Faith in the Face of Pandemic

Faith in the Face of Pandemic

Welcome! In a world that is changing so quickly that it takes your breath away, I (Carl) want to open this morning with straight Scripture. I encourage you to let these truths, which you have all heard before, wash over you, so that you are reminded again of what you already know to be true.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. – Hebrews 13:8

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. – Joshua 1:9b

When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought me joy. – Psalm 94:19

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. – Matthew 6:34

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philipians 4:6-7

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. – John 14:27

You may find that these verses have fresh potency, as world events along with what is going on here in the US are just as “novel” as the virus that has been declared a pandemic.

One thing I love about the last two passages, taken together, is how they are simultaneously a command and a promise. The command is to not be troubled or anxious or afraid. Don’t let it happen. Pray instead. I would add to not keep looking up news on the Internet, to not keep watching the news, etc. Maybe limit yourself to one time per day. At times like this, it is very easy to become so consumed with wanting to know the latest that you lose all sense of perspective. It may help to remember that the goal of these news sources is not necessarily to inform you, and it certainly is not to give you peace. Its goal is to keep you glued to the screen for more.

And so as we follow the command, as we limit our exposure to news, as we choose to pray instead, and do so with thanksgiving, we receive the promise, which is God’s peace. What is God’s peace like? It transcends all understanding. It is supernatural. It is communion with God. It is His Spirit comforting us. It returns our joy. It reminds us of God’s love and goodness and care for us. It empowers us not to fear the unknown. I encourage you to obey the command so you can experience the promise.

Now because current events have been so impactful on our lives, the pastors have decided to put off, for a time, our series on the book of Matthew and instead focus on topics that can help us weather these changes and keep our faith, hope, and joy in Christ.

A verse I (Carl) have been drawn to over the past week is I Peter 4:12:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. – I Peter 4:12

When Peter wrote these words, he had in mind persecution against believers, but I find application in this verse in today’s events. Over the past several generations, humanity has experienced a time relatively free of deadly pandemics. This situation has been rather rare in the history of man.  If you look at the history of the church, times of sweeping disease have been the norm more than the exception.

I feel like Christians, particularly in the west, have become extraordinarily sheltered from uncertainty, suffering, and death. Although I definitely think we should be grateful and thank God for His blessings, at the same time I feel like living in this happy “bubble” also makes it more difficult for us to mature in certain areas. I believe there are Scripture passages that are more difficult for us to take to heart because they describe things that don’t match our experiences.

For example, consider this parable from Luke 12:

“The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” – Luke 12:16b-21

As a member of our culture, it is easy to read this and not really take the message to heart. Our experience says that, today, it is quite unlikely that a working man will suddenly lose his life. Because we don’t really believe this, we don’t take as seriously Jesus’ warning to those who store things up for themselves rather than being rich towards God. And so I believe the present sobering realities may help us to more deeply put our faith and hope in God.

I encourage you, especially if you have more “down time” than you have had recently, to spend extended time in the Word. May current events cause your heart to be freshly tender towards Christ. May His Word penetrate further into “dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;” may it even more deeply judge “the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebr. 4:12)  

Along these lines, I (Carl) have been reading of the life of Martin Luther. Luther is best known for writing his “95 Theses” in 1517 in which, although focusing on Catholic Church’s corrupt practices of selling “indulgences” to absolve sin, really dealt with two deeper foundational truths, that the Bible alone is the central authority on what is true about God, and that people may be saved only by faith and not by their works. I completely agree that the spread of these truths was Luther’s greatest contribution to the history of the church, and indeed the history of the world.

Perhaps the second best-known event in Luther’s life is his stand at the Diet of Worms before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V where has was asked to recant his claims, and he replied boldly with “I cannot and will not recant of anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”

But far less known is the fact that the Bubonic Plague came to Wittenberg in August of 1527. The plague is most often thought of with regards to the Black Death in the 1330s to 1340s, killing one-third of Europe’s population over five years, but the plague struck again and again. In 1665, the plague struck England. Now known as the Great Plague, this time it killed 20% of Englanders. In between these events were many more localized outbreaks including the one at Wittenberg in 1527.

The plague was transmitted through the bite of a flea that had first fed on an infected rodent. In addition, when the plague infected the lungs, it could be passed from person to person. The death rate was around 50%, rising to nearly 100% if it infected the lungs (pneumonic plague) or the blood (septicemic plague).

