Here is a Bible study you can do as a personal devotion or with your family/friends:

‘Being the Church’ During the Pandemic

From “The Wired Word” for the Week of March 22, 2020

Lest we increase fear, we should also report some “good news” about the disease itself. The first epidemiological studies are beginning to be published. One study preprint was of the cruise ship Diamond Princess, where over 3,700 passengers and crew were exposed to the coronavirus in Hong Kong prior to sailing to Yokohama. During most of the voyage, things proceeded with normal social interactions in a confined space. There was no isolation (confining a diseased person) or quarantine (restricting those known to be exposed).

Once in Japan, the ship was quarantined for 14 days and approximately 3,100 of those on board were tested for the virus. Although conditions were favorable for the spread of the disease prior to knowledge of it onboard, only 17 percent tested positive — and over half of those showed no symptoms. Seven people died, six of the 1,015 passengers aged 70-79 and one of the 216 aged 80-89. Although this is a small sample, this indicates that the quarantine and restrictions currently in effect are likely to greatly reduce the spread of the disease and, as long as the rates remain low and medical facilities are not overwhelmed, almost everyone who contracts the disease will survive. As some people have noted, we should be concerned and careful, but not fearful or hysterical.

The Bible and Christian theology provide a solid rock on which to stand during difficult times.

God is with us.

The Big Questions

1. What measures, if any, have you personally taken to protect yourself and your family during this pandemic? If there are recommended measures you’ve chosen not to take, why?
2. What are some possible good side effects that might come from temporary “social distancing”? How might temporary social distancing contribute to your spiritual life?
3. Does gathering actually matter to the church? What might enforced forgoing of gathering together teach the church?
4. In what ways, if at all, do scripture and Christian theology help you deal with uncertain times?
5. What is the opposite of “uncertain times”?

Confronting the News with Scripture and Hope

James 4:13-15

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.”

“Uncertain times.” We’re starting to hear that term a lot these days when no one can accurately predict how long our world will be dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. In a way, “uncertain times” is an odd term, since in reality all times are uncertain, as James reminds us in the verses above.

Questions: What role ought planning for the future have in a Christian’s approach to life? What or who might be overlooked because of future planning? What or who that might have been overlooked be included because of future planning? How do your appointment calendar and happenstance intersect? How do your appointment calendar and God’s will intersect?

Hebrews10:24-25
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (For context, read 10:23-25.)

Perhaps one of the reasons “social distancing” is a challenge for churches (and for many others) is that it makes the act of “encouraging one another” more difficult. Of course, even from a distance, we can send email and Facebook messages and texts, as well as make phone calls of encouragement (or of friendship or of support, etc.). But there is something that being physically present with others for whom faith in Christ is important is not so easily replaced from a distance.

What’s more, the Bible often represents people in forced social isolation as “cut off” from the temple or family or fellowship (see, for example, Leviticus 13:45-46; Psalm 38:11; Numbers 12:10-15; Luke 17:12). On the other hand, one way salvation is sometimes characterized is as God or Jesus bridging the distance to those in social isolation (see Jeremiah 23:23; Luke 15:20; 17:12-14; 18:13-14; Ephesians 2:13).

Questions: What do you feel you are missing by not gathering with your fellow Christians at church right now? How is God speaking to you right now, and what is he saying?

Psalm 91:4-6 (NIV)

[God] will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.   (For context, read 91:1-16.)

Psalm 91 is about trust and confidence in God. It speaks of unqualified protection for the righteous, which is probably why it is popular among those engaged in perilous undertakings, including those going onto battlefields.

Note here what the psalm says about “the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,” and “the plague that destroys at midday.”

Questions: It’s likely that with a disease this widespread, at least some of those who have died were followers of Jesus. In what ways should Christians hear these lines about pestilence and plague today?

Psalm46:1-2
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea … (For context, read 46:1-11.)

Hebrews12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe … (For context, read 12:25-29.)

A lot more than the metaphorical mountains of Psalm 46 has been shaken up by the global pandemic we are facing. We have experienced a shaking that is felt into our very roots. The assumption that plagues and the like only happen in countries lacking in up-to-date sanitary controls and the latest in medical services has been jolted out of us. Confidence in world, national and state health services has crumbled. Gone are the days when all we had to fear was fear itself. We are being shaken to the core.

We now know this: No human defense is certain, and no human life can be guaranteed by any agency of earth. Only God is unshakeable and the only unshakeable place is the kingdom of God itself. The writer of Hebrews says as much: “Therefore … we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.”

But the problem is, while we who are people of faith can assent to that on a “spiritual” level, in the nitty-gritty of our lives — that place where we reside most of the time — that affirmation doesn’t connect very well. Yes, we who follow Christ are citizens of both an eternal kingdom and an earthly nation, but what, in any terms that help us now, does that dual citizenship really mean?

The people of the Old Testament had to struggle to understand that as well, and one place we see it is in Psalm 46. The psalm sings about the city of God (Jerusalem) as though it were absolutely untouchable: “though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. … God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved” (vv 2-3, 5).

However, Jerusalem did eventually fall, specifically to the army of the Babylonians.

What the people of ancient Jerusalem missed is that while God was in the midst of the city, he called them to trust not a place but a Presence.

The true city of God is within us, and our ultimate confidence is in the holy Presence in that “place.”

Questions: What inside you feels “shaken” by the global pandemic? What inside you feels “solid” despite the global pandemic? In what ways for you is God “a very present help in trouble”? What, if anything, keeps you from affirming that?

Prayer

Strengthen, O Lord, all who are on the medical front lines against the coronavirus. Enable those in authority to make good and timely decisions about matters related to the virus. Help us all to do what we can to slow the spread of the disease. Empower the church to “be the church” in creative, calm, compassionate ways. And bring this pandemic to a swift end so that lives are spared. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.