Romans 8: 26-33 Yes, everything, even Covid 19
Our strength is an illusion. One that gets shattered in an instant. The man who taught me this was one of the biggest Afrikaner males, I ever knew. He was a farmer, the text book Afrikaner Boer farmer. Sun burnt, tough and as strong as an ox. He got sick and diagnosed with cancer. He was the father of a classmate from seminary. I visited him in hospital to support my friend and I was caught off guard when this friend suddenly sent the whole family out so that I can have a word in private with him. As if I knew what to tell a dying man at age 23!
I just stood there and stared at him, not knowing what to say. That is when he decided to speak. “Gabriel, remember this. One day you feel strong and the next day you are on your back depending on people like a baby. Life works like that. Remember that, it will keep you humble”. “Yes, sir”, I said. This week after cycling 40 kms without a issue, I was reminded of that when I struggled to walk to my washroom the next day. He was right!
When you are confronted with your frailty as a human being, whether it be emotionally, physically or mentally, it could be as unbearable as the calamity itself. But if you believe in the God revealed to us in the Bible, there is a wonderful comfort in what Romans 8 states. In your weakness, at your weakest, you are not alone. God’s Spirit does not depart from weak and frail people even as their strength and ability does. It says here even if we are so weak that we are unable to construct sentences together when we pray to God, the Spirit intercedes for us. It must be one of the most comforting promises in the Bible.
Bu then verse 28 takes it even further. God isn’t just with us in our weakness. He is also creative with our weakness. Paul says that we Know ( the greeks were obsessed with epistemology or the science of how we can know things, so if Paul makes this statement it is a big deal!) that God works all things for the good of those He loves. God isn’t just with us waiting like us for our weakness to pass. He is also actively transforming what is unpleasant and bad for his good purposes.
This morning I want to get specific with you. IF it says all things, it must include Covid 19 also, right? So I researched a little of the things Christians and churches report as good things that comes out of Covid. If we can list and name and notice these things, we can appreciate them and like I said before, almost everything God does is things we are invited to collaborate in. In some of these things we are already co-workers! What are they?
A greater appreciation for the value of healing
I am sure you can recall at least one inspiring video you saw about a person overcoming the COVID virus and being wheeled out of a hospital to the delightful cheer of nurses and doctors who worked hard to make that happen. We suddenly began to refer to people involved in the healing process as “frontline workers”. Honors that were previously reserved for soldiers and fire fighters were now bestowed unto nurses and doctors. We realized anew what a great gift it is and how important it is to be healed.
Let us also realize that God is the big healer. Leonard Sweet says the following: “The essence of salvation is healing and wholeness”. If we participate in what God is doing, it makes us all front line workers. Does what I do and say, where I go and what I think about contribute to the healing of others and to the healing and wholeness of myself? A person of faith is in the business of healing and bankrupt if he or she isn’t.
A reappreciation for Simon of Cyrene
Who was he? The African that carried Jesus’s cross and thus shared in his suffering. One of the most inspiring things that happened during COVID is that for the most part people didn’t say “survival of the fittest” or “if only the vulnerable die, let them die because they don’t contribute to the economy anyway”. By doing that, many people basically said that they are willing to carry another’s cross. Some had to be asked. I am amazed about how humanity elevated itself and shared in the suffering of others and does things that can protect others like distancing, giving up income or wearing a mask. For Simon that day, there was nothing obviously “in it for him” when he carried Jesus’s cross. It restricted him, it took something from his body, and it did only harm to his reputation. And yet, his name is one of the few in those crowds that are remembered favourably even today. To share in the suffering of others is one of the most beautiful expressions of being human one can attain.
Meaning of Home
People rediscovered the meaning of having a home. I guess some also felt the pain of having an empty one or no home also acutely. Society functions best when we function in multi generational clusters and groupings. The Christian church has always been a multi generational group of people. We need each other’s input and perspectives. To many of us our homes were a save heaven of which we now think: “I would never have made it without having a home! Some of us payed of some debt. We invested anew in our home’s wellbeing in the form of time and care and attention and maybe even money. Home is an orientation in life and an immense gift from God we should never take for granted.
Paying attention in new ways
You know how most preachers have little quirks. Certain words and phrases they always use. Certain habits like clearing their throat that you either come to love or hate? Even Jesus had a quirk, a phrase he tended to use over and over. In the King James version it is translated as : “Verily! Verily! I say unto you!” A better translation would be; “Pay attention!” as it is indeed translated in some Bibles.
We all payed attention to things we barely noticed before. Some read a genre they never read. Some took up painting or tennis but not only this, the action of paying attention even to things we have been doing for a long time invigorated many things in our lives during this time. How can we make this continue post Covid? Because we need it. Julia Cameron said this:
“The quality of life is in proportion always to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”
Verily, verily, I say unto you!
