A Prayer in the Midst of a New Coronavirus
The leadership team of RHPNA has been rattled, as have all of us, by the last month or two of world upheaval. So much pain, anguish and lament especially for the most vulnerable among us. Those we call friends, even family.
Yet we also feel encouragement.
Recently Rev. Sam Chaise, one of our board members, put his thoughts into this thought-provoking piece for a Facebook post on IAFR Canada. It is well worth sharing to our community during this trying times:
“Do not fear” is what we are told, over and over in Scripture. It is often the first phrase on the lips of angel visitors, it is sprinkled through the writings of the prophets as God sought to encourage His people, and it is spoken by Jesus and the apostles.
We are also told that “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).
Might it be the case that the opposite is also true, that fear casts out love?
It is harder to be generous and loving when we ourselves are afraid. Fear causes us to ‘circle the wagons’ and withdraw into a cocoon where we separate the world into “us” and “them”. It is natural to prioritize care to one’s family and close network of friends . . . but then we are challenged with the startling story told by Jesus in which He re-defines “neighbour” to include the person in front of us who shows us mercy and to whom we show the same (see the story of The Good Samaritan, in Luke 10:29-37).
What does this mean for us as we live with COVID-19 hanging over our society like a death-shadow? What does this mean in terms of our posture and engagement with the most vulnerable in our society, and with those who continue to seek asylum in Canada? Will we as a country ‘circle the wagons’? Will we as churches ‘circle the wagons’? Or might we find ways that deal wisely with the risk of COVID-19 spread, while continuing to be a place and a people who welcomes the stranger, crossing the road to care for the Samaritan in need?
Times of testing and challenge shape us . . . for the better, or for the worse. Let us pray that as we journey through this time of crisis and fear, we are shaped by the Spirit so that our generosity flourishes and our welcome is strengthened.
Sam goes on to share
a prayer in the midst of a new coronavirus
[from the social location of Canada and for this context]
We come to you, God, as we are.
Not as we’ve heard we should be, not as we think we should be, not even as we hope we will be, but as we are.
And for many of us, if not all, we come in this moment with fear, because the headlines on our screens and in our papers are about the unknown, about a new disease that seems to be stalking the earth and stalking us.
We know of Your promise, and Your call, which says, “Do not fear”, and have to say that at times, that seems a little bit crazy, or at least unrealistic.
And we wonder what You mean by that, because for sure we know You don’t mean that everything’s fine or that everything will necessarily be okay. Perhaps it is a call to remind ourselves that our fear can be enfolded by something larger, some that is not global in scope but larger than the universe. Something that is love.
We confess that we live in such an unusual and amazing time in history that we’re not good at facing these kinds of global threats. We know that most of our ancestors were used to this sort of thing – they were used to living with the unknown because so much then was unknown – they were more used to sickness and death than we are because it was all around them. So we acknowledge that our fear, and our lack of resilience, is actually a sign that we live in a time of great blessing, where the diseases that killed so many in our history are now managed with medication. So, thank You.
We also acknowledge the gift that it is to live in Canada, with the wealth of resources that have been invested in our medical system, and the fact that it is available to all regardless of ability to pay. We pray for parts of the world that would be devastated were this virus to hit them, where there is poverty, minimal health care, and just very little resilience to be able to deal with this virus.
We also pray for the many people who have been, and will be affected by the economic downturn . . .for the millions of people in the Global South who live close to the edge in terms of livelihood, for whom a lack of economic growth means that difference between eating healthy food or perhaps just eating rice. It may be that more people will be harmed by the downturn in the global economy than by the virus itself, and we pray for them.
And we pray for one another. We pray that our fear will not cause us to turn on one another, keep resources from one another, or withdraw from one another. We think of Your people, who lived centuries ago, who were known for the fact that as others were fleeing plague-ridden cities, Christians were marching in, in order to care for the sick, knowing that if they died, they would come alive again in the resurrection. And that because of that, as others marveled at the courage and sacrifice of Your people, they wanted to know about the God who inspired those people. And we wish we could be like them. We want to be like them.
Or, do we?
At the least, we aspire to that. And, so, if this does get bad, we ask that You fill us with Your Spirit so that Your Church will become known for its courage, hope, and self-sacrifice. What a story that would be . . .
So, in the end, we long for more than a lack of fear. We pray for hope, faith, courage, conviction, resilience, and people who bear witness to a larger story than this current story that is gripping our world.
Amen