Courage in dark times

kits for worship or learning activities

   & Scripture Readings:  Jeremiah 23: 1-8 “What kind of Shepherd?”

Psalm 23
Luke 12: 13-21

One of my favorite books of all time is Diana Butler Bass’ “A People’s History of Christianity.”  It talks about many things, including how people converted from worshipping Zeus and Jupiter because they saw our faith working.  In Rome when the Plague of Galen started in 165, Christians were the ones who took care of the thousands of people, dead and dying in the streets.  The Romans were so scared of death and the Plague that they were astonished at these crazy people who worked together and helped their neighbors.  While faithful Romans ran away from the cities, faithful Christians planted their feet firmly on the ground, breathed in, rolled up their sleeves and got to work.  And continued to do so over the centuries as they faced all kinds of adversity and danger.  Passages like Jeremiah and the 23^rd Psalm are a reminder of ‘steady as she goes’ and love thy neighbor as thyself.  Jeremiah described a time of deep fear, where folks were listening to false news, spreading rumors and hording toilet paper.  Well, maybe not the toilet paper, but you get the point.  Panic buying and nervous tensions were the order of the day.  The people were scattered across the known world, which was no big thing back when immigration depended solely on the strength of their feet to carry them the long distances away from where danger threatened.  God was the Air Canada, the Westjet, the Canadian Airforces swooping in to collect snowbirds, tourists, students and business people to bring them back home.  We’ve had plenty of that right here this week, a grandfather waiting to hear that a grandson had gotten home safe from Italy, our Japanese exchange student saying goodbye to our handbell choir, and our snowbird arriving home to Edmonton and in quarantine for two weeks.  We want to be home, safe, keeping some sense of safety in these uncertain times.

And maybe that’s part of the problem.  Our craving for safety in a time of fear.  What are we craving for?  Control?  Security? Safety?  One of the challenges of being human is that we are probably the only creature that knows that we die, and knows that we usually have no control over when we will die, where, why we will die or how we will die, except for those who choose to do otherwise of course.  But our fear of death does not help in times like these.  It leads to hording, to storing up a lifetime of toilet paper in our closets and basements.  It is an understandable and human response, but in the long run it is not a Christian response.  Jesus told the parable of the rich man who built granaries and then died.  God said, “You fool This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ (Luke 12:20).  We are tempted to horde not only our toilet paper, our bullets, our flour, our milk, but also our compassion, our patience, our trust, and our love.  That is not what our faith is about.  We are called to be people of prayer, of compassion, and of faith.  We are called to acts of prevention and also acts of connection.

What can we do in times of challenge?  Let’s keep connected!  Phone a friend, a family member, a congregation member.  Stay open to opportunities to love and serve others.  Remember to love yourself too, with washing your hands for 20 seconds.  And pray for all who are on the front lines, especially ones who aren’t obviously on the front lines, the truck drivers, the mail carriers, the bank tellers, the garbage collectors, the plumbers and the people in charge of keeping our plumbing and our power and our heat going.  If you have toilet paper, share with those who didn’t beat the rush.  If you have a favorite charity, donate via phone or e-mail with your credit card.  If you order from a restaurant, tip like you know they really need it.  And know that I am just a phone call, a skype session or even a knock on the door away.  I’m saving up a tremendous amount of hugs for you all when this is all over, and even if we never hug in Canada again, I will keep you in my heart just as our Good Shepherd lead us all to lie beside still waters, even in the valley of the shadow of death.  In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us, we are not alone, thanks be to God!  Amen.