When the plague struck Wittenberg, many people fled in fear of their lives. Luther was a church pastor and a professor at the local university at the time. Church members and university leaders both begged Martin Luther to take his pregnant wife and flee as well, but Luther chose to stay. He did not condemn those who fled, but he encouraged people to a higher standard, writing the following:

Yes, no one should dare leave his neighbor unless there are others who will take care of the sick in their stead and nurse them. In such cases we must respect the word of Christ, “I was sick and you did not visit me …” According to this passage we are bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped.

Luther quotes here from Matthew 25, the parable of the sheep and the goats. The Bible passage describes Jesus’ return and his separating people as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. To the “sheep” He told them to come take their inheritance; He said it was because they had given Him something to eat when He was hungry, something to drink when He was thirsty, hospitality when He was a stranger, clothing when he needed clothes, physical care when He was sick, and visits when He was in prison. Those told to come asked when they had done such a thing. Jesus told them it was when they did these things to the least of His brothers and sisters.

The passage then goes on to describe how Jesus told the goats to depart from Him into the fire prepared for the devil and the demons; He said it was because they didn’t do any of these things. Again, they asked when they had seen Him with these needs and not responded. Jesus told them it was when they ignored the needs of the least of His brothers and sisters.

Although the Catholic Church pointed to this passage as evidence that works were necessary for salvation, Luther was not swayed by their interpretation. He understood that works should accompany salvation, but salvation is by faith alone. But at the same time, he didn’t de-emphasize this passage as some Protestants seem to do. He rightly understood that this passage, like all Scripture, contained powerful truths. From it, he correctly argued that we are obliged to help one another not just in the good times, but in the hard times as well.

When the plague struck Wittenberg, his university quickly shut down (sound familiar?) and the leaders of the university ordered Luther and the other professors to leave for Jena, and later to go to Schlieben. At that time, moving the professors was the only essential part of moving the entire university, and so Schlieben became the new location of the university for about 8 months until the outbreak subsided.

Luther stayed behind with his family and several of his friends and their families. Within just days there were multiple deaths and more taken sick among his acquaintances. Some of the sick were moved into his own home so they could be cared for adequately. During this time, he and the other healthy people of his group were as careful as possible; they were far from reckless. They took these people into their home because there was no other way they could be properly cared for. He later wrote others a letter giving advice for those in similar situations, “Use medicine, take what helps you, fumigate house, yard, and streets, and avoid unnecessary contact with the sick and their houses.”

You can find the (translated) letter on the Internet under the title “Whether one may flee from a deadly plague, to the Reverend Doctor Johann Hess, pastor at Breslau, and to his fellow-servants of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” For Luther, the key principle was that God’s people must not be abandoned. It was not necessary that everyone must stay, but someone must. As support to the idea that not everyone needed to stay, Luther recounted two events in Acts: first, that the believers in Damascus lowered Paul in a basket over the wall so he could escape (Acts 9), and Paul allowed himself to be kept from risking danger in the marketplace in Ephesus because it was not essential for him to do so (Acts 19).

I find tremendous wisdom here. We can safely say that, God willing, what we may experience if the coronavirus continues to spread will be far below what those who endured the plague went through, but we can choose to follow the same principles. We are a family of God, together, and we have an obligation to one another. We should not take unnecessary risks, but we should take whatever risks are necessary to ensure that we are all cared for. In addition to physical care, this should include emotional, spiritual, and even financial care.

As a church body and with your essential help we the pastors want to assure you that we all will fulfill this calling, by God’s grace. May we be examples of John 13:34-35:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35 

In order to fulfill these verses, it is essential that you communicate your needs to the body. If you are housebound and need groceries, let someone know. If you have financial needs, let the pastors know. If you have spiritual or emotional needs, let someone you are comfortable with in the church know. I truly believe that the coming events, as mild or challenging as they happen to be, will be a tremendous opportunity for us to grow in faith and in love as a body together.

Remember that the church is not a building, but the people of God. The building may be shutting down in the coming weeks, but the church will continue to meet. As per Luther’s wise advice, let us not take unnecessary risks – let us follow the medical guidelines and be diligent to do best practices so as to minimize the chances of our own infection, but let us also do for one another what needs to be done.

May we learn more deeply the meaning of this passage from I Corinthians:

But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. – I Corinthians 12:24b-26

I (Carl) am not with you today out of an abundance of caution because two of our children have had the flu this week (hopefully just the flu – what a strange time in which we live, where the flu and the word “just” go together!). I do this out of concern for you.

This social isolation that we are seeing more and more of, from the shutting down of colleges, to the stoppage of anything that would have a large crowd gathered, is good and Biblical in my opinion. It is being done, at least in part, out of concern for one another. Even if we never personally need intensive medical care over this disease, even if it is little more than a mild cold for us, we should still gladly suffer these inconveniences for the sake of those of more frail health so that the hospitals are not completely overwhelmed and as many can get the care they need as possible. I (Carl) believe God is pleased with us to the degree that we do these things for these reasons rather than just out of fear.

