I am starting to go crazy!!! I sent this in the morning – to myself!!!
Joke is on me.
Good morning church!
It is April Fool’s Day, and to tell you the truth, I am in no mood for jokes today. I know, I know, some comic relief has helped all of us in the last few weeks to ease the increasingly somber news we have been receiving. But underneath it all, it is concerning. More than concerning. I read somewhere that the “sunniest” projections of the death toll in the United States caused by the coronavirus will exceed the casualties from the Korean and Vietnam wars combined (not counting the wounded, disabled and traumatized from those wars of course). It is disturbing, to say the least. Somewhat guiltily, since I am cooped up at home, I follow the challenges that healthcare workers, doctors, and nurses are facing in the urban epicenters of the disease where social distancing is hard to practice and where supplies for protective equipment run low. As a society we have often used the word “hero” for soldiers and war veterans; I think these doctors, nurses, and aides are very much heroes and heroines. But as one nurse in an urban hospital in Berlin said, “I don’t care about your hero talk.” She was angry. The conditions were such that she felt extremely vulnerable, even in a country that hasn’t suffered as much as many others. From my conversations with Vietnam vets over the years, I know that they know the feeling. Many of them felt that they were not sufficiently protected, that they were not made aware of certain known dangers, that they took a hit for the decisions of higher-ups. This could easily lead to a bitter blame game, which I am not interested in. But, as I have said so many times: we have an opportunity to learn from this as a society and I hope by God we will.
In my thoughts and meditation this morning I was led back some 25 years ago when I interviewed for the pecking order of calls in my church in Germany. Funny, how your thoughts wander sometimes, isn’t it? The situation in 1996 was that we had more candidates than calls in my church. The interview would help establish who got a full call, a call with two years delay or a part-time call. Nervous times! We were interviewed by a small group of people consisting of church hierarchy and lay leaders. They looked at my answers and responses critically and gave me a not so great review, which dropped me down into the second group and eventually led me to this different land called USA where they needed pastors at the time. I wasn’t interested in a two-year delay. I wondered afterward about the reasons for the poor review and there were probably many. One of the things I thought was a factor was an innocent little question. (Hint: there are no innocent little questions in interviews!) “What book have you read recently?” The question, I believe, was intended to check whether the candidate also had a more leisurely side, would know how to relax, be human and not all serious. I promptly ran into the trap. I said, “I just read Neil Postman’s book, ‘Amusing ourselves to death.’” … “It’s a really good book, which puts up a mirror to our society.” The panel was not impressed. They probably would have preferred if I had told them about a Steven King novel or some nice gem from the latest literature. However, and this is why all of this came back into my memory lanes, that book by Neil Postman is still exceedingly relevant. If you are interested in lessons for our society to learn from this outbreak, Postman’s book and his 35-year-old appeal to society is not a bad place to start. In those days (I’m a child of the ’80s) many people were talking about George Orwell’s book 1984, which he had written in the 1930s (I believe) as a science-fiction vision of a totalitarian world. People were talking about it. School teachers were discussing it with their classes. It was in all the literature sections of the newspapers. So, Postman was referring to it. If you are not bored by now, please read this small excerpt from his foreword and think about its relevance for us. (If you ARE bored, you can skip…)
“We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.
But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another–slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance”.
I am truly, truly interested in what you think, but frankly, I think we as a society have too long drowned in a sea of irrelevance, focusing so much of our energies on distractions and not paying enough attention to what truly matters. Sorry, church panel from 25 years ago! (I had to get that out!)
What do you think?
Our church council will convene tonight via Zoom conference call and I will keep you abreast of any decisions that may be of relevance for all of us. We decided to meet more frequently via teleconference to keep up with all the latest developments and how it impacts the church.
For today I ask you to join me in prayer for the poorest of the world who will be affected like no other group. While it is true that this disease is the great equalizer, since it affects people across social strata, race, gender, and age, it is also not quite true. As always, people who can’t afford social distancing will suffer more. The poor in the world’s urban slums will suffer more. They barely have a wall between them. May God have mercy! And may we who have more in terms of knowledge and resources not cease to care for those who have so little. Maybe not the most popular thing to say right now when we are in the midst of a crisis ourselves, but I believe in the importance of global ministry in good times and in bad times.
Be blessed, be surrounded by God’s grace and strength, and follow the serenity prayer’s eternal wisdom:
Ask God to help you do what you CAN do,
Not worry so much about things you CAN’T control,
And give you the wisdom to know the difference.
Pastor Andreas Wagner