Pandemic is “God’s Plan?”

Lately, I have been watching TV preachers like Kenneth Copeland and Pat Robertson. I am curious to find out what they are saying about Covid-19 and their advise for dealing with it. The underlying image they project is that they have a hot line to God. And the message they impart is that God is in control and the whole thing is part of God’s plan.

They’re able to say with great confidence what almighty god is doing at all times — god’s thinking, god’s motives, god’s action plan especially in times like these. Some of them are even able to protect you from being infected with this virus, provided that you send money to them.

When I was a very young priest, I used to think like those preachers. I had the corporate backing of the catholic church, and the personal power of the pope, to support me. And I had studied the bible more than the average person. Besides, as a priest, I was supposed to have a direct connection to God — at least, that is what I thought and what people believed. So during that time of my spiritually unconscious state and in my supposedly holy role as an agent of God, I used to repeat religious cliche’s like god is in control and god has a plan.

I still remember visiting a teenager in a hospital who was in a coma due to a serious case of meningitis. His dad was waiting outside the ICU, crying and, I placed my hand on his shoulders and said: “Don’t worry, it is all part of God’s plan…I will be praying for your son.”

And he said: “Father, if what you say is true, then he is a useless god with a lousy plan.”

That was the last time, I used the phrase it is god’s plan in my conversations with any body.

During a national disaster or a personal loss or a dire situation like the pandemic, when we say it is all part of god’s plan or god is in control, there is an implication that God is causing these traumas to begin with. The problem with that kind of thinking is that, we presume to know the mind of God. I don’t think any human can read the mind of God, not me, not the preachers on TV, not a rabbi, minister or an imam, not even the pope who is apparently infallible.

Unfortunately, during crisis times like these, you see God’s mind-readers every where. Last week I heard an Imam in California saying: Thank God for corona virus. What he meant was that God was giving us sinners, a chance to repent and turn back to god.

I may be an ignorant pastor, but I don’t think god works that way. I hope not. That kind of thinking would make god incredibly cruel, heartless and strangely perverse.

When we are engrossed in worry and anxiety, experiencing loneliness, and encountering grief, we look for answers and explanations. We look for some purpose to our pain. Religion usually wants that purpose to be “god’s plan.” It doesn’t offer any reasons, because you have to just believe it. That answer does not really calm my heart. But it makes me ask:

“Is this the best the almighty can do at this terrible time?”

I don’t have any inside scoop of the divine mind, and I have not received any breaking news from heaven. But my hunch is that an all-powerful, all-knowing, creator of the universe, who is apparently the source of unconditional love — is not orchestrating and overseeing this global pandemic to teach humanity a lesson or to make a point.

I don’t believe “god’s plan” is for 3,441,767 million people to be infected, 244,021 people dead — global numbers for this morning, May 3, 2020 — for millions of people to lose their jobs, and hundreds of millions to be at the brink of financial ruin and emotional collapse.

I don’t believe it is “god’s plan” that distraught humans have to say goodbye to their parents and spouses and best friends via Skype or Zoom.

I don’t think is “god’s plan” that people have to stand outside ICU rooms, pressing their teary face against foggy glass windows, and watch their loved ones dying alone.

I don’t believe it is “god’s plan” that humans should be be prevented from giving a proper burial to their loved ones or to grieve their loss in painful solitude.

I don’t believe it is “god’s plan” to cause massive isolation and to drive whole populations into depression, desolation and even to the brink of suicide.

I don’t believe it is “god’s plan” to cause national confusion and division over whether to go to work and get sick or stay home and go broke.

I don’t believe it is god’s plan to cause mental breakdowns for millions of his children, caused by the weight of so much stress, tension and unanswered questions.

At this point, you might ask what about the Bible stories about floods, famines and plagues?

What about God causing the death of so many people to save only Noah and his family during the flood?

What about the ten plagues that God unleashed on Egypt to change Pharaoh’s heart and save the Israelites from slavery?

In this context you have to ask two questions:

1. Did God actually do those cruel things, or did people interpret them as god’s doing? I think the latter, because, as I said before, who can know the mind of God?
2. If we believe in the God-revealed-in-Jesus, the Jesus who told us the story of the prodigal son, the story of a God who never punishes but always forgives, you cannot believe that tragedies are part of God’s plan.

And so, I don’t believe that any god who is worthy of being god would need to unleash a pandemic in order to teach us a lesson. That feels purely punitive, bordering on evil, and excessively unloving.

I believe in a suffering God rather than a punishing God, a god who suffers with us rather than unleash punishment upon us.

That is the message of the crucified Christ. So we can see our suffering in the light of the suffering of Jesus and turn it into a redemptive force rather than react with bitterness and sadness. We can see it as an opportunity to transform our lives, to be grateful for what we have, and to join the millions of people around the world who endure more suffering than us.

I am inspired by how Martin Luther King Jr. turned his suffering into a redemptive force in his life. He was not dealing with a pandemic, but the suffering he went through as a civil rights leader was intense. He wrote:

There are some who still find the cross a stumbling block, and others consider it foolishness, but I am more convinced than ever before that it is the power of God unto social and individual salvation. So like the Apostle Paul I can now humbly yet proudly say, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” The suffering and agonizing moments through which I have passed over the last few years have also drawn me closer to God. More than ever before I am convinced of the reality of a personal God.

Pay attention to the phrase:

I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Bleeding wounds, yes, but also healing wounds.

He is talking about a god who stayed with him, suffered with him and strengthened him from within to cope with the pain that he felt on a daily basis.

So I hope that you experience a personal God, who suffers with you and bring meaning to your suffering as you go through this time of testing and pain.

I suggest that instead of looking for a PLAN of god, look for the PRESENCE of god.

Open your eyes to recognize the presence of God all around you being manifested as mercy, compassion, love, goodness and sacrificial service.

Today’s reading is about recognizing that presence of God in our daily lives. Luke 24: 13–35

Like the disciples in today’s story, many people do not feel the presence of the risen Jesus walking beside them. There were two reasons why Cleophas and his friend, did not recognize Jesus because they were too focused on themselves — their pain, their loss, their lost dreams. When people are sad and depressed and going through rough times, they don’t feel the presence of God.

Remember that your pain is heal-able, and your suffering redemptive, because the risen Jesus is walking beside you.

These days, when the tendency is to focus on our sufferings and sorrow, look for the better angels around you: the doctors, the nurses and the first res-ponders, and recognize the presence of god in them.

Recognize the crucified and risen Jesus on the bruised faces of front-line workers who are literally putting their lives on the line so that others can be served and saved.

Recognize the risen Jesus in grocery store clerks and truck drivers who make sure that you will have food to eat in your confinement.

Recognize that presence of god in a phone call you receive, checking on to see how you are dealing with the locked-down experience

Recognize the presence of god when you pick up that pizza on your porch delivered to you by an unknown pizza delivery man.

Recognize the presence of god in the mail man, the garbage collector and the water meter reader who faithfully continue to do their job so that you can have some level of normalcy in your life.

Yes we are currently living on a suffering planet, but nonetheless that very same planet is also being held tenderly in the embracing arms of an ever loving god.

Believe that, see that, feel that and then the peace that passeth all understanding will come over you and remain with you!