Genesis 4:2-9
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time
Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. And
Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his
flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his
offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was
downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face
downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not
do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but
you must rule over it.” Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the
field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed
him. Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” “I don’t know,”
he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Luke 10:25-29
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,”
he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the
Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?” The lawyer answered, “’Love the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength
and with all your mind,’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have
answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But the lawyer
wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
This is not the sermon that I had planned to
preach this morning. I had planned for this morning’s sermon to be about the
abundance that God offers us. I had planned to focus on the way that Jesus fed
five thousand people with five loaves of barley bread and a couple of little
fish, and the skepticism of the disciples who muttered to themselves, “Why, a
whole month’s wages wouldn’t buy food for this many people!” I had planned to
remind you that God has better ways to solve problems of scarcity than we do;
because God certainly does! You might hear that sermon after Easter; but you
won’t hear it this morning. That’s because, between last week and today, our
lives have been turned upside down by something so small that you can’t even
see it under a regular light microscope. Between last week and today, we have
been hit between the eyes by a new strain of coronavirus.
By now, you all know how drastic and
widespread the response has been to stop the spread of this virus. All
professional sports have been suspended, at least for the time being. All
college sports have been postponed if not cancelled outright. International
travel restrictions have been set in place. Here in Ohio, many nursing homes
and long-term care facilities no longer allow visitors, even family members.
Conferences have been rescheduled, and schools are closed until the end of
March. Now, there is a wide variety of responses to all these actions. On one
end of the spectrum, some folks deny that the virus is a serious problem, and
think that all these actions are nonsense. On the other end of the spectrum is
a lingering fear that the coronavirus will turn out to be a modern-day Black
Plague, sending many of us to an early grave. Both of them are wrong. The
coronavirus is a serious problem; but
while it has the potential to sicken and even kill many people, we have the
potential to stop it. That is, if we care about one another at least as much as
we care about ourselves.
Here’s why so many entertainment events have
been cancelled (including professional and college sports). When anyone attends
a mass gathering, they are exposed to viruses and bacteria from all the people
around them. Most of those little germs don’t do anything to us. But if we are
exposed to this particular coronavirus and we contract it, it can be a week before
we show any symptoms. In effect, we turn into Typhoid Mary – or maybe I should
say “Coronavirus Carrie.” Before we show any symptoms, we visit Grandpa, shake
the hand of an elderly friend at church, and sit right across from a stranger
in a restaurant. If we haven’t washed our hands or if we sneezed thoughtlessly,
guess where that virus goes next? It jumps to Grandpa, to our elderly friend,
and even to that person we’ve never met.
Now, young people have very little chance of
having a killer case of coronavirus. But the chance of getting a serious, maybe
lethal case increases in folks over 60; jumps up in folks over 70; and
skyrockets in people over 80. And if you have a chronic disease like asthma –
from which I suffer myself – the possibility of that coronavirus killing you is
higher no matter what your age is! So, how can we keep everyone healthy? Only
by staying away from as many people as possible; and that means skipping the
NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, the symphony, and the party at the Dublin
Pub on St. Patrick’s Day. Yeah, I know – I hate it, too. I just named three of
my favorite things; and I won’t be able to do any of them!
In view of all this, our UCC Heartland
Conference has recommended that face-to-face worship and other church gatherings
be suspended until at least the end of March. Now, I don’t like that one bit,
because I truly believe we cannot effectively “be the church” without gathering
for worship on a regular basis. But I also believe that Jesus calls us to be
our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers; and part of that is minimizing the harm
that we might do to folks who are at risk. When we do what the CDC – the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – ask us to do, we not only help to
keep ourselves safe, we help to keep others safe, too. When we think of helping
others, what usually comes to mind is feeding the hungry and clothing the
naked. What if, right now, Jesus is calling us to help keep the most vulnerable
members of our society healthy by staying away from large gatherings? What if
Jesus is calling us to stay home for a while? What if Jesus is calling us to
watch a movie, play a board game, or do a jigsaw puzzle at home instead of
going out to the mall to shop? Those are things that we can do relatively
easily. It doesn’t mean that we won’t be inconvenienced. We have already been inconvenienced, and that
will probably get worse before it gets better. But saying, “I’m not going to
let this virus stop me, and I’ll do what I want to!” is ignoring Jesus’ call to
take care of our neighbors. It may sound brave, but it means that we don’t care
a pin about the most vulnerable members of our society. I’m thinking that’s not
what Jesus had in mind when he told us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
There are certainly things that we can do to
continue to “be the church” during a time that we may have to do without Sunday
worship. Pastor Janice and I will be brainstorming during the next few days
about how we can continue to be there for one another; and your ideas will be
welcome! We will certainly need to be more intentional about communicating with
and supporting one another than we usually are! Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky has
commented that, “Every hand that we don’t shake must become a phone call that
we place. Every embrace that we avoid must become a verbal expression of warmth
and concern. Every inch and every foot that we physically place between
ourselves and another must become a thought as to how we might be of help to
that other, should the need arise.”
The letter that our Heartland Conference
recently sent to all the UCC churches in Ohio, West Virginia, and northern
Kentucky reminded us that we are a people of faith; and that we are called to
have courage and hope, especially in this time of anxiety and confusion. It’s
OK to be afraid of this virus! Only a fool would yawn at a virus that could be
lethal! But remember that God is here with us even in the middle of a pandemic.
We are still the church of Jesus Christ. The Spirit will guide us, not only in
caring for ourselves, but in caring for others, too. Be of good courage! God is
with us.
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