The words “Are we being punished?” appeared in someone’s FB posting this morning. Always on the lookout for stuff to plagiarize things to write about, I made a mental note to come back to the posting and read what it had to say. Now, of course, I can’t find the posting or the article it referenced anywhere. Sigh.
It’s tempting to think we are being punished. You can even trace the logic: Something bad is happening; I don’t know why; I do know that I am, we are, they are, everybody is, sinful; As a child, I was punished when I did something wrong; the Bible shows us that sin brings divine wrath and punishment. So we’re being punished.
Not so fast, pilgrim. The ancient Israelites believed – at least some of the time, and how’s that for a broad assertion? – that God punished misbehavior with calamity. Scripture reflects that belief, in places. So why isn’t that what God is like? After all, the Bible says. Yes, but what precisely does the Bible say? While it’s true that we can learn about God from Scripture, that same Bible is at least in part the story of a Israel’s growing understanding of God. It’s our job to distinguish one from the other, which is why we need scholarly and ecclesial help. Scripture must be interpreted to be understood. Those miniscule footnotes in your Bible? They’re there for a reason.
Let’s say you put your child in time-out without telling her what she’d done. Bad parenting, and possibly abusive. OK. So if we’re being punished, does anyone know what we’re being punished for? Excellent question. And on that note, it’s noteworthy that the various groups of people who claim that this or that calamity is the result of human sin rarely agree as to the nature of the sin. Instead, each group links the sin to its (It’s = it is. Thank you, S’ter.) own agenda. So one group might say that the current pandemic is punishment for sexual sin – a favorite – as, of course, that group would define sexual sin. Another group might say that COVID-19 is punishment for turning away from God in the way that the … Catholics, Protestants, Presbyterians, Christian Scientists, Latter-Day Saints, Methodists, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, you fill in the blank … have turned away from God. As the Church Lady would say, “How convenient.”
Here’s the thing. To be sure, the world is a fallen, sinful place. But a virus isn’t punishment. It’s a virus. A pandemic isn’t punishment. It’s a pandemic. It proceeds according to the laws of biology and epidemiology. That’s why STAYING HOME is so IMPORTANT. Yes, pray. Pray like you’ve never prayed before. Pray for everything and everyone. And maybe see this – as Pope Francis suggested in his recent and unprecedented Urbi et Orbi address (https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-03/urbi-et-orbi-pope-coronavirus-prayer-blessing.html) – not as punishment, which it most assuredly is not, but rather as an invitation to minister to one another through our common humanity: “It means finding the courage to create spaces where everyone can recognize that they are called, and to allow new forms of hospitality, fraternity and solidarity.” Trust in God. Trust in the Spirit. Hold fast to what is good. Keep your eyes on Christ, and know that you are loved.
