Some Thoughts on the Coronavirus and Our Faith

I was going to preach about something else today.

I had a really good sermon prepared, but I scratched it because I knew I had to talk about the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

It seems that times like these make us seek out council from God.

And in times like these there are always some who offer what I believe they think is good advice but ultimately not helpful.

Here are some of my thoughts on what all this means.

First of all we should get rid of the idea that God is punishing us for something.

I know after 911 some preachers said that God was punishing for our sin of being too accepting.

You hear this a lot after some disaster.

I don't see any Biblical evidence that the way God punishes us is by sending some sickness.

In fact, Jesus tells us that these things that happen are not because of our sin.

I am thinking of the blind man that Jesus encountered in John's Gospel.

Jesus disciples ask him, "Who sinned this man or his parents, that he was born blind"

Jesus rebukes them saying, "neither sinned".

It isn't about that.

Maybe this gets to a core understanding of what it is to be human and that is to be human is to suffer.

There is no way around it.

There is no way to avoid being hurt.

There is no way to avoid getting sick.

There is no way to avoid dying.

That is what it is to be human.

It is what makes being human so scary.

We have done a lot in our modern times to give us the impression that these things don't apply to us.

I never imagined that we would be living with an international pandemic.

That seemed like something that used to happen a long time ago when people didn't have better medicine and sanitation.

I thought we were safe from such things.

But the truth is that we are really fragile people.

This is why we need faith.

We need faith to deal with this fragile state we find ourselves.

Because we don't like it.

We want it to stop.

We want to feel better.

We want to feel secure.

Maybe the only thing I have found that is secure in my life has been God.

God is always there.

The second thing that needs to be said about our faith and the Coronavirus is that it is not an unfaithful response to be scared.

It is not unfaithful to be sacred about what is happening.

I have seen a lot of things like, "God is our stronghold and we shouldn't fear".

But what we are talking about here is a virus that is spreading rapidly in our community and our country.

And fear is one way that God tells us to stop something.

I cancelled church this morning out of fear.

Fear that I might put you in harm's way.

Fear that we might continue to perpetuate this virus.

Fear is something that comes from our gut and tells us something is wrong and we should do something else.

However, even though I might have fear I am not afraid.

I know that seems like a contradictory statement.

Jesus tells us all the time to not be afraid.

Fear is my gut telling me to avoid certain things.

It is what tells me not to jump out of a plane, pet a snake, or try to ride a lion.

Being afraid is a state of eternal worry.

I trust God.

I trust that things will work out somehow.

It may not work out in the way I want, or expect but that it will work out.

It may not even be that "everything will be ok".

Maybe some bad things will go down, but with God I know I can deal with whatever comes my way.

I can deal with all of my complex emotions that I don't really want to deal with.

I can deal with fear, sadness, feeling anxious and uncertain.

At the bottom of my faith is the God I know in Jesus Christ.

It is the God that Paul tells us about in his letter to the Romans.

Paul tells us, "Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through Our Lord Jesus Christ."

We know that God is on our side.

Paul tells us that this doesn't mean that our lives will be with suffering.

Paul knows that to be human is to suffer.

Paul knows we will experience all those range of emotions we feel as humans.

But then Paul says something remarkable.

Paul tells us that God transforms our suffering.

God turns our suffering into hope.

God turns it into faith.

"…We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

God takes things in our lives that are painful and turns them into things that give us hope.

Put another way, God takes our deaths turns them into resurrection.

We know this through Jesus Christ.

Because that is exactly what happens to Jesus on the cross.

Through his death and resurrection Jesus transformed suffering into hope.

So it is OK to have fear about what the Coronavirus will do.

But do not be afraid.

In faith I trust that God will turn it into something else.

I don't know what.

I just trust that every day I am dying and rising to new life in Christ.

That is what is my foundation of life.

It is what keeps me going.

That is what I hope for all of you to.

That this time we will learn endurance, character, and hope.

That this virus will bring us closer to God and each other.

It seems like a silly thing to say, because we are far apart today.

We are not in the same room.

And in this time what do we need more than anything it is to be together so that we can give each other comfort.

It doesn't seem possible for us to grow closer together, but I trust that we are learning new spiritual truths through this ordeal.

And that we are learning them in ways that we wouldn't have without it.

I am not saying God gave us the Coronavirus so we could learn deep spiritual truths.

I am saying the Coronavirus is part of our human life, and through living in faith with God we grow in our faith.

We come to have hope in God.

I know this has been true for me.

I have learned so much through some of the most horrible times in my life.

Every time I grow closer to God, and I learn to trust God more.

I hope the same for you during this time.

So as we deal with the Coronavirus I am praying for each of you that you may come to have endurance, that it may grow your character, and that you may continue to live in God's hope.

Amen.