Liberty

Jeremiah 35:17 “Therefore thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbour; behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence and to famine, declares the Lord. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.” 

I have been reading Jeremiah for a while now. It’s a lot to take. Mostly the book is tough on Jeremiah. He is castigated, thrown in jail, thrown in a pit, and warned that he is a terror to the people. The language of a verse like the one above is tough to take. It’s one of those, “God of the Old Testament” sounding verses that people can struggle with.  We need to remember that Jesus is the full revelation of God. Any time you come across a verse like this in the Old Testament, remember that God’s judgment is fully exercised on the cross. Jesus said that we are to love our enemies. The verse doesn’t disappear, however. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. We can see, in this verse, and throughout the prophetic writings that one of the things that is anathema to God is when the freedom of people is taken by other people. We are witnessing, in the United States, protest that may lead to societal change. The country of the United States was built largely on the backs of slaves. People were denied their God given liberty. It is 401 years since the first slaves were brought to America and we can see that liberty is different still for a person of colour than it is for a someone who is white. It is tough to consider that the history of slavery in the United States is intertwined with the history of Christianity in the United States. Slavetraders and slaveholders were largely people who declared Christian faith and often spoke as if they were superior, counting their faith as part of that superiority.  

As you see the news, the marches, the protests, remember that those fighting for the liberty of others are fighting for a cause that God told us was right. 

Getting Political

For years now we have witnessed something happening in the United States that ought to lead us to consider the truth of our faith, salvation in Jesus, and His life and teaching. A man who in word and deed has stood against virtually everything that Christ stands for has occupied the White House enabled by a group of religious nationalists who in their idolatry of power have invited division, hatred towards others and ultimately a parasitic co-opting of actual Christian understanding and love. 

Yesterday Trump sought to further divide the nation during a press briefing that took place while police cleared peaceful protestors with tear gas and rubber bullets so that when he was done his hateful, weak talk, Trump could walk across the park for a photo-op in front of a church while grasping a Bible in the air. If you are a student of history you will know that such parodies of faith portend actual faithlessness. They have been used by weak people before who have hijacked Christian faith (and other faiths) for their own weak ego, their own political, even racist ends. 

I stand against such obvious displays of division, protection of power and of status quo. I stand against such betrayal of Christian teaching and calling precisely because I count myself a Christian and have been blessed to know the love and life that are in Jesus Christ. This love is for ALL PEOPLE. Our faith has been used before to hate and to divide. We ought to be able to see when it is being used in such ways now. 

Trump will be done as President. He is flailing now. His leadership has been worse than absent. My prayer is that the distortion of Christian faith that has presented itself as the guardian of the nation and the world will be done with him. It was an arrogant lie before Trump came along and its willingness to ally itself with Trump merely displayed the vacuous nature that it always had. 

Know that you have been called to love. The love of Jesus is for ALL PEOPLE. He is the light of the world and the love of God will not ever be at threat, even by those who co-opt faith for their own selfish, hateful ends. Bless you today. May you be a blessing to those around you. We don’t have to hate anyone, even people who take up such obvious political theatrics. However, we also don’t have to say that it is okay or that it is Christian because the angriest, most fearful voices (Franklin Graham, Jerry Fallwell Jr, James Dobson and their ilk) have wrested away Christian identity in the United States from its better, more hopeful, more loving manifestation. The words of such “leaders” often present Christian faith as something that is under threat, that if you don’t follow their programme or believe as they believe, then the very work of God is in danger. That should be the give-away to their con. The God I believe in, the God given full incarnation in Jesus Christ, is not in any way, under threat from anyone in the world, particularly not from small and angry men, no matter how large their following. 

They have allied themselves, these religious nationalists, with the current President in the United States to advance their political agenda. It is a political agenda that has to do with power, not a religious calling that has to do with love. They may holler and scream, but they will not prevail. Do not lose heart. Wherever you go today, however you interact with others in this time of pandemic and upheaval, you can witness to the love of Jesus that is for all people.  You can bear witness to the love that overcomes all hate. Amen. 

On Eagles Wings

The Book of Lamentations teaches a people a song of lament and sorrow. All that had been taken for granted was gone and uncertainty and confusion and despair remained. Lamentations is a poem, structured to be committed to memory, structured to be order amidst disorder. When we face pain our scattered cries can eventually bring an order of their own. They may be the first step to a future we could not imagine possible.  The very first verse of the first chapter of Lamentations is a cry over the city. It is a remark of astonishment. The writer, thought to be Jeremiah, looks out at the city, once so full of people and says this; 

“How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!” 

Jeremiah’s exclamation is, if on a much grander scale, the same that you may have made in these last weeks. Who could have imagined no traffic at 5pm on a weekday? I went for a morning bike ride yesterday and wound up riding through the streets of the city, in the middle of the road, in the middle Robson Street. “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people!”  Biblical imagination means that we can take verses or images that we remember from scripture and have them come to mind in the landscape of our lives. No one ever thought that Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s time would be deserted as it was. You did not envision a Spring Day in 2020 to mean an apparently deserted Vancouver. When the images or verses are brought to mind, then we can pray. 
Dear God, open my eyes. Show me what matters. Forgive me for thinking too much of myself. Show me what it means to trust in you and to love others. 

The ride home brought me across the Lions Gate Bridge. As I crested the hill of the bridge and began the fast downhill ride into North Vancouver, this astonishing thing happened; I glanced to my right, towards Burrard inlet and not far away from me at all, soaring alongside the bridge, keeping time with me as I rode, there was an eagle. I was caught up. This eagle was so close to me, close enough that I could see detail of it, even while it was so high up, even while it was in flight, gliding and using the creases of the wind to bank one way and the other. The slightest movement of a wing could dramatically alter the flight, but the eagle appeared to make these movements only playfully. The movement displayed a kind of showing off, like he was making fun of riding that I thought was quite fast. Then the eagle broke away and soared higher and quickly towards the inlet. 

I recalled the words of God through another prophet, written to people who could not imagine a rebuilt city. These people had become aware of only loss and uncertainty, struggle, and a world of scarcity rather than abundance.  “Look at that eagle”, God seemed to say. And know; 

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings, like eagles. They will run and not get weary. They will run and not grow faint.” AMEN 

Remember for What is Ahead

How long has the lockdown been? We’re around week ten now depending on how you count. For the people in the book of Deuteronomy it had been forty years. A desert journey that was supposed to take a few weeks took instead (due to their own failings) four decades.  The desert was a place of scarcity. The land that they were about to enter was a place of “vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey”.  

