Corona Peace
Notes
Transcript
Coronavirus
Coronavirus
Sometime in the last two weeks, all of us have undergone a radical shift. Two or three weeks ago, “coronavirus” was something vaguely concerning happening in China. “The flu is more dangerous...”
I went to Costco just two weeks ago and chuckled at people stocking and over-stocking their carts with water and toilet paper.
At some point later that week I started thinking “wait… how much toilet paper do I have???” “How much water do I have?”
… and then they shut down the schools.
… and then they shut down the restaurants, take out only.
… and then they shut down California. I tried to talk my parents out of going because I was afraid, am afraid, that they’ll be stuck there. At least they made it up to my sister’s place this weekend.
This is unprecedented in my lifetime. This is scary on many levels.
The stock market tanked this week. Many businesses may not make it back from these closures, especially small businesses.
Most of all, the danger to those most at risk, those 65 and older, those with other conditions, but young adults are in no way invincible here.
What does war [or the coronavirus] do to death? It certainly does not make it more frequent; 100 percent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased. It can put several deaths earlier, but I hardly suppose that that is what we fear. . . . Yet war does do something to death. It forces us to remember it. . . . War makes death real to us, and that would have been regarded as one of its blessings by most of the great Christians of the past.
The illusions are stripped away.
The illusion that we can control our own future, our own destiny is stripped away. My plans for the next two weeks are out the window. My plans for summer may be done. For many, their jobs, financial security, it is all in question.
And life itself is in question, though less than a 4% mortality rate worldwide, it is enough to make it real.
War makes death real to us. Plague, corona virus, makes death and an unknown unpredictable future real to us.
There is danger in that. And there is opportunity.
The danger is the anxiety and the fear that you and I feel. You may not feel scared for yourself… but for older people, at risk people you care about. For friends and family, do they have enough food? For friends who already have or who just might lose their jobs over this. For political upheaval, for all the unknowns...
Fear. Anxiety. What do I do with the feelings that I feel???
Do Not Be Anxious
Do Not Be Anxious
I know, as a Christian, I am not supposed to be afraid, not supposed to be “anxious.” Jesus tells me:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
There you go. Do not be anxious. Done.
Of course life is more than food… more than clothing… but on the other need, I super need food and people vastly prefer it when I wear clothing. Jesus uses the example of the birds:
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Pay attention to his analogy. He doesn’t say “don’t worry about tomorrow, the birds live forever.” Birds die ALL THE TIME. Many from starvation even. But being anxious about it doesn’t help.
God does provide in season, in time, in appointment. But to the birds, to the grass, the lilies of the valley, he says this:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
He notes that you do need them, and God knows that. It is that your eye is on the wrong prize, the wrong goal, the wrong priority. Instead:
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Worrying gets us nothing, adds nothing to us, doesn’t deliver food from Costco and doesn’t make toilet paper appear on the shelves. It doesn’t cure Corona virus.
And yet… what do I do with the feelings that I feel? I still feel the anxiety and the fear. and if we are not careful, those feelings can cripple us entirely.
Paul writes to the Philippians. Here is a man who has cause to fear, cause to feel anxious. He is on house arrest in Rome. I think he gets freed that time and arrested again and tried and executed at a later time, but one way or another, this is a man with reason to be anxious.
He writes to the Philippians. Major persecution is beginning and is only going to ramp up against the Christian church. They have reason indeed to fear… beyond the ever present threat of early death and disease that everyone in the 1st century is facing.
This man writes to the Philippians:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Joy! Joy in the midst of suffering. In the face of anxiety. Joy always. Joy that springs from the Spirit within, from the knowledge and security in Christ, from the wellspring of God. Joy, in knowing our destination. To live is Christ, in fruitful ministry for His name, or to die is gain, I go to a better place. Joy, unspeakable joy.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.
Be joyful. I get that, positive expression of the gospel.
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
Reasonableness. More often translated “gentleness.” My demeanor is one of kindness, always, thoughtfulness, always. Even tolerance or indulgence.
As to my inner life with God: joy overflowing.
As to my interaction with all around me: gentleness.
But what stands in the way of all that? I still feel the anxiety and the fear. What do I do with the feelings that I feel?
