… the most compelling reason for being open is the same reason for being closed: the presence of death. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined”. These words from Isaiah have long been taken by Christians as an indication of what Christmas is all about. God does not exist in some pristine ethereal space, hovering high above human misery like some distant potentate safe in all that glorious omnipotence.
I prefer trusting in God to being governed by fear of death. Were I to contract Covid-19 I could well die of it, since I am in my 80th year. So I take common-sense precautions in the hope of avoiding it. But I am not inclined to spend my days cringing.
Hear hear – and happy Christmas, Frank.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nige. The same to you and your family.
ReplyDeleteGod would not want a house of worship turned into a house of death. Spreading the Word is one thing. Spreading death is another. Both can be done in a church. It doesn't take a prophet to know this.
ReplyDeleteKeep your distance. Wear a mask. And do not stay in the church for too long. The longer the deadlier. If you cannot keep your distance, then do not go into an overcrowded church. If someone close to you is not wearing a mask or wearing it under the nose, then ask him or her to wear one or move far away from the perpetrator of death. These precautions will lessen your chances of catching the virus.
Good to know you can speak for God. I can only speak for myself.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing Godly about using a church to spread a deadly pandemic. No one should use a church to test for superspreader events. We all know how to spread it by now. That would be the farthest from Godly love that one could get, right?
ReplyDeleteCan you think of anything more ungodly? A holocaust maybe, where instead of a mere few million people suffering and dying, over 10 million do? Were any killed in Christian churches, I wonder. We any brought to a church to be captured and killed?
Let's heal people, not kill them and make them sick. Let's really be Christians.
Also, challenge accepted, there's no denying. No lightning bolt will strike me down for passing this message along. I am a Christian mystic, born again, and in spiritual communion. But why should I have to be? How could I be challenged so? For stopping a virus from spreading, for stopping the use of a church from spreading it? What good is it? One cannot have more ill will than to cause another to suffer and die. We all know this.
I’m just a common sinner, as should be evident.
ReplyDeleteYou give pat responses that dare His forgiveness, when He would not lead you into such temptation.
ReplyDelete