The book of Deuteronomy is basically the leader of the people, Moses, giving them some important instruction before they entered the land. The instruction could be summed up with one word, “Remember”. 

Remember that God provided for you in the desert. 
Remember that wealth and blessing does not come from your own hand. 
Remember other people who have less than you. 
Don’t hoard up for yourselves.  

It might be too early to tell if our count will be in weeks or months or years. How long will the pandemic time of 2019,2020 (2021, 2022?) be remembered to have lasted years from now? However long it will be, we can start the process of remembering now. 

We were worried; but we had enough. 
We were unsure about our health and many suffered loss, but we got through. 
We knew God’s goodness, even in the midst of uncertainty and sorrow. 
In many cases we saw people come together to face the time of difficulty. 

Will we count, after this is all done, that occasion was taken to make some things better? 
Did we learn to deal with some of the staggering inequality in our society? 
Did we change the way that we commute?
Did we change our health care system?  
Might we look back, after all of this, and count how we revamped long term health care? 

Remember. The people ready to cross the river into the land of promise were told to remember so that they might live lives of gratitude and blessing rather than lives of fear and hoarding. It is curious that we feel inspired and made alive by stories of gratitude and blessing, but we so often fall to fear and hoarding as the things that we think will keep us alive.  

Dear God; Thank you for your provision. Thank you for blessing us with one another. Make us determined to remember. We want to remember your goodness. We want to remember those around us. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Remembering Things that Didn’t Happen

Today is Victoria Day. Is it different for you than it has been in previous years? Of course, it is. For many it is decidedly different. The May Long Weekend is one that is often taken up by travel. I can’t remember the last time my family was home on the May Long Weekend, but here we are. This pandemic has us, in a way, remembering things that did not happen, recalling events that will not take place. Have you done this yet? It goes something like this,  “Well, it’s May 18, this is where we were supposed to be today (in this other place).” 

Have you missed the things that have not happened? We can learn a lot in letting go. Granted for some it has been much more difficult or painful than for others. We may have missed a weekend away while some others have had a job offer rescinded or have had to dramatically alter plans for education. 

There are spiritual practices that come into our lives out of no choice of our own. The practice of fasting (from food or experiences or entertainment) is a spiritual practice intended in part to show us that we don’t need a lot of what we think we need. It can create the space to consider spiritual things rather than to be caught up in pursuit of appetite satisfaction. 

Remembering things that didn’t happen, then can be a gift. We are not there, where we are supposed to be right now; but we are okay. And God is good; here and now. 

Matthew chapter 6 (words of Jesus) 

“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not be anxious saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” 

James 4:13-15  

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 

Unprecedented

There was a great piece on CBS Sunday Morning today. Jim Gaffigan is a comedian who has been doing commentary bits for the show. It’s into week nine of the lockdown, and this morning Gaffigan’s bit was about the word, “unprecedented”.  It’s worth a watch (click here to watch it). 

Gaffigan’s faith is evident in such reflections. At least, if you know of his faith you can see it in these commentaries. I remember once Gaffigan was on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. There were multiple guests being interviewed together at the time and it wound up being quite a poignant consideration of faith and hope. 

This morning Gaffigan’s bit included a call for unprecedented gratitude. He recalled the many blessings in his life and turned what is a time of fear for many into a reminder of goodness. 

Matthew 7:24-27 (Words of Jesus) 

Build Your House on the Rock 

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” 

As Gaffigan shows, if you watch the news at all, it won’t take long to encounter the word, “unprecedented”. In many cases it is being used to describe how things have come apart in this time. Things that we took for granted have lost their certainty. 

We are called once again to consider what it means that our certainty is in Christ alone. It’s not trite to say that. Certainty in Christ does not mean that “everything will be okay” if “everything will be okay” means that we will never face hardship or loss or illness.  In Christ, “everything will be okay” is so much better than that. So ask it as a question in faith right now.  

Dear God,  What does it mean that “everything will be okay”? Dear Jesus, I turn to you amidst all of this uncertainty and thank you for your love. I want to know your love in the midst of unprecedented times. Show me what it means that you are all the certainty I need. 

Habbakuk 3:17-19 

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,    
nor fruit be on the vines, 
the produce of the olive fail    
and the fields yield no food, 
the flock be cut off from the fold    
and there be no herd in the stalls, 
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;    
I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;    
he makes my feet like the deer's;    
he makes me tread on my high places. 

A piece from The Atlantic (yesterday) called, “Surrendering to Uncertainty” 

God’s Goodness and Faithfulness

The Sports section of newsfeeds has been running dry lately. There is pretty much nothing. Apparently ESPN has been televising baseball games from South Korea. There are no fans in the stands. The teams include the Kia Tigers and the LG Twins.

This morning in my feed I was directed to “Relive the Calgary Flames Stanley Cup Run”. Really? Clearly my newsfeed does not discriminate geographically. What Vancouver Canucks fan would want to relive the Calgary Flames winning the Stanley Cup in 1989? Yesterday was also one year to the day since Kawhi Leonard hit the four bounce game ending, buzzer beater Game 7 basket that moved Toronto past the Philadelphia 76’ers en route to their first NBA Championship.

Relive, Remember, Recall. It’s what sports in the time of pandemic has become.
But reliving something is not only about the past. We recall in order to anticipate the future.

When we are living through times unlike those that we have lived before, one of the things that we can gain, even in the midst of trouble, is a new ear, new perspective, a deeper understanding of ourselves and those who have come before. It is easy to take situations, circumstances, events and activities for granted. There will be no CNE in Toronto this year. If I am getting it right, the PNE has already been cancelled as well. You don’t probably care about the CNE except when you hear that the last time it was not held was during WWII.

In the Psalms there are multiple refrains of “remember”. Much of the remembering is to recall the blessings of God in life even in the midst of difficulty or loss. “Why are you cast down, O my soul?”. It’s a good question, one that many of us have asked, perhaps recently. When the question is asked in the Psalms it is often followed by an injunction to remember God’s goodness and to count upon his faithfulness. You can try the exercise. First the question to your soul about its state. Then the direction to your soul to recall God’s goodness. The intent is not to lament nostalgically about things that have been lost. Rather, it is to know that God’s faithfulness and blessing will endure.

