Lament vs Rationalizations In A Time of COVID-19 - NT Wright in Time Magazine

Some Christians are prone to think of God as above, knowing everything, in charge of everything, calm and unaffected by the troubles in his world. That’s not the picture we get in the Bible.

Lament is what happens when people ask, “Why?” and don’t get an answer.

The point of lament, woven thus into the fabric of the biblical tradition, is not just that it’s an outlet for our frustration, sorrow, loneliness and sheer inability to understand what is happening or why.

The mystery of the biblical story is that God also laments.

Some Christians are prone to think of God as above all that, knowing everything, in charge of everything, calm and unaffected by the troubles in his world. That’s not the picture we get in the Bible.

The ancient doctrine of the Trinity teaches us to recognize God in the tears of Jesus and the anguish of the Spirit.

It is no part of the Christian vocation, then, to try to explain what’s happening and why (in terms of God being a causal agent). In fact, it is part of the Christian vocation not to be able to explain—and to lament instead.

The full article is available here

The Church Being Community During COVID-19 - Jodi Koeman at CRC Network

We need to plan how we bring shalom to our communities and neighborhoods. 

Many churches are figuring out how to gather remotely, and while this is important, maybe this is an opportunity to BE the church in a new way.

We’ve been forced outside the church walls. How will we respond? What role does the church have in this crisis?

While we plan to maintain a sense of community among our members, maybe we also need to plan how we bring shalom to our communities and neighborhoods.

These principles, articulated by Cormac Russell of the Asset Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University, are helpful in guiding us.

• 1. Citizen-led - We need to follow the guidelines of CDC and other health care providers.
• 2. Relationship-oriented - While taking social distancing measures seriously, how do we seek out people in our community that need our support?
• 3. Asset based - What strengths and gifts do you or your church have to bring to this situation and to your community? What strengths are right in your neighborhood?
• 4.Place-based - Churches are key places for community. We should look out for one another, but now is a prime opportunity to be with those in our local neighborhoods as well.
• 5.Inclusion-focused - Ask your community what is helpful. Ask community members what they can offer. Don’t assume you know what the most vulnerable need.

The full article is available here

God is Becoming: Consolation in the Face of Tragedy - Rabbi Bradley Artson

If God has truly ceded to creation the ability to make choices, then God didn't kill the innocent, didn't allocate disability, didn't impose poverty.

God, in choosing to create, gave us an independence that is real. We, along with all creation, have real agency, and the choices we make are truly untrammeled, unprogrammed, and unforeseen by God.

God is vulnerable to surprise and disappointment just as we are. The universe unfolds according to its own inner logic; the laws of physics operate, and God cannot/does not suspend them based on moral standards.

Thinking of God as having all the power leaves us rightly feeling betrayed and abandoned ("was I not good enough for God to intervene?"). It leaves those who defend that error in the same position of Job's friends—discounting our core ethical knowledge in an attempt to defend the indefensible. We do know good and evil: God's Spirit infuses us with that awareness. Hiding behind "it's a mystery," or "we can't understand," or "it's all for the best" is, in my opinion, worse than unsatisfying, because it requires either blaming the victim or denying our ethical compass.

If God has truly ceded to creation the ability to make choices, then God didn't kill the innocent, didn't allocate disability, didn't impose poverty. Looking for God in special effects causes us to mistake theater or science fiction for life.

God is found not in the suspension of nature's laws, but in the intrusion of novelty and surprise from within fixed law, in the abiding nature of hope, and in the transforming power of love (a power that is persuasive, not coercive).

When a beloved student struggled with what became a terminal illness, I saw God being very busy throughout his struggle—in moments of laughter and song, in the strength of the relating that bound us all as a community and kept my student feeling connected through his very last minutes, in the determination to be there with and for his family throughout and beyond the ordeal.

I never expected God to guarantee an outcome or suspend the natural. I did expect to find God in the steady constant lure toward good choices and responsibility. And that God did not disappoint.

The full article is available here

Evangelicals, This Is How Republics Fall - Messiah College Historian John Fea

Evangelical leaders who support Donald Trump have failed to rebuke the president’s immorality. By keeping (their) heads in the sand as Trump proves he is incapable of living according to the most basic standards of decency, they neglect to do their part in sustaining our republic and fail to be good citizens.

When Trump engages in (all of his immoral) activities, many of his most ardent evangelical followers —Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Paula White, Eric Metaxas, Jerry Falwell Jr., James Dobson, and Ralph Reed, to name a few — look the other way. They are unable to speak truth to power because Donald Trump and his Republican Party hold them captive.

Evangelical leaders who support Donald Trump have failed to rebuke the president’s immorality. By keeping (their) heads in the sand as Trump proves he is incapable of living according to the most basic standards of decency, they neglect to do their part in sustaining our republic and fail to be good citizens.

The political problems in Evangelicalism run deeper than just the failure to speak with a prophetic voice. 

Donald Trump will be gone one day. But the political playbook that evangelicals follow will not go away unless we decide to burn it and start over.

There is a very good chance that this playbook will lead evangelicals into the arms of another immoral tyrant who promises conservative Supreme Court justices and offers platitudes about religious liberty.

The full article is available here

Benediction: God's Upside-Down and Abundant Kingdom (based on Matthew 20:1-22)

May we go out from here as workers in God’s upside-down kingdom; where the last are first and the first are last ... and where there is grace enough for all.  And may the blessing of God, the love of Jesus, and the presence of God's Spirit surround us and sustain us.