BY: NORMAN WETTERAU, M.D. - FMHF PRESIDENT
Our churches could not meet in person. Our friends and relatives have been ill, and some have died. We have been isolated. For many American Christians, we have been in a state of sadness and lament over the coronavirus. Some have also been sad because of our political situation. Both sides are upset at our inability to agree on solutions to our national problems. Finally, our national life expectancy has decreased by two years even before coronavirus due to drug-related deaths and suicide. These are deaths of despair. Christians need to lament, turning the issues over to God and seeking his help and wisdom, and asking him to take away our anger and hopelessness.
Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash
This is not something we are good at. Soong-Chan Rah in his IV Press book on Lamentations, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times, points out that many evangelical churches focus on celebration and triumphalism. He is critical of this as expressed in some white suburban evangelical churches, especially large prosperous ones. He calls on us to look at the inner city, the poor rural areas, and our overseas church and lament, not just for them but for ourselves. Revival will come through lament and honest repentance, rather than through great programs, celebration, and triumphalism.
We will explore lament at our fall annual conference which will be virtual on Saturday, September 18. In making the decision to hold this virtual, rather than meeting in person, our board experienced sadness and lament. Let us come together on zoom and explore this together with our speaker, Chaplain Larry Lyons. His first session, starting at 9:30, will be a follow-up of his talk at our virtual retreat last year. This pandemic on other social issues has gone on and on. How are we to react, not just to the disease but to what our different opinions are doing to families and churches. Where is God in all of this?
His second session will be on emotional intelligence and creating the patient experience. How do we as healthcare professionals build empathic skills and create emotional support? We may be in lament but many of those who are hurting look to us for help, whether the problem is coronavirus itself, unemployment, or the death of a family member from alcohol or a drug overdose. We then have the opportunity to meet one another virtually in two one-hour chat sessions, giving an opportunity to reflect, listen and share. After these two sessions, Pastor Wayne McCown will lead a 30-minute devotional. The meeting will be kept open for all of us to socialize and share what has been happening in our lives.
But our problems at home are not the only problems. As I have been reading about what has been happening in Haiti, Ethiopia, and the Congo, I have been brought to tears. These human realities make our problems seem small. Are we aware? Do we and our churches pray for these countries? The problems are beyond human solution, but we have Free Methodists in all these countries. We cannot forget them. Mathew 25 calls on us to help those in need. I am afraid that some American Christians not only have no interest in helping but do not even want to know what is happening. Even if we cannot solve these problems, we need to call our friends and churches to pray.
At the last General Conference Bishop Lubunga from the Congo attended. He is Bishop of one of the largest Free Methodist Conferences, not one of the poorest but the very poorest country in the world and a country that is still in tribal conflict, a continuation of the civil war that took the lives of 5 million people 20 years ago. At general conference, the Bishop was introduced and there was a prayer for Congo. It was an important moment for our General Conference and for Congo. Let us speak out in our churches, conference, and even at a general conference if that is necessary. We must know what is happening, lament and pray. Nothing is too horrible to pray about.
Join us for our virtual conference but also join us for lament and prayer for what has been happening. We cannot change all of this but God can and maybe God will even use us to help.