Recently I saw a news story about people in Ohio still gathering for church. Those interviewed in their cars leaving the service all proclaimed the same sentiment, that because they were washed in the blood of Jesus they were protected from the coronavirus. This is dangerous theology, the idea that because we believe in God, love Jesus, or are good Christians the laws of science and the advice of experts don’t apply to us. Faith for me is not an insurance policy against the harsh realities of life. I still might get Covid19, I will one day die, my life has already been full of struggle, sorrow, pain. God does not stop us from living, God is with us in the living, loving us and helping us find peace and hope in the midst of our traumas and tragedies.
Today as we remember the horrific, humiliating death of Jesus on the cross it hits home more than ever that God knows what it means to feel pain, to struggle, to die. I believe that God does not choose who gets the virus, that God does not send disease like this to teach us lessons. I believe that God is with the nurses who extended their shifts so that their dying patient is cared for until the moment they take their last, labored breath. God is with the people in the long lines for food at food banks, worrying if there will be enough to feed their families.
God is not a cosmic bellhop that fixes life for the faithful so that we have an easier time or so that everything makes sense. God is with all people, reminding us that there is more than death, more than pain, more than loneliness, more than fear. God is continually calling us so that we might transform our broken world into something more just, more loving, more peaceful. The hope of faith is not that it magically makes me safe, but that in the unsafe and chaotic, in the ordinary and every day, and in the beautiful and transcendent I might find something greater than myself that brings peace and love to my life and helps me bring about a world that looks just a little more holy.
The stories that we tell, the choices that we make, the advocacy we engage in, the sharing and giving we choose to do, all of it is the work of faith. So as a person of faith I am going to be leading worship online. I am going to be keeping more than 6 feet of distance, wearing a mask, and limiting my leaving of the house. I am also going to wash my hands, a lot, and remember the one who washed feet, who bled and died, so that in times like these I might know that loving and engaging in humble tasks for others is paramount.
-Eilidh
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