A Few Words About God and the Coronavirus

When the entire planet is wrestling with the Coronavirus, what, pray tell, is God doing?


We are all in the middle of trying to avoid getting the Coronavirus.  We know such occasional viruses and pandemics are part of being human.  We humans are amazingly agile and fragile.  As to God’s part in all this, I am convinced that such a virus is not the will of God.  God does not send a virus to kill people as part of God’s mysterious plan.  So, no need to blame God for this outbreak.


But, let’s not be too easy on God.  Assuming there is a God, this God created a world where viruses are part of life.  They come and they go hurting and sometimes killing hundreds and thousands of people.  But they too are part of God’s “good” world.  And I say again, we ought not absolve God too easily of some responsibility for their existence.  From earthquakes to tornadoes to hurricanes, to monsoons, to Tsunamis, to volcanos, to cancers of all sorts, to diseases upon diseases, to viruses upon viruses.  So rumbles nature from day to day without a conscience, going on and on and on churning away in its wild unruly manner.


Perhaps as has been suggested, we need to forgive God for creating such a dangerous chaotic world.  That sounds right to me.  Much better than assuming everything that happens is the will of God.  How absurd!


What do I think God is doing in our present virus?  I certainly do not know.  But I presume, if our religious traditions are right, God is at work with us as a partner in the universe doing what can be done to minimize the effects of nature.  As in the Biblical texts God is wrestling with nature to create order.  Is it enough?  No.  It is insufficient.  God is not in control of nature.  And such is the precarious nature of life on our planet.


If we are going to trust in a benevolent deity, that’s fine but let’s be honest about our dilemma.  When the chaos of nature rears its head as it too often does, we are and will be forced time and again, to trust without knowing for sure.


Are any of these words helpful?  Probably not but we say what we can say and do what we can do.  Such is the nature of intelligent religious faith.  And the fact is nature can be startingly creative and monstrously destructive.


I wish us all well as we walk through this present calamity and trust against trust, we are not walking through it alone.

The Torah in Jewish Tradition

In the Book of Exodus, the ancient Israelites built an ark, and a tabernacle to carry the commandments wherever they went.  Having been rescued from slavery the Hebrews would wander in the wilderness for a long time.  The Rabbis tell us this was the beginning of the mobile Jewish tradition.  Despite the relatively short times when the Temple existed, for most of its history Jews have carried the Torah with them wherever they went.


The word Torah means teaching.  It is the teaching of God concerning how to live a life well lived.  The Torah can be understood narrowly as the ten commandments and more broadly as the entire Tanach (Hebrew Bible), and even more broadly as including the Talmud (a 72 book Rabbinic multi-generational commentary on the Tanach.)  Torah can also include the word midrash which refers to stories or commentaries which make explicit what is implicit in the Biblical text.
   

In Jewish tradition studying Torah is a holy activity.  As the old cliché declares, “When I pray, I talk to God.  When I study God talks to me.”


But the old Rabbis add another role for the purpose of the Torah.  They say, “when Jews went through the hardships and terrors of their history; when they felt alone and abandoned, when they were being murdered day in and day out, when they had no energy to carry the Torah, the Torah carried them.”


What does that mean?  Our religious traditions assure us that whatever we are going through, wherever we are, we are accompanied, carried and given strength to meet the day.  I am not sure this is true, but I like the notion that sometimes when we have our doubts and irreligiosity, reject our tradition, yet we are accompanied.  It is even said the letters of the Torah are watching over us day and night to keep us sane. 


So, as you go through what you are going through, think, it may be possible you are not alone.