It is a practice that is for the community as well as for individuals. Remember.
Psalm 103 - “Bless the Lord and forget not his benefits”
The remembering might even reach beyond our lifetimes. Psalm 136 is such a prayer. There, the people remember and recall God’s faithfulness in years centuries past. We recall not out of sentiment. We recall in order to remind ourselves of the character of God. He is good, even now. His love endures forever.

PSALM 136 (NRSV)

God’s Work in Creation and in History

1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
2 O give thanks to the God of gods,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

4 who alone does great wonders,
   for his steadfast love endures forever;
5 who by understanding made the heavens,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
6 who spread out the earth on the waters,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
7 who made the great lights,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

10 who struck Egypt through their firstborn,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
11 and brought Israel out from among them,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

13 who divided the Red Sea in two,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

16 who led his people through the wilderness,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

17 who struck down great kings,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
18 and killed famous kings,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
20 and Og, king of Bashan,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
21 and gave their land as a heritage,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
22 a heritage to his servant Israel,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
24 and rescued us from our foes,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
25 who gives food to all flesh,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

26 O give thanks to the God of heaven,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.

May It’s a Bit Too Hot

Psalm 145:8,9

“The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.”

Things are supposed to change today. We are going to feel the difference, apparently, this afternoon and tomorrow and on Sunday.

Summer temperatures.

“The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all the he has made.” I am going to say that in the warm sunshine.

Here is the thing, though; I am so finicky sometimes about the temperature that I am already wondering if I will think that it is too hot when it hits 26 degrees. Can you be like this? Maybe not at 26 degrees, but certainly at 30. This weekend, what if you wear the wrong shirt? What if you go for a walk and you haven’t adjusted yet to the reality of the heat and you put on too many layers and then you complain a bit that it is too hot?

Even when things move in a positive directions, when the change is significant it can send us for a loop. I remember speaking to a friend once who had gone through months and months of terribly difficult treatment for breast cancer. She had not been sure that she would survive. We prayed for her and family and friends rallied round. Not long after she was declared cancer free I spoke with her about how she was feeling. Of course she said that she was overwhelmingly grateful, but she mentioned something else as well. She said that since the declaration of physical health, she had struggled with mental health. It is not always easy to come out of the desert. We get used to the times of difficulty or struggle. We find ways to cope. We adopt defense mechanisms. We find emotional guards against the threats. Sometimes we find ways to gear down mentally and emotionally.

And then the sun comes out. And it can take our eyes a while to adjust.
And we don’t know just what to wear in the seemingly sudden summerish heat.

Dear God;

Thank you for your goodness. I know that you are good, even now. Show me, by way of these next few days both joy at the blessing of such great weather and insight at the struggle it can be to emerge from the deserts in our lives. I pray that we, anticipating some kind of re-start and renewal in the months ahead would know that you call us out to live fully in your goodness. We have been focused on threats and dangers for many days now. Show us that there will be a time when, even if it’s not like it was, we are being led to awareness of blessing and life and sunlight and warmth.

In Jesus’ Name

Amen.

Faith Amidst the Ruins

Psalm 49:1-12

The Folly of Trust in Riches
To the leader. Of the Korahites. A Psalm.

1 Hear this, all you peoples;
    give ear, all inhabitants of the world,
2 both low and high,
    rich and poor together.
3 My mouth shall speak wisdom;
    the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.
4 I will incline my ear to a proverb;
    I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp.

5 Why should I fear in times of trouble,
    when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me,
6 those who trust in their wealth
    and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7 Truly, no ransom avails for one’s life,
    there is no price one can give to God for it.
8 For the ransom of life is costly,
    and can never suffice,
9 that one should live on forever
    and never see the grave.

10 When we look at the wise, they die;
    fool and dolt perish together
    and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their graves are their homes forever,
    their dwelling places to all generations,
    though they named lands their own.
12 Mortals cannot abide in their pomp;
    they are like the animals that perish.

In 1946 and 1947, after the Second World War, Karl Barth presented some lectures in the ruins of the University of Bonn in Germany. Barth had been fired from his position as a Professor at the University and kicked out of Germany before the war for dissenting against Hitler and the Nazis. Barth had actually preached a sermon that did not mention Hitler by name, but spoke of God’s love for all and the reminder of such love for the Jewish people in particular. Barth sent a copy of the sermon to Hitler. He was fired soon after that.

After the war, he returned to the University and over a series of early mornings presented an outline of Christian faith and belief and theology. The sessions started at 7 am each morning because construction (the roof was missing, etc.) started by 8:30 am.

Currently, in our time of pandemic, two of my favourite speakers and writers (one much easier to understand than the other) are offering an online series of talks in which they discuss the short book that came out of those lectures after the war. Will Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas are discussing, in these sessions, why the book called “Dogmatics in Outline” might be one of the most important books for consideration of Christian theology.

In their conversation, a note came out that mirrors some of the 49th Psalm, the Psalm for today.

So we have Willimon and Hauerwas talking by Zoom in the midst of a pandemic. We have Barth speaking to people in the ruins of a war. We have the Psalmist saying, no one “should live on forever and never see the grave. When we look at the wise, they die; fool and dolt they perish together and leave their wealth to others.”

The note was this; Willimon asked Hauerwas about theology amidst the ruins. What can we hear in such times that we might be deaf to otherwise? Here is Hauerwas’ response;

“Theology is training and learning to die.”

Willimon then noted something Hauwerwas said to him previously, that Hauerwas feels sorry for pastors because they are called to minister to people who don’t know that they have to die.

Here we are, in a time which reminds us of our frailty, our mortality, the brevity of our lives. This ought not be somber news, however. It ought to be news that leads us to greater trust and love and gratitude for a God who has defeated death in Christ.

Faith amidst the ruins.

In Him, we live and move and have our being.

“Oh, Jerusalem”

I spent over an hour yesterday just listening to and watching some legendary live performances from legendary musicians and bands.
It was quite an emotional experience.
It was a bit of an epiphany.

