Churches and Synagogues across
the nation have closed their doors, trying to keep out Covid-19. Well, most of
them have. But there are some religious zealots who declare that the Lord will
deliver them from this rampant disease and refuse to shut the doors to the
temple. That sounds valiant…devout…holy, right?
The problem is, God apparently
does not view this supposedly pious act the same way the zealots do. Many of
the churches that refused to adhere to social distancing are experiencing rising
cases of Covid-19 among their memberships; and many of those attendees have
died.
Although I do not profess to be a
bible scholar, religious teachings I have received throughout my life tell me
that God does not do for us what we can do for ourselves. It is a sensible act
to practice social distancing during a highly contagious epidemic. Where faith
and religion come into it is that when we have done all that we can to protect
ourselves, God steps in to do the rest. He protects us as we go to the grocery
store, or the pharmacy or to deliver food to a shut-in neighbor. Those are the
kinds of instances where he inserts his grace and mercy in our lives.
While I find it unfortunate and
sometimes disquieting to have been cut off from my religious fellowship for the
last several weeks, I have also seen an amazing spread of the Word in places
that it has seldom been. My Facebook feed, once filled with hateful memes about
political rivals is now filled with folks singing their favorite hymns and
quoting their favorite scriptures.
As a child, when I found myself
faced with adversity in life, my mother would tell me that everything would be
alright, because what the Devil meant to defeat me, God meant for my good. Instead
of attending one Sunday worship service, now I can listen to my pastor, and the
pastor of the church where I grew up as a child. I can listen to the sermon
preached by my cousin in Ohio or my nephew in Mississippi. While this epidemic
has raced across the face of the world wreaking havoc, it has caused an equally
sweeping transmission of the Word of God across the country.
I recently spoke to a friend whose wife
decided to teach her Sunday school class online. What had been a class of 20
has since become a class of hundreds. That kind of spread has been replicated
all over the internet. It is as though someone has thrown a brick in the middle
of flaming embers, only to disperse them out to inflame a wider area.
That is not to say that this is
an ideal situation. Neither does it imply that this manner of worship should
become our new normal. But it is important to remember that it is not good to
tempt God. We know that he is all powerful and that he can deliver us from
Covid-19. But we should not be so vain as to expect him to manipulate the laws
of nature to prove our piety. Our actions during this pandemic may be judged by
man, but also, I believe, by God. The devil truly is in the details of how and
why we make the decisions we make during this trying time.
4 comments:
Very well said. I agree wholeheartedly with you.
Mildred, thank you for your words of encouragement, inspiration and most of all just common sense. God did not promise us a perfect life, but He did promise to Get us through the going through.
Mildred, thank you for sharing your words of encouragement, with so much common sense.
Now is the time for the Gospel of Jesus Christ as well as other aspect of our worldly events to be recognized as an infusion of one and that the Biblical scriptures were not meant for "THE OLDEN DAYS", however is forever more.
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