The Covid-19 lockdown means of course that
our Warkworth Friday morning Christian Meditation group isn’t meeting. The coming Sunday is Palm Sunday, which initiates
the Passion - Death - Resurrection drama, and this “talk” reflects that. It is longer than usual, mainly because of additional
notes… the penalty, I suppose, of having me in indefinite lockdown with books
and computer. (R.M.)
Psalm 130, De Profundis, and you will recognise it, perhaps. Out of the depths… Oscar Wilde used its imagery after his release from Reading Gaol where he was Prisoner C33. This is a translation of the Psalm by Robert Alter, a Jewish Hebrew scholar. It’s not at all an elegant translation, but it’s insightful:
From the depths I called you, Lord. Master, hear my voice.
May your ears listen close to the voice of
my plea.
Were you, God, to keep track of wrongs,
Master, who could endure?
But forgiveness is yours, so that you may be
feared.
I hoped for the Lord, my being hoped, and
for his word I waited.
My being for the Master – more than
dawn-watchers watch for the dawn.
Wait, O Israel, for the Lord, for with the
Lord is steadfast kindness,
and great redemption is with him.
And he will redeem Israel from all its wrongs.
Now, what do we say…? It is de profundis… from the depths… Many are feeling out of their depth. Some will never before have had to plumb inner resources of strength, perseverance, wisdom, for weeks or months… indefinitely. Some don’t know how to try. Life has always been, for them, simply reactive. Nothing they can’t handle, as we might say. Everyone knows that calamity can suddenly and undeservedly fall upon any of us – accident or disease, grief or loss – and we generally hope that will always be elsewhere, not here. Otherwise, normal life is a matter of finding fulfilment, or excitement, entertainment or achievement, or perhaps just being not bothered.
But now, as one writer in The Guardian put it, “we crossed over this week” -- all of a sudden, we are either required to stay at home, or needed at essential work and therefore in danger. It is strange territory (or as you have to say these days, surreal). It frightens people. Issues loom, such as income, paying the mortgage or rent, separation from loved ones, fragile mental states, fear of disease, proneness to anxiety or depression, loneliness, getting stuck in a “bubble” with violence… a list I keep adding to*. This is de profundis territory, and we are not helped in it by people bearing a Christian label who tell us that God keeps the upright and prayerful safe and happy**.
The testimony of Jewish and Christian scriptures tells us, not that God makes everything alright again – that is a very selective reading of scripture -- but that we are never alone in life or in death. God, in love and mercy shares the pain. Digging deep, then, in times like this, is not only finding reserves of courage or wisdom we didn’t know were there, but learning to be still, how to set the frightened demanding ego aside, learning new trust and faith, day by day.
When I am weak, then I am strong, wrote St Paul (II Corinthians 12:9-10). Of course it’s counter-intuitive and counter-cultural. It’s Christian. It’s Jesus’s way. It is precisely in the maelstrom that we find faith, love, hope… God. Not in evasion. Not in using religion as an escape or anaesthetic or party pill. Not in expecting we will be alright while others will not. We share the load, the anxiety and the dangers. We do what is right. Our Worst-Case Scenario is not that we might get ill and die. It will happen one day anyway. It is that we might have let ego take over, retreating under a carapace of self, shutting out God and others, saving ourselves, as Jesus put it, at the cost of our souls.
_______________________
NOTES:
*With hundreds
of thousands of people at home "on the sofa" because they lost their
jobs, we're asking people to spend their days stressing (even more than usual)
about how they'll feed their children.
·
We're asking people to potentially die alone, rather
than spending their final moments surrounded by loved ones.
·
We're asking people not to hold funerals for their mum
or their dad.
·
We're asking parents in complex custody situations to
not see their child for a long time.
·
We're asking grandparents to miss out on their
grandchild's first birthday.
·
We're asking immune-compromised people such as cancer
sufferers to worry even more about their health.
·
We're asking people to sit at home, away from people
they love, who might not have long on Earth and we're asking them to come to
terms with the fact that there's no date they can put in their diary for when
they'll see that person again.
·
We're asking them to live with that knot in their
stomach every hour of their days for an undetermined period of time. "At
least" four weeks.
·
We're asking some mums to give birth without their
partners, especially if they have other children who cannot be left with anyone
else outside their bubble.
·
We're asking dads to miss seeing the birth of their
child.
·
We're asking grandparents to miss out on meeting their
grandchildren.
·
We're asking grandchildren to risk never seeing their
elderly grandparents again.
·
We're asking people to cancel weddings.
The list of individual circumstances is endless but the bottom line is this: hardly any of us is settling in for a month of Netflix marathons on the sofa completely care and worry-free.
A lot will happen in the next few weeks, to our families, to our friends, to ourselves. (NZ Herald 29.3.20)
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**An evangelical pastor who holds regular Bible studies on Capitol Hill for members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet is suggesting that the crisis America is now experiencing is proof of God’s disapproval of LGBTQ Americans. In a Bible study he published last weekend, Ralph Drollinger pointed to several signs he believes are evidence of God’s displeasure ― including “a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality” and the “religion of environmentalism.” Ultimately, he says, these groups are “largely responsible” for God’s wrath on America today. “Whenever an individual or corporate group of individuals violate the inviolate precepts of God’s Word, he, she, they or the institution will suffer the respective consequences,” Drollinger wrote last Saturday. “Most assuredly America is facing this form of God’s judgment.” (Huffington Post 27.3.20)
Drollinger is a conservative evangelical Christian who describes his belief that there should indeed be an "institutional" separation of Church and State, but that the Church should still "influence" the State. He has also asked President Trump to use his presidency to turn the American government into a "benevolent dictatorship." Drollinger is also on record as being anti-LGBTQ, anti-women's rights, anti-immigration (he supports family separation at the border), a climate change denier, and declaring Catholicism as "one of the primary false religions of the world." In March 2020, Drollinger generated controversy when he linked corona virus with God's wrath and homosexuality. (Google)
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I usually avoid making partisan comment, but this came from the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (1 April 2020):
“God Our Protector
Psalm 91:3 - “He will keep you safe from all hidden dangers and from all deadly diseases”. This Psalm reminds and challenges us to trust and to remain firm in our God. The gracious Lord will keep you safe. You are protected and in His loving care. Call on the Lord and believe that the Most High is your defender and protector.”
…a perfect example of looting the Bible for isolated texts saying what we want to hear. Psalm 91 is indeed inspiring, but it does say that God punishes the wicked and protects the righteous (see vv. 8, 14). Can Jesus’s followers believe that as it is? How is that different from the Kaiser’s Gott Mit Uns…? Is God the author of this pandemic? The PCANZ seems to think so.
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