May the
meditations of my mind and all our hearts be pleasing to you, God, our rock,
and our foundation. Amen
Taking
scripture out of context and applying it how we want always works out well for
everyone... Right? Of course not, but if
you will indulge me, that’s kinda what I am going to do...
Today’s
epistle is a piece of scripture that is often used out of context. The idea of rejoicing in your suffering has
been used to keep people suffering for thousands of years. I know that the kind of suffering we are all
experiencing now is not what Peter was talking about. He was not addressing COVID-19 or any other
kind of global pandemic. However, when I
read this lesson and reflected on it, parts of it really jumped out at me in a
way that I needed to hear and reflect on.
One thing I have learned in my journey of discernment is not to ignore
the signs of the spirit, so let me share with you those parts and my
reflections on them.
“do not be surprised at the fiery
ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange
were happening to you”
·
Maybe
because something strange IS happening to us!
This is unlike anything that has ever happened to any of us. There is no textbook or training for all of
this. Sure, it could have been handled better, but even the Spanish Flu and
other similar situations are vastly different than what we are experiencing
“So
that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is
revealed”
·
For
me, this was about much more than the shouts of “Hooray! It’s all over!” I have seen a lot of discussion that suggests
using this time in which our schedules are mostly cleared of all of our
extracurricular activities as a time to evaluate which of these activities we
resume when this is all over. Similarly,
these words also give me hope that all this tragedy & hardship will help me
to recognize the blessings in my life and live life fuller and more richly when
the new normal is here.
“Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he
may
exalt you in due time.”
·
Through
the lens of this COVID-19 world we are all in, Is Peter telling us to put the
needs of others ahead of our own desire and stay at home going out only if we
must so all this must end? I’m going
with YES!
“Cast
all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”
o Yes, this is the goal, but it is so
much easier said than done. We have all
heard this sentiment in various forms, “Let go and let God,” “God will
provide,” and, to be honest, taken at face value this sentiment has always been
a bit of a challenge for me. I need to
be doing something. I need to help. I need to feel useful. I can’t just sit here but I don’t believe
that God wants us to just sit and wait for him.
It’s important to give our worries up to God so we can recognize what he
is providing. But God does
not provide groceries... Peapod is not going to just show up at my door with an
order that is not mine. HOWEVER, God
does provide opportunities for us to take action.
“Discipline
yourselves, keep alert”
·
These
are two different instructions. Not only
must we pay attention to ourselves, but we must check in with each other and be
willing to throw a lifeline when the tide sweeps up our brothers and sisters.
“Like a roaring lion your adversary
the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.”
·
This
line immediately made me think of my father once saying someone, probably me,
was “eaten up with anxiety.” Therefore,
we must trust God and take life one day at a time. I know that is another good one from the
“easier said than done” list, I have anxiety issues, I get it but it’s when we
give into our anxiety and go down that rabbit hole to a dark place, that we are
most vulnerable to the roaring lion.
“And after you have suffered for a
little while... Christ will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish
you.”
· This was a reminder to me that this
is temporary! We will get through
this... this too shall pass.
Until it
does pass, we continue to look to God for help and guidance during troubled
times, but sometimes we need our gaze adjusted.
In
today’s first reading, the disciples watch as Jesus ascends to heaven on a
cloud. As they are standing there,
angels ask what they are doing. They
ask, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus,
who has been taken from you into heaven, will come the same way as you saw him
go into heaven.” Talk about confusing...
we’re looking up to heaven... where Jesus just went... and you’re asking us why
we’re looking up there because that’s where he’s coming back from??
