You know it's serious when they roll out the Archbishop, and today he was on Radio 4.
'Go on Welby ... we'll give you three minutes ... now make us all feel better about death and mayhem!'
Well, fair play to the man, he didn't make the terrible mess he seemed to've been set up for.
You see, today is National Pandemic Memorial Day.
But is memorial really the way to process a pandemic?
Well, it may feel like about all we've got left!
Today in the UK we recognise and remember 4.3 million cases detected of COVID and 126,000 registered deaths.
Hard to compute the sorrow
It was back on the 26th. January as the UK passed the 100,000 deaths milestone that Prime Minister Johnson told the Downing Street Press Conference " that it was "hard to compute the sorrow contained in this grim statistic".
Two months later we are 26,000 deaths on from there, and it's not computing but processing that is our issue ... and Archbishop Welby calls on us to lament.
I think we've been there already for a while, don't you?
Lamenting
Now in the Bible, lament is not lamentable ... it turns out to be quite positive.
Welby quoted Psalm 137:1 "By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion."Remembering is part of the process ... remembering what we've lost and not repressing the sorrow.
But notice what the Israelites are lamenting the loss of ... it's Zion ... the city of meeting with God:
"How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy."
Psalm 137:4-6
Remembering a reflecting is part of the process, but what they missed was the worship of God in the place He'd appointed to meet with His people.
And that was part of their understanding of the world ... when things turned bad they had for ages been taught to turn back in their affliction to God ...
Remembering and reflecting were precursors ... the necessary first steps ... which led to turning back to seeking their God.
Remembrance and reflection led to repentance, and in response to that LAST one God stepped into their situation and healed their land.
Remembrance and reflection come first, but ...
It's repentance that sorts out the grief
It's a lesson that the Israelites spent a long time in their history learning.
In another time of national calamity, King Jehoshaphat remembers and reflects on that history as he leads his people in repentance towards God:
"Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it for ever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?
They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying,
“If calamity comes upon us,
whether the sword of judgment,
or plague or famine,
we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name
and will cry out to you in our distress,
and you will hear us and save us.”
2 Chronicles 20:7-9
The Point
A day of Remembrance recalls from where we have fallen.
A Day of Reflection simply shines back at ourselves the image of what we look like now.
A Day of Repentance takes us on to sort out our situation and seek solutions from God, the One Who historically has redeemed and saved His people out of all of their trouble and they direct their steps back into His ways.
That last bit seems to be the bit we are missing.
The turning back to God, crying out to HIM in our distress, and seeing His salvation ... that bit.
Ah yes, many are saying: 'It's not that bad, don't be so miserable ... we've got a vaccine!'
Yes that's good! I've had my vaccine and I'm glad of it! But already vaccine-resistant variants are emerging, and that's not being negative, that's simply the scientific reality we've got to deal with.
Let's remember the point made in Revelation 9 where after terrible calamities had happened:
"The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands;
they did not stop worshipping
- demons, and
- idols of gold,
- silver,
- bronze,
- stone
- and wood
– idols that cannot see or hear or walk.
Nor did they repent of
- their murders,
- their magic arts,
- their sexual immorality or
- their thefts."
Revelation 9:20-21
Of course, nothing like that to repent of for us here today ... is there?
(Did you spot my tongue then as it slipped into my cheek?)
The Takeaway
It is GOOD to process the trauma of the last year by holding a day of reflection and remembrance.
It is painful but its' function must be to expose the scale of our problem.
To stop short after remembrance and reflection ... to stop short of the repentance that leads on to restoration ... would be to waste the opportunity that the situation affords us.
And that's why (and you may not have heard of this) a small group of people, unknown personally to me, have called today for a Day of Prayer and Fasting ... a tangible act of return and repentance towards God.
You'll find practical help with this in the BIBLE, and in books like THIS one and also this one from our friend Jeremy Marshall HERE.
And if we can be praying for or with you about anything raised here, please reach out to us on the contact form below.
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