Month: April 2020

I’m shocked – but really shouldn’t be. After all, it’s not as if I haven’t witnessed this time and again. Specifically, I’m talking about how flummoxed Christians seem to be when confronted with adversity, as with the current pandemic.

One notable example (about which I’ve previously written), occurred during the one-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. PBS ran a documentary entitled, Out of the Ashes: 9/11, the basic thrust of which was that amid such unmitigated evil faith has no good answers.

As proof, they paraded a bunch of bewildered religious leaders before the cameras who solemnly lamented that doubt was about the best one could hope for.

Continue reading “Vulnerability”

Years ago I heard a story, a parable really, about a young boy whose mother would pick him up every day from school. One afternoon she arrived at the appointed hour but he was nowhere to be seen. After about 15 minutes or so, he finally came running to the car.

“Why are you so late?” his mother inquired.
“A girl in class dropped her pottery jar,” he answered.
“So you stayed to help her pick up the pieces”?
“No,” the boy explained, “I stayed to help her cry.”

This story reveals something intrinsic to suffering. That what we really need when we’re suffering is to know someone else understands what we’re going through. People can sympathize with our lot but only those who’ve gone through something similar can truly empathize.

Continue reading “Why Is the Resurrection Joyous?”

One of the effects of the recent church lockdowns is that many if not most churches are now using technology to broadcast Sunday services, as well as other online opportunities for members to get together.

Yesterday being Palm Sunday, my wife and I tuned in to three separate services using my laptop. The following are my observations:

The first service was very creative. It used a script of various characters describing from their perspective the events of the first Holy Week, from someone who had witnessed Jesus overturning the tables of the moneychangers, to the woman who anoints Jesus with expensive oil, to Judas who was to betray him. Curiously, no attempt was made to connect any of this to what we’re going through with the coronavirus, something presumably uppermost in people’s minds.

Continue reading “Toothless Old Dog”

Crises tend to reveal who we are and what we believe. And that goes for the church as well. Consider these two examples.

I recently read a message from a local pastor about the COVID-19 outbreak. Did the pastor take the opportunity to delve into the deep spiritual, theological challenges confronting us in this time of need?  

Well, not exactly. Mostly the message was a plea that we recognize our interconnectedness, especially to the global community. The climax of the message focused on the central issue of our day – the sin of wrongly identifying the epidemic as “the Chinese virus.”

Continue reading “A Non-Essential Service”