Sign Seekers ...

In good times, anyone might feel free to follow a hunch.  But in today’s climate, our media would exalt science past any gut feeling, or hunch.  Rather, we prefer numbers that feed models, in order to form predictive analysis about what we believe is coming next, and how we might influence it.  A hunch is no longer the least bit valid.  Science is king now.  Perhaps science is now god itself.  But the evil secret about modeling is that assumptions govern outcomes.  So the entire field of predictive analytics is essentially hunches supported by data, and presented with only partial surety.  In reality, what is going to happen, does happen.  It is not to say that we cannot influence outcomes, it is only to say we cannot ever control them.  Science should ever be our tool, but to exalt it to our god, is to make fools of us all.  And realistically, where it comes to how we have or should have responded to covid-19, we did not need science or modeling half so much as we have needed simple logic.

Consider for a moment the simple logic of how we might have responded to this pandemic.  First, is to recognize its inevitability in our world.  This is not the first pandemic, it is one in a series of them.  To fight it, you will need significant investment in research, medical stockpiles, trained staff, capacity, etc..  To prepare we might have made simple investment in those things, a priority in how we spend governmental resources – but we did not.  Instead we overlooked them, or cut funding entirely.  When a new pandemic emerges, you might have sent specially qualified, well equipped teams, to ground zero to gather information about what has happened.  We did not.  If you are going to close borders to slow the spread, you should close all borders, to all other countries, not just one or two, allowing the virus to enter from others who remain open to travel to/from infected areas.  When it is clear that cruise ships have a horrible history of becoming petri dishes to other contagions in the past, you might have considered closing that entire industry down for the duration worldwide.  Airline travel not far behind that.  By the time mitigation is needed, you might have approached it in a phased way – i.e. national orders for those who “could” work at home to begin working at home.  Then national orders to limit public gatherings.  Finally national orders to stay at home, and an immediate implementation of the defensive procurement act etc.

Those are all just a logical view of any pandemic.  But we have not responded logically, or even scientifically, we have responded with a mix of fear, greed, survival mode, and feelings of invulnerability in the youth.  Essentially most people acting on hunches given how they feel, instead of logic, or science, or even faith.  The Bible you see, never predicts a worldwide covid-19 plague.  So people of faith, have a hard time knowing what to do.  We are commanded by Jesus to spread the gospel, and not forsake the gathering of ourselves together.  Do we put those ideas aside during a pandemic, or simply put them on hold, or find another way to accomplish them in a non-traditional manner?  There are those among us who assert that our God is bigger than any virus.  They are right.  But to tempt God by placing themselves into harm’s way with no regard for wisdom, as Satan asked Jesus to do by throwing himself off a high place, and letting God keep Him from dying, is not the right approach either.  Our love for others and keeping them safe should supersede our desire to show off God to the world by tempting Him to save us, when we have jumped off the proverbial cliff.

Those Christians who believe Jesus is coming again soon, immediately begin to look at covid-19 and see if it can be applied to scriptural prophecies about the time of the end.  They want it to be a sign of the end.  A sign of His coming and soon return.  But it isn’t.  It is simply a pandemic, like the ones we faced before, possibly worse, possibly better.  There does not need to be a spiritual sign of covid-19 that validates your faith.  Neither should it put a dent in your faith.  In fact, your faith should enable you to face it, with one distinct advantage.  Your faith should tell you, Jesus can and will protect you from it, as He sees fit.  And should the worst happen, your next life is secure in Jesus.  So you can live … without fear.  You do not need this to be a sign.  Nor should you need any sign.  Faith on the other hand, is something you need as much as oxygen.

Luke talked about some of these topics, back in his gospel letter to his friend about what we believe and why.  He picks up in the 11^th chapter in verse 27 saying … “And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. [verse 28] But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”  A little context, Jesus has just performed an exorcism, where He cast out a demon keeping a victim from speaking.  The former victim is now able to speak, and the crowd is quite amazed.  Then this woman lifts her voice for the crowd to hear, and offers a pronouncement of blessing upon the mother of Jesus, for having been able to be His mother.  Catholics all applaud 😊.  The woman in this crowd is not wrong.  She is right.  It was a high honor to be chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus.  And Mary did an awesome job, as God predicted and knew that she would.  But her beauty in being the mother of Jesus was grounded in one thing – she did all that the Lord commanded her to do.  She not only read scriptures, or attended church, she walked out and did what she had heard.  THAT is what had made her blessed, more than being the chosen so long ago.  It was her willingness to obey that enabled God to pick her in the first place.  It was her willingness to endure when no one else would ever believe she was not the whore, instead of the virgin, where it came to His conception.  But Jesus had other siblings and Mary was mom to more than just the Messiah.  She was a woman, a wife, and a mother, like most all the other women of her day.  In addition, she was disciple as well.

