Celebrating God in the Midst of Plague

Psalm 91 offers thanks to God for the security of those who trust in Him. It promises divine protection to those who live and abide in His shelter and shadow. Verses 3, 6, and 10 specifically mention plague and pestilence, among the woes that we need not fear, if this Psalm applies to us.

But what if it happens despite our abiding faith? What if the child dies, the parents get the divorce, bankruptcy takes all earthly possessions, the land is conquered, or the cupboard is bare? Psalm 91 seems to place a marker that evil befalls the wicked as punishment, but God protects the righteous. If we suffer, does that mean that despite our best efforts, we are still so wicked that God’s punishment is falling on us? Is there more to the story?

In Genesis 32 we have the story of Jacob wrestling with a man. Jacob actually was something of a scoundrel at this point. When he heard that the brother he had swindled was approaching with 400 men, he was rightfully worried. Genesis reports that he wrestled all night with a man (32:24), whom he later identifies as God (verse 30). If we take this as a metaphor for an all night prayer meeting with God, the Lord saw that He could not prevail over Jacob’s natural strength, so He crippled him. But Jacob still would not let go, and held on despite being crippled. God changed his name to Israel – a prince with God.

We can scarcely say that the rest of Jacob’s life went easily. He limped through the trials of having adult children. But we have this, that he is one of the forefathers of the nation that bears his name to this day. He inherited the promises of Abraham. He is in the lineage of Christ. His children and descendants were not perfect, but they were blessed.

And so perhaps we have a hint as to the nature of God’s kingdom. It is not a place where everything goes easily, the harvests are plentiful, there is no sickness, no one sins. Rather it is that place where God’s grace triumphs over the ills of mortal life.  We cling to Him despite being wounded or broken. God shows Himself faithful when we lean on Him. Our ultimate future is controlled by God’s grace, love, and mercy as we faithfully seek Him. We may get sick, lose all our money, or go hungry, but God walks with us and redeems us through everything. The essence of His kingdom is that we celebrate His presence with us in the midst of it all.

The New Normal - Conquering the Plague or Getting Right With God?

Reading Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor prophets sobers me. Times of great turmoil present both opportunity and danger. Recent history offers examples:

• World War 1 and the Spanish flu epidemic, followed by the roaring twenties.
• The Great Depression that birthed the Nazi regime in Germany.
• World war 2 laid the foundation for the Pax Americana and the Cold War. But ....
• Sustained prosperity led to the world’s values progressing ever more into the seven deadly sins.
• The fall of the iron curtain changed little, but freed the west to accelerate, until ....
• The events of September 11, 2001 shocked the west with the need for a global war on terror, 
• The economic contraction of 2008 created a bunker mentality for the financial sector.

We could see these events as simply the stuff of history, that perseverance and human ingenuity overcome.

Is the current situation similar to the great historical events, such as the bubonic plague in Europe 1348-1351, or the Babylonian and Assyrian invasions of Judah and Israel? Is life so fundamentally changed that it won’t return to the way things were? How will we respond to the New Crown Virus and the economic catastrophe that ensues? Major options:

• Individually and corporately figure out how to defeat it, medically, socially, economically,  and get back on track.
• Expect the government to intervene and fix everything.
• Repent our wandering hearts, cry out to God, and change our ways.

History and current events support the rejection of the credibility of the first option. It didn’t happen in 1348 or in 1929, and the dysfunction of our current approach suggests it won’t now. The experience of the 1930’s does not bode well for the second. Because the bottom line alternatives are either man’s ways or God’s. There is no mystery here, only pride and free will. Even the outcome is not in doubt (Revelation 19:11-16, 20:11-15), only our participation and place in it result from our free choice.

Until that event, the new normal likely is based on social distancing, prohibition of large gatherings, wearing personal protective equipment in public; it will take awhile for us to figure out how we relate, work, play, and worship under these new norms. The economy will suffer, at least by the metrics of existing business structures. Some industries may vanish, such as tourism, sit down restaurants, public education, organized sports. 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/new-model-looks-at-what-might-happen-if-sars-cov-2-is-here-to-stay/

Our apparent standard of living will drop. Amidst it all, will we say the following with Habakkuk?

Though the fig tree should not blossom

And there be no fruit on the vines,

Though the yield of the olive should fail

And the fields produce no food,

Though the flock should be cut off from the fold

And there be no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will exult in the Lord,

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength,

And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,

And makes me walk on my high places.

[Habakkuk 3:17-19, NASB]

The Plague, The Crown Virus, Poe’s Red Masque, The End Times, and Where is God in all this?

