Probably like you, I have a lot more questions than answers about life and faith as we figure out how to respond to this defining global moment.
We will often need to preach out of our own questions and the ones our parishioners ask.
I’ll be posting a series of blogs with the questions I suspect many are asking, followed by a possible sermon approach.
I encourage you to offer your suggestions for preaching responses in the comments below.
From Whence is Our Help to Come?
Look in the mirror.
When you look, you’ll see one member of the body of Christ.
One member who can serve the world to show how much God loves every single person in it.
One member who has a pair of God’s hands and another pair of God’s feet.
Even sheltered at home, you can put God’s hands and feet to work in service. In fact, keeping your feet planted at home (unless your work demands otherwise) is one of your greatest spiritual acts of worship right now.
While flattening the curve with your homebody measures, you can also:
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Make phone calls to check on neighbors
Write your civic representatives
Send money to food banks
Sew masks for medical professionals
Talk with other parishioners to anticipate the needs of others when we can leave home
Write cards and letters to your parish’s home- and nursing-home-bound
Send thank you notes to local first responders, pharmacists, and grocers
Take part in prayer services
Share the link to your congregation’s online Sunday services
Look in the mirror to see where your help will come from.
From Christ, who can do all things by strengthening the person looking back at them.
Who’s to Blame?
This is a no-fault pandemic.
No one is at fault for this pandemic.
Not a country.
Not a single person.
Not God.
It’s a terrifying prospect to admit we’re not in control.
Not only are we not in control, but neither was a country, person, or God in designing or propagating this virus.
It’s comforting to hold someone responsible, because then we can feel like maybe it can be prevented next time.
But it can’t.
Viruses just are because nature just is.
Nature is constantly evolving. That includes viruses, bacteria, tectonic plates that suddenly shift to cause earthquakes, and volcanoes that spew lava and ash.
There is no prevention. There is no one at fault. No one to blame.
But there is responsibility. And each of us holds it.
Responsibility to love our neighbors like we love ourselves.
How do you want to be loved during this pandemic?
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To be the recipient of someone asking how you are?
To find packages of toilet paper and diapers available for everyone who visits the grocery store?
To be offered a job that can be done from home, or offered one when this is over?
To run out of something essential at home and have a neighbor offer some of theirs until you can get to the store?
To shelter in place if that keeps others safe, even if it’s not yet mandated?
How Do We Practice Our Faith When We’re Emotionally Wrung Out?
Living our beliefs isn’t easy when life isn’t easy.
It’s easy to love our neighbors when we’re not afraid they could transmit a deadly virus, or they’re not hoarding the toilet paper you’ve run out of, or spreading scientifically debunked information through social media.
But when they are?
What did Jesus mean to forgive seventy-times-seven?
What did he mean when he asked Peter if he could drink the cup he (Jesus) would drink?
What did Jesus mean to lay down our lives for our friends?
What does seeking justice mean when those in the lower economic strata don’t have access to medical care or can’t pay the bills? What does it mean when many won’t have jobs waiting for them at the end of this crisis? What does it mean when the education gap widens for children who don’t have access to computers or accommodations or support as their schools shift to distance learning?
During his recent Collective+ lecture, the Rev’d Dr. Otis Moss, III, author of Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair noted Jesus taught what faith looks like while “singing the blues.”
Always during Jesus’s lifetime, there was oppression, brutality, hunger, and illness.
It was in that context Jesus not only taught, but showed how one puts love of God and neighbor ahead of loving oneself: demonstrating forgiveness, drinking cups filled with the wine of self-sacrifice, and serving the most vulnerable of society.
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Go back to the basics:
The Ten Commandments
The Great Commandment, to love God will our whole heart, mind, and strength, and our neighbor like ourselves
The Baptismal Covenant of your denomination
The mission statement or stated values of your congregation
Write them out by hand.
Post them on the refrigerator.
Memorize them.
Engage in online “coffee hour” to discuss what they mean in this context.
In this way we’ll help each other practice our faith.