Jesus counters this blessing with one of His own.  To hear the word of God is the first step, but to do it, to keep it. is the most important part.  We should not need signs to verify that last part.  We should not need to associate every disaster in the news today, with some Biblical prophecy, only to scare ourselves into to doing, what we should have been doing all along.  Fear should never be our motivation.  Love should.  I should love you enough to care for you, without a sign in the heavens to tell me that.  My heart should break at the sight of your need, instead of count you as a mere number, a mere statistic in the growing case count, or body count of the virus that plagues us today.  Andrew Cuomo said it right “one, is too many”.  The loss of one should send me to my knees, to wonder if I did enough, to wonder if there is anything more I could still do, to wonder how to reach out and comfort those who have felt this loss.

To love others, is to do the Word of God.  But do I love?  Or do I just talk about love?  Or has fear so crippled my heart, I love only those who live under my roof and my family who I have always learned to love?  That audience is a start, but it is not enough.  The command to love others did not start and end with my family.  Or my friends, or my work associates, or my church, or my community.  I am supposed to love the people of the entire world.  Everyone.  Just as Jesus loves everyone.  Those in jail, those who hate me, those who believe differently than I do, even those who want to kill me.  That is the word of God in summation.  So where is my heart next to that command?  And why would a sign, make me start loving, or make me love more.  A sign does none of that.  It rather reveals an emptiness in my faith, a faith that would dare to need signs, something faith should have even little time to contemplate, being too busy, doing the word of God.

Luke continues in verse 29 saying … “And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. [verse 30] For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation.”  This is our sign of signs, that Jesus came to speak to us, to reach us, to offer us the true gift of redemption, and reformation.  What more sign would ever be needed.  It is the same message Jonah took to Nineveh once his delay with the whale was over with.  He called upon them to repent and turn to God to be spared, and they did.  Jesus calls upon us to do the same.  Not only to hear the word of God, but to do it, and find ourselves blessed in the doing.  The people of Nineveh saw no sign, nor did they ask for one.  They simply did as Jonah preached for them to do.  Shall we be that enlightened as to simply do what Jesus has asked of us to do?  Or will we, like the generation that preceded us look for signs in every world event, delaying our obedience until we reason the perfect sign has come along?  That is not the definition of obedience.  That is not submission to God, and allowing God to have sway in our hearts, teaching us how to love.  That is delay.  Delay to Jesus until “the time is right”.  That instead is the embrace of fear at the cost of inner peace and surety in Jesus.

Luke continues in verse 31 saying … “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. [verse 32] The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”  Jesus calls us out.  Like those sign seekers of old, Jesus reminds them and us, that others went to the ends of the world to find the same God, who is right here in front of our faces.  The queen of the south, sought out Solomon, to find out who the God of Solomon was.  The men of Nineveh abandoned their sins for a time, because a mere prophet told them they needed to.  And we have greater than Solomon to instruct us, we have greater than a prophet like Jonah to warn us.  We have Jesus offering us so much more.  And still our wicked hearts demand proof, in the form of signs, we would never accept as enough in any case.  Fear wears off.  Covid-19 might drive a few hearts to seek Jesus, but one day Covid-19 will be a thing of the past.  What then?  Will the survivors lose their fear, of what science (inspired by God) will finally kill and cure?  And will the loss of that fear, and the return to routine, allow those who had fear-inspired faith, to then lose that faith for lack of exercise.  If fear brings you in, fine.  But let love keep you here.  Do not just hear the word of God; be blessed in the doing of the word of God.  Or find yourself judged by those who had far less, and did far more.

Luke concludes this segment starting in verse 33 saying … “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light. [verse 34] The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. [verse 35] Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. [verse 36] If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.”  What do you choose to see?  How do you choose to react?  Do you seek signs ever mired in fear without them, or fear because of them.  Or as world events occur, do you choose to focus on those who need your love, and choose to react by thinking of every way you might shower them with the love you alone might be able to provide. 

Never before have we thought so highly of the heroes who keep on working in grocery stores filling shelves with the food we all knew we needed.  Their jobs are no longer just jobs.  They are now acts of love in a climate of risk and loss.  They do for others in action.  Never before have we thought of truck drivers as the heroes they have always been.  They transport the food, medicine, and supplies we all know we needed.  They do it in a climate of risk and loss.  They have families too.  They put their loved ones at risk for you, and for me. Ordinary jobs are no longer just ordinary.  Ordinary services are no longer just ordinary.  Service in this climate, is service steeped in love for others – love that would risk their lives and the lives of their families in order to serve.  There are no greater heroes than that.  Front line medical staff now serve with greater stress, greater exhaustion, and ill equipped facilities.  Front line medical staff and first responders are dying too, their families are suffering too. 

The entire world cries out, in fear, and in pain.  And many of the folks we least consider, are still serving us, throughout the fear, and throughout the loss.  They are our heroes today.  They deserve more than just our temporary gratitude and appreciation, they deserve our continued appreciation LONG after this crises has ended.  Perhaps finally we can begin to treat the janitors, the trashmen, the workers at utility companies, the workers at prisons, from the least among us to the greatest with more respect, more love, and more admiration.  THAT would be to do the word of God.  And the whole world would be blessed as a result.  These servants battle fear and loss to serve you and I, they serve us through the loss.  Can we do any less for them and still call ourselves Christian?  To love them, would be the greatest sign of Christ, this world has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest sign of His soon return, the world has ever encountered.  We need nothing more than that.