A Carona Easter

Today is Easter Sunday.

This year, we celebrate it individually in our own homes, as churches the world over deliver their programs and sermons online.

It's not your typical Easter.

We face fear this year. Fear of an unseen enemy that can steal our lives. Fear of unemployment. Fear of not being able to pay the rent or the mortgage and will face the possibility of homelessness. Fear of not having enough food. Fear that life will never be the same and will be much worse.

Fear of being alone.

For many church goers, they also have the fear that the temporary shutdown on churches is a sign of things to come. That this is how the governments of the world will take away their religious freedoms and temporary will become permanent.

It's not an unreasonable fear. It's happened before in different countries and at different times.

So they defy their governments. They defy the admonition of their health authorities. They defy the scientists. And they gather in large groups to celebrate Easter, believing that Jesus will protect them.

And yet, if Jesus would protect them from the Carona Virus, then why doesn't Jesus protect them from cancer, or diabetes, or strokes, or any other kind of disease?

Their fear of their loss of church which is something they are actually experiencing, is greater than their fear of an unseen virus that they are not experiencing. Jesus spoke of fear. When he was on the ship with his apostles the storms rose up and hurled the ship around. He looked at his apostles and said. "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

(Matthew 8:26)

We are in the storm. Can we trust that Jesus will calm it? In Timothy 1:7 we read - For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. We are not to fear. Now that doesn't mean we should go about in reckless abandon. If you play in traffic, you're going to get hit. It means we should use our power and our love and our sound mind. We should listen to the experts advising us to stay home to protect our brothers and sisters. We should use the power we have to defeat this invisible enemy by not providing it with hosts. We should love our community enough that we take steps to stop the virus. We should take this opportunity to learn from our experience.

Those who have willingly given up their freedoms in order to save the lives of others have chosen the Christlike path. Those who have chosen to gather together claiming protection from Jesus and religious freedom, have lost the sight of what the church is. The church is not a building. The refuge is not a place. Jesus comes to all in their holy places, the places they call home. There is no cut off from Easter or the resurrection by staying home and loving your neighbor.

The resurrection of Christ is sometimes compared to the life of a butterfly. The butterfly begins as a caterpillar. It lives its life doing what it's supposed to do and then at one point it creates a cocoon where it shelters in, away from the world, only to emerge changed, more glorious, and free to fly. Christ lived his life, doing what He was supposed to do, and then He was put in the tomb, where He emerged, changed, more glorious, and free to fly.

We are cocooning right now. When we emerge, what will we be?