Faith in a Time of Terror

The Sea Island Chapel Pulpit

“Faith in a Time of Terror”

Robert U. Ferguson, Jr., Ph.d.

March 28, 2020

As we conclude our second week of “quarantine” at Sea Island Chapel we all have come to realize the magnitude of the enemy before us.  Covid 19 is far more deadly and difficult to control than we have ever dreamed possible.  As much as we each and all hope that this virus will run its course in a week or two, we now know that barring some unforeseen miracle this will not be the case.  Life for most of us will be months in returning to “normal” — if it ever does.  For some, those unfortunate who have contracted Covid 19, life will never be the same.  Some will lose their life because of this virus.  Others will survive, but they will still be impacted in known and unknown ways.  There will be, for all of us, a “new normal” in virtually every way.

As followers of Jesus Christ, how ought we to respond to this pandemic and the fear and even horror it is, has and will wreaked upon humankind?  In what ways can and will our Lord use this incredibly evil event for good?

1. Let us use this time to live with a “we” rather than a “me” focus.  Our political leaders have asked us to stay home as much as possible so as to flatten the curve, i.e., slow if not stop the process of infection.  As followers of Jesus Christ we proclaim God’s love for each and all of us.  Each human being is created in the imago dei (the image of God) — and as such is of infinite worth and value.  

A theological/spiritual leader, Abraham Joshua Heschel, once said: “The principle to be kept in mind is to know what we see rather than to see what we know.”  So often as we “look” at the world we only see what our preformed beliefs allow us to see.  My deepest belief is that as followers of Jesus we are called upon to “see as Jesus sees” — not an easy matter in the best of scenarios, much less in a pandemic.  When we remember how Jesus “saw” the “least of these” — as defined by the culture/society of his day — we realize that Jesus saw each person as bearing this image of God and therefore loved by God. There are no “expendable” persons; we are all loved by God and should be loved by one another.  If our “self-quarantine” can spare one person the horror of Covid 19, then we ought to do so.  The question is not “What is best for me?”  The question is rather, “What is best for our community and world? How can I act in love and grace toward all — not just those who are close to me?”

1. Let us use this time to reflect upon how our faith and belief in God is calling us to action.   There is no doubt that moments such as these can and will try our faith.  We proclaim belief that “God is control” — but the reality is that right now, the opposite seems apparent to us. Human suffering on such a scale as this challenges every facet of our faith.  This is especially true if we believe that God is our cosmic butler who exists to meet our every whim and desire.  However, if we believe that we exist to serve a loving God who walks with us through even the darkest of the nights, then we will come to an entirely different question and answer.  

The question is not “where is God?”  The question is “where are we — and how are we responding to the horror before us?  We claim to believe that “in all things God works together for those who love him, who are called according to God’s purpose.” (Romans 8: 28)  How then are we joining together in showing to our world the face of our Lord?  The God I know and love is a God of purposeful work…who calls each of us to be about building the Kingdom.  God is not an “uninvolved and distant by-stander, but a God intimately involved in all we say and do.

1. Let us use this time to pray, seeking the face of God.  Our lives are often so busy that we barely pause to pray, substituting a blessing at a meal for deep and fervent prayer.  Now that we are given a gift of time, why not spend more of it listening to God?  Genuine, authentic prayer is not as much about our telling God what we want God to do — as if God did not know — as it is listening to the Spirit of God as God communes with us.  What does God really want to say to us?  In Luke 11: 5-13 Jesus calls upon his followers to pray, knowing that as we pray God will answer our prayer.  God is longing to commune with us — if only we will pause and listen!!!

So, let’s do the right thing — employ safe health practices; listen to our leaders and heed their advice/guidance; open our hearts and minds to our Lord Jesus Christ who calls us to use both in loving and serving Him.  Remember: even when we cannot gather, we are still the church.  The church of Jesus never closes!!

Amen.

Job, God...and Covid 19

The Sea Island Chapel

Job, God…and Covid 19: Part I

The Book of Job

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Just as in the days before the French Revolution (as referenced in the Dickens’ quote) we have seemingly moved overnight from prosperity to demise. A few weeks ago all seemed good in our world: business was booming, people were working, going to school, etc. Life was moving along in relative comfort and ease.  Then, boom — a virus shows up and our world is drastically altered.  The stock market crash has scared all of us — whether we are investors or not. The already retired wonder if they have enough funds to survive.  The working wonder if they will ever be able to retire — or have enough to feed their families and pay their mortgage, utility bills, etc.  The reality of Covid 19 is compounded by fear and anxiety wreaking their tsunamic-like destruction upon us all.  