While the Coronavirus may seem a plague of Biblical proportions, remember that in Moses’ time, the tenth plague killed the firstborn of every Egyptian family in one night. The Bubonic plague in the Middle Ages killed between 25% and 60% of the population of Europe in the 14th century, with a mortality rate between 1% and 90% of those infected. More recently, the Spanish flu killed a significant fraction of the earth’s population (between 1 and 6%) in the early 20th century, with a 3-20% mortality rate. (Between 17 and 100 million died, 500 million infected, total population of approximately 1.8 billion.) Estimates of the mortality rate of the corona virus are unreliable because of the varying reporting standards of various countries, bureaucratic and political gamesmanship, and the limits on testing volumetrics, but seems lower.

Revelation 6:6 describes the ministry of the third horseman of the apocalypse. Following the horse trail of people killing each other, he unleashes famine, but is commanded not to harm the oil or the wine. While Russia and Saudi Arabia are flooding the world with cheap oil, and every grocery store offers at least one full aisle of wine and related alcoholic beverages, stores struggle to stock basic necessities such as toilet paper(?). Are we already to the third seal judgment? The first was war, conquest, which has been a miserable staple of human existence for all of human history. The second, mass killing, is certainly no stranger to humankind. (Whether in war or in random acts of indiscriminate violence isn’t specified, but we have seen both through recorded history.) What comes next? 

[A quick side note: the oil and wine in Rev. 6:6 could be interpreted symbolically as representing the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and the Passover Seder wine representing the shed blood of Christ. The admonition in that metaphor would be that the horseman is not to touch believers, consistent with Revelation 9:4. The present abundance of petroleum and cheap wine is then simply the devil’s offering of a worldly counterfeit.]

The fourth horseman will be given power to kill one fourth of the earth’s population, through a variety of mechanisms. We haven’t reached this level of morbidity yet, although yersinia pestis came close in the Middle Ages. 

Edgar Allen Poe offered a literary perspective of response to the plague in The Masque of the Red Death, published in 1842. There are many implicit messages. I believe that the primary is that partying while the world is perishing will be judged with the severest consequence, experiencing without possibility of repentance the disaster befalling a lost world. Poe made no explicit reference to God, but the supernatural poetic justice inflicted on the partiers signals an underlying standard of Biblical roots. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and so forth. One can scarcely say this describes modern governments’ response. Although many cite chaos and overreaction as the dominant characteristics, only a few political leaders have called for repentance, for fasting and prayer, to acknowledge God as sovereign in our current circumstances. 

The question ought not be ‘where is God’. Rather, His question to us is “Adam, where are you?” The Good News of redemption through Christ ought to elicit a heartfelt reception from us. If we have not received His gift, it is hard to see how we can ask where He is and expect anything other than the horsemen He releases.

A quote from C. S. Lewis’ sermon “Learning in Wartime” drives the point home. Replace references to war with Coronavirus and the point is clear.

But there is no question of death or life for any of us; only a question of this death or of that -- of a machine gun bullet now or a cancer forty years later. What does war do to death? It certainly does not make it more frequent; 100 per cent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased. It puts several deaths earlier; but I hardly suppose that that is what we fear.... Does it decrease our chances of dying at peace with God? I cannot believe it. If active service does not persuade a man to prepare for death, what conceivable concatenation of circumstance would? Yet war does do something to death. It forces us to remember it. The only reason why the cancer at sixty or the paralysis at seventy-five do not bother us is that we forget them. 

The issue we cannot now avoid is our readiness to stand before, or walk with God. He calls us, pleads with us. What is our response?

As The Ruin Falls by C. S. Lewis

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.

I never had a selfless thought since I was born.

I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:

I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,

I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:

I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--

But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.

I see the chasm. And everything you are was making

My heart into a bridge by which I might get back

From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains

You give me are more precious than all other gains.”

C. S. Lewis, Poems

The Source of Society's Strength

It is well with a kingdom when its great men know how to value its good men, when its governors look upon religion and religious people to be their strength, and consider it their interest to support them, and learn to call godly praying people, and skillful faithful ministers, the chariots and horsemen of Israel, as Joash called Elisha, and not the troublers of the land, as Ahab called Elijah.

-- Matthew Henry commentary on Zechariah 12:5

Truth vs. The Good Place’s nihilism of choosing non-existence

The conclusion of “The Good Place” cannot stand without rebuttal. Previous commentators have pointed out the fundamental errors that result from rejection of Christian basics. (The core problem is that getting to heaven by ethical behavior is impossible, only by receiving the provision of Christ on the cross will we enter in.) The ending, in which the main characters choose non-existence, apparently because of ennui, shows where that error culminates. 

