Month: January 2021

I was recently in a local bookstore looking for a cookbook I was interested in, and thought I would just browse a bit in the religion section, out of professional curiosity you know. I came across a little book by one of my favorite theologians, N. T. Wright, entitled God and the Pandemic. I bought it with the cookbook, equally valid coping mechanisms in a chaotic world.

It is a helpful book, and makes two points that I have been resting with in my prayer. The first is that we should be mourning this pandemic as a people of God. Not looking for fault, but holding people in prayer and expressing our grief. He also talks at length, with scriptural reference, about how our job as Christians is to help, to do the work of relief and healing.

I have heard from multiple sources recently how pandemics were not unusual in the ancient world. Christians set themselves apart because they didn’t flee but stayed to help. They established hospitals and fed the hungry. It moved people’s hearts and was one of the reasons that the church caught on. People were affected by the witness of generosity and caring. 

I am not suggesting you do anything risky or unadvisable. Please be clear.

But I am also thinking that there is a lot of sin and evil that hasn’t taken a break during Covid. There is still racism, there is still poverty, there is still human trafficking, there is still domestic violence. I am lucky enough to be in my warm and peaceful house sitting this out, but that is not true for most people. I am definitely privileged.

So what do we do? First, stay informed. We are sponsoring a training on human trafficking next Thursday at 6:00 on Facebook Live. If you have children, grandchildren, neighbors who are vulnerable, sign on and be informed. One of our campus ministry students was talking last year about knowing where not to go in Youngstown to prevent being kidnapped. This is real and it is here.

Next, check on your neighbors. Violence knows no boundaries, no income limits, no education limits. We often don’t realize that friends, family and neighbors are being abused, or suffering from depression and anxiety, or hungry. Call, check in. Don’t pretend everything is fine or you can’t do anything about it.

Finally, take care of your own mental health and spiritual life and physical well being. It’s hard but be kind to yourself. If we aren’t well, we can’t help others. If we aren’t aware of the log in our own eye, we won’t see the splinter in another’s eye. Not to judge, but to care and help and love.

Let’s pay attention to what is happening in our world even in the midst of this pandemic. We are called as Christians to actively build the Kingdom of God. And we need each other. 

This weekend we commemorate and celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With so much happening with the pandemic and politics I want to be sure it is not overlooked. I am doing the invocation at the local service Sunday afternoon. As I was contemplating what I wanted to say, it became clear in a sad and heavy way that the message hasn’t changed very much. 

There is still racism. There is still war. There is still poverty. There is still white supremacy. There is still violence against Black people because they are black. I can only imagine Dr. King looking down on us and shaking his head with dismay.

I hear people say, we need to go back to four years ago, or 12 years ago, or some time in the past when everything was “OK” or “normal” or “nice.” The problem is I don’t really know when that was. I am reading “Stamped from the Beginning” by Ibram Kendi.  Maybe some of you read his book, How to Be an Anti-Racist? You cannot find a more complete and well researched history of racism dating back to the 1600s. And here is the bottom line, not much has changed. This isn’t as much as spoiler alert as a depressing reality check.

I am glad every time I hear someone is appalled by the current level of vitriol and hate, sickened by the violence both verbal and physical. I am heartened by every expression of desire for something better. But let’s not be naïve. I am from Chicago, where in 1976, my neighbors burnt down a new home being built by a Black couple twice to try to get them to go elsewhere. I might not have seen an actual lynching, but they were happening. Going back isn’t helpful. 

I hope the way we go is forward. That we articulate a vision of acceptance, fairness, safety, education, housing, jobs, etc. etc. that is for everyone, and especially designed to level a playing field that has always been a minefield. I hope we can point a finger right back at ourselves and examine all the ways we hinder justice and benefit from inequity. I hope we commit to learning and accepting hard truths, listening to important stories that are heartbreaking but real. I hope we really mean it when we say we want change.

And then, of course, I hope we live it. 

Every year at this time I try to combat the excesses of the last month by creating a concrete healthy living plan that will get me back on track. I look at exercise, amount of carbs consumed, junk I have accumulated, use of plastic, alcohol use, and I set goals. Not in all of those things, 2-3 solid and achievable things that will improve my overall health. One thing I am especially paying attention to how caffeine is affecting my sleep. A question I have never explored.

This year, though, I have to take into consideration that the coping mechanisms I need to deal with the stress of this pandemic might conflict with the ways I have constructed a healthy life in the past. Exercise, no problem. But carbs, that has been a significant coping mechanism the last 9 months. 

I find I have also been binge watching crime dramas. I know intrinsically that it isn’t healthy for anyone to be exposed to so much violence and brutality. And I don’t watch it for that. I am repelled by the violence. I think that I am watching for the happy ending. That even in the midst of a horrible, violent, possible nuclear bomb attack episode, most of the time the world is saved and everyone celebrates by having a beer.

Somehow happy endings in a comedy or a food network show just don’t cut it. I need a happy ending that is unlikely and monumental. One that has an immediate effect. One that requires some sacrifice, some risk. One that you have to want so badly that you are willing to do almost anything.

As we settle into January, I wonder how I will contribute to a happy ending in this pandemic. What am I willing to offer? What am I willing to sacrifice? Will I put myself in the metaphoric line of fire? Will my offering involve any risk?  Covid isn’t a crime, per se, but it is deadly and causes immense suffering.  I want it to end, I want the happy ending, but what am I willing to do to achieve it?

Let’s pray about this. What would Jesus do? What are we willing to offer? How do we make this not about us? How do we stop this menace with love?