You might think that these performances are about the band or the artist. Freddy Mercury singing “We are the Champions” at Live Aid in 1985 is astounding. No special effects, no lights or video show, no background dancers’ just Freddy, the band Queen and the massive crowd. Freddy Mercury masterfully felt and used and gave back the energy of the crowd. It doesn’t always have to be to that scale. In a different live performance in a smaller arena, Leonard Cohen recites his poem/song “If it Be Thy Will” as a prayer with eyes closed and then hands it over to the Webb Sisters who sing the lyric. Cohen isn’t even looking at the crowd. What he knows however is that he is in their company. He is bearing witness.

I remember Eugene Peterson once said that you can’t trust a crowd. Peterson was warning against falling into the big church, consumer religion experience. He said that the three ways of false transcendence are substances, sex driven simply by appetite, and crowds. He warned most strongly against crowds.
I still like and believe what Peterson said. I have been at a Vancouver Canucks hockey game during the Stanley Cup Final in 2011 when the crowd was so ecstatically loud that I was caught up in it, adding my screaming voice while at the same time observing this phenomenon of mass hysteria.

There can be more to it as well.
It can be a multitude of humanity. There can be something beautiful about a crowd. We know it now when we are not allowed to gather.

Yesterday I watched footage of Paul McCartney leading hundreds of thousands of people in singing “Hey Jude”, the “Na na na NA NA NA NA, na na na na, hey Jude”, part.

I saw that the crowd is no mere recipient. The crowd is the energy and the art itself. If you have been at a concert anything like that you know the feeling. It is astounding to sing together with so many people. You feel a camaraderie, a coming together in agreement.

Yesterday as I watched my mind went to Jesus weeping over the city on the day of the so called, “Triumphal Entry”. It was his only address to the crowds that day and it was without their knowing, after the noise and the jubilation. “Oh, Jerusalem, if only you had known what brings peace.” Jesus loved the crowds. Jesus loved each person in the crowd.

When I see the huge crowds in these concert scenes I think, “Oh, Wembley Stadium”, “or “Oh, Central Park” or wherever the assembled are gathered.

If only we could know what brings peace. If only we knew, when we gathered in those crowds that one day we would not. It would be banned. Or we would be unable to gather. Or we would each face our own diminishment or death.

When you watch the Live Aid performance of Freddy Mercury I don’t think that you can help but see that he loved the people. He is so small in tight jeans and a tank top, but he is immersed in the energy of the crowd. He is giving them a gift and accepting a gift from them.

As I watched I recalled that Freddy Mercury died from complications of another contemporary plague, that of AIDS. The knowledge of his earthly end gives a sorrowful nostalgia to the scene and yet makes it more powerful.
One day we may gather again.

And in Revelation at the end of all things, we don’t retire to a cottage in the country. The heavenly dwelling to complete and fulfill all of time is a city. And there are multitudes before the throne. And no one has to wear a mask.
AMEN.

We Ought Not Feel Sorry for Ourselves

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:11-13 (NIV)

My favourite text today came from a friend who is staying at a hotel in the city for a couple of nights.
Hotels are not busy, as you can imagine, and my friend lives in a very small space. Some of you might have closets bigger than the space in which my friend lives. My friend also has a roommate in that small space.
It’s been quite a month.
So, when it the opportunity came up (all social distanced and responsibly done) to stay in a hotel suite for a couple of nights, she took it.
This is what occasioned my favourite text of the day. I actually cried a bit when I got the text; tears of joy and gratitude.

I should let you know as well that my friend does not have what many of us would consider stability when it comes to work. She has two or three jobs and they have all ended due to COVID. Her favourite job is seasonal, and it looks like that might be wiped out entirely this year. The other jobs from which she has been laid off don’t present a ton of certainty in regards to re-hiring.
We have all lost something in this time. It is easy to feel sorry for oneself; easy, but not helpful.  You should do what you can to resist the temptation.
I imagine that my friend has times when she feels sorry for herself.  However, she is also a pro at getting back up, determining to be positive and deciding to be grateful.

So, my favourite text.
It came on the morning after her first of two nights at the hotel.
It was pretty simple.
Actually, it had more emoticons than words.
It simply said, ‘The maid brought me extra coffee!”(followed by 8 heart emoticons)

I could stand to learn from my friend in things like this. Maybe you have felt something similar, overwhelming gratitude at a small pleasure in life.

“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in want.”

AMEN

COVID Days

From John Chapter 8

Jesus said to those who believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

How formative will this time be? How much will we be impacted in terms of mental and spiritual and emotional health?

If you go for walks outside, or when you need to go grocery shopping, take some time to notice all of the signs. There are reminders everywhere of the time that we are in. “Stay 6 feet apart”, “Lane closed for physical distancing”. That’s to say nothing of the signs on the shop windows and restaurant windows.

Many of us have never been told so much what is allowed and what is not allowed. So many other people in the world have been controlled constantly by government authority or social authority or religious authority or due to economic constraint. Some people live a great deal of their lives with relative lack of freedom. As we face constraints we can prayerfully imagine what this would be like.

We can also prayerfully imagine freedom.

Today, to consider what it means that in Christ I am free. I will consider the constraints of clock and calendar and COVID. I will ask the Holy Spirit to speak to me about what it means that in Christ, we are free.

Dear Heavenly Father;

Grant that I could consider and know freedom in my Lord Jesus Christ. I too often have the wrong idea of what freedom is. Help me to know a freedom that is so much better and so much more than simply being able to do what I want, when I want. Help me to know the freedom to pray and to hope and to love. I pray for those who face economic or political or social constraint in ways that I have not known. Bless us to know your love for all people.

In Jesus’ name, Amen

This is the Day?

This is the day that the Lord has made?

Intonation is everything.
Some people seem to speak every question as if it were a sentence. Have you ever heard that?
Think of the most basic kind of sentence. Something like “That is a cat.” The “question sentence” people either due to insecurity or just speaking style, a lack of confidence or maybe they don’t know what a cat looks like, they say “That is a cat?” See the difference? Hear the difference?

