THANKSGIVING IN AMERICA AFTER CORONA
“Weren’t there nine others who were healed?”
- Jesus in Luke 17:11-18
Bob Marcaurelle
Leprosy was a horrible disease. People looked like the “walking dead”; they had to cover their mouths and cry out “unclean” when they saw people coming, or be hit by rocks. They huddled in their little groups because they were not welcomed anywhere, even at home. Their mask was their hand and they practiced “social distancing”.
Jesus’ question reveals His true humanity. Ten lepers shouted for mercy, from a distance. He told them to go to a priest so he could pronounce them clean. (This way their friends and family would know they were clean.) On the way they were healed. Nine of them headed home but one came back and thanked Jesus. He seems surprised and shocked that only one did this.
Prayers have been going up in America during this pandemic, as much as they went up in the days of World War II. Right now, we are on the verge of having, not one, but three vaccines. And they have been found quicker than any vaccine in the past.
There will be thanksgiving to God all over America – but what kind? I believe (I hope I am wrong) nine out of ten people will say something like “the man upstairs” really took care of us this time. Then they will put their spare tire (God) back in the trunk, hoping he is there when the next emergency arises. Like the nine they are grateful, but not in the right way. There is no commitment to obey and to make God and helping others more of a priority in their lives.
The reason for this is our POSSESSIONS. Moses told Israel in Deuteronomy 8:6-12, as they prepared to enter the land “flowing with milk and honey” that God gave them:
“Obey the commands of the Lord by walking in His ways. / The Lord is bringing you to a good land. / Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord / when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in.”
They forgot God and disobeyed Him and so have we. Jesus made the Aramaic term for money, “Mammon”, the name of a god, and warned us not to serve him. (Matthew 6:24) The “god” we serve is not money, it is our selves. We lay our treasures at our own feet.
Jesus tells us HOW to truly thank him in Matthew 25. He said on the Day of Judgment he will say to those on the way to heaven, “When I was hungry you fed me; when I was in prison you visited me; etc. They asked Him when they did this, and He said when they did it for lonely, hurting people, they did it to Him. God told Israel in Deuteronomy,
“Do not oppress the poor and needy servant” (24:14). Do not deprive foreigners of their rights. (24:17). When you gather your crops, leave some behind for orphans, widows and foreigners, so the Lord will bless you (24:19). “Don’t be hard-hearted and tight-fisted toward your poor brother / Give generously not grudgingly.” (15:7,10)
God tells us, to show our gratitude to Him, the strong need to reach out to the weak; the educated need to reach out to the uneducated; the haves need to reach out to the have not’s; the popular need to reach out to the shunned; etc. In our land flowing with “milk and honey” from the Lord, we don’t do this. We use the term “needy” as an insult. People in need are a nuisance to us.
This is revealed in the way we responded to this pandemic and the need for police reform. We send police to move the homeless. We are building higher walls (financially, socially and racially) between our nice way of life and hurting people. We don’t listen to peaceful protestors and try to understand where they are coming from; we just want them to go away so we can play with our toys and buy some more.
This worship of toys was exposed in our attitude towards Covid 19. I lived in the last years of World War II listening to “propaganda” - “Hitler is not killing Jews” and Americans chose to believe it. If it was true, we didn’t want to pay the price to do something about it. Insanely, in these past months, we did this with a disease. We believed propaganda,
“It is not as bad as it is made out to be. The CDC does not know what it is talking about. All these doctors we see on TV telling us it is a real danger are only a tiny minority of what doctors are saying. It is no worse than the flu, which has always been here. Hospitals label all kinds of deaths, ‘Covid related’, to get more money from the Government.”
We believed this nonsense because we wanted to believe it. We didn’t want to give up playing with our toys – ball games, eating in restaurants, not having to wear masks, etc. Corona was a nuisance we didn’t want.
Even the churches got in on this. Church leaders called being told to shut down for our own safety and more important, for the safety of others – a violation of church and state. A large California church disobeyed the Governor and had church as usual. Praises for his stance came from all kinds of denominations. Inside and outside of our churches, we want “freedom” but not the responsibility that goes with it.
On TV, a man walking into a restaurant was told to put on a mask. He said, “I’m an American! Nobody tells me to wear a mask.” He was “American” in name only. A true American is like my aunt in World War II. She gave up a comfortable lifestyle and started making B-24 bombers, and that’s why you and I are not speaking German today.
Our churches are not going to reach out to hurting people in a meaningful way. I told a friend, a man who was elected over and over as a deacon, how we were helping a church give food boxes and a Gospel of John every month to hurting families. He said, “Yea, and when they get out of sight they throw that Gospel of John away.”
We helped a single, working mother, several times one year with a week’s groceries when she had to miss work (without pay) because of a sick child. One week I suggested she contact another church in our area and if they didn’t help, we would.
They gave her $100 and told her that they could not give anyone more than $100 and they could only help a person one time in a year. Their offerings were $48,000 a week. They threw her some scraps because she was a nuisance they wanted to go away. Our country is not going to do it and neither are the churches. But we, as a church and as individual Christians must do it.
In 1989 the Movie “Mississippi Burning”, about the violent Southern reaction to the Civil Rights Movement, was playing in Theatres. While it was playing, Southern Baptist pastor, William Penn Davis, died in Jackson, Mississippi at 89.
Twenty-five years earlier, in 1964, in an around Jackson there were 35 shootings; 30 bombings; 6 murders and 35 burned churches – all against black citizens. He and some fellow Pastors, and a few laymen, began a “Beauty from Ashes” ministry (Isaiah 61).
They helped their black friends and neighbors and began rebuilding their churches. One day, some men in hoods (cowards) pulled Pastor Davis from his car and beat him. He didn’t say a word. And he did not stop his work.
When someone asked him why he did something so unpopular and dangerous, he said, “My Bible tells me I AM my brother’s keeper. (Genesis 4)
