How Christians can respond to COVID-19
What guidance does the Bible have to offer us in the midst of a pandemic?
How should Christians respond to the challenges presented by COVID-19? When (and how) will this resolve? We’ve all got far more questions than answers. The novel coronavirus isn’t specifically addressed in Scripture. But the Bible does offer the timeless, applicable wisdom we need–even for the situation we face.
I’ve been reading (and writing!) my way through the book of Genesis this summer. Noah’s “quarantine” in the ark in chapter eight felt oddly relatable (though I am not drawing a comparison between the flood and the coronavirus). So, I determined to follow his lead and discovered some practical nuggets that will help us continue to weather our current circumstances.
How Christians can respond to seasons of uncertainty
Unlike us, Noah had some advance warning before the world’s first catastrophe. God instructed him to build a boat and retreat into it with his family and a menagerie of animals. Noah probably didn’t even know what “rain” was when God tapped him for this project. The coming flood would have been terrifying and unfamiliar. Even though He said the rain would come for 40 days and nights, God never told Noah how long they’d be in the boat. (It ended up being twelve and a half months; Genesis 8:13,14). Despite the many layers of incredible uncertainty, Noah built the ark and persevered through the months of quarantine.
We don’t know how long COVID-19 will affect our daily living. Scientists don’t fully understand the virus. We can’t yet appraise the toll it will take on our mental, social, economic, or spiritual health. To emulate Noah in the midst of so many questions, we simply do what God has already told us to do. Noah followed the “blueprints” God gave him and set to work. Absent any specific word God has spoken to our hearts in prayer, you and I must plumb the depths of Scripture and heed the instruction He offers us there. Keep doing what He’s told you to do until (if) He tells you to do something else. Trust that His Word is complete and alive, applicable even in these uncharted waters.
What Christians can count on when it’s “over”
When Noah and his family finally set foot on solid ground again after more than a year, things were markedly different. Some Bible scholars think the earth’s environment was very much altered from before the flood (when the globe may have been covered by clouds or mists and did not experience rain). Even if the climate was the same, do you think Noah and his family were the same after a year in the ark? Not a chance.
For us, even if life returns to something fairly similar to what it was before COVID-19, it will be different because we will be different emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and perhaps also physically. So, what can we count on? God’s presence. He was active in creation before the flood. He was present while Noah (and company) were in the ark. He remains present today. When we are able to resume whatever we’ve had to put on hold, it will be different than we anticipated, but we can hold fast to the truth that God is still present and active. That is a reason for comfort and confidence.
We persist in worship
The first thing the Bible says Noah did after leaving the boat was build an altar (Genesis 8:20). While he couldn’t have built an altar during the twelve+ months afloat, Noah evidences his desire to worship God in the way he used to as soon as it was possible. Whether your church is meeting online or in person (and no matter how you feel about that), we can celebrate the access we have to God through the indwelling of His Spirit—we don’t even need the internet.
The Barna Group did some research on church attendance during the recent months of COVID-19 and found that about a third of Christians have stopped participating in corporate worship (including virtual attendance). If you’re among those, I hope you’ve found ways to engage in your own worship experiences. We need each other, and God gave us the gift of corporate worship, but what matters most is that we respond to COVID-19 by persisting in some regular practice of honoring God. Noah didn’t have anyone other than his household to worship alongside; let’s try not to be concerned (or divided!) about when, where, and with whom we worship and focus instead on Who we worship.
We respond with sacrifice–even in scarcity
While I celebrated Noah’s desire to worship God immediately, I was a bit jarred to read about the sacrifices he made on the altar because of how few of those animals existed. The animals that were approved for sacrifice would have been no more than seven in number (Genesis 7:9,10). If Noah had looked at it (as I did at first reading) with merely human wisdom, to sacrifice any of just seven of a kind of animal would have seemed unthinkable. Yet God instructed him to bring more of the clean animals into the ark so that they could later be sacrificed.
Conventional, human wisdom would tell us to save our resources right now because of their (potential or actual) scarcity. Yet God has given us all we have and He still intends for us to give sacrificially and share with others. Let’s resist the temptation to hoard and instead be willing to part with our resources to honor God and love our neighbors. Let’s be willing to give of our time, talent, treasure, and—in this era of racial inequity—our power and position.
Because of who He is, Christians can respond to COVID-19 with faith and hope.
Despite the lack of certainty, and amidst a great deal of fear and loss, we can persevere because of our faith in Him. He will sustain us through change and grief. He is worthy of our worship and our sacrifices honor Him.
Press on, friends. Press on.