Psalm 9:9 says, “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed…”

Psalm 10:17-18 says, “You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed…

”Psalm 82:3 says, “Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed…”

Psalm 103:6 says, “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”

I would like to collectively summarize and paraphrase the above passages in today’s vernacular:  “Oppressed, afflicted, fatherless, weak, and poor lives matter.”

It is within the spirit of the Psalms cited above to say that if the Psalms were being written here and now, one of them would likely read, “The Lord declares, ‘Black lives matter!’”

But don’t all lives matter? 

Of course they do. Of course God loves everyone.  (So much so that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.)  But even though God loves everyone, the fact remains that the passages quoted above narrow the focus.  Those passages simply don’t happen to say that God is a refuge for all, or that he defends all, or that he works justice for all.   The raw truth is, that while God loves everyone, God takes sides! 

It is a function of his righteous holiness to do so.  Of course God cares for everyone, but at times, circumstances demand an emphasis or focus on a particular portion of humanity. In principle it is analogous to Jesus’ parable about leaving ninety-nine sheep to find one lost sheep. The point of that story isn’t that the ninety-nine don’t matter, but that the one needed extra attention and focus.

In some cases, the Scripture is explicit and in others it is easy to extrapolate God’s position:  Where there are oppressed and oppressors, God takes the side of the oppressed; where there is conflict between the poor and the well-to-do, God takes the side of the poor; where there are abused and abusers, God is on the side of the abused; where there are exploited and exploiters, God is on the side of the exploited; where there are powerful and powerless, God is on the side of the powerless.

Which brings us to our current time and place.  When it is exposed that a culture has a systemic problem with racism such that, both anecdotally and statistically, it can be shown that a particular demographic minority is being mistreated, abused, and oppressed by the powerful majority, we can easily discern which side God is on.   The soul-searching question to ask yourself is, “Which side am I on?”

Christianity is no stranger to paradoxes.  For example:  Jesus is fully God and fully human!  How can both of those propositions be true? It’s a miracle but they are. We are currently faced with a new paradox that I want to address.

I was taken to church from the time I was born.  The importance of Sunday School, Worship, Prayer Meetings, Bible Studies, and other church gatherings was drilled into me.  I was taught that it was essential for the spiritual growth and health of believers.   I was also taught it was essential for evangelizing non-believers.  (Disclaimer: I was taught that church should never be the only means of spiritual growth and evangelism.)  In short, the belief that church is essential became part of me.  It’s in my DNA.  Eventually, I became a Pastor.  I am now one of the ones teaching others that church is essential!

Then came COVID-19.   Based on suggested guidelines from public health officials, on March 15th, my own church board unanimously voted to suspend our gatherings until April 3rd, which we later changed to, “until further notice.”  

Given what I said earlier, it is an understatement to say that making that decision was a hard one. Talk about going against the grain!   Following our self-imposed rule has required discipline and has remained hard.   I have repeatedly wrestled with the questions: “Did we do the right thing? Are we doing the right thing?”    Through study, research, and reflective thinking (all done prayerfully, of course), I am convinced that we did, and are doing, the right thing by suspending our physical gatherings.

Since the beginning of Christianity, wherever Christians are found, they form themselves into local communities (or as I prefer, “families!”) commonly called, churches.  Churches live by a set of blended, complementary, benefits and responsibilities.  Christians who join into fellowship with other Christians give and receive support to and from one another.  They pray for one another and are prayed for by others.  They collectively affirm, send, and support missionaries.  They jointly carry out compassionate ministries.  They give offerings to support ongoing ministries and, when needed, they benefit from these helpful gifts.  They hold one another accountable in both behavior (ethics) and understanding (doctrinal beliefs).   In the New Testament there is absolutely positively no concept of isolated, loner Christians.  Christians ALWAYS join into fellowship with other Christians.  As one unknown Christian writer put it, “There’s no such thing as a Lone Ranger Christian.”  The writer added, “Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto!”  So, yes, churches are essential.

However, in our current context, it must be said that scheduled worship services (and other physical gatherings) can, and should, be temporarily suspended for a few weeks, or even months, in the interest of public health and safety.  We can even say that is essential that we do so.  While such gatherings are important, and ordinarily even prioritized, the church is much more than those gatherings.

Churches around the world with suspended services can still support one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, etc.   We Christian communities still love one another, we’ve just had to adapt the ways we express that love.  Writing about the mandate in Scripture that Christians not give up meeting together, Dr. Roger Hahn wrote, “In the first century when telephones did not exist and letters were difficult and expensive to write, face to face contact was the only way encouragement could be given. It is still the most effective way.”  While we can concede that physical gathering is still the most effective way, we have to admit it is not the only way, especially in a temporary situation. It would be hard to overstate the blessing of digital communication technology during this time.   Churches can still “gather” through videoconferencing, webcasts, various forms of social media, text messaging, and even the old-fashioned phone call.  In short, given communication technology, given the temporary nature of the situation, I believe the church can continue to be the church even with a temporary hiatus on physical gatherings. 

This is especially true given the motivation behind the current suspension of gathering:  namely, public health and safety.  The church is supposed to serve its community.  During a pandemic, one of the ways the church serves its community is by following public health protocols and not gathering.  It is akin to, “going the extra mile.”  That is, it is a sacrifice for us to forego our physical gatherings but we make that sacrifice for the good of both ourselves and everyone else with whom we might have contact.

Yes, it truly is an “essential” paradox! That is, a paradox concerning essentials:

1. Church is essential.
2. It is essential that church gatherings be temporarily suspended.

I am pro-life.  I rarely use that label because there is some baggage with that label from which I prefer to distance myself.  Nevertheless, I am pro-life.  Being truly pro-life means a lot of things.  The most common thing associated with pro-life is anti-abortion.  My view mirrors that of my church’s official view:  “We oppose induced abortion by any means, when used for either personal convenience or popula­tion control.”

As a pro-lifer, I need to admit something:  Ours is a big ask!

There are a myriad of paths that lead a woman to choose abortion.  Trying to account for them all is way beyond the scope of this blog post. So as just one example, I invite you to consider the plight of fictitious, “Erin.”   

Erin is an only child.  Her dad died when she was twelve.  Her relationship with her mom deteriorated throughout her high school years; nowadays they rarely talk.  She is now nineteen, living on her own in an apartment.  She is halfway through her first semester of community college where she is taking two classes.  She dreams of being a guidance counselor because her own high school guidance counselor had proven to be very helpful to her.  She works nearly full-time, but not quite, at a local family restaurant.  Erin had no religious upbringing and was admittedly living a promiscuous lifestyle.  Prompted by her own suspicions, she visited a free clinic where it was confirmed she is about seven weeks pregnant.  She is not in a committed relationship with the father of the unborn child, nor does she want to be.

For the first time in a long time, Erin thought seriously about her future.  If she keeps the child, she will have seven months of pregnancy in front of her with all the health issues and doctor appointments that go along with it.  Then, of course, there is the delivery itself.  She realized that once the baby is born, her life’s path will be forever changed.  Socially, her carefree days of “going out” (when, where, with whomever she chose) would effectively be over because the kind of going out that she enjoyed was not baby-friendly.  She thought about the implications of the added expense of raising a child.  Realistically, she knew she was only barely making ends meet now. What would she do with the extra expenses of a baby? That made her wonder what would happen if she was unable to keep her job.  What if the pregnancy created issues with her schedule and she got fired?  Would she feel strong enough to even do her job?  Then she was back to admitting that even if she could keep her job, it wouldn’t be enough.  She would need to find a better job, or more likely, a second job.  Would that even be possible?  Would she be able to afford to continue college? Even if she could, would she have the time and energy for college while trying to raise a baby?  For work and/or college, how would she be able to find and afford daycare or a babysitter?  It dawned on her that if she couldn’t continue college she would never be a guidance counselor, or any other career. She would likely never find a better job than the one she had now.  She wanted to get married someday but having a baby would make that much more difficult; both in terms of meeting and dating, as well as finding a man who wouldn’t mind that she had a baby by another man. Her thoughts went on and on in this vein.

Then she considered what she believed to be her other main option.  Within a few weeks she could have an abortion and then continue her life as planned.   It wasn’t a great life, but she was enjoying it, she had a plan for improving it, and she was working the plan.  It didn’t take her long to decide that abortion seems to be the best option.

Enter the pro-lifers.  We tell her to keep the child and completely change her life.  Of course, we tell her that she will love the baby and be glad she kept it.  We warn her that if she aborts she will live with regret from now on.  We even tell her that if she will carry the baby to term and really doesn’t want to raise it, she can give it up for adoption and then get back to her life. 

At first, she likes the adoption idea. But then her own belief system enters in. In her own mind, there is a fundamental difference between a seven-week old fetus and a newborn living baby. To Erin, they just aren’t the same. As a result, while she can easily entertain the thoughts of aborting a fetus, she cannot imagine carrying it for nine months, giving birth, then simply giving it away.  Even though some pro-lifers call it “baby killing,” Erin doesn’t see it that way. 

But we pro-lifers keep shouting, “Keep the baby!”

In spite of all the inconvenience, struggle, hardship, lifestyle changes, reduced choices, changes in future opportunities, we pro-lifers ask Erin to keep the child.  Let’s be honest:  It’s a big ask!   Our logic is straightforward: We follow through with the big ask because, in spite of the hardship, we believe it’s the right thing to do.  We simply believe that when you put all the things that are leading her to an abortion on one side of the scale and we put a human being on the other side, the scales tip undeniably toward the human being. 

We believe it’s a justifiable, righteous ask, even though it’s a big ask.  That belief and that logic is part of what it means to be pro-life. I said at the beginning that being pro-life means a lot of things.  Let’s consider one of those other things:   Our response to COVID-19.

The bottom line is, that the requested response is also a big ask.  In ways it is akin to asking an unwed, underemployed, young adult to keep her baby.  There are disruptions, inconveniences, hassles, financial pressures, modified social lives, etc.   Yes, we admit it. It is a big ask!  But shouldn’t we pro-lifers apply the same straightforward belief and logic to this situation.  When we put all that is being asked on one side of the scales and put the lives of the most-at-risk people on the other, as pro-lifers, shouldn’t our belief in the sanctity of human life tip the scales?  Strongly.

There is one big difference, of course.  When we tell Erin (and other women in her situation) not to abort their babies, we do so under no expectation of personal consequences. That is, Erin will face all the implications, not us.  On the other hand, sheltering at home and social distancing, impacts each and every one of us. 

Please tell me that we pro-lifers are willing to practice what we preach.  Tell me that we are willing to pay the price to save lives.  It’s a big ask, I know.

“God’s got this!”

Have you seen that declaration showing up with regards to COVID-19?  I have.  A lot. Honestly, it makes me a little uncomfortable.  Of course, there is a sense in which this is true, but I think its abrupt and isolated appearance is a little disingenuous because it skips a step or two.  Ultimately, we Christians should all end up there, but not so abruptly and not in an isolated manner.

To explain what I mean, I invite you to observe the Thirteenth Psalm.  In that Psalm, David (the shepherd boy, King, poet) expresses the truth that, “God’s got this,” in a much more poetic way.  Specifically he wrote, “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” (Psalm 13:5-6)    But those two verses are just the final one-third of the Psalm.  That’s all there would have been if David had skipped the step or two I’m talking about.  But he didn’t.  Here’s the Psalm in its entirety:

Psalm 13

1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,

4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”

    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;

    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,

    for he has been good to me.

The majority of this Psalm—the first two-thirds—is an acknowledgement and expression that the current situation stinks and an acknowledgement and expression that so far at least, God doesn’t seem to be doing much about it.

Look again at the first verse.  Asking, “Will you forget forever?” reveals that David felt forgotten.  Asking, “How long will you hide your face from me?” reveals that David had been seeking God, but had been unable to find him. 

In verse two he asks, “How long will my enemy triumph over me?”  That reveals that David felt that he is currently losing the battle.  That is, he wasn’t pretending that he was winning when it was obvious that he wasn’t. 

Up to this point in the Psalms, David definitely is not claiming that, “God’s got this.”  If anything, he was admitting that the evidence indicated that God didn’t have it!  Then in verse three, he began to turn a corner.  “Look on me and answer, Lord my God.  Give light to my eyes or I will sleep in death.”  From there he goes on to declare that if God doesn’t intervene, he will in fact be defeated and his foes will rejoice in his defeat.  It seems as if David is declaring that, God doesn’t have this, and that if God doesn’t take charge soon, all will be lost.

Then and only then does David find faith to fall back on.  Only then does David poetically declare that, “God’s got this,” after all.

But we modern Christians would rather skip verses one through four and jump straight to verses five and six.  We shy away from admitting our struggles, doubts, and yes, even our fears.  Our struggle with that admission is understandable given all the times in Scripture we are told not to fear.  Admitting to fear makes us look weak at best or disobedient at worst. 

Christian leader, Bible teacher, and author, Ajith Fernando, in his book, Jesus Driven Ministry, diagnoses this problem by saying we have, “no theology of groaning.”  He points out that the Bible is full of God’s people’s “groaning” (lamenting and/or complaining, though he prefers the term complaining).  He teaches that it is part of what Paul was talking about in Romans 8:23b where he said, “but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait…”  That is, we have a foretaste of what’s to come with no sickness and sorrow, etc., but we don’t have it yet.  Currently, we still face all kinds of troubles in this world just as Jesus said we would (John 16:33).

