Sermon Central
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Covid-19 And The Discipleship
Contributed by Dr. John Singarayar Svd on Sep 24, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: How do we respond to COVID-19 as the disciples of Christ Jesus?
COVID-19 and the Discipleship
Reflection
Dear sisters and brothers,
We have experienced that COVID-19, the pandemic created havoc in the world.
Everyone from urban to rural, talked about it and discussed about the vaccine for COVID-19 in the future.
The newspapers, magazines and journals published special issues on COVID-19 and its impact on the world in various fields through online and offline publications.
The News channels came up with breaking news and kept broadcasting the growing numbers of COVID-19 in their channels.
The world leaders blamed each other for the tragedy instead of working together to find a solution.
The leaders, due to their pride, were careless towards their own citizens and were unable to handle the pandemic.
Meanwhile, everyone was worried by the economic problems, difficulties and disasters in individual lives, in families, in societies, in countries, and in the world at large.
The lockdown was quickly lifted up in some countries due to economic activities.
Along with it, there was a crisis of mismanagement of the pandemic in certain countries.
Soon, schools and universities switched over to online classes for their students.
The webinar became a new normal and an academic practice for many.
People lost their jobs.
People struggled for their survival with the limited savings they had.
People got depressed by being and staying inside their small houses.
The migrants moved from their work place to their native places without any employment guarantee in future.
The first wave swept the entire world.
And we have not fully come out of it till today.
The scientists started to warn us about the second wave that is in store in the future as we opened up most of the activities in the world.
At this juncture, we have many questions in our minds.
The first question may be about what is happening in the present.
What are they?
They are:
Who made this deadly virus?
Did it come from animals?
Did it come from birds?
Did it come from the bio-lab?
Was it man made?
We do not know what exactly the right answer for these questions is.
But, then we have this deadly virus in our surroundings, and we are sure about it.
We understand that we could not stop it with our well-developed scientific knowledge and technology that we have today.
Then, we move to the future.
With anxiety in our hearts and minds, we ask the futuristic questions after we went through tragic inconveniences instantly in our lives for the past few months.
What are they?
They are:
Is there a future for everyone in the Post-COVID-19 world?
There is no clear cut answer for this question.
What about the future of children, who attend the online classes?
Will they have a relationship with the society the way we had in our lives?
Will they know the value of society and relationship as they live in the virtual world?
Will they be good citizens?
Or will they be closed door citizens, who will be selfish and individualistic?
Will the social distance be a new normal?
What will the family be in future?
Will the mask be the new face of the individual?
There are no sharp or short answers for all these questions.
We have to just wait and watch to know the future, hoping that good things will happen, as it was always in the world and in our lives.
Nevertheless, it brings back the old memories to each one of us to think what the Pre-COVID-19 world was.
The book of prophet Isaiah draws our attention at this moment (Isaiah 5:1-2) to give us what the pre-covid-19 world was.
It says,
“Let me now sing of my friend,
my friend's song concerning his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside;
he spaded it, cleared it of stones,
and planted the choicest vines;
within it he built a watchtower,
and hewed out a wine press.”
God created a beautiful world with the earth and the heaven. When He saw it, it was good.
“Then he looked for the crop of grapes,
but what it yielded was wild grapes” (Isaiah 5:2).
Yes,
Dear sisters and brothers,
The book of Genesis (Genesis 1:27-31) accounts that:
God created the perfect world with its own beauty, and with its fruit.
God arranged times and seasons.
God beautified the earth and the heaven with millions of creatures from the beginning.
He created human kind as tenants to take care of His beloved world.
The world is God’s expression of love.
Did we fulfill our responsibilities as tenants?
We have failed in our responsibilities.
We have misused the freedom that God has given to each one of us.
To live our lives in the world, is our privilege.
We have messed up our privilege.
