Deb issues an organizational statement about God’s world and us in the midst of this pandemic. Sending love and grace to all during this time.
How can we be the body of Christ to each other right now?
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From the article:
Fear is often a symptom of seeing ourselves as independent and able to make it on our own strength. The reality is that we are dependent on our Creator and on each other. Our heavenly Father knows what we need even before we ask.
This is so true.
As for how we can be loving neighbours right now, I think that if we can help each other reduce our fear, especially in our children, that will go a long way towards building emotional and spiritual healing on top of the necessary physical and economic healing.
God bless.
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A big part of seeking Christ’s kingdom is loving our neighbors. And here’s where it feels so backward: the best way you can care for others right now is to keep your distance and not spread the virus.
Too true.
And please forgive my being repetitive, but we are to be childlike and trust our Father:
Thanks for sharing that link, Martin.
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Galatians 6:7 (NIV2011)
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
It seems that many people are going to be deceived when a demagogue appeals to their arrogance and prejudices so that they believe that they are better that others.
It is sad that many people do not recognize that God speaks to them by natural events. They thank that they are better than others because they are rich, or white, or Western, but disease is a great leveler of people. God teaches them a lesson, but so they really learn it, or is this all show.
It saddens me that one of the reasons so many people now see church as irrelevant lies in the church’s teachings on the theodicy question. We have a major crisis – the worst one in the Western world since WWII – and some religious leaders can’t resist using the crisis to frighten people and “put them in their place” about God’s intentions towards us.
God is always speaking to us, not just through natural events (i.e. the big, newsworthy ones) but also through small, everyday miracles. Most of us choose not to listen or care about everyday miracles, but they’re always there, even in the midst of a major crisis. Our task as Christians is not to point fingers at the people who are sick (because each and every sick person is a child of God who is worthy of healing) but to show people how to find their inner courage and how to use the courage that only derives from a trusting relationship with God.
Over the past few decades, we’ve had the chance to use our free will to create a collective belief in our own invincibility. Millions of people have enthusiastically embraced the idea that we can get along just fine, thank you very much, without religion, faith, the soul, or God. But now we’re beginning to see that the cost of abandoning God in our everyday lives is a rampant, widespread lack of courage and an inability to cope wisely with fear. We’ve told ourselves that we’ll be just as courageous in the face of crisis without all that stupid faith stuff. And now we’re so terrified of illness and death (despite the absolute certainty of death for all of us) that we’re destroying the world economy we all depend on. How stupid is that?
The church currently stands at a crossroads. This is the time for Christians to stop preaching fear and judgment, and to instead reach out to meet God halfway in a conscious, faith-filled, scientifically-friendly way that turns to the teachings of Jesus instead of the teachings of Paul. If you listen with your Heart to Jesus’ message, you’ll feel the truth that God isn’t in the business of vengeance, and never was. But God is in the business of tough love, a love which is so immense and unconditional that it insists we rise to our own best nature as human beings whether we like it or not. Jesus tells us that being in relationship with God demands more than obedience to laws and rituals. We have to find the courage, trust, gratitude, and devotion that God knows we’re capable of. And sometimes it’s only in the midst of a crisis that we find the courage to seek out God’s infinite love.
We’re a stubborn bunch, we humans, and we’ve created a massive economic crisis for ourselves through our own free will. If the coronavirus is like a very bad flu, then the fear that has spread through world economies is like necrotizing fasciitis. We’re really going to need to need God’s help to get through this. But telling people that God is punishing us has to stop.
Jesus taught about God’s forgiveness, a forgiveness we all receive whether we ask for it or not. But part of forgiveness is a willingness to learn from our mistakes, to grow and learn from adversity, to accept the courage which is part of the soul. As Christians, we can help others in the spiritual tasks that Jesus called us to accept as part of our mission as human beings on Planet Earth.
It’s not just about healing bodies. It’s about healing hearts and souls, which has always been the church’s true mission. So let’s get on with it.