If you’ve been around a Christian Church for any amount of time you have heard a particular verse of scripture multiple times; the 24th verse of the 118th Psalm. Here it is;

“This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

I’ve been around church a lot in my life and I’ve heard the verse a lot. I actually try to pray it on many mornings. It is a blessing to get to live this particular day at this particular time.
It can be easier to feel on a sunny day or on a day in which positive appointments and plans are anticipated.
It might be a little harder to pray and recite on a cold and rainy dark day, or on a day which contains unwanted obligation, or on a pandemic day.
On not so obviously great days I have prayed the verse as well, but sometimes as a kind of playful prayerful turn, I change the intonation; so it’s like this;

“THIS is the day that the Lord has made? We will rejoice and be glad in it?”

It can actually help, it makes me laugh a little at the day and not take myself so seriously. The death knell of true spirituality is when we take ourselves seriously, after all.

In the Psalm there is actually not a description of the day much at all. You’d think that the Psalm was a kind of vacation brochure. “Wake up to sunny mornings with the sound of ocean waves. Enjoy the evening breeze on your own private deck” – “This is the day …”

It’s not that at all. Here are some excerpts from the Psalm;
“I was pushed hard so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me.”
“Out of my distress I called on the Lord.”
“Save us, we pray, O Lord.”

The Psalm is a reminder. There is also a lot in there about God’s faithful love and about God’s rescue and redemption.
“The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

The declaration of the day bringing about rejoicing, as it turns out, is not about how great or beautiful the day is. It is not, “the day is great so I will rejoice”.
Rather, the rejoicing comes about because we know and declare God’s sovereignty over everything, even THIS day.

The emphasis is not on the day. The emphasis is on “the Lord has made”.

One of the questions in the Heidelberg Catechism is, “What is my only comfort in life and in death?”

The answer starts, “That I belong, body and soul to Jesus Christ.”

In life and in death, on a perfect spring day or on a COVID spring day.

Dear God;

I know that all good things come from you. I know that you are sovereign. I know that one day disease and sickness and death will be no more.

Help me to see today, even now, even before things are as they should be, that you are sovereign over even this day. The pain and death and sorrow and loneliness and anxiety that are around right not are not of you, but you are still sovereign. You know this day. You know me. You know every single person. Bless those who are sick. Strengthen those who are working to help and to heal.

“This is the day that the Lord has made. I WILL rejoice and be glad in it.”

Amen.

How Long, O Lord?

As repeated scriptural refrains go, it is far from favourite for most people;
“How long, O Lord?”
It might not be anyone’s favourite, but it is cried repeatedly in scripture and consistently in history.
Maybe you are beginning to cry it now.

It’s been a month, or slightly more of lockdown. It has been long enough now that you can think back to a month ago and experience things that happened then as memories. And yet. Here we are. Everyday people ask our Prime Minister and anyone who seems to have authority, “How long will this be?”

Of course the answer is, “How am I supposed to know?”, but that would not be a politically astute thing to say. Instead the answers range from, “We must stay the course. We have done well and can’t give up now”, to “It will be weeks yet, but we will be able to get through this.”

Maybe Prime Ministers and Public Health Officials cannot give straight answers. Probably they really don’t know. We just wish that they would. If they could tell us how long we could handle it better. If we just knew what we were facing.

Through all of history people who believe in God and many who don’t have been asking God, “How long, O Lord?”
In the 89th Psalm it is, “How long O Lord, will you hide your face from me forever?” That’s rough.
In the 13th Psalm it is, “How long, O Lord will you forget me forever?”
That’s David. David was one who God said had a heart after God, and David cried out – “Why are you absent? How long do I have to endure this?”

One of my favourite people is a friend named Jean who has had not the easiest life, if you want to know the truth. Her husband had a stroke a number of years ago and he was confined to a care home after that and then he died too young. One of her children battled addiction and all that addiction can entail.
For years I cried out for Jean, “How long, O Lord?”

I saw Jean this morning. She helps support various causes and in the past has helped her son by collecting bottles in the neighbourhood. On recycling day we put aside our collectables for her and sometimes I see her those mornings and we chat.

Her son, the one who battled addiction, has been clean for years now. He did some work for us in our yard not too long ago. He has his own company now and he is an amazing worker. He is one of the sweetest people you could ever know.

Jean talked to me about her son today, about how happy she was for him, about how great he was doing, about how thankful she is.

“How long, O Lord?” If you are not crying it, someone in the neighbourhood is.
One of the things that you can do to help in this time is to cry it out on behalf of others.
I cried for Jean for so long that I felt weary, and I could only imagine how she felt. And Jean was thankful then, even as she cried out. Jean is thankful now, even as she prays in gratitude.

Every day, all over the world, people are crying out , “How long, O Lord?”

If I am feeling it now, if you are, then maybe we ought to be asking God to humble us that we might identify with the pain and sorrow and anguish that people have felt so often, even while we never faced uncertainty like they had. Maybe we face uncertainty now. Maybe that can help us to reach out in love to others who have and are crying, “How long, O Lord?”

Amen

Montreal

A friend of mine is a reporter for CTV in Montreal. The pandemic has hit hard there, harder than in any other Canadian city. 
I asked Dan if he would write a reflection for the Reflector website. He did.

Bless the people of Montreal. Bless the reporters heading out to follow the story.  Amen - Todd