What is missing? There are two fundamental omissions which, if included, transcend boredom of an unending morally perfect life.

• Heaven is defined by the reality of the Presence of God. The author of Ecclesiastes reflected on the vacuity of earthly life without God, and its meaninglessness. God is fundamentally separate from our universe, because of the basic logical construct. Everything in the universe has a cause, so what is the cause of the universe’s beginning? By definition, it was something not subject to the law of cause and effect. Ergo, God is beyond our comprehension. Even Aristotle knew that there had to be an immovable mover. Hence, God being outside of time, His Presence in heaven transcends temporal ennui. Beyond that, our earthly relationship with Him will be consummated, much as the Biblical metaphor of marriage implies. Not only is there the first day and night of togetherness, there is a long-term state of being happily married. Both passion and contentment. We cannot know this with God while on earth. (Exodus 33:18-23)
• The continuation of our earthly walk in heaven will be characterized by continually taking on an increased aspect of God’s character. The Bible, and especially the Incarnation, reveal God’s core attribute of agape - sacrificial love. His passionate agape motivated Him to create the universe, and humankind, as objects of His divine love. Jesus came to earth to redeem mankind, at incomprehensible cost, out of agape. As we take on increasing measures of His character we will find vast opportunities for new agape adventures. We cannot begin to imagine what these adventures will entail. Some on earth have already started down this road (e.g., Mother Teresa), but we are limited by physical bodies with finite lifespans. 

The vital effusion of life and love that flows from God is not an optional bonus, but the central reality of Christian faith. We  can only imagine the power of the transfiguration on the mount that Peter, James, and John experienced. The choices we make now do involve ethics, not as merely a guide to right behavior, but as a manifestation of that power within us on earth. Experiencing that power from within eliminates any misguided concept that non-existence is even an option, despite Solomon’s despairing remark. (Ecclesiastes 4:3)

It would of course be unacceptable in Hollywood to produce entertainment incorporating these truths.  The secular vision of heaven as suburbia sells well and offends few. Heaven is not suburbia, and suburbia is not heaven. But just as the rest of Hollywood’s products are fiction divorced from reality, we must recognize that the Truth Incarnate does not call us to an endless ennui, of philosophical meaninglessness. Rather, He invites us to join Him in an eternal adventure.

C. S. Lewis Missed the Point on Church Music

C. S. Lewis’ essay “On Church Music” (1949)[ published in Christian Reflections, Ed. By Walter Hooper, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967, p. 94-99.] is disappointingly shallow. He focuses on high vs. low church music and edification, which seems to him to be resolved if advocates of both adopt an attitude of intending to glorify God rather than pleasing their own taste. In humility, the ungifted glorify God by silence during trained musical excellence. Equally humbly, the musically gifted glorify God when sacrificing their own desires and provides the ungifted a coarser fare than he or she would wish. 

Unfortunately, Lewis did not deal with issues such as why music appears to be one of the main activities in heaven (Revelation 4:8&11, 5:9-13, 7:12, 15:3-4) , and why it has power to move soul and spirit in church, and why the Scriptures extol it (e.g., Psalm 150:3-5). The missing link is the nature and character of God. In the essay, Lewis nods to this as an afterthought, that God does not need our music in any substantive way, citing Psalm 50:12. But he knew better. It is intrinsic to God that he is both creative and compassionate. His passion for lost humans is so strong that He sent Jesus to die on the cross to save them, and His creative energy such that He created humans to begin with so that they might glorify Him and enjoy fellowship with Him. As Lewis himself wrote in Mere Christianity, regarding joy, power, peace, and eternal life: “They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry.“ Or, as Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:38) 

God invested music with the power to directly stimulate man’s soul and spirit in our innermost being. For some, prayer is this channel of connection to God, but music is much more so, that both men and angels enjoy. Because that is the purpose of creation, to enjoy fellowship with God forever. (Sadly, music has such power that the evil one can use it to lead humans astray, but that is not the subject here.) What are we to enjoy? That God’s very essence of self-sacrificial love has been shared with us, both by nature and by redemption, and the fellowship of like-spirited beings is glorious. The melodies, harmonies, rhythms, instrumental sounds,  words, verses, and poetic structures all strike deeply embedded receptors in us, encouraging passionate response. The best music uses these attributes to enhance our response to its propositional content.

The bottom line on Church music is that it succeeds in submission to God’s purposes, and fails otherwise. God’s purposes are both knowable and achievable, if we are willing. Worship is more than music, and not all music is worship, but music of worship brings glory to God through our participation, and its impact on us.