On the 2nd Sunday since suspending worship services at Church buildings due to Coronavirus
When the schools were closed this week due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the UK government announced that schools will remain open to the children of some key workers who are serving the community during this time. The National Secular Society (NSS) appealed to the government asking why the ‘religious staff’ are considered as key workers, and countering that concern there has been lots of tweets explaining how religious staff are considered key workers at a time like this, for they have been offering community work, pastoral care, doing funerals and participating in community building works. At the end, NSS has to take back their appeal and offered an apology to religious communities. One of the main challenges for the religious communities during this outbreak, from my own experience as a minister is listening to the fears and anxieties of people who have been affected by this virus or to those who have been self-isolated and staying at home for they have expressed that their mental well-being is put at risk. On the other hand, the key-ness and the keenness for the religious communities to be key workers today lies in signposting people towards God and inviting them to wait for God and wait on God, which is a challenging task in the midst of secular ethos in the society.
In such a context when I read Psalm 130, the prescribed Psalter from the lectionary for this Sunday, I hear the psalmist lamenting, wailing in fear, out of the depths, weeping and wanting to wait for God. I see an echo of the cries of people caught up in Coronavirus crisis in this Psalm, inviting us to find hope in waiting for God, which is an imperative for our world today. This Psalm calls the readers to lament in the presence of the Lord out of our depths of fear, out of our depths of anxiety, and out of our depths of uncertainty, for it is in waiting for God we find solace and comfort at a moment like this. Lament has somehow lost its currency in our faith vocabulary, as lament is a combination of complain and petition, and perhaps our situation demands and teaches us to turn to God and to wait for God. Lament is a complain to God against the injustices around the world and is a petition for God’s intervention into such a world to bring in transformation. Psalm 130 registers a complaint to God against the iniquities around and within the Psalmist and a petition to God to redeem the world from such great depths from where he is crying out. If we are called to lament today in the context of fear, we need to complain to God against our own unjust ways of exploiting the creation of God and petition to God to journey with us so that our creation is renewed, transformed, healed to a new creation.
1. Waiting for God is waiting in the forgiveness of God:
The Psalmist cries out of his depths, not naming what that depth or pit is and speaks more about waiting for God by focussing on the shades of God, which are forgiving God (4v), unfailing loving God and redeemer God (7v). He cries to God to listen to him in God’s own mercy. When the world today is wailing in fear due to this virus, and as we stay at home, waiting for God is a way forward to beat this virus out. There are some schools of thought within faith communities that express that this virus is a result of God’s wrath and punishment for us today. In this Psalm verse 3 and 4, we see Psalmist singing that “If you, O Lord kept a record of sins, Lord who could stand? With you there is forgiveness so that we can, with reverence serve you.” If God kept a record of our human sins, God certainly would have given punishments daily to this world, and daily there should have been a virus or a deluge or a drought or a famine, and eventually the world would have expired long ago. So, the Psalmist laments, who could stand O Lord if you were to keep giving punishments or demonstrate God’s wrath. He further speaks the message of hope where he recognises forgiveness with God and that we can serve God in all reverence and respect. Waiting for God when wailing in fear primarily calls us to implore and explore forgiveness in and with God, and buckle up our belts to keep serving God by serving our communities in all reverence for God and for the equal image of God among all people. At a crisis like this of ours, our forgiving God in Jesus is weeping with us in the context of Coronavirus and is working with us and in us to transform and heal our world.
