From Me To We

"All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need." Acts of the Apostles 4:32-35 NLT

The Covid 19 pandemic has shaken the whole world and turned it upside down. We are forced to see the world as it really is - devastating and terrifying. It is the "thunderclap of heaven" to wake us up to the reality of death. It is a time to face the hard truth of life that Sigmund Freud had pointed out - our need to confess that in our civilized attitude towards death we are once more living psychologically beyond our means, and must reform and give death its proper place in our thoughts and in life. The Covid 19 pandemic has forced us to confront our existential dilemma that Ernest Becker describes and which we are all now experiencing:

"As an animal organism man senses the kind of planet he has been put down on, the nightmarish, demonic frenzy in which nature has unleashed billions of individual organismic appetites of all kinds - not to mention earthquakes, meteors, and hurricanes, which seem to have their own hellish appetites."

The harsh truth of human life is that without God, we are psychologically and spiritually bankrupt and we are living as slaves to the gods of money, sex and power. We are driven by greed, lust and pride while living in fear of death. Our lifestyes are founded on the vital lie that Ernest Becker draws attention to:

"We don't want to admit that we are fundamentally dishonest about reality, that we do not really control our own lives. We don't want to admit that we do not stand alone, that we always rely on something that transcends us, some system of ideas and powers in which we are embedded and which support us"

We have no control over the future but we live as though we have. It is a lie we need in order to live but which, Ernest Becker reminds us, dooms us to a life that is never really ours. We need to die to our false self in order to be reborn to be the persons that God has created us to be. The good news is that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose from the dead to set us free from the fear of dying and to die to our false selves:

"Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying." Hebrews 2:14-15 NLT

When we are no longer living in denial of death and are freed from our fear of death, perhaps we will then be able to see the hidden blessing of Covid 19 in providing us with the time and opportunity to practice silence and solitude. We read in the gospel of Mark that before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray after a busy time of healing at the home of Peter's mother in law (Mark 1:29-35 NLT). The practice of solitude is not burdensome if we see it as the privilege of worshipping God in and through silence. Solitude also leads us to true community when we do not need the presence of others to keep us from feeling lonely but we can become the channels of God's presence and love to keep others from the spiritual poverty of loneliness. 

Silence is a very important component of prayer and worship. As the prophet Habbakuk reminds us:

"But the Lord is in his holy Temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.” Habakkuk 2:20 NLT

But it is so difficult to keep silence even in our worship services. Silence can seems deathly. So we either spend only a few seconds or a minute in silence or we fill it with music. We need to understand and appreciate the silence of worship for silence is the highest form of worship. We are not to worship silence but we are to use silence as the expression of our intention to seek God's presence and to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him. The silence of worship and solitude is not to empty our minds but to become more conscious of the truth which the apostle Paul experienced:

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Philippians 1:21 NKJV

In silence we experience the reality that we are more than our brain and our minds. In silence we can learn to observe our thoughts non judgementally and to become aware of our true self which is hidden in Jesus Christ deep within our hearts. Through the silence of worship, we will bear the fruits of prayer, faith, love, service and peace which Mother Teresa has described as her simple path. It is a path to an intimate relationship with God as our loving Abba Father. We will then do good not in order to feel good but we will do good because we are feeling good as the beloved children of God.

As we experience peace with God and as we are filled with the peace of God, we can face the terror of death. We will also be delivered from our greed and fear of scarcity. We can then formulate creative solutions to the two certainties about human life - death and taxes.

It is only when our mindsets towards death and taxes are reframed that we will be able to live in a co-operative and compassionate society that will be heaven on earth.  This was how the early disciples lived when the Holy Spirit united them in heart and mind as we read in Acts 4:32-35. Covid 19 will then truly be a blessing if we are delivered from living in hellish societies where human beings are driven by greed, pride and lust instead of kindness, humility and love.

Imagine what life after Covid 19 will be like when we are not filled with the terror of death and when we seek to live our lives so that our deaths will bear the fruit of love, joy and peace in the lives of those we leave behind. Imagine what can be done when the rich see it as a privilege as well as a social responsibility to pay taxes instead of using money to control others.  Covid 19 draws our attention to the following truth:

"Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life." 1 Timothy 6:17-19 NLT

I believe God is using Covid 19 to lead us from a "me" mindset to a "we" mindset - to live together as the family of God in the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Let us learn to be at home with God in silence for then we will know that we will never be alone. Then we can be God's channel of love so that those in need will not feel that they are alone.  I believe that I am called to be faithful in silence rather than to be successful in good works and so my prayer is that I will be faithful in my living and in my dying:

"Living or dying may honor be Thine.
For this wretched life, You loved and forgave.
A life that is on fire, be only our heart's desire,
Be faithful from now to the grave.

May the Lord find us faithful.
May His Word be our banner held high.
May the Lord find us faithful every moment,
Every day, every hour! Everyday tho' we live tho' we die..."