores and pharmacies. What will happen next? What will happen to my life? It’s the lack of certainty. We all want this in our lives, and the coronavirus pandemic is affecting that sense of certainty. It’s the unknown. One of the results of uncertainty, of the unknown, is fear. And when we are afraid, well, things start to get away from us, like caring, like loving our neighbor. Almost 500 years ago in 1527, Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, wrote a tract called “Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague.” It was written as the plague washed across Europe yet another time — a pandemic that 200 years beforehand, had killed up to 40% of Europe’s population. One can easily imagine that people were on edge. Luther’s response 500 years ago is surprisingly modern: he wrote that doctors, those holding public office, and pastors, had particular responsibilities to care for the people. He spoke about having adequate hospital facilities to care for plague patients. He spoke about common sense, and he also spoke about not forgetting that we’re in this together: “God has created medicines and has provided us with intelligence to guard and take care of the body… Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate house, yard, and street; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence.” The last line is key: “wherever your neighbor does not need your presence.” Some members of the congregation I serve went to Costco this week. Costco is the place to buy 36 roll packs of toilet paper, or five-pound boxes of cereal! The members were shocked to find the toilet paper entirely cleaned out, and also noted there were signs limiting the amount of 36 roll packs of toilet paper one could buy — meaning that people were trying to leave with multiple monster bundles of toilet paper. Putting the best construction on everything, as Jesus asks me to do, I guess someone might be buying for their friends or neighbors, but there’s still a fair question to be asked of our fear: why in situations of fear is there the temptation to hoard for ourselves, and not to think of the common good? Or, to allow fear to excuse poor behavior, like the story of an Asian-American woman assaulted by another woman in New York, apparently the scapegoat over fear of the coronavirus? Fifty-eight times in the Bible, God’s people are reminded, “Do not fear.” At least 40 additional times is the phrase, “Do not be afraid.” These words are spoken in times of real peril, real risk, real disease, real danger. God does not say that we will be free of risk, or danger, or disease, but God promises his presence in danger and suffering and sickness. Followers of Jesus Christ live by faith. We live knowing that, as Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America concluded her recent letter about the coronavirus: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8). Augusta Health has put out some great information on the coronavirus. Currently we live in one of the lower risk areas for Covid-19. It should be noted that for all the concern for the coronavirus, we regularly live through flu seasons that claim tens of thousands of lives in the U.S. alone each year. Augusta Health actually tells us that flu risk is really of greater concern in our area right now. To live by faith does not mean to be foolhardy. Wash your hands regularly. Be careful in public events. Follow your doctor’s advice. At Grace Lutheran, as I know in many Waynesboro-area congregations, we are taking many pre-cautions in public worship, and providing live-streaming opportunities for those who are concerned. But we do not forget who we are; people called not to fear, but to know God’s promise of love and mercy, and to love our neighbor in need, and care for others, even when we ourselves are careful.
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AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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