May 10, 2020

Finding a New Normal in Jesus

In the gospel reading for this Fifth Sunday of Easter, John 14:1-12, Jesus says that he is “the way and the truth and the life.” Today I want to explore what this means for us, practically speaking.

I begin with a self-deprecating story that Billy Graham used to tell about himself. Early in his ministry, he had arrived in a small town to preach a sermon. Wanting to mail a letter, he asked a young boy where the post office was. When the boy had told him, Dr. Graham thanked him and said, “If you’ll come to the Baptist church this evening, you can hear me telling everyone how to get to heaven.” “I don’t think I’ll be there,” the boy said. “You don’t even know the way to the post office.”

Most people who want to succeed will agree that it is important to have goals in life and, when times get tough, keeping your attention fixed on the goal can help you to deal with hardships. On July 4, 1952 the California coast was blanketed in fog. Twenty-one miles to the west, on Catalina Island, Florence Chadwick, a thirty-four year old long-distance swimmer was attempting to swim to the California coast. She had already conquered the English Channel, swimming in both directions. Now she was determined to be the first woman to swim the Catalina Chanel. As the hours ticked off, Chadwick fought bone-chilling cold, dense fog and sharks. Several times, sharks had to be driven off by rifles, which were on hand in the boat that was accompanying her. The icy water numbed her to the point of exhaustion. Straining to make out the shore through her swimmer’s goggles, all she could see was dense fog. She knew she could not swim any farther. Although not a quitter, Chadwick shouted to her trainer in the boat and was taken out of the water. So after fifteen hours and fifty-five minutes, she was hauled from the channel into the boat. Frozen to the bone and her spirit defeated, Chadwick was devastated to discover that she was only a half mile from the coast. She had been defeated not by fatigue or by cold. The fog had defeated her because it had obscured her goal. Two months later, again in the fog, Chadwick swam anew—this time, with her faith intact. She knew that beyond the fog there was land. Not only was she the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, but she beat the men’s record by two hours.

In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes about the goal that he keeps ever before him. “Those things I used to consider gain I have now reappraised as loss in the light of Christ. I have come to rate all as loss in light of the surpassing knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake I have forfeited everything; I have accounted all else rubbish so that Christ may be my wealth and I may be in him….Thus do I hope that I may arrive at resurrection from the dead. It is not that I have reached it yet, or have already finished my course; but I am racing to grasp the prize if possible, since I have been grasped by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not think of myself as having reached the finish line. I give no thought to what lies behind but push on to what is ahead. My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize to which God calls me—life on high with Christ Jesus” (see Phil 3:7-9, 11-14).

It is clear from this passage that, for Paul, Jesus was indeed the way, the truth and the life. It had not always been so. We read in the Acts of the Apostles about the zeal of Saul (Paul’s former name) as a Pharisee who considered the Jesus movement heretical. “Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus which would empower him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, living according to the new way” (Acts 9:1-2). In Paul’s own words, we find a description of his heritage. “I was circumcised on the eighth day, being of the stock of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrew origins; in legal observance I was a Pharisee, and so zealous that I persecuted the church. I was above reproach when it came to justice based on the law” (Phil 3: 5-6). But all of that changed for Saul/Paul on that road to Damascus. “As he traveled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed about him. He fell to the ground and at the same time heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, sir?’ he asked. The voice answered, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Get up and go into the city, where you will be told what to do.’” (Acts 9:3-6). After this dramatic encounter, Paul’s life was literally turned around. For him, without question or hesitation, Jesus was now “the way and the truth and the life.”

I have heard it said that life is what happens when you are on the way to something or somewhere else. That was clearly the case for Paul. On that road to Damascus, his life was upended. He now had new perspectives, new values, new goals, new dreams, and a new sense of what mattered—and what did not.

It can be argued that the pandemic we are now experiencing is a kind of upending experience. Perhaps we thought of plagues as something that happened at another time, like the middle ages, and in another place, like the unsanitary streets and villages of over-crowded China and India. But here it is, in the twenty-first century, attacking us in the first world! Now, as I said in a previous reflection, I do not see this as a judgment by God (why would God want to punish those who are most frail and vulnerable). But I do see it as a moment, an invitation, for us to make a judgment about our perspectives, values, goals and dreams—just as Paul did in the first century.

