God's Priorities

I was dismayed when I heard recent comments that were reported in the media that suggested that older people are expendable because the economy is more important than they are. This sermon is my response to that. I am indebted to an article by Melissa Florer-Bixler, the pastor of the Raleigh Mennonite Church in North Carolina, that was posted on the Sojourners website, dated March 26,2020. It gave me quite a bit of information for my thoughts today.

There have been a wide variety of responses to the coronavirus outbreak in our country. Some, for example, have pooh-poohed efforts to quarantine people, believing that the coronavirus threat isn’t real. A pastor in Louisiana recently insisted on meeting face-to-face with his congregation, declaring that the coronavirus is “politically motivated.” On a recent Sunday morning, more than 1,100 people were in attendance at his worship service, as 27 buses picked people up for worship. “I love the Lord,” said one parishioner, “and He’s going to take care of us.” I love the Lord, too, but I don’t personally believe that loving the Lord is any protection against a virus.

Others have gone to the other extreme and called for even more extreme quarantine. These folks want us to stay away from one another for months, just in case a stray virus might be lingering about and find its way into someone’s unsuspecting system. It might come to that, but let us all hope and pray that quarantine is lifted sooner rather than later. Here in Ohio, we’ve only been under a shelter-in-place order for a week, and already many of us are going stir-crazy from sitting in the house!

And then, there are those who are not as worried about people’s health as they are about the economy. There can be no doubt that our economy is taking a hit. We may very well be in a recession for quite some time. These folks, though, believe that avoiding a recession and getting the nation “back to normal” is more important than saving lives. Well… some lives, at least. You may have heard the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, suggesting that older Americans are expendable. Well, he didn’t put it quite that way. What he said was, and I quote, “[Although] No one [has] reached out to me and said, ‘as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren?’, if that’s the exchange, I’m all in.” In other words, he thinks that if older people need to die to get the economy going again, it’s a small price to pay. Let’s just all go back to work and let the chips fall where they may! Forget about this quarantine thing; it’s just costing us money; and what, after all, is more important than money?

I wonder how God feels about that? Well, it just so happens that we have a clue in the text of the prophet Isaiah. The early part of Isaiah was written during a military invasion by the Assyrians. Our own worries mirror those of the people of that time: fear, frustration, and anxiety. Just like us, they were worried about work shortages, troubled over access to food, and angered by incompetent leaders. And Isaiah begins with a blast of rage at the attitudes of the religious leaders in the besieged city of Jerusalem. Now, you need to know that the ancient sacrificial system required large amounts of food. During a time of siege, food was scarce, especially to non-landowners, the people that the Bible refers to as “the resident immigrant, the orphan, and the widow.” Instead of compromising on ceremony and toning down sacrifice during this time when resources were low, the royalty who were responsible for food distribution burned huge quantities of grain, vegetables, and meats as daily offerings. God’s response is devastating. The scripture that I read this morning (Isaiah 1:7-8, 10-17, 27-28) was written to the elite, the decision-makers, those charged with protecting and providing for the most vulnerable in their society. God is furious that leaders would value religious festivals more than hungry people who could be eating food that turns to ashes on the altar. “Seek justice,” commands God. “rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Any society that says to its most vulnerable members that they do not matter is under the judgement of a holy God.

Paul says much the same thing to the church at Corinth, even though he uses much softer language (I Corinthians 12:12-14, 21-22, 26). “Listen,” he says, “if you think that some people are not as important than you are, you’re sadly mistaken! We are all members of the body of Christ; and maybe we should act like it. Remember that the weaker parts of the body are indispensable! If one person suffers, we all suffer!” Paul and God are on the very same page. There is no person who is expendable in God’s eyes. The very old, the very young, the one who has a job and the one who has been on public assistance for years, the one who works in an “essential” industry and the one who just opened a little boutique – we are to love and to care for all of them.

In March 27’s daily UCC meditation, Vince Amlin wrote this.

 “As I write this, we’re a week into our self-quarantine, and the conversation has turned to making tough choices. We have to choose, we’re told, between people staying safe and people getting back to work… between flattening the curve and boosting the economy… between grandparents and grandkids. We have to choose. So, what will it be?” he asks. “Your money or your God? Your money or your love? Your money or your life? Their life? All of their lives? What will it be?” But then he reminds us that these are all false choices, because we are not forced to live with the economy as it has always been! Business as usual doesn’t need to be continue! Could we change a few things so that the most vulnerable members of our society don’t end up being sacrificial victims to the ravenous dragon that we call “the economy”?

Author Dave Hollis recently suggested that “In the rush to return to normal, [we should] use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.” How would God respond to that? Well, I’m no prophet, and I don’t dare put words into God’s mouth, but I do suggest that God might say something like, “Anything that helps out those who cannot help themselves should be normal; but anything that benefits the few at the expense of the many is an abomination.” So, I hope that we will continue to self-quarantine and practice social distancing. I hope that big corporations that can well afford it will continue to pay their workers a living wage, even if those workers have been temporarily laid off. I hope that we will put our heads together and figure out a way to care for those who are now unable to care for themselves. And I really, really hope that this nonsense about encouraging our elders to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the economy will be seen for what it is – words from someone whose only allegiance is to dollars, no matter what church he says he belongs to. God’s people take care of each other! Let’s live each day remembering that.