I listened to a TED talk a few years ago that has been brought to mind because of these recent events. The TED talk is titled, “Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers” by Steven Pinker. People at the time were calling 2016 the “Worst. Year. Ever.” And then 2017 came along and said, “Challenge accepted!” It seems like each year has begun with “This will be a good year” and then everyone starts looking for the reset button.
I’ve seen a lot of panic posts on Facebook. People think the world is ending. This start of a new decade is just the start of bigger problems for our world. Reading all of this, I was reminded of this TED talk by Steven Pinker, a psychologist and Harvard professor. The basic premise of his talk was that the world has progressed over the last 30 years rather than declined. He gave data to back up his claim. Thirty years ago vs today:
America:
30 yrs ago – Homicides 8.5 per 100k and 12% poverty rate
2017 – Homicides 5.3 per 100k and 7% poverty rate
World:
30 yrs ago – 23 ongoing wars, 37% in extreme poverty, 60,000 nuclear weapons
2017 – 12 ongoing wars, 10% in extreme poverty, 10,000 nuclear weapons
(200 years ago 90% of the world’s population was in extreme poverty)
2016 was a bad year for terrorism in Western Europe with 238 deaths. 1988 was worse with 440 deaths.
And how has this fact been covered in the news? A tabulation of positive and negative emotion words in news stories has shown that during the decades in which humanity has gotten healthier, wealthier, wiser, safer and happier, the "New York Times" has become increasingly morose and the world's broadcasts too have gotten steadily glummier.
Journalists do not usually chase after stories of peace and prosperity. The papers could have run the headline, "137,000 people escaped from extreme poverty yesterday" every day for the last 25 years.But they don’t! They don’t stand in front of cities reporting “40 years of peace.”
The world is getting better but that doesn’t sell headlines.
“You can always fool yourself into seeing a decline if you compare bleeding headlines of the present with rose-tinted images of the past.”
Satirical headline from "The Onion," "CNN Holds Morning Meeting to Decide What Viewers Should Panic About For Rest of Day."
I don’t share any of this to now say, “The Covid-19 Coronavirus is fine, and we should go about life as normal.” What I want to communicate it that the media sells fear and panic. Fear is a virus that is extremely contagious. It is at times like these that we need to be reminded of who we are. We are Christians. Children of the Father who has not given up on redeeming his creation. We are people of hope and peace.
During this time of Lent, we are in a time of waiting and watching. We see the world around us is not as God intended for it to be. Christians around the world give up something for Lent to remind them that the world is lacking and in need of redemption. Lent is a time where we are reminded to keep looking forward to Easter, Christ’s Resurrection. Because of the Resurrection, we are not people who give in to fear. Death has been conquered. We live in light of the life that has been given to us through the Spirit. During this time of chaos and fear we need to be the people our neighbors can look to who are people of peace and joy.
Romans 8:18-27
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
Go read the rest of Romans 8. Read it every day with your family to be reminded of who we are in Christ. All of creation is groaning in anticipation for the Resurrection where all things will be made right. We have the firstfruits of the Resurrection within us through the Spirit. How does that change how you act in the world? How does that change how you address the chaos of the world?
John 14:15-21
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Jesus did not leave us alone. God is with us and in us. Wherever you go, God is with you. This should change your reality. God’s presence in you is also God’s presence through you for a world in desperate need of peace.
John 20:19-23
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Spend some time meditating on this passage in John 20. Jesus walks into the room where the disciples were hiding, and he breathes peace on them. He walks into the room and offers them peace. We are in a crazy time right now where people are literally staying behind closed doors to keep this virus from spreading. We do need to practice social distancing right now, but many people are hiding behind closed doors in fear and terror…and with loads of toilet paper.
Spend time meditating on John 20. Sit with the disciples in the room. Feel their fear after Jesus’ death. What does it feel like to receive peace from Christ during that time? Sit with that for a while. If you have kids, talk about the fear that the disciples would have had during that time and ask them to use their imaginations to have Jesus show up in the room and place peace on them. This is a beautiful exercise of interacting with the text. Not just for kids, you can do it too!
What would it look like for you to be Jesus today and offer peace to your neighbors? To offer peace to children without access to school lunches? Who can you be Christ to in the coming weeks?
Prayer
Lord, you breathed peace on your disciples who were behind closed doors in fear. You walked in peace amongst a people who were hurting and had no hope. You offered peace to those who thought they could provide peace for themselves. We are in a habit of rejecting your peace because we have it all figured out. During these times of chaos, remind us that we have the Spirit within us. This Spirit of peace moves through us and creates space for us to find rest. Help us to create spaces for peace for the world that is in chaos around us. Bring an end to this pandemic quickly and help our world to be reminded that we are better when we come together in unity. Lord, come quickly. Amen.
Henri Nouwen
Joyful persons do not necessarily make jokes, laugh, or even smile. They are not people with an optimistic outlook on life who always relativize the seriousness of a moment or an event. No, joyful persons see with open eyes the hard reality of human existence and at the same time are not imprisoned by it. They have no illusion about the evil powers that roam around, “looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), but they also know that death has no final power. They suffer with those who suffer, yet they do not hold on to suffering; they point beyond it to an everlasting peace.
C.S. Lewis – “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948)
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.