The Lord is at hand...
Jesus is coming… and so whatever I have to put up with in this life I only have to put up with for “a little while.” It’s all transient, it’s all temporary. And therefore, I don’t time for anxiety to hold me back… instead this is what I do with anxiety:
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
I “don’t be anxious”… but Paul adds a little bit of absolute practicality to it. What do I do with that anxiety?
In prayer. In conversation with God.
In supplication. Slightly more specific than “prayer”, it is prayer where I make requests of God. I make my requests known to God. In trust, in faith, even with thankfulness...
What am I thankful for? That He hears it, that He has it… that He answers my requests and even if the answer is “no” I can trust that my loving heavenly Father gives good gifts and only good gifts.
Hand off… to a super hero
Hand off… to a super hero
For years, from the beginning of 2015 until Spring of 2018, I had Pastor Rod Henry as my assistant pastor. He was better at so many things than me, handing things off to him or asking him to do things was so easy...
I had the absolute surety, the confidence, that not only would it get done, it would get done better than I could do it myself.
In prayer, I hand the thing off to God. Now it is off my plate. It is no longer my responsibility… it is in God’s hands. Of course it always was, but prayer is more often about changing me than changing my circumstances.
In prayer, in supplication, I lift it off my heart and mind and place it firmly in God’s hands. No take-backs. With thankfulness I entrust it into His hands.
And then, with empty hands, with no longer any of those things in my sphere of responsibility, what am I left with?
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Have the circumstances changed? Nope.
Do I understand how God is going to “fix it”, even if God is going to fix it?
No, I haven’t changed my circumstances or come to understand anything new at all.
This peace “surpasses all understanding”. I like to call it the “peace that doesn’t make sense.” It is a peace so large, so complete, that it swallows up my fears and anxieties as so small they disappear.
It is being held in the hand of my Creator.
This peace, in Hebrew it would be “shalom” and it carries the sense, not only absence of anxiety or absence of conflict, but total and complete right place. Right place in relationship, right place in time, I am RIGHT where God wants me to be and He has prepared me for this moment.
and it “guards” my heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Your hearts and your minds. It continues to defend you from those doubts and anxieties as they press in.
It is continually available to you as doubts and fears creep in, and you bring them right back to God in supplication, in prayer, in conversation with Him you put them right back in His hands… and there comes that peace all over again. Surpassing in its scope, guarding you.
Peace. Shalom.
Even in the midst of a worldwide epidemic.
Or war.
Or coming persecution.
Or all the challenges you were facing in your friendships, in your marriages, in your families, in your jobs before Corona came along to upset the whole fruit-basket. All of those things are still there… maybe even multiplied by the fact that you’re all stuck together indoors now.
Joyful Gentle Peacegivers
Joyful Gentle Peacegivers
And so, in Christ, we have this incredible to offer a world in crisis. A world in panic. A world in fear.
You, Christian, have a well-spring of joy within you. Corona-virus has nothing on you… not because you can’t catch it. You absolutely can. Several priests caring for the sick have caught it and a few have already died.
You have a well-spring of joy that absolutely transcends health and sickness: Jesus is coming, and you are bound for eternal glory with Him.
Be Joyful.
People are getting in fistfights at Costco, hoarding foodstuffs. You can be “reasonable”, “gentle” or, I read this somewhere, “loving”. With nothing to fear, freed from anxiety about the future, that gives you the space to be an island of sanity, gentleness and love. To a world in crisis, we have a chance to love on people like maybe we have never had before.
Be Joyful. Be gentle. And be peaceful.
How can we love on our neighbors. “Social distancing”, ironically, can be an opportunity for Christ-like loving. When you are freed completely from anxiety and fear… you can be there for your neighbors as a Joyful, Gentle Peacegiver.
What do they need? Do they have enough? You may not have it to give, but you can hear, you can reach out for them, or just be a support to people who may have realized for the first time that they have none.
What do your neighbors need? Above all, they need Jesus… and they may be open to that conversation for the first time ever.
At home, in your families, after we close in worship. Start brainstorming.
How can you love on your neighbors this afternoon?
How about your local business owners? Restaurant owners?
Who can you reach, and be a Joyful, Gentle, Peacegiver?