Facing our mortality
It sounds like a bad thing, but it is a good thing. Someone once said only he that lives with the date of his death on his forehead, can really live fully. Back in the day people used to have their coffins ready while they are still alive so that it could be ready when tragedy strikes. John Wesley used to have his in his study and took naps in it as to remind himself that he is mortal. At a stage most pastors had skulls in their studies to be a reminder of the fact that they are mortal human beings. How halloweenish, how wonderfully weird! I am going to ask session to buy me a coffin and a skull for me study!
On a serious note. Covid has made us realize how fragile human life is. We know our death will be our birth into a new life with God in a new way, so there is hope. This hope is what helps us to come to terms with the fact that we will one day die.
Appreciation for the Emmaus and Damascus ways of gaining insight
On the road to Damascus, Saul got a bolt of instant insight in who Jesus is and the implications of it. On the road to Emmaus two people’s eyes were gradually opened to recognize Jesus at the table. God works in both ways with people to bring them to insight and conversion. Even with COVID there were things we immediately realize and act on accordingly and things we are gradually learning as this is new territory. There were people that had a stance and gradually changed to another with new insights like Donald Trump now wearing a mask and encouraging others to do so. There were early adapters and people that trusted them enough to follow right away. It’s not like one group is good and the other bad. We should rather acknowledge that we ourselves find ourselves in different groups when it comes to different issues. And God has grace and mercy on us all!
A realization of the supremacy of relationships in human functioning
Did you notice that one of the first things people looked forward to was not expensive restaurants and boat cruises but seeing loved ones again? Do you know why solitary confinement is one of the worst punishments ever? Because we were wired for human connection! And don’t tell me that because you are an introvert, you aren’t. Yes, introverts took things a bit better during lock down. But an introvert is someone that process in solitude, not someone that can live without people. An introvert is wired as much as an extrovert to be influenced by the bonds of love between people of flesh and blood.
No car or house is more valuable than a person. It is not things that turns houses into homes it is relationships. Let us never forget that again.
Living from the heart
Metaphorically speaking, the heart isn’t your emotions. Neither is it your rational thinking. It is where your deepest thoughts and feelings meet and embrace. It is shocking how out of touch with our deepest thoughts and feeling we were. For many it changed during Covid. People reflected, conversated and prayed in ways that exercised their neglected heart muscles again and that is always for the better. In Japan, there is a rollercoaster with a sign that requests people to shout, “only in the heart”. Wouldn’t it be great if everything we do and say could be once more grounded in our hearts?
When there is a harmony between what your heart tells you is right and what your body does physically, you have peace.
A reappreciation of nature
God reveals Himself in nature. Nature has a purpose. It cries out in anticipation for God to reveal who His children are, says Paul. It proclaims the majesty of God says Psalm 19. The oldest occupation in the world is gardening. God kicked creation off in a garden, Jesus was arrested in a garden and the resurrected Jesus was discovered in a garden where a tomb became a womb.
To plant seed and trust God to send the sun and rain at the right times so that it could bare fruit that we can share is to reconnect with God. Personally, I am in awe about what beautiful parks there are right here in Surrey. Without me expecting it or really seeking an opportunity we are a few days away of starting our own garden. Something feels very right about it.
Rediscovering the table
Leonard Sweet writes the following;
The first Christians did not come together primarily to worship but to eat a sumptuous meal together. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They came together to experience the joy of eating The Lord’s Supper on The Lord’s Day, and while eating there was grand fellowship bathed in prayer. The teaching could take place before the meal, after the meal, or even sometimes during the meal. In Greek the breaking of bread/fellowship (no “and”) are simultaneous activities. So their “devotion” was to three things: fellowship around meals, prayer, and apostles’ teaching.
When the temple got destroyed in 70 after Christ, the Jewish people had to find a resting place for their faith to be nurtured. They found it in the fellowship around meals. The Christian church was clever enough to copy it until we became dumb enough to again make Christianity about buildings and filling pews rather about sharing fellowship and nourishment in a way that honors Jesus. If you want to do one thing to change the world for the better, invite a bunch of people over and share a meal. I dare say it the only thing we need to do to make this congregation keep on thriving and we have already started.
One day I walked from Canadian Tire to Nerofocus Physiotherapy to pick up Isabel. I crossed that big parking lot of Superstore. Right in the middle I passed a van where a guy sat and ate something inside. “Gabriel, how are you doing?” It was Jo, who shared meals with us at the Hot dog ministry many times. We had this huge discussion about COVID and how the world will look like. A guy walked past us, got so intrigued that he joined in. Suddenly three strangers had a delightful conversation in a parking lot in the middle of the day. Why? Because a brave bunch of people decided to set a table and invite folks to join! And it is only the beginning.
Close
Everything for the good? Even if God Son is not recognized and acknowledged for who He is? Yes. Even if that Son is despised, rejected and tortured to death? Yes even when that happened, God worked it for the good. Cry if you are injured or sick or weak. But through those tears, also look at the future. A future of good things brought about by a God who simply always knows how to work bad things for the good.
I’m no gardener but I know this is how hope grows and hope carries one through anything.
Amen