Faith in a Time of Fear

     Social distancing, what a strange new phrase we have learned. The realities of our world have forced us to at least partially shut ourselves out from the rest of the world. Things are different and not just a little bit frightening. As a Christian, how are we to respond? We know God has not given us a spirit of fear, so should we just go on with our lives as normal? I had been toying with what kind of response I should have to the new normal we are experiencing when I heard the best advice I have yet to hear on the radio. Well, actually they were quoting someone else, someone somewhat unexpected. That person was Martin Luther. Yes, 500 years ago, Martin Luther penned the perfect response to the coronavirus in a letter to a fellow preacher.

     We tend to forget that Luther lived during the Black Plague. We learn about Luther and we learn about the plague, we rarely pay attention to the fact that they overlap. Luther was asked if he and his family, including his pregnant wife, would flee the city for the "safety" of the countryside. Here is his response.

“I 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. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash no foolhardy and does not tempt God."

As a Christian, you won't find better advice. Pray for protection, take actions to protect yourself, take care not to potentially infect others, and continue to serve God where He has called you to serve. In a nutshell, don't live in fear but be practical. Yes, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but he has given us sense. We need not live in fear, but we also need not be reckless. We also don't get a pass from doing what God has called us to do, in fact, it is more important than ever that we continue to serve God in whatever capacity He has called us.

Tents or Houses

     Moses had just returned with the 10 Commandments and it was time to worship. There was only one problem, there wasn't anywhere to do it. That is when God gave very detailed plans for what would become the tabernacle. Now if you want to see (technically read) the plans, you can find them in Exodus 25 and 26. If you do go and read that, you will find that everything is designed to be portable. All of the furnishings were designed to be easily carried and the tabernacle itself was really just a big tent. Why portable? They were never meant to be there very long. This was just a time of preparing them for what was to come; for a time when they could build a permanent structure to worship in.

     I think today we have a bad habit of building houses where God wants us to put up a tent. We linger too long in places where we should only be passing through; in places where we have things to learn to prepare us for what is to come. If you find yourself in a period of preparation, don't build a house there. Put up your tent, stay until it is time to move on to where you are meant to go and then move on. Don't spend your life somewhere you weren't meant to stay simply because you built a house instead of putting up a tent. Had Moses built a temple where they were they would never had moved on to the Promised Land. That time in the wilderness taught many important lessons in how to be a people, a people called by God, but it wasn't where they were destined to stay. You may be "in the wilderness" right now, but you aren't destined to stay there. Don't build a house and live there, put up a tent.

Glory to God in the Lowest

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill[e] toward men!” Luke 2:13-14

I am sure you are all familiar with this scripture. If nothing else, you have heard Linus recite it in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. The angels were proclaiming the birth of The Savior, God made flesh, they couldn't contain themselves. This kind of news understandably would ring throughout the heavens, but I think there is more to this story. Let's look at the rest of the story. Here are the next few verses,

"15So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17Now when they had seen Him, they made [f]widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds". Luke 2:15-18

I think this is more important to us down here. The Savior was born in Bethlehem in a stable and laid in a manger. Bethlehem? Shouldn't it be Jerusalem? Or Rome? A stable and laid in a manger? It should have been a palace and a throne. Shepherds? It should have been kings and rulers. But you see, Jesus came to change everything, even the way we view power. Jesus came to reach the lowest. He came for us, the dirty, the insignificant, the lost. How do you reach the lowest? You become one of them. You go to Bethlehem, in a stable, in a manger. You become a carpenter's son in the backwaters of Judea. You spend your life among the poor and sick. You die in their place to pay the price for their sins. 

So yes, the angels had every reason to sing "Glory to God in the highest!" They recognized the eternal significance of the event they were witnessing. I think we also should sing "Glory to God in the lowest!" because that is where He went to meet us at the point of our need.