Sometimes, if we want a deeper understanding of our reality, it is good to look at it from a different angle. Arundhati Roy, in an article entitled “The Pandemic is a Portal,” offers her insights from the perspective of life in India. First, she captures our upended reality rather well. “Who can use the term ‘gone viral’ without shuddering a little? Who can look at anything any more—a door handle, a cardboard carton, a bag of vegetables—without imagining it swarming with those unseeable, undead, unliving blobs dotted with suction pads waiting to fasten themselves to our lungs? Who can think of kissing a stranger, jumping on a bus or sending their child to school without feeling real fear? Who can think of ordinary pleasure and not assess its risk?”

Roy then goes on to describe the effects of a nation-wide lockdown, put in place in India with all of four hours’ notice. “The lockdown worked like a chemical experiment that suddenly illuminated hidden things. As shops, restaurants, factories and the construction industry shut down, as the wealthy and the middle classes enclosed themselves in gated colonies, our towns and megacities began to extrude their working-class citizens—their migrant workers—like so much unwanted accrual. Many driven out by their employers and landlords, millions of impoverished, hungry, thirsty people, young and old, men, women, children, sick people, blind people, disabled people, with nowhere to go, with no public transport in sight, began a long march to their villages….They knew they were going home potentially to slow starvation. Perhaps they even knew they could be carrying the virus with them, and would infect their families, their parents and grandparents back home, but they desperately needed a shred of familiarity, shelter and dignity, as well as food, if not love.”

Roy reports that a few days later the scene was changed. The authorities, afraid of the spread of the virus, locked down state borders. The people were then forced to return to refugee camps in the cities they had so recently left! “The scene was biblical. Or perhaps not. The Bible could not have known numbers such as these. The lockdown to enforce physical distancing had resulted in the opposite—physical compression on an unthinkable scale. This is true even within India’s towns and cities. The main roads may be empty, but the poor are sealed into cramped quarters in slums and shanties.”

I’m sure that many of us are feeling that it would be wonderful to return to “normal”. But in light of what is happening in India and in many other parts of the world, Roy concludes that “nothing could be worse than a return to normality. Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through it lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

As “the way, the truth and the light”, Jesus offers a vision of what the world could be like if we learn from the pandemic of an upended world. Let us take all of this to prayer, beginning with clearing the mind of distractions, using a method I shared with you last week…

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To begin our prayer, we need to “show up” totally —give our entire attention, mind, heart and soul to this time with God. Here’s a simple way to start. Sit comfortably with your back straight, feet on the floor and hands in your lap. Close your eyes. Take some slow, deep breaths. This should begin to calm your body down. Begin to be totally present to this special time with God. When thoughts, concerns and distractions arise, simply name them (“car passing by” or “tonight’s dinner” or “tomorrow’s meeting” or “my friend’s problem”) and then set them aside. You can imagine putting them on a shelf or into a paper bag at your side. That doesn’t mean you will ignore them or forget them; you are simply setting them aside for another time. This time is to be spent with God in prayer. Hopefully, you will find that, with time, the distracting thoughts and concerns will stop, and you can be totally present to God. Some people find it helpful to use a word or phrase to help them focus, to gently call them back if they begin to wander (“Jesus” or “Jesus, I love you” or “Abba, Father”—whatever helps). Be very still, as you are in the presence of God.

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Let us now meditate on the way and the truth and the life that Jesus taught, looking at the Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the Beatitudes. Scripture scholars believe that this is the most unique part of Jesus’ teaching.

“When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:1-12).

As we prayerfully read these words, slowly and reverently, perhaps two or three times, what strikes us? In the world as it “used to be” before the pandemic we may have felt that we had control. We could answer our own questions. We made plans, set goals and pursued them, settling into a rhythm and a routine. But now, our life as we knew it has been upended. We feel smaller, poorer, more humble… A lot of people are mourning, having to deal with the death of a loved one, and the fact that they couldn’t even be there in the final moments. Many people are hungering and thirsting—for scarce food items, for jobs, for a steady income, for schools and universities, for normal physical, social and emotional contact, for going out to eat and to shop, for church services, for friends, for adequate health care…How will their mourning be comforted? Some people are demonstrating, demanding their freedoms and their rights—sometimes with anger, with a desire to provoke change. How will they be satisfied? Many of the poor, the homeless, those at the margins feel left out, abandoned by others dealing with their own problems. Some believe they need to take care of themselves, sometimes at others’ expense—hoarding rather than sharing. Where is the gentleness? The justice? The peace? The comfort?

Jesus, while we may stumble and fall short, we believe that you are the way and the truth and the life. As we were “on the road” of our life, we were suddenly required to take a detour. Our world has, indeed, been upended. What do you want us to learn in this strange and frightening time? What new perspective do we need? Which values are we to live by? What should our goals be? Toward which finish line should we race? How should we, in light of what we are learning from this world-wide pandemic, define “normal”?

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.