My calling as a pastor in such days is to offer you solace, comfort and hope.  William Temple phrased the minister’s task appropriately:  “…to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.”  I have discovered through the years that words of comfort, unconnected to the reality of the situation, either ring false or appropriately fall on deaf ears.  Much like Job’s three “friends” too often we tend to offer advice that is blatantly false or misleading at best.  Honesty is the best policy, in life and in ministry.  So, I share with you some honest words, words which I hope will help us not only survive the coming days and weeks, but avoid the despair and angst sweeping our world.

1. The danger of Covid 19 is real — and we need to take it with utmost seriousness.  Listen to the medical experts and follow their best practices to the letter.  Faith may sustain us through this time, but faith does not, as a rule, allow us to violate the laws of nature and survive.  If I jump off the steeple proclaiming my love for God, I will not survive…God loves us, but God has not suspended the laws of infection, etc.  Just because we love God does not mean we will not get sick and die. Be faithful, not foolish.
2. Financially, if we are not seriously affected, we need to help those who are.  We are all in this together — and if we don’t realize that then we are in more danger than just from a virus. The people who will be hurt the most are often those who can handle it the least.  Let’s support those organizations — churches, food banks, homeless shelters, etc. who are doing well by doing good.
3. Use the increased downtime to focus on habits which enable us to grow in all manner of ways.  Prayer and meditation upon Scripture are invaluable.  Read the Psalms, particularly those which are laments.  Sing again the great hymns of the faith — those which focus upon our Lord.  Allow your soul to feel and know the sustaining presence of the Spirit which goes beyond all that we can know or imagine.  Sit and reflect upon life…your life and that of your family.  Ask some tough questions of yourself:  Where are you in the span of life?  What are your real values?  Would others know?  How?  Is your life primarily focused on yourself and your comfort, happiness and ease — or upon helping others?
4. Spend more time with your family.  Play board games or card games. Paint, draw and other creative arts together. Watch movies together and discuss them.  Cook and enjoy meals together.  It’s ok to go for walks, just stay at least 5-6 feet away from others.  Clean up the yard…pull the weeds…plant some flowers!!  
5. Grieve the present situation. Re-visit the Scriptures which deal with suffering and despair, such as Job —  but read the texts at a level of depth; wrestle with the text.  Why is Job’s life torn apart?  Who is behind this?  What is Job’s response?  Why does Job reject the advice of his friends that this is due to his sin ( a still too-common reaction?) Where is God in Job’s situation?  Is God responsible?  According to the text God did not cause these, but God allows the “Accuser” to inflict these horrors upon Job (and his family) to test Job’s faith.  Where is God in what is happening to us?  
6. Do not be afraid to express anger and grief to God. Notice that Job is never faulted for his confronting God or his anger with God. I have discovered that God can handle our grief and our anger. It is only in this honest expression that we can come to terms with our grief and really come to “know” God.  Job’s acquaintance with grief — and therefore God — moves from the academic to the personal, from the intellectual to the real.  In our arguments with God we encounter the authentic God, not the God of philosophy, but he Biblical God we call Yahweh.
7. Hold onto your faith even when you cannot seem to justify it.  I’ve talked with many who lost their faith when confronted with tragedy — and I understand it.  However, I’ve also talked with many who came close to losing their faith, but held onto a thread and in the end came alive to a deeper and more resounding relationship with God.  

Did we hear Job’s affirmation of faith which resounds throughout the text?  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall return there.  The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  How can Job say this, given the destruction and despair his life has experienced?

Later he adds: ‘O that my words were written down! O that they were inscribed in a book!  O that with an iron pen and with lead they were engraved on a rock for ever!  For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”

Despite all the horror that Job has experienced, including the absence rather than the presence of God, Job refuses to walk away from the faith which was ingrained in him.  He just will not give up on God, no matter what.  My experience has been that, in our darkest hours, if we continue to wrestle with God, we will experience God’s presence in the depths of our soul and know the love and grace that ensue.  

Years ago in the midst of the popularity of “Roots” I heard the author Alex Haley tell the story of how he had heard his grandmother and her sisters tell the stories of his African ancestors and how they came to this country.  He concluded his speech with this anecdote.  On the very day he stepped into the village in Africa from whence his ancestors came, the last aunt died here in the states; if he had not acted to write down the stories, all would have been lost.  Upon his return and discovering her death he thought of the saying his grandmother had repeated many, many times:  “God may not come when you want God to…but don’t worry; God will be on time.”

Robert U. Ferguson, Jr., Ph.d.

The Sea Island Chapel

173 Marshland Drive

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

padreruf@icloud.com