One of
the things I do when I stumble onto a scripture passage that I am struggling
with, is turn to other translations. Not
a lot of help with this one... until I opened Eugene Peterson’s The Message. In Peterson, verse 11 says “This very Jesus
who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly- and
mysteriously- as he left.” “and
mysteriously” That is helpful. Next,
I turned to another source I have grown quite fond of when it comes to the New
Testament. The textbook An
Introduction to the New Testament (creative title, I know). In it, M. Eugene Boring... yeah... I can’t
help but think he would probably sell more books if the spine of the book
didn’t say BORING in large bold capital letters... Anyway, Boring says, “Jesus’ followers are
not to be continually peering upward into the heavens awaiting his return. The gaze of Jesus’ followers is shifted
ninety degrees, reoriented outwards to ‘the ends of the earth’ where they have
a job to do.”
So,
should we not look to God during this global pandemic? I am not saying that. Absolutely we pray for guidance. We pray for a cure. We pray for those who have been affected by
this virus in all the ways they have been affected. However, in a time such as this, we should
not be looking up to find Jesus, we should be looking out. We need to find Jesus in others, and that is
no easy task! Where is Jesus in the
murderer? Where is he in the active
shooter? I don’t know...
Where I
see Jesus during this pandemic is not JUST in the essential workers. I certainly do see Jesus in these brave
workers... In the nurses, doctors and first responders. I see Jesus in the grocers keeping the stores
open, the delivery people brining us food from our local restaurants who so
desperately need our business, the truck drivers making sure that what we need
when we shop from home gets to us, and the teachers working to adapt to our
current environment in a way to keep our kids engaged and learning. Thank you to these and all essential
workers. You are heroes and you deserve
so much more than the title of “hero,” a cape and a fly over by the Blue
Angels. What you deserve is a living
wage... but that’s a different soapbox for another sermon.
So where
else can we find Jesus? When I look at
the world in quarantine, the Jesus I see is Jesus at one of the moments of his
purest and most raw humanity. I see
Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane crying out to his father. Begging God to “remove this cup.” Jesus was fully divine and fully human, and
what can be more human than fear?
What do
I see in this world? I see God’s
children scared of what is to come.
Scared of what will happen to their jobs, or if they will find another
one. Scared and trying to figure out how
to put food on the table for their kids.
Scared of what life on the other side of COVID-19 will look like. We are all scared, but we must adjust our
gaze and look to each other and look out for each other.
Stranger
God by Richard Beck
is a book about “meeting Jesus in disguise.”
The book focuses on finding Jesus in the marginalized, the oppressed,
the refugee, the homeless, the prisoner.
But we can also take Beck's challenge to find Jesus in disguise in those
who don’t fit into these categories.
From
what I can tell, fear is the root of just about everyone’s reaction to this
pandemic, even if we don’t agree with those reactions, or understand them. I can understand that when a loved one lashes
out that it is out of stress... anxiety... frustration... fear. But we must remember that people are afraid
of change. Change is hard, but change is
inevitable. Change is scary. And so is uncertainty. So frightening that they rush to return to
normalcy. They are quick to make
decisions which, personally, I believe are rash, careless and dangerous. They gather in large groups at the
beach. They protest social distancing
and put pressure on the law makers to open their state. But they do this because they are
scared. They want things to be as they
were before.
Yeah...
So, do I! But things will never be as
they were before. And no matter what the
“new normal” looks like, we will adapt.
To be
clear: I am not condoning the actions
that I have mentioned. I believe that
this pandemic is serious and that we need to listen to the experts. I believe that reopening too much too soon is
careless and selfish. Trust me, I long
for things to be reopened... to go back to work... to go see a play... to be
standing in the nave with all of you worshiping or in the parish hall having
coffee. But at what price?
My
prayer for you this Sunday... for US this Sunday, is that we all TRY to
remember that it is not just those sheltering at home or going to work on the
frontlines who are scared. I pray that
we recognize that we all are scared, and, even though it may not seem
so, we are all suffering together. I
pray that we are able to recognize Jesus in everyone during this global
pandemic, even those we don’t agree with.
Those are the people in whom we need to find him the most.
In the
name of one God, creator, redeemer, and sustainer. Amen.
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