Good News in a Pandemic: 6. Ascension Day

Charles Haddon Spurgeon explains why, however sad we may feel, this day (perhaps more than any other) reminds us that we now have reason for great joy!!

Our Lord is risen from the dead; 

Our Jesus is gone up on high; 

The powers of hell are captive led— 

Dragged to the portals of the sky. 

I have known that one thought of our Lord’s exaltation lift me up from the borders of despair, in a dread hour, long since past, when reason almost reeled after great calamities had overtaken me. I recovered my balance and my peace of mind, in a single moment, by the recollection of that one text, “Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.”

So long as He lives and reigns, all is well. Men may rave at me as they will, but what does it matter so long as He is exalted?  I want you, dear friends, to feel like that concerning your ascended Lord. Go home [During the pandemic we would amend to Stay Home!], and worship Him, and be filled with great joy.  

Good News in a Pandemic: 5. NHS (etc.)

Someone writing about the National Health Service was wistfully observing that it seems to have become a national religion.

There is no doubt that the NHS is held in high regard by most Britons - even ones who might tolerate the opposite extreme in the USA were they living there.  The pandemic centres everyone on doctors, nurses and paramedics and in the UK they are synonymous with the NHS.

Thus every Thursday we clap our praise to our religion in the form of community thanks for NHS staff (more recently widened to care workers in general). 

Normally applause is reserved for sportspeople, for actors or for speeches.  But when we are sick, or when we fear we might be sick, we suddenly see the value of the doctors and nurses.

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick", said Jesus (Luke 5:31).  "I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

It is the person who needs a Saviour - who knows they need a Saviour - who praises Jesus the Saviour.

Good News in a Pandemic 4. Creation

There is no doubt that Genesis reveals human beings as the crown of creation. 'So God created man in his own image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.' [Genesis 1:27]

Time and again, though, the Bible demonstrates that they are not the totality of creation.  Take, for example, these verses from Psalm 104:

8 

The mountains rose, the valleys sank down

    to the place that you appointed for them.

9 

You set a boundary that they may not pass,

    so that they might not again cover the earth.

10 

You make springs gush forth in the valleys;

    they flow between the hills;

11 

they give drink to every beast of the field;

    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

12 

Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;

    they sing among the branches.

13 

From your lofty abode you water the mountains;

    the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

14 

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock

    and plants for man to cultivate,

that he may bring forth food from the earth 

and wine to gladden the heart of man,

15 

    

oil to make his face shine

    and bread to strengthen man's heart.

16 

The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,

    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

17 

In them the birds build their nests;

    the stork has her home in the fir trees.

18 

The high mountains are for the wild goats;

    the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

The Lord Jesus references creation many times; most starkly on Palm Sunday when he tells the critics of praising children in Jerusalem that if they silence the children the very stones on the hillsides will begin praising instead.

So, a pandemic certainly appears to mute human praise on earth.  Literally, because we cannot meet to sing and speak our praise - but perhaps also psychologically because we are emotionally and mentally reduced by the whole experience of lockdown and its attendant life inputs.

Yet we are but a part of creation.  

And the rest of it seems to be having a much better time!

The Lord may weep with us but He has plenty of reason to smile with many of the creatures and plants he has also made as the streets clear, the air clears and nature finds her voice.

Good News in a Pandemic: 3. Prophecy

Jesus said, "There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places and fearful events and great signs from heaven." (Luke 21:11).

While each of the first three Gospels devotes a chapter's length to Jesus' prophecies of things to come, in the good times that are now past there has been a strong preference to avoid them.  Better by far (it has seemed) to speak and think about the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the healing of the lepers or the welcoming of little children.  The good news is not in those scary prophecies.

However, now we see why Jesus told us about such things.  If our faith is in Jesus we are glad to find that the pestilence which has knocked the 21st century world sideways is perfectly in keeping with our Saviour and our Heavenly Father's plans.

Had Jesus only predicted the good times, then we should lose our faith in Him.  Instead we can learn the lesson of the fig tree.  In his words, "When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves you know that the summer is near.  In the same way, when you see these things, know that [the Master] is near, at the gates." (Matthew 24:33)

Good News in a Pandemic: 2. Science

Science (from the Latin word for. knowledge) has been good news in the pandemic.  Indeed it offers the only plausible way out for the full resumption of life as we knew it.  Or if the coronavirus miraculously disappeared we would rely on science to find the explanation to reassure us.

I have chosen science as my second area of good news because it is usually placed in opposition to, or more likely in superiority to, God.  It is, more truthfully, a gift from God.

Science is good news when we understand its boundaries.

1. The Information Boundary: It informs but does not decide

As the UK tries to leave national lockdown it is always, we are told, led by the science.  But at the daily news conferences it becomes clear that the scientists in the room (two usually), are quick to point out that there are decisions that will have to be made and that these decisions will be political.  

Or to put it another way - they can see the numbers but do not wish to make decisions about the choices on offer.  Indeed, scientists actively disagree with the ones that appear in Downing Street - creating decisions that need to be made between scientists.  

We misuse science when we imply that it has the answers.  It has the information (in varying degrees of certainty).  Could an all-powerful deity have created the first two human beings?  Scientifically he could have and there are other theories too.  What I believe about that is a decision, not a piece of scientific data. Informed, not led, by the science.

2.  The Finite Knowledge Boundary: It is the best we know but not enough

The advances in knowledge have been phenomenal in recent centuries.  Just take the fact you are reading this via the internet, possibly on a phone.

There is a widespread undercurrent of fake news that assumes science explains everything in the world around us.  Only the most arrogant celebrity scientists allow that view because good scientists know that there is much they do not know.

An important piece of good news in this pandemic has been seeing scientists addressing the public honestly, explaining they do not have an answer when the public are desperate for one.  To treat our knowledge as finite is an important humility for humans.  When we sigh a relief after science has helped us through this virus, we will remember for a generation that science does not yet know the next virus, and so on.

3.  The Earthly Boundary:  It is earthly not heavenly

If the plague angel in Revelation 21:9 (remember that angel?) gives a whole new perspective on plagues it is worth reflecting that no science can ever investigate Heaven's perspective.  Science (even cosmology) looks at things from earth and from humans.  Revelation (both the book and the principle) shows us the other side of  things.

Arguably, the other side - the heavenly side - is the only one that ultimately matters, and it is certainly the one that matters most.