Hopeful lessons in a pandemic

More recent posts (some lighter, some more serious) during the pandemic can be found by clicking the "Corona Chronicle" tab above.

A few shrill voices claim covid-19 is God’s punishment for this or that. We can’t be that simplistic. Others ask where God is in this; the answer is where he always is, beside us in our need. And some ask why he has allowed it; it’s because pestilence and death are endemic until Jesus returns. Those questions are ultimately futile. But we can ask in this rapidly evolving situation, “what might God want us to learn from it?” Here are some suggestions.

It reminds us of human and physical frailty. We usually assume we’re largely invincible. But the flesh is weak and we fall ill. Physical things we depend on wear out or break. Now, “normal” life is disrupted. So we get annoyed and are hugely inconvenienced. St Paul had a healthy slant on this: “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). His many troubles drove him back to the God on whom he depended for everything, always. He took nothing for granted. He adapted to changed circumstances (eg Acts 16:6-10). Maybe we need to ask if we expect too much, do too much, and thus become less flexible to follow God’s lead when contingencies occur. “He turns our weaknesses into his opportunities,” as song writer Graham Kendrick wrote.

It reveals our obsession with consumption. Western society is built on the concept of constant economic growth and increasing personal consumption. So in a pandemic there’s a breakdown in trade, the stock markets crash, the economy stalls, businesses collapse, jobs are lost, and politicians despair. Remember the house built on sand (Matthew 7:24-27). The biblical lifestyle model is not one of making more to buy more; it is of “enough”, based on modesty and sharing (eg Philippians 4:10-19, and the Old Testament laws of social interaction). Maybe we need to reconsider our priorities, personally and nationally.

It has provoked fear and panic. As covid-19 has spread, so has fear. Fear of death, of illness, of running out of goods, even fear of other people who might spread the disease. It has led to panic buying without thought for vulnerable people who are unable to stock up. Look at Psalm 56: “When I am afraid I put my trust in You … In God I trust and (therefore) am not afraid”. Fear, it says, prompts faith and trust. In turn, faith and trust reduce fear. Jesus promised his over-wrought disciples “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you”, adding that his peace was qualitatively different to what the world offers (John 14:27). Maybe we need to recover spiritual and human trust and relax into God’s peace.

It illustrates global inter-dependence. Even in “primitive” societies no-one was entirely self-sufficient. Hermits rely on others to bring them food. Today we depend on global supply chains for fuel, raw materials, and goods from coffee to computers. Just as the virus spread through human contact, so did the Gospel in the early church through displaced and inconvenienced Christians (Acts 8:1-3). Medical self-isolation aside, we shouldn’t stop helping each other (see Romans 12:9-16). Hard as the situation is, it provides an opportunity to experience and share the love, hope and peace of God, released to the world through the sacrificial death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.