In a recent blog post ("Into my Room" March 27, 2020) I promised to present my ideas in a strident forthright manner. I also made reference to a likely occasional critique of things around me. Well, this is one of those occasions. And just by way of further introduction to the subject at hand, please be assured I am not in a bad mood, just kind of thoughtfully indignant - concerned that we are not quite getting it yet.
Coronavirus social distancing is creating quite the posts, quite the rants, quite the tears, quite the laughs, quite the inspiration, quite the church services, quite the business and administrative changes, many government updates, etc. On my daily walk (average about 10,000 steps) a few blocks from my house two days ago I read a hand-printed message in a living room window. This post was slightly beyond the colloquial "We're in this together" hype. It was kind of lengthy but catchy! Enough to get me walking up their sidewalk for a nice read. Once started it took me in. We are reaping the consequence of lifestyle to date, it read, and therefore this pandemic. Then in addition to the urge to stay two meters apart and to cooperate with officials it concluded with "Think healthy and think deeply in your home, and if you have a home, be glad". It was not glitzy, not pessimistic, not religious - just neighborly!
Enter my opinion. Many of us are doing what is required, yes, but in our minds still hiding in the thickets. If the weather is pleasant there's backyard work to do. If we need groceries most of us have the means, if a break is needed we hop in car or pickup or SUV (gas is cheap) and just do it. And of course we can encourage one another with Zoom meetings, WhatsApp messages, Zoom birthday parties, parking lot coffee times. Our conversations are an adjustment of the normal and some acknowledgment that we seem to be into something new. And then we go on and on and on about that, without addressing a little more. We are such avoiders as we prattle on about lame over-used political or religious or whatever worn out points of view!
What is really on our minds? I think some of us, perhaps many of us, are actually thinking about the possibility of dying. Yes, you or I. Is it perhaps a good thing for us to die in order for the earth to be healed? I have mentioned it several times recently, and this usually met by shocked silence or a quick positive-thinking-type negation, "Oh no, we don't want to think that way". Okay, but why not think that way? News clippings of Wuhan, China, indicate that after that viral epidemic with many deaths, and dealt with by a total industrial shutdown, the sky is now clearing and the birds are singing. Just saying, just asking, "The grass withers, the flowers fade" so we read in Isaiah 40 and in the New Testament a further reflection, "All flesh is like grass" (1 Peter 1:24). We are but a part of this creation. Check the first chapter in your Bible.
Back to the message on my neighbor's window; what is wrong with saying it as it is and then an invitation to consider possibilities. Even if not religious on that window, I am led to reflect on the meaning of Life. Why not, even as you say thank you to medical professionals and essential workers doing their absolute best to serve us, also think about the Giver and Receiver of Life? I have Muslim and Christian and Indigenous friends, all of who are ready to say that even as we reap the consequences of our lifestyle, there is a larger vantage than the scientific or political. I happen to know many professionals - and some of them essential workers right now - who are the first to admit they do not have the tools to fix this one. Prayers, and large considerations are welcomed. My main point here? It is indeed absolutely essential for human beings (apparently those who have dominion) to speak with other human beings residing on this planet earth. Environment and health crises, politics, and religion, all required at the table.
These Kyoto-G7 United Nations type conversations of course are easier at international conventions and board meetings than at family dinners or church services or in small town watering holes or coffee shop talk. In those circles (and I have tried it) if I broach the above perspective I feel the anxiety, "What? Why does he consort with those 'others'? Why does he think things like that? He's a preacher, does he still believe?" In other words, in our habitat we are still inclined to the tried and true. Do I still believe? Yes, I believe. I believe enough to appreciate my neighbor's post on his front window. I believe enough to recognize the pain and horror of many a war fought for territory (read aboriginal or colonial history). I believe enough to know that no country or ideology is strong or pure enough to force itself on a whole planet. AND I also know the one Healer who 'pitched his tent among us' (John 1:14). He walked the roads between Jerusalem and Galilee, teaching, proclaiming, praying and teaching to pray, enduring misunderstandings and ridicule, and well-meaning disciples who followed only partially understanding. All this among the people's search for a messiah - political and/or religious. This One died for his troubles, and then he lives again (read my post "Corona Easter", April 12, 2020). This one is Jesus my Savior (Galatians 2:20). This one is also Jesus my Lord. In other words, I am a Jesus follower. So what would Jesus do? As his follower I need to pray about that. I need to think quietly in my room, in my back yard, in my truck (social distancing of course).
About a year ago I was speaking with a good friend who at one time was chairperson of the congregation I was pastor of. This conversation obviously before even a hint of Covid-19. "Rudy, what's priority these days? If I were to say heaven and earth will pass away, what would that mean to you?" His response came in the same way I remember him many years ago. "People are not going to survive," he says. "But the earth is. So I like to honor the earth and our God for at least as long as I live." And then he smiled. And I smiled too!
The engineer and the preacher. He was always ready to hear what the preacher might say, but not to the point of anxiety about my orthodoxy. And then quite often I would listen to his unorthodoxy. 😀 I sought his common sense logic in many situations. We enjoyed working together. Today he offers a wisdom which helps my corona perspective. And "whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's" (Romans 14:8).
Many thoughts from my room these days. Indeed it's much more than just social distancing. There's some good news to be nurtured in here! Nothing morbid about a possibility of death. I can live with that! And if a vaccine is discovered soon, it will be well for a population to move forward having given some thought to this, and a little more ready to die.
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