In the book referenced above, Fernando quotes Biblical scholar, Chris Wright summarizing the pattern of Biblical laments.  I share it here because I love the way it so closely parallels the Thirteenth Psalm that we’ve been looking at:  “God, I am hurting; and, God, everyone else is laughing.  And, God, You are not helping very much either; and how long is it going to go on?”  Pure honesty.

My point is this:  When faced with trials, if David didn’t jump straight to, “God’s got this,” maybe we shouldn’t either.   If David first “groaned,” (lamented and complained about the situation) maybe we should too.  Maybe, like David, when we are in the midst of a severe trial we should admit that we are in the midst of a severe trial rather than pretending that all is well and that we aren’t bothered.  Maybe when it feels like God isn’t doing anything about it, we should admit that it feels that way.  Maybe when it dawns on us that if God doesn’t act then all is lost, we should admit that we need God to act rather than pretending that he already has.  Maybe then and only then, after admitting and expressing those things should we declare, “God’s got this.”

“God’s got this,” is where all God’s people should end up but let’s not pretend we all start there.  With that in mind, here is my “Psalm” for our current circumstance.  (I have “Psalm” in quotes because I am no poet!)

God, how long is this going to continue?  COVID-19 is ravaging the world and the Church and your people are not immune; not to the disease and not to its wake.  We, too, have friends and loved ones that have died, are dying, or are sick.  We, too, are facing domino-effect consequences including financial, social, and emotional stresses.  To top it all off, even within the ranks of your own people there is a great divide over the appropriate response to this.  We have come to realize that if you don’t intervene, we are lost…  But we know you.  We have history with you.  We trust you.  Though we can’t see it just yet, we know, O Lord, that you’ve got this!  Praise your name, thank you and amen.

I went for a bike ride today on a local trail, I was a few miles from home when I saw a guy who had pulled off the trail and dismounted his bike.  That’s common operating procedure.  I often do it myself to answer a call or text, take pictures, or to just get a drink and stretch.  As I got closer, I could see that this guy had a different reason.  He had apparently pulled off the trail for a smoke break.  At least that is what he was doing.

My instinct kicked in and I was immediately critical.  Doesn’t he see the irony?  Smoking is so counterproductive to cycling?  How could he be so stupid?  (I confess. Yes, that harsh question entered my mind.)  When I got home, I actually started composing a critical post about it to a Facebook cycling group I frequent. 

Then it happened:  Good old-fashioned spiritual conviction!  It was like God was asking me, “Why was your first thought, ‘That’s terrible that cyclist is smoking?’  Shouldn’t it have been, ‘It’s awesome that that smoker is out riding his bike!’”   Then, in keeping with Jesus’ words about the splinter and the plank in the eyes, God pointed out me that the smoker could have been justifiably thinking, “That cyclist ought to lose weight.” (Though he should have been thinking, “It’s great that that overweight guy is out cycling!”)

I fear this example is not the exception but the rule. It is indicative of our world’s default bent toward instinctively going negative instead of instinctively going positive.  Doing so is just all too common. In me, I discovered. Perhaps in you?   It is just all too easy to be critical rather than affirming.  Criticism rather than approval or affirmation is standard operating procedure for this world.

In the Bible, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)”   In another place, Philippians 4:8, he wrote, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

I brought those two passages together because they fit together well.  Living out the Philippians passage is only possible via practicing the Romans passage.  In other words, thinking (noticing and focusing on) the positive, excellent, praiseworthy things isn’t natural.  It is only possible through the renewing of the mind.  But how do we renew our minds?  Ultimately we can’t.  God does it in us when we ask him and when we let him.  Notice that right before the instruction to not conform to the pattern of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, Paul instructed us to give ourselves fully (be a “living sacrifice”) to God.  When we do that, God works in us and with us to transform us and to renew our minds.  It is through a renewed mind, that our instinct shifts to going positive rather than negative.

It doesn’t happen all at once.  It takes time as we grow toward Christian maturity.   Be patient, but not too patient.  That is, you shouldn’t feel defeated when you discover your shortcoming but neither should you complacently accept the status quo.  You should be improving all the time.  So when you find yourself falling short—like if God questions you about criticizing a cyclist for smoking rather than praising a smoker for cycling—pray about it and ask God to transform you and to renew your mind. Resolve, with God’s help, to think about things that are excellent or praiseworthy!