2. Waiting for God is waiting for a new dawn:
In verse 5 and 6, we see the Psalmist explains the longing for his waiting for God. He waits with his whole being, he waits in the hope of God’s word and he waits like a watchman waiting for the morning (recorded twice in the Psalm). Out of his depths he is crying for a new dawn in his life. Now when the instruction is to stay home for at least 12 weeks to contain this virus, there is so much of impatience among people as I listened to them. I heard some people calling and asking is this virus a sign of the dooms day to come? Some have asked is it a sign for the second coming of Christ? Some have asked is the world coming to an end? These people’s voices express a social anxiety, for fear has taken over their lives with no sign of hope available for them. I keep telling viruses, pestilences, plagues are not something new we see only today. People in history have experienced all of these at certain points of history. Whenever such things happened people have believed that is the end of the world. On the contrary, God did not leave or give up on God’s creation and surprised people and communities with new rays of hope. We at a moment like this in the context of Coronavirus are called as communities of faith to wait for God with our whole being, perhaps these days of self-isolation is an opportunity for that, for all these years we have been partially or selectively and occasionally or conveniently waited for God, now is the time to wait for God fully and holistically. We are called to wait for God in the hope of God’s word, which is the promise of God abiding with God’s creation at all points of time. We are called to wait for God like a watchman waiting for the morning. Watchman having guarded the city all night against enemy looks forward to morning, for he/she sighs relief on seeing light of the new dawn. I remember in my childhood at our local community there was a self-employed night watchman doing rounds in the night, whistling at street corners and trying to guard the community from thieves and robbers. When we heard his whistle there was a sigh of comfort that he is watching over our community. At that time, I have always thought how brave this night watchman should have been that he is not afraid of the robbers and guarding the community, lest I realised that he was in a way risking his life to protect the community. I remember asking my older cousins, “Does this night watchman not afraid of robbers? Gurkha kuda manishena? (in Telugu language) Is he really a human being?” My cousins laughed about my query and had to wake me up to see for myself that he was a human being like any of us. The Psalmist’s metaphorical usage of watchman, exhibits on the one hand the vulnerability of night watchman and on other hand how they put themselves in risk of partaking in the protection of the city. For them waiting for a new morning is overcoming their vulnerability of risk and to live in peace and security. The Psalmist’s usage of this metaphor of watchman expresses how the least of the powerless people long for hope in the new dawn. I liked the way the Psalmist did not pick a metaphor like that of the kings or powerful people, but expressing hope through a most vulnerable person in the community. Our hope and waiting for God should be like that of the night watchman longing for relief, never giving up our hope even in our vulnerability due to fear. Waiting for God drives away fears of anxiety, despair and hopelessness. I am reminded of Martin Luther’s reply when asked what would he do when the world is coming to an end, he replied, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go into pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” Luther’s faith in a living God, his hope on waiting for God helped him not to give in to fear but keep continuing to carry on with his life, of course at his garden, which is timely for us to give attention to staying at home at this time.
Finally, the Psalmist moves from personal pronoun to a community, calling on Israel to put hope in the Lord, for with God is unfailing love and redemption, assuring that God will redeem people from all their sins and the entire creation too. A personal waiting for God needs to transform to a community waiting for God, for at the end it is God who will redeem us from all our despair and hopelessness. With most of us staying at home we see the levels of air pollution being reduced, we are witnessing the biosphere around renewing and reviving, and these are some rays of hope, signs of God's redemption experienced on our creation. As Christian community our hope is in Jesus Christ for all other grounds is sinking sand, and we are called to instil that hope in our community by serving one another.
Psalm 130, has been one of the favourite Psalms of Martin Luther for he called this Psalm “Pauline Psalm” where he saw the message of Paul about redemption in this Psalm, for it is with God’s grace we are saved from sin and virus. This Psalm encourages us to know that God has not given up on us as communities, for God wrestles with us in our struggles for life and is there to strengthen those that are in despair and fear.
Let us therefore wait for God when we are wailing in fear, overcome this fear by lamenting to God and look forward to a new dawn like a night watchman. One of the key work for the religious communities in our post-secular world today is to share our experiences of hope, which we draw from God. I remember my Sunday School teacher teaching, “we care called to wait for God every day for waiting on God is mentioned 365 times, which means each single day in the year we are called to wait on and for God.” Stay at home for God in Jesus is present among those people who have self-isolated and grant us peace and love. We await a new dawn soon, and God is at work with us here today. Keep alive our hope in God.
Rev. Dr. Raj Bharat Patta,
26th March 2020
Pic courtesy: Image of an Indian night watch man //www.amazon.com/Indian-Night-Watchman-Traditional-antique/dp/B01BJ48LU6
1 comment:
Amen!
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