Does anyone remember February? When
even people who didn’t live in the same house could
go to a restaurant and have a meal brought to them
by a waiter while sitting within two feet of each
other. When the disinfectant section in the grocery
store actually had something to buy. Or that over
62,000 people could attend an event like the
Superbowl and only the players wore facemasks.
Life has changed dramatically in a few weeks. People
with whom we meet are mostly pixels on a screen who
often look and sound like actors in a badly dubbed
movie or if we do see someone in the flesh, they’re
dressed like a bank robber. When I stop to buy a cup
of coffee, I am reminded of the Soup Nazi episode on
Seinfeld where each person waited for the order
window to open, then made an exaggerated step
forward to quickly place their order and then made
another exaggerated step to the side to be served.
Now if some of those comments made you smile or even
chuckle a little bit, I am glad because in this time
we need to have some levity. What was sold to us as
a quick pause in order to flatten the curve is
stretching out to be longer and longer because the
objectives that would justify lifting the lockdown
keep changing. So, we sit feeling depressed,
oppressed and compressed. Or, to use an Old
Testament term, we lament.
N T Wright recently wrote a column about our current
times published in Time magazine. He wrote:
Rationalists (including Christian rationalists) want
explanations; Romantics (including Christian
romantics) want to be given a sigh of relief. But
perhaps what we need more than either is to recover
the biblical tradition of lament. Lament is what
happens when people ask, “Why?” and don’t get an
answer. It’s where we get to when we move beyond our
self-centered worry about our sins and failings and
look more broadly at the suffering of the world.
He goes on to give examples from Scripture and then
closes with this:
It is no part of the Christian vocation, then, to be
able to explain what’s happening and why. In fact,
it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able
to explain—and to lament instead. As the Spirit
laments within us, so we become, even in our
self-isolation, small shrines where the presence and
healing love of God can dwell. And out of that there
can emerge new possibilities, new acts of kindness,
new scientific understanding, new hope.
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Our story about Stephen skips the 60
odd verses before this of how Stephen testified to a
tribunal about the truth of Jesus Christ as revealed
to Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David and the prophets.
Stephen lamented the fact that his own religious
leaders did not recognize Jesus as the way, the
truth and the life.
Peter is exhorting his readers to recognize Jesus as
the cornerstone, the foundational stone on which a
building is constructed. Both Peter and Stephen
desire that the ways of the world would be built as
Jesus would have them. That Jesus is accepted the
truth of our human existence and that only through
him can we be truly free. Only through Jesus can we
have life that goes beyond death.
In this epidemic we can see flashes and glimpses of
the self-sacrificial way of Jesus. Healthcare
specialists, transportation workers, meatpackers and
a multitude of others braving infection to help keep
us safe and comfortable. Scientists who are plumbing
the secrets of the human body to find a cure or at
least a way to stem the tide of this disease.
Countless others who do their best to be available
to those who must self-quarantine to remain safe. If
there is one good thing about this pandemic it is to
show the shallowness of much of our political
polarization and to heap scorn on those who
perpetuate it. Christians don’t play gotcha, they
play helpya.
When we lament, we strip away all of the false
strengths we believed in before. Bereft of our
former crutches we turn back to the real strength,
our faith in a God who loves us. A God who laments
our absence but welcomes us back with no questions
asked.
So, as we lament what we have lost, let us use this
time to see what God has revealed about Jesus as the
way, the truth and the life. Let us be the shrines
that show the way of love not spite. Let us strive
for truth not just score points. Let us live as
Jesus would have us live, with abundance to those
who are lacking, with peace to those who are
troubled and with grace to those who are negative.
To say that God is using this pandemic to punish us
is wrong but to say that this pandemic can renew our
relationship with God is the good news that has been
ours forever. Amen
Taken from Trinity Episcopal Church’s Tidbit Tuesday
emai blast 5/12/2020 |