---

It snowed on Monday, March 23, 2020 in Montreal. 
This is not strange, but it is the kind of thing that will get clicks; especially if you get into the sweet spot: 10-20 centimetres. Let it snow, and let them click.
The snow on March 23, 2020, however, it didn’t even warrant a story. No one on the web desk checked if there was even a weather warning, and no one would have read it anyway.
There was something else going on that day. There was something else going on then, and there is something else going on now.
There is, in fact, only one thing going on, and it has taken over every aspect of the news cycle.
It is the COVID-19 pandemic.
Writing for the web desk during the pandemic is a non-stop stream of content. There has never been anything like it.
I am not the veteran newsman that some are; having only been at the post on CTV News Montreal’s desk since August, and working as a journalist since 2011. I did not cover 9/11, the 2008 financial panic, the Oka Crisis, the ice storm or the War on Terror. 
All of those stories were big, but I dare say the entire newsroom wasn’t dedicated to every aspect of them. I suppose going back to the Second World War would be the last time when every story centred on one thing. Locally, I would bet the 1998 ice storm took over everything, but nothing in my lifetime has had such a global focus.
“Non-coronavirus” stories these days are as rare as a February Vancouver snowstorm.
As a gauge for how things have changed, consider Friday, March 6. There was an earthquake in Montreal, a COVID-19 case confirmed, a stabbing, and a Habs legend died. RIP Henri Richard. That was a full day of big news, and one that got us all excited as we watched people engage with the news (all any journalist really wants). To be clear, Henri “The Pocket Rocket” Richard was not the person who was stabbed. 
A week later, the only thing to say about Richard was that fans couldn’t go to his funeral. Two weeks later the news was nothing but coronavirus and it has stayed that way since. Stabbings, ice rain and people getting hit by buses briefly make the top 10 stories of the day, but never stay for long.
Watching the news cycle and reporting on the pandemic is fascinating and exhausting. 
In the past two weeks, I’ve interviewed the guy who runs a homeless shelter, a cop, a lady who runs a convenience store and is upset she can’t buy scratch tickets at the store anymore, a comedian whose dog singing “I Will Survive” went viral, and a nine-year-old who began inserting gloves, masks and the COVID-19 virus into masterworks of art. I spoke with a mom who really wanted to know why the school board didn’t say WHO it was that was positive, and an Indigenous DJ spinning on Twitch because all of his shows were cancelled. I talked to someone annoyed that her final exams are going to be on camera, and the guy who runs the Running Room.
I’ve written about Asian racism, Jewish communities getting hit hard, a party getting broken up, public transit measures, and, of course, the all important fodder for everyone’s attention: the count. How many are infected? How many have died? How many masks do we have left?
All stories are affected by the virus. Infected. 
What do I make of all this? How do I, as a journalist, reflect on this?
It’s a tough question. 
There are some that are frustrated, some that are energized, some that are scared, and some that are defensive, but they all kind of see that a) we’re all in this together; b) we have to do something; c) now is not the time to be a spazz and d) we need to do a better job of washing our hands. 
Some are kind, some are cautious, some are curious and some are mean. Sometimes, all of the above are stupid.

CRUELTY

Yes, there are the people panicking and, in a paradox of reason, storm to the most crowded place imaginable – a supermarket – to stockpile in case they need to isolate. I wonder how many caught the virus that scared them so much in the first place at the supermarket, and brought it home and sat upon their mountain of toilet paper and infected everyone else. How much do these people think they’re going to poop by the way?
There are, and this is no surprise, a lot of people ready to snitch. Sometimes, this is not a bad thing. If there are a group of idiots partying because they don’t think it affects them, call the cops. If there is a family in their house making some noise, just let it go. 
In Montreal, the Jewish communities were hit hard, and started falling under uneven levels of scrutiny. Reading comments under stories in these times is particularly hard.
People’s racism has, predictably, shone through against Asian people and communities as well. 
This is something I’ve noticed over the past decade or more and it did not come as a surprise. North Americans (elsewhere as well, but I live here) seem to have a pretty easy acceptance of racism towards Asians living on the continent. Consider Yuli Gurriel’s despicable racist taunts at Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish and the minimal punishment meted out as an example of how little people care and then amplify that to 11 when a global pandemic that originated in China is sprung. 
Look south, sure, but look at your own community and how people react to an Asian person going to get a loaf of bread. Disgusting. It broke my heart listening to Korean, Chinese and others living in Montreal that wanted to tell their story about how afraid they were to go outside, but also didn’t want their names used in case some kind of retaliation happened.
The silver lining was that most commenters were as disgusted as I was when the story was posted.

JOY

There, naturally, was the shining examples of people who just want joy back.  
People are putting rainbows in windows, finding ways to give tenants a break on rent, singing songs, offering to help seniors and writing hate mail to journalists. I guess some things remain the same.
The Jacques Cartier Bridge lit up with rainbow lights the other day, and cops and fire-fighters have parked outside of hospitals with their lights blazing and sirens blaring in thanks to health-care professionals. 
The theme is joy. People want joy. Not nice things, but something that gives a deeper feeling. 

INSECURITY

I was writing stories literally five months ago in November about the CAQ government in Quebec considering tabling a bill that would make it against the law for merchants in Montreal to say, “Bonjour – Hi” when customers entered the store. I laughed while writing it then and kind of want to barf thinking that this mattered. The Minister Responsible for the French Language Simon Jolin-Barrette wanted people to say “bonjour” only (He hasn’t been seen since the pandemic began).
The answer to why that was even a story in November is the same as to why people are so scared now: insecurity. 
The questions no one can answer no matter how hard questioners scream are all the same at the core: What is it going to be like in six months? What is it going to be like in a month? What’s it going to be like next week? What’s it going to be like tomorrow? 
When will I be secure again? 
In Quebec, Premier Francois Legault said he will not release any scenario for when the virus will peak, when the numbers will stop going up, and when that graph will hit the sweetest of all Nirvanas: the plateau.
We don’t know, and so we wait. We sit at the mercy of that unforgiving, indifferent and coldly cruel monster: time.

IT WILL MATTER, JUST NOT NOW

There’s a neighbourhood in Montreal called the Plateau. It’s prime hipster real estate with the coolest cafes, boutiques, brew pubs and bike shops. My wife has a store there, which has been ordered closed with the rest of them. Leonard Cohen lived there. Schwartz’s Deli is there, and there’s a chess café called Pi. You can see the cross on top of Mount Royal from there. 
All of this is preamble now. All of this is the before now. All of this seems like nothing now. 
It seems like nothing but it is not.
All things will matter again, just not now. Weather warnings will matter, just not now. Liverpool hoisting the EPL championship will matter, just not now. Ken Bell’s education on Montreal brew pubs will matter, just not now. The Habs questionable moves and Canucks inevitable gut punch will matter, just not now. Quebec’s Bill-21 banning religious garb for public servants will matter, just not now. The cost of gas, the cruelty towards neighbours, the ignorance of science, meaning of Star Trek and the style of Tan France will matter, just not now. 

This will take time, but things will matter again.

A Prayer Three Weeks In

From Richard Topping at the Vancouver School of Theology;

Dr. Topping included in a recent email from VST a prayer written by a fellow minister, the Rev. Dr. John Moses;

God of life, God of love unconquered and unconquerable, we long for the day when we shall all be unbound and set free from the uncertainty and the fear and the isolation and the loneliness of this dark time.

