Psalm 29
Psalm 46
Isaiah 6:1-7

So I needed a place to put down some thoughts. These are not a complete thought but really just a reflection today, Sunday, March 15, 2020.

We are in the midst of a time when the world around us is living in fear. People are in a rush to make sure they don’t run out of toilet paper, anti-septic wipes, water and food. They are quite simply scared for their lives.

And maybe they are right. A virus is something that is so small, we can’t see it. We don’t know if it is in the air around us. A virus bends the meaning of our word “living.” Is a virus alive? It certainly has a lifetime. It certainly is able to cause sickness and death.

But does it know what it is doing? Can it be killed in the normal sense? It does not feel. It cannot be reasoned with. It kills not because it hates, but just because it is.

And it causes fear.

What is fear really? Fear is a feeling in the human that causes a person to change what they do. It causes a change in behaviour. Fear these last few weeks means that dehumanizing another person by refusing to relate to them, or be with them, is no longer a vice, but a virtue. “Social distancing” is the new rallying cry for the world. In the best cases people will say that they do this for the sake of those with weakened health, those who are vulnerable – I do believe people when they say this is their reason. In the worst cases it is about “me.” In the end we are trying not to die, or to keep our elders from dying.

Just look at what fear can achieve in terms of changing behavior. The entire country (more or less) is changing its behavior. Businesses are dying so that people will not.

I want to remember this later after the dust settles. Because I need to remember what it means to fear. I need to remember how it felt to see changing my behavior because of fear made sense and was good.

I am a Christian, and I believe that Christ defeated deatth. Not just a little, but completely and for all time. I believe there is someone who is so holy that I would be terrified if I came into his presence. From Isaiah 6:

1In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2Seraphim, stodd above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
the whole earth is full of His glory.”

4And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!…“

Isaiah was a righteous man in his time, but when he came upon God, his first response was utter terror. His first prophetic oracle was an oracle of woe, upon himeself. responded with fear, and that fear caused him to repent. To change who he was. To change what behavior made sense to him.

While John Calvin was still alive and was in Geneva, the world was struck with the plague. The plague was not a one time occurance. It came back year after year. And the doctors and experts at the time did not know how to deal with it. They were overwhelmed by it. They were fearful, and they were beginning to see that this thing went from person to person by contact.

What was the response of the pastors with Calvin? They made a rule (they were also had great sway over the government at the time, that is another topic) that when someone became sick from that if they did not improve in three days they were to tell the pastors. And a pastor would come and visit the sick person to remind and assure the person of three things. (1) That Christ had overcome death, (2) that it was imperitive to confess from your sins and flee to the mercies of Jesus Christ, and (3) that Jesus protects, love, cares, and watches over His people and that we can trust the Father’s love for us.

The evidence was clear by this point that doing this was hazardous to the pastor. And two pastors who were given the ministry of visiting the sick died – from the plague. Why?

Because the pastors believed that it was worth dying to ensure that their flock was reminded and held onto these three things.

When there is not a plague or virus outbreak it is simple to say that being right with God is more important than dying. It is quite another when the act of helping others be right with God meant that you would probably die. I hope that I can live my life acting out that dying is less important than my and other people’s salvation.

I want to remember in this time that death is not the final word. That I desire to lean on the mercies of Jesus and confess my sin. And that I desire to live as though Jesus cares and watches out for me before and after death.

Leave with a Psalm, Psalm 29:

1Ascribe to the Lord, O sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name;
Worship the Lord in holy array.

3The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
The God of glory thunders,
The Lord is over many waters.
4The voice of the Lord is powerful,
The voice of the Lord is majestic.
5The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
And Sirion like a young wild ox.
7The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire.
8The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple everything says, “Glory!”

10The Lord sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the Lord sits as King forever.
11The Lord will give strength to His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace.