We are used to saying that in the midst of this panic and threat, God is in the carers, the doctors and nurses; all the people who through their skill and dedication hold everything together even in these times. This is completely true and all necessary to say but for a moment I want to come at things from a slightly different angle.
The bizarre character of the Christian Faith is no better demonstrated than in the places that it looks to locate its God. Where the present popular understanding may be that you seek for the divine or some support from supernatural powers in the elevated states of meditative consciousness, perhaps transcendental meditation, or in esoteric knowledge, strange incantations and otherworldly, shamanic trances – Christianity points to an criminal execution in first century Palestine. The implication is that God is found with those in the most wretched poverty and distress and even suffering the penal wrath of society; imprisoned or especially in line for execution.
Let us be clear, there is a sense, a further implication of all this is that God is with those who live in the shadows, in the places most of us would dare not go, whether they are guilty or not; whether they are particularly pleasant or not. The ease with which we manifest sympathy for those who are wrongly arrested, or hard working yet poor, or dignified, pious and yet poor and so on, often cannot extend to the definitely miscreant amongst us. But there is an important sense in which God is, in an especial way, in those places and people as well, in the places of hateful criminality and perverse sociopathology. This is one of the things that make Christianity not just difficult but something placing a monstrously counter-intuitive and profoundly difficult weight of responsibility on the shoulders of the Christian.
Where a society has those who are poor and marginalised, because they have been unambitious, lazy and stupid; where there are anti social characters imprisoned and deserving of their punishment, this is not to be accepted as though there are some people who are simply bad, with the implication that we are good. The people involved are not to be forgotten or disregarded especially when they are in trouble. And God, let me stress, God and salvation, is mostly there, in those places that the ‘good’ rarely venture to go.
In the time before the reformation this was much clearer and whilst we should never romanticise the Middle Ages it was true to say that it was often considered a boon to the rich man to encounter a poor and wretched individual, in that it was an opportunity to move closer to salvation by showing kindness to such a one. A man or women moved over closer to reconciliation with God in this way. It was an opportunity for the wealthy man or women to demonstrate Christlike grace and mercy, perhaps largess, and thereby be prepared when Christ says:
35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
Matthew 24Matthew 26
Matthew 25:35-40 New King James Version (NKJV)
But clearly there is a wider issue pointed at in the torture and thoughtless and easy disposal of a man in first century Palestine; reduction of a human being to refuse. There is a wider point to make about the place in which God dwells in the world. He is with the rubbish filth children playing in the muddy puddles of a shanty town. He is with the easily missed and overlooked people in the dark and fearful places; the frightening and dangerous places; the lonely and tearful places; the places containing souls that cry out day and night from the heart for someone to comfort them and save them. God also is crushed and weeping, is broken, unremembered, ignored and dismissed as a social irritant. And so for the people in those situations it is right to say that though God be omnipresent, yet: ‘God in Christ is especially with you, is you there’.
Where are you that read this? Are you one of the troubled and lonely? Do you live with the cold fingers of constant worry for yourself and others closing around your heart?
There have been few circumstances as disturbing as those in which we find ourselves in today. This virus has turned the life of our society inside out and only the oldest can remember a situation like it, ie, during the last war. It seems grim for all of us but much more so for some than others. Are you already ill, in mind or body? God in Jesus is in solidarity with you. Are you alone and frightened? God is with you. Are you weak and terrified and wondering if this thing might take you? God is certainly with you. God’s love is for all humanity but if it is possible to say that God comes into time and space and is locatable, he will be found most particularly with you; not with the wealthy and powerful for they can look after themselves, but with you who are poor, you who weep, you who are cut off from loved ones and perhaps even don’t have anyone.
God is with you now, he will be with you tomorrow and for ever, you are not alone. And of course it must always be remembered that God is there in the extraordinary effort of generosity, kindness and thoughtfulness of ordinary people who organise to help those who are vulnerable. He is with those who are caring for the sick and going above and beyond in order to support the unwell. He is with and in our hope; our love; our prayers.
Pray if you can, but remember that you can pray in any way that suits you: Just say ‘God help me!’, even simply ‘God’, ‘God’. As former archbishop, Rowan Williams, once said, the most authentic prayer is the fearful crying of the child at night.
Try not to be afraid, though I understand, and I know God understands, if you are. Whatever will come of this try to remember one basic truth that belongs to us as believers in the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told us and showed us that God so loved the world that he went into the darkest and most fearful corners of the created order to rescue the ones who live in darkness and under the shadow of death. He went into death itself and more, he went to the furthest distance and alienation, that a man or woman can go to, from God. He has been there in the most terrifying gloom and hopeless aloneness that a soul can know: and he overcame it.
Believe it it not we are in Lent. I imagine that many have forgotten this in the chaos. We are moving toward the time when we remember the cross: the cruel and heinous persecution, torture and execution of God. And thus this is the time when Christians locate their God, first of all, not in Church windows, ritual music and prayer, but in the filth of a Roman prison cell, an excoriation and torture and execution. And as this virus roles on, and eventually goes away – because it will, it will go away – let us remember that God is with us in our darkness and especially with the most fearful, isolated, ignored and smallest people in our society.