But, right now, we need you to be with us; we need to feel your presence; we need to hear your Spirit calling to our spirits; we need to know that the darkness is not dark to you.

In faith, in hope, in longing, we offer our prayers.

We pray for the people who sit alone waiting for a phone call or an email or Facebook message or a wave from the neighbour across the street. May they not wait in vain.

We pray for those who struggle with depression, for whom these strange circumstances must be especially challenging. May they not be consumed by despair.

We pray for family members and friends who are far away, some of them living where the Covid-19 virus is taking a devastating toll. May they stay safe and well and may they know of our love and concern.

We pray for the people who work in health care, for first responders and law enforcement officers, who have to carry on regardless of the risk to themselves. May they not be overwhelmed and may they find courage and strength. 

We pray for the check out clerks and the shelf-stockers and all the other unsung heroes whose work allows life to go on. May they not be overwhelmed and may they find courage and strength.

We pray for the farmers and food producers. May they find the labourers they need as the growing season approaches and may they not become discouraged.

We pray for the leaders of our own and other countries who are bearing heavy burdens and facing enormous challenges.  May they find grace and wisdom. May they rise to meet the demands of this hour.

We pray for the church and for all faith communities as they keep the lights shining in the night. May the dawn come quickly. God of steadfast love and mercy unfailing, hear our prayer. In Jesus’ name. 

Amen.

We Thought That This Would Last

You’ve seen the news stories by now, they are various in their emphasis, but they run on the same theme. These are the stories of sudden separation due to the restrictions brought about by the response to the current pandemic.

I saw a story last night on CTV news about family members unable to visit their loved ones in care facilities. One man who looked to be in his late 50’s or early 60’s visited his wife in a care facility everyday. She suffers from early onset dementia. The story contained an older video clip of the husband and wife in the hall of the care home. She was in a wheelchair. He was kneeling down beside the chair and she was reaching out with her hand, stroking his face. She was non-verbal, but she seemed to know him by this touch.
This past week, when the husband went to visit, he sat in a chair outside the home and a worker with a mask on brought out an iPad for him. He spoke into it, trying his best, but you could see from the image on the screen that his wife did not grasp at all what was going on or even who he was.

What have you lost in this time?
It helps in a way to name the loss.

There are grandparents who are feeling great sorrow over not being able to visit their grandchildren. It might seem like this is nothing compared to greater suffering, but it is still a loss. It is real, and it can hurt like hell.

Make it a prayer;

Dear God;

I come to you now naming that which I have lost in this time. When I hear the words, “We thought that this would last”, I think about what I can so easily take for granted. I pray for those who are suffering these disconnections at this time. I ask you to guard my heart as I feel the loss in my life as well.

Help me to see what has not been lost. Help me to see what will be recovered.
There is so much for which to be grateful.
And Dear God, please grant your blessing to those who don’t or can’t understand the loss that they face. Grant your peace to those who wrestle with pain because their loved ones may not understand why things have changed so suddenly.
And Dear God, thank you for one another. I love that I am blessed to live this life with family and with friends and with familiar strangers.

Fill us with a hope for the future, even as we acknowledge the loss right now.
Amen.

Plagues in History and in Literature

It’s Sunday March 29, 2020.

As most people see it, we are about to enter week three of this our COVID spring. I read another article today on the history of plagues in England. Here it is. The article points out that quarantine was invented during the bubonic plague of the 14th Century. We may have progressed a great deal in a great many ways, but right now our chief weapon against this pandemic, against this current plague, is a weapon from the 1300’s. We do kid ourselves, how advanced we are, how secure we are, how free we are.

You may remember the existential author Albert Camus. Perhaps you had to read one of his books in high school. His most successful book, thought not one assigned in Canadian English Class was a book called, “The Plague”. It was written in 1947 and was a fictional account of a French town in Algeria hit by a plague.

I just read the book. It’s certainly makes you feel as if someone knew before what we are going through right now.

Here are some quotes from the book, see how contemporary you find them to be;

• Then, as a colleague told me: “It’s impossible, everyone knows the plague has vanished from the West.” Yes, everyone knew that, except the dead.

• Pestilence is in fact very common, but we find it hard to believe in a pestilence when it descends upon us.

• There have been as many plagues in the world as there have been wars, yet plagues and wars always find people equally unprepared.

• Why should they have thought about the plague, which negates the future, negates journeys and debate? They considered themselves free and no one will ever be free as long as there is plague, pestilence and famine.

• From that point on, it could be said that the plague became the affair of us all.

• Thus, the first thing that the plague brought to our fellow-citizens was exile.

• Then we knew that our separation was going to last, and that we ought to try to come to terms with time.

• But, though this was exile, in most cases it was exile at home. So in a sense the public had no point of comparison. It was only in the longer term, by noting the increase in the death rate, that people became aware of the truth. The fifth week produced 321 deaths and the sixth 345. These increases, at least, were convincing – but not enough for the towns-people, for all their anxiety, to abandon entirely the impression that it was merely an incident, annoying of course, but none the less temporary.

• ‘Ah! If only it had been an earthquake! A good shake and that’s it … One counts the dead, one counts the living and the whole thing’s over and done with. But this rotten bastard of a disease! Even those who don’t have it, carry it in their hearts.’

• So, week in, week out, the prisoners of the plague struggled along as best they could. Inside the town someone had the idea of quarantining certain districts which had been especially hard hit and only allowing people whose services were indispensable to leave them.

• ‘There’s always someone more captive than I am,’ was the statement that summed up the only possible hope at that time.

• Those who had jobs did them at the pace of the plague, meticulously and prosaically.

• The truth must be told: the plague had taken away from all of them the power of love or even of friendship, for love demands some future, and for us there was only the here and now.

• Everyone agreed that the amenities of former times would not be restored overnight and that it was easier to destroy than to rebuild.

There is a great deal in the book. It is novel, but it is also a work of philosophy. One of the central concerns in the book is the consideration of a preacher in the town who has religious sounding explanations for what has happened. They are eloquent, but unsatisfactory in the end.

The main character is a doctor who dutifully goes about his business of caring for the sick. This doctor has no apparent religious faith, but he demonstrates what it is that will help get people through the time of the plague. “Decency”, according to the doctor is what is owed at a time such as this.

