{"id":2163,"date":"2020-03-20T21:37:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T01:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/?p=2163"},"modified":"2020-08-17T21:39:20","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T01:39:20","slug":"groves-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/2020\/03\/20\/groves-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew D. Groves: The Spirituality [of Coronavirus]"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last post I shared a quote from CS Lewis about the nuclear weapon era that feels appropriate for today\u2019s world, first brought to my attention by The Gospel Coalition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. \u201cHow are we to live in an atomic age?\u201d I am tempted to reply: \u201cWhy, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation<\/strong>. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors\u2014anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.<\/p>\n

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things\u2014praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts\u2014not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes, these are troubled times that require precautions. For those of us who don\u2019t remember 9\/11 very well (myself included), this looks to be the first nation-wide catastrophe of our lifetimes. But I wanted to share the Lewis quote to remind us that we are not in completely unfamiliar territory, as a human species or as a church. The coronavirus is new, terrible, and a great threat to human health and flourishing. But we have no reason to believe<\/a> that it will kill half of the population, like the Black Death did in Europe in the middle ages, or even ~5% of the world\u2019s population, like the 1918 Spanish Flu did (The 3-4% mortality rate you\u2019re seeing is for people who get the disease, not the entire population, and sanitary practices are much better than they were a hundred years ago). We ultimately remember events like these by the way people reacted to them, and the same will be true about today\u2019s pandemic. I hope we can all act in ways that, years from now, we\u2019ll be proud of as being level-headed, generous, selfless, and examples of Christ\u2019s love and peace.<\/p>\n

When Christ was asked about the greatest commandment, he responded \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind\u2026 and You shall love your neighbor as yourself\u201d (Matt 22, ~Deut 6 and Lev 19). Loving God and loving our neighbor are the bedrocks of Christian life, and they ought to be the foundation of our life in the time of the coronavirus as well. What follows are suggestions for how to do both in today\u2019s world, drawing from \u2013 but not exclusive to \u2013 the Christian tradition.<\/p>\n

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Love your neighbor as yourself<\/h2>\n

Concerning neighborly love, let me say up front that social distancing is a profoundly Christian thing to do. <\/strong>Making sacrifices for the most vulnerable members of society is at the heart of the gospel (Gal 6.2, John 15.12, Romans 12.13, Phil 2.4, Matt 25.44-45, Luke 3.10-11, James 2, etc.). That\u2019s exactly what we (either healthy or sick) are doing when we stay home to slow the spread of the virus. Failing to \u201csocially distance\u201d is essentially saying, \u201cI care more about my events and comfort than other peoples\u2019 lives.\u201d If you had a party, or a conference, or especially a graduation or wedding coming up, this is difficult. You\u2019re allowed to be disappointed and frustrated at the circumstance. It\u2019s perfectly normal and understandable to be bummed about missing out on the things of life we were looking forward to, big or small (March Madness was a tough one for me). You\u2019re allowed to wallow in self-pity for a bit. But placing others\u2019 lives before our own convenience is at the heart of the Christian message. We are called to be disciples of Christ and follow in his footsteps. Christ laid down his life for us; we can at least lay down our plans on behalf of others.<\/p>\n

 Regardless of your denominational views, Martin Luther has wisdom to share here. A flare-up of the Black Death afflicted his region of Germany, leading Luther to argue<\/a> to local pastors that the church\u2019s duty to help the sick only increases in a time of plague:<\/p>\n

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\u201cI shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Luther was quite ahead of the curve on endorsing social distancing, but he was eager to help the sick<\/a> in any way he could. He walked the walk and opened his home<\/a> to the sick during the height of a plague, pursuing \u201cthe welfare of the city\u201d (Jer 29.7). No one is asking you to bring coronavirus-positive people into your home, but there are other ways you can help. If someone struggled with access to food, medicine, or shelter before the outbreak, they are certainly struggling more now. Older people or immune-compromised folks might be nervous to leave their houses to get groceries or other supplies. And families with young children may especially be struggling, since school closures have effectively cancelled their child care, leaving them babysitting while also trying to figure out how to work from home. (Families whose kids are out of school might also be desperate for tutoring support, which you could provide by video call. Ask them.) If you\u2019re young and healthy, you could still be a carrier and need to be careful. But you\u2019re less at risk than others, and it may be safer for you to fetch supplies for them than for them to go personally. Pastors can consider making a Google form for people to discreetly request these needs. Blood banks are also running low, but you can still give blood if you make an appointment<\/a>. As a Catholic writer I like, Fr. James Martin, said, \u201cMany things have been cancelled because of the coronavirus. Love is not one of them.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

This is an important moment in the history of the church. People will remember how others respond, both individually and as organizations. Will your church be known in the community for decades to come as the group that refused to heed health advice and contributed to the problem? Or as a group that creatively worked to find solutions and calmness? For people who don\u2019t know much about Christianity, consider that how you or your church react might be all they really know about the Gospel. As Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, \u201cLet your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven\u201d (Matt 5.15). We will be an example, one way or the other, to our community. To put on my seminary hat for a moment, the Greek root for \u201capocalypse\u201d means \u201cuncovering\/revealing\u201d (that\u2019s why the New Testament book is called \u201cRevelation.\u201d) So yes, we\u2019re in apocalyptic times where it feels like everything\u2019s falling apart. But people\u2019s characters are also being revealed, for better or worse. Some have been opportunists or lax in their public duty, while others are stepping up as heroes. This is a crisis, but it\u2019s also a glimpse at our true colors. Let us lean into the chance to show the world who we really are as Christians.<\/p>\n

 Love God<\/h2>\n

As Rachel Held Evans \u2013 whose one-year death anniversary is coming up soon \u2013 said once, \u201cSome people need to be told to love their neighbor as they love themselves. Other people need to be told to love themselves as they love their neighbor.\u201d Don\u2019t forget to take care of yourself. For mental health, try not to get sucked into the social media vortex every day. Remember: \u201cYou will run out of mental health long before the world runs out of traumatizing stories.\u201d<\/em><\/a> Things like a healthy diet, exercise, and enough rest are always recommended. But especially now, when our health system really can\u2019t afford to deal with you getting sick. So we should be following the guidelines of public health officials for the sake of neighborly love and our own physical health, but that might not do much to meet our own spiritual needs of the moment.<\/p>\n

I think about how odd it is that this quarantine is happening during Lent, the period when Christians are supposed to slow down their lives, fast, pray, read scripture, support those less fortunate than ourselves, and ponder our baptisms. Do I believe God sent the coronavirus so that we would have to observe Lent? No, of course not. But I also believe that we ought to make the most of any circumstance, and in our busy lives it\u2019s a rare thing to find ourselves in a period of stillness.<\/p>\n

Whether or not your church tradition usually practices Lent, I recommend everyone take the opportunity to engage with Lent more deeply than we perhaps would in other years. Although I didn\u2019t grow up in a tradition that put a lot of emphasis on structure, I\u2019ve come to really appreciate how centuries-old spiritual practices make me feel united with Christians from throughout history and around the world. In this time of isolation, this connection feels even more valuable.<\/p>\n

There are a few ways to go about this when reading scripture, but one of my favorites is the lectionary, which is a collection of bible passages assigned to every day of the year, grouped by a common theme (usually including passages from each of the following:  Old Testament, a Psalm, a New Testament letter, and a Gospel). Wherever you are in the world, you can read these scriptures and know that millions of other Christians across the world are reading the exact same passages.<\/p>\n