Pastors' Blog

Did I hear that right? WBBM News Radio from Chicago ran a piece this morning on COVID-19's fall out in the Windy City. Turns out that with so many bars and restaurants empty during this lockout, the rodents used to feeding off the garbage in the back alley have hit the road in search of new food sources, such as residential domiciles. We're talking rats! Says Robert Villamil, owner of Crow Pest Control: "'Rats are wild and are looking for food and trying to survive'" (abc7chicago.com/amp/coronavirus-rats-chicago-rat-warning-cdc/6213457). Turns out the Centers for Disease Control is warning now of "'unusual or aggressive rodent behavior'" from rats starved out of their usual haunts in big cities (ibid). Moral of the story–like rats, sin feeds on garbage kept "out back"–get rid of the garbage if you don't want the rat feasting off of you! 

And did you hear about the new app developed by Apple and Google? Twenty-two countries and some US states have requested the use of their new technology. The Swiss COVID app enables "automated contact tracing ... using smartphones to detect when two people are close enough to each other for long enough that there is significant risk of contagion, so that one can be warned if the other is later diagnosed with having the disease" (bbc.com). Moral of the story–your mother was right, "birds of a feather flock together," so beware of who it is you're getting close to⁠–they may be wearing more than enticing perfume!

And finally, this afternoon, if all goes according to schedule, a towering SpaceX rocket will lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida–destination: the International Space Station. Strapped inside the command module will be NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, both repeat visitors to outer space. This "will mark the first time in history that a commercial aerospace company has carried humans into Earth's orbit" (amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/26/tech/spacex-nasa-launch-may-27-scn/index.html). And after a decade, this also "will usher in the return of human spaceflight to US soil" (ibid). Turns out the astronauts out there will be in a healthier domain than their Earth home, now contaminated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Moral of the story–you may never become an astronaut, but the day is coming when humans will blast off from this Earth on a fiery cloud to a pure and uncontaminated atmosphere and land called Heaven–they are taking reservations as we speak!

Three simple stories–one connecting truth–all about Jesus. Having willingly sacrificed His life (forever) to love you and me back to Him, He is the one Being who is (1) a Master at both moral pest and garbage control (with our permission, of course); (2) a Specialist at protective social distancing when the contagion is sin and not a virus; and (3) the Agent in charge of all one-way traffic to Paradise, reservations required. What a Savior, what a Friend.

Reminds me of a song we sing. Why don't you hum along as we read the words together: "Hallelujah! what a Savior! Hallelujah! what a Friend! Saving, helping, keeping, loving, He is with me to the end" ("Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners"  No. 187 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal).

I pulled a book out of my library last week by one of a handful of authors I return to, Philip Yancey. Where Is God When It Hurts still is a powerful treatment of the painful subject of human suffering. I went back through it, this time taking notes, given the front and center place the pandemic has bestowed suffering.

Yancey quotes the novelist Peter De Vries, who “called the problem of pain ‘the question mark turned like a fishhook in the human heart’” (20). The snagging fishhook of Why?

In response to suffering, Christ Himself side-stepped that question mark. He did with Job. Did it with the disciples. Did it with the reporters regarding the bloody massacre by Pilate. Did it with the two heart-broken sisters of Lazarus. Why? Because there is no quick-fix quip to Why?

Because C. S. Lewis may be right: “God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world” (The Problem of Pain in Yancey). 

Besides, could it be the How? is more critical than the Why?

Last Sabbath afternoon many celebrated with Lowell Hamel and his family over his brush with Covid-19 death (see www.facebook.com/lakeunionherald/videos/242742926827740/). Had the interview ended with the Doxology, we would all have stood in gratitude to God. But later that very night another member of our Congregation was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening complications. His text three days later simply testified, “I’m ready either way, now or later.”

Neither the now healed doctor nor the still suffering member can answer the Why? But both may testify to the How? of suffering—how, no matter what the outcome may turn out to be, we can know One who suffers beside us. Because “love suffers long” (1 Corinthians 13:4). And “God is love” (1 John 4:8). This means no matter how long we suffer through this pandemic, there is One who is pinned to our sides in our suffering. “Like a fishhook.” And He shall yet have the last word—which will not end with a question mark. Ever again.

You probably saw the headline a few days ago, “As famines of ‘biblical proportion’ loom, Security Council urged to ‘act fast’” (UN News www.news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1062272). Biblical proportions? Weren’t we talking about famines a few days ago ourselves?

“Noting that the global spread of COVID-19 this year has sparked 'the worst humanitarian crisis since World War Two', Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) David Beasley pointed to deepening crises, more frequent natural disasters and changing weather patterns, saying 'we’re already facing a perfect storm’.”

The United Nation news website continues: “As millions of civilians in conflict-scarred nations teeter on the brink of starvation, he said, 'famine is a very real and dangerous possibility'. 

Mr. Beasley painted a grim picture of 135 million people facing crisis levels of hunger or worse, coupled with an additional 130 million on the edge of starvation prompted by Coronavirus, noting that WFP currently offers a lifeline to nearly 100 million people – up from about 80 million just a few years ago. 'If we can’t reach these people with the life-saving assistance they need, our analysis shows that 300,000 people could starve to death every single day over a three-month period', he upheld. 'This does not include the increase of starvation due to COVID-19’” (ibid).

Was that 300,000 people starving to death every day for three months? Do you mean 27 million people? A crippling pandemic followed by famines “of biblical proportions”—no wonder he calls it “a perfect storm.”

Did you know God prophesied a devastating global famine before the end of the world? The shepherd prophet Amos recorded the prediction: “'The days are coming,' declares the Sovereign Lord, 'when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the Lord, but they will not find it’” (Amos 8:11-12).

A famine of biblical proportions—but not a famine of food—rather a global famine driven by desperate hunger for the Word of God that apparently will no longer be found.

Will all the Bibles on earth disappear? That seems highly unlikely. Rather Amos’ somber warning depicts a time when God’s appeals to this civilization will finally cease. Humanity will have had its golden opportunity to respond to “the last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world . . . a revelation of His character of love” (Christ’s Object Lessons 415). Having uttered their irrevocable No to God, perhaps these like the worried antediluvians outside the ark’s closed-door offer to reconsider their No. But it is too late. “They will not find it”—the words of God, the promise of the Savior, the offer of forgiveness and restoration. 

But good news—this sad word doesn’t have to be the last word for this civilization right now. Why? Because you and I very well know where the Bread of Life can still be found in glorious supply—where the Water of Life still flows in crystal streams. “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” (John 6:35). Knowing what we know or Whom we know, we remain God’s most effective and final strategy to stave off the predicted global famine! 

Which is why when this lockdown is lifted, I'm praying none of us will go back to letting everybody else be Christ’s witnesses. No—you and I thus far have been spared the frontal assault of the coronavirus pandemic—which makes us God’s humble strategy to stave off a spiritual famine of biblical proportions. Our friendly deeds of love, our simple witness for Jesus are a revelation of God’s character of love to people more open to Him now than perhaps ever before. 

As someone once said—“Witnessing is one beggar telling other beggars where we found bread.” And that really is good news.

No sense beating around the bush. Let's pretend we're kids once again and it’s very OK for us to pester our father with the familiar question: "Are we there yet?" Of course, I’m not thinking of our father, but rather our Father who is in heaven. 

I.e., God—are we close to calling this pandemic off (we, of course, meaning You)? Haven't we pretty much learned what we need to learn by now? You know—the lesson about how quickly life can irrevocably change—we got it. Or the lesson about how important patience is for our spiritual growth—got it again (sort of). So, dear Lord—since it's now been five weeks and we’ve learned our lessons—we promise—is it OK for us to ask: Are we there yet?

In The Atlantic science writer, Ed Yong describes the reality we face: "This physical-distancing strategy is working, but at such an economic cost that it can't be sustained indefinitely. When restrictions relax, as they are set to do on April 30, the coronavirus will likely surge back, as it is now doing in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other Asian states that had briefly restrained it. As I wrote last month, the only viable endgame is to play whack-a-mole with the coronavirus, suppressing it until a vaccine can be produced. With luck, that will take 18 to 24 months. During that time, new outbreaks will probably arise. Much about that period is unclear, but the dozens of experts whom I have interviewed agree that life as most people knew it cannot fully return. ‘I think people haven’t understood that this isn't about the next couple of weeks," said Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota. “This is about the next two years.'" (www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/pandemic-summer-coronavirus-reopening-back-normal/609940/). 

Did you catch that? "Life as most people knew it cannot fully return." He means “ever."

Yong goes on: "The pandemic is not a hurricane or a wildfire. It is not comparable to Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Such disasters are confined in time and space. The SARS-CoV-2 virus will linger through the year and across the world. 'Everyone wants to know when this will end,’ said Devi Sridhar, a public-health expert at the University of Edinburgh. 'That's not the right question. The right question is: How do we continue?'" (ibid).

"How do we continue?"

That seemed to be on the mind of Jesus that Tuesday just before His Friday execution. I came across it a few days ago here in my lock-down study at home—one intriguing line: "'By your patience possess your souls'" (Luke 21:19 NKJV). The Greek word for "patience" is from hupomeno ("to remain under" or "to endure"), which of course is what patience is all about, remaining pinned down by circumstances utterly out of your control. You remember from our Livestream Agape Feast a couple of Sabbaths ago the same word described the four walls of dread that pressed in tighter and tighter on Jesus on Calvary. "He endured [hupomeno] the cross." Literally pinned down—not so much unable, but very much unwilling to extricate Himself, which defines the magnitude of what His love endured to save the likes of you and me.

And I complain about my circumstances after a few weeks of being pinned down in my comfortable space by this lock-down?

Interestingly this same hupomeno appears in another one-liner, this one in the Apocalypse, describing God's endgame friends before Jesus returns: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12). Pinned down-and-under kind of patience—the very patience I don't have but I want very much to possess. "By your patience possess your souls." Jesus did. His friends will. And by God’s grace, I seek to learn His lesson here in my lock-down.

"Are we there yet?" Turns out we are much closer than we ever realized before—which makes this a very good time to be learning our lesson.