For me, in my faith, I see in the book a couple of notes at least that speak to the time we are experiencing. Firstly, what does it mean to be free? We delude ourselves into thinking that we are immune from sudden loss or tragedy or from a sudden and total alteration of that which we take for granted.

In Christian faith, freedom has always to do with Christ. “If the Son has set us free then we are free indeed.” Freedom is not necessarily to do what we want. Freedom is not about our comfort or our health or wealth.

Freedom, in Christian faith properly understood, is the freedom to love.

Perhaps, when things around us seem so much more insecure, we can aim to discover the gift of this freedom.

Bless you today, tonight and this week. May God be with you and with those you love. May God be with all of those who are suffering and unsure.

Dear God;

Open my eyes to see that my freedom is in you. Allow me to see that Jesus was the most free because he was (and is) love in its absolute. I want things to change. I would like things to get back to normal. But the freedom that I had in you when things were normal I still have now. Open my eyes to your gift of love.

In Jesus’ name.

Amen

How Deserted Lies the City

There is a lament over a city in the Old Testament. It is quite famous.

The book itself is called “Lamentations” and it is a poem crying over the destruction of Jerusalem.

 Here is how the book starts: (NIV)

1 How deserted lies the city,    once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,    who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces    has now become a slave.

“How deserted lies the city”. I have read this passage many times before, but now I read it and see something like it in our city. The city has become deserted, once so full of people.

We ought to be careful about making direct parallels between biblical history and our own time, but we can be awakened to some of the larger truths of life that we often fail to see. We can think that our society, our culture, our city is invincible, that it goes on no matter what.

We know now, that it doesn’t. It can be laid waste by an enemy.

In the book of Lamentations, the enemy was another nation and the destruction was military in nature, and violent. The book is a poem constructed near the beginning of the disaster in order to give the people something to cry out. It names the loss in stark and hard terms.
There is talk of people’s faces being dragged to the ground, like into gravel.
There are images of people wandering aimlessly, and of the leaders sitting on the ground with dust on their heads having no idea what to do.

It’s rough; rougher than now.

However, if you look at the book, you will notice something about it.

There are 5 chapters.
Chapters 1,2 and 4 and 5 have 22 verses each.

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

Each of the verses corresponds to one of the letters, (like, A,B,C,D …). So chapters 1,2, 4 and 5 are acrostic like this.

Look at chapter 3.

It has 66 verses. Now a little math is helpful. Three times 22.
(AAA, BBB, CCC …)

All of this construction is so that people could remember it. The lament is perhaps the first matter that is ordered in an entirely disordered circumstance.

It is in the middle of all of this (just about) that suddenly these verses appear;

Chapter 3
21 Yet this I call to mind    
and therefore I have hope:

22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,    
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;    
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;    
therefore I will wait for him.”

25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,    
to the one who seeks him;

Many of us have heard these verses before. We may not have heard about the deserted city or the terrible pain and loss, but we have heard these verses. 

It is one thing to quote these verses when times are good and things feel secure. That is not what the time was like when they were written, not at all.
Now, in our deserted city, we can recite the words being a little closer to the time in which they were written.

Dear God,

How deserted lies the city!
I never thought I’d live in a time like this, but here we are.

So this I call to mind and therefore I have hope;
Because of your great love, we are not consumed. Your compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Even now.

Dwelling

Who are the people who get you through times like this?

It may be family. Some are blessed to be at home with loved ones and for the most part that may be a positive.

We also know that more Canadians live alone now than ever before. Whether you have a crew of people around you or if you are on your own, there are people who get you through.

Do you watch for the daily briefings of politicians? If so, do they help?
Over the last couple of days I saw Col. Chris Hadfield, a Canadian scientist and astronaut. Remember him? He is the one who did a recording of Space Oddity by David Bowie from the International Space Station.

I think that he is supposed to help get us through this.
“They” are finding people who have lived in isolation for extended periods of time to give pointers and tips.

Hadfield told us that we should “have a mission”. He suggested learning a language or learning to play the guitar.

Are you trying to be productive?

It can help. It can also be too much pressure.
Some days you just need to get through.

I’ve seen the reports as well about parents worried about the education of their children. In most cases these stories feature kids who are 5 or 6 or 8 years old, that range.

Is it okay to ask, are we really worried that a couple of months out of class will impede the development of these kids?

Imagine the pressure that a parent feels. It is already enough to simply try to get through the day. Now, you are supposed to take up a personal mission and become the teacher for your kids.

Just get through.

You’ll find out if you are sinking too much into yourself. Perhaps it might serve well to get up and work on something. It also might be good to stop if you can, to not achieve something.

My advice (you don’t need my advice) would be to notice the slower things.

Sit for a few minutes in the quiet of the morning because you don’t have anywhere to go today after all.

If you are a project and mission person, go for it, but don’t put this onto other people if they need something different to get through.

What does it mean to “Dwell in the house of the Lord”? How can I do it now, in this circumstance?

Psalm 84 English Standard Version (ESV)

My Soul Longs for the Courts of the Lord
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

84 How lovely is your dwelling place,    
O Lord of hosts!
2 My soul longs, yes, faints 
for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and flesh sing for joy
to the living God.

3 Even the sparrow finds a home, 
and the swallow a nest for herself, 
where she may lay her young,
at your altars, O Lord of hosts, 
my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, 
ever singing your praise! 
Selah

5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,    
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the Valley of Baca    
they make it a place of springs;    
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength;    
each one appears before God in Zion.

8 O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer;    
give ear, O God of Jacob!  Selah
9 Behold our shield, O God;    
look on the face of your anointed!

10 For a day in your courts is better    
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God    
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;    
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold    
from those who walk uprightly.
12 O Lord of hosts,    
blessed is the one who trusts in you!

 Dear God;

May I know today, what it means to dwell in your house.
How can I do that now?

I am so restless. I don’t like this forced confinement.
Could it be for me a call to be attentive?
Would you show me how I neglect to dwell in your presence?
So much of our lives can be defined by what we do, where we go, what we accomplish.
Could I see again what it means to be defined by being in your presence?

Here.

Bless all of us in this. As everyday, our prayers go out to those helping, to those on the front lines of this battle.

“Blessed are those who dwell in our house, ever singing your praise.”

Amen