What else should we do out of concern for one another? Here are just a few examples. Periodically call those at greater risk, singles, and others who might get in trouble and not be able to let others know. Help the sick, especially if you have already had the virus and recovered from it. And provide encouragement via texts or other means to those who are sick. You can probably think of other great things to do out of concern for one another, things that perhaps utilize your own spiritual gifting. 

As we (the pastors) have been contemplating the move to online services, I (Carl) have been thinking and praying about the following passage from Hebrews:

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. – Hebrews 10:19-25

If we go “virtual”, will we be in violation of this call to not give up meeting together? Not at all. It is a great blessing that we live in such a time that technology enables us to meet together without endangering one another’s health. We will continue to worship – it won’t be quite the same, but it will be worship – and we will continue to have messages, to fellowship with one another, and to break bread together. (For that last one, we simply each prepare the elements in our own homes – but we can still take it together as a church family.) Taste-o-vision hasn’t been invented yet, so we won’t be able to have potluck meals together, but apart from that one great loss we will be able to use technology to enable us to remain close to one another in Christ. Of course, we can also continue to call one another (or use video) one-on-one throughout the week.

And it is helpful to remember that all of this will be only for a season. A time will come when the threat has passed and we can resume meeting in person, hopefully (by God’s help) strengthened in faith and love for one another by the experience.

Please join us this week and pray and think about how we can spur one another on towards love and good deeds how we can encourage one another during this season. We encourage you to think outside the Sunday morning “box.” Be creative. What can we do that draws us together and glorifies Christ?

God protected Martin Luther and his family from the plague. But that did not mean their lives were without tragedy and loss. In addition to enduring constant threats by those who did not approve of the Protestant message, the child that his wife was carrying during the plague died less than a year after birth. We know that Martin Luther was not immune from periods of depression, but God was faithful to bring him through these and continue to use him to grow the church, a church that at last correctly understood that salvation is by faith.

I want to close this week with a portion of a letter by a Wuhan pastor written back in the peak of the outbreak in China, in late January.

As for the church, the safety of the congregation, a faithful witness, the possibility that members could contract the illness, have all become a great area of struggle. It is readily apparent that we are facing a test of our faith.

The situation is so critical, yet [we are] trusting in the Lord’s promises, that His thoughts toward us are of peace, and not evil (Jeremiah. 29:11), and that he allows for a time of testing, not to destroy us, but to establish us. Therefore, Christians are not only to suffer with the people of this city, but we have a responsibility to pray for those in this city who are fearful, and to bring to them the peace of Christ.

First, we are to seek the peace of Christ to reign in their hearts (Hebrews 3:15). Christ has already given us His peace, but His peace is not to remove us from disaster and death, but rather to have peace in the midst of disaster and death, because Christ has already overcome these things (John 14:27, 16:33). Otherwise we have not believed in the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15), and, with the world, would be terrified of pestilence, and lose hope in the face of death.

Why do only Christians have this peace? Because of sin, humans deserve the trials and tribulations that come upon them. Jehovah says: the wicked have no peace (Isaiah 48:22). We were all sinners, but Christ, because of faith, took our penalty and gave us His peace. Therefore Paul says, who can bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:33). Christians may with the world face the same tribulations, but such tribulations are no longer punishment, but a new opportunity to grow nearer to the Almighty, to purify our souls, and an opportunity to proclaim the gospel.

In other words, when disaster strikes us, it is but a form of God’s love. And, as Paul firmly believed, “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger or sword? . . .  in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Roman. 8:35-39).

Spoken for today, Wuhan’s pestilence cannot separate us from the love of Christ; this love is in our Lord Jesus Christ. These words are so comforting for us, we have already become one body with Christ. We have a part in His sufferings, and we have a part in His glory, all of Christ’s is ours, and our all is Christ’s. Therefore, Christ is with us as we face the pestilence in this city; the pestilence cannot harm us. If we die in the pestilence, it is an opportunity to witness to Christ, and, even more, to enter into His glory.

Thus, my brothers and sisters, I encourage you to be strong in Christ’s love. If we more deeply experience death in this pestilence, understanding the gospel, we may more deeply experience Christ’s love, and grow ever nearer to God. Our Lord Jesus through faith experienced an incomparable suffering of death, yet God raised Him from the dead, and sat Him at His right hand.  (Acts 2:32-36)

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ!