Where is God in this pandemic? (COVID-19) | Conversations With Shane Willard

[Music] welcome guys thanks for tuning in I'm here with Shane will out thanks for your time it's so good to be here it's really cool so we're just gonna have a conversation today and the first question I hope you pass the change just right off the bat straight into it where is God in this pandemic well why don't we start with easy questions then hey okay be good just go with it well I think that's a brilliant question and it's a question that this isn't the first time that's been asked and I think it's important for us to to learn the lessons from this um I I don't think in any way God wants the pandemic or anything like that but if nothing is wasted that I think one of the things that will come out of this that's positive once we're through it is a better definition of God I think and you see this in the 1300s with the bubonic plague the bubonic plague fundamentally shifted how the word God was used so the word g.od was used differently before the bubonic plague than after if you want a full discussion of that you could read the book heretics and heroes by Thomas chaos a history book about that time and so I think one of the things that that a pandemic will do in terms of how we define god is it will move us because one of the things that I think hurt us it's not definitely not been good for us is take the pandemic aside is the explanation of God as an existing object so this is why you can click on YouTube and find all a theist and a Christian debate the existence of God and we're like oh how boring is that but we don't know why that's boring and we do eat and we can't put our hand on it but we just know a board yeah and the reason is is because Christian theology from the beginning has been that God does not exist yeah for something to exist it has to be an object outside of you so right now this room is surrounded by cameras those cameras are objects that are outside of me I can describe them I can look straight into one of them I can describe what it looks like I could tell you there's a microphone there's a bearded man on the other side it's OB so these are objects outside of me that I can study I can work out I can I can try to own it I can try to make it do what I want it to do external objects exist that way they exactly do that they exist an object that is outside of me so when we talk about God as God exists I just want to scream and go no no no Christians in the first century died for the idea that God does not exist rather God insists which is a whole better way of talking about cuz in the first century every God existed there was a statue somewhere there was a temple somewhere there was a ritual you could do you could go study that God you could do rituals to manipulate that God to do what you want to do so so so that's an existing God when when Christianity was birthed the Roman Empire the Roman Emperor Trajan he killed Christians and the charge was this is true atheism the idea was was they said where does your God exist they say our God doesn't exist but that's atheism no no no art God insists oh well where's your temple you're looking at right so and to the Romans wait a minute if you remove the economic system and framework that the temples brought you could crash the government so they're like we're gonna kill you now and so so Christians were killed not for blasphemy but for atheism but it wasn't atheism in the sense that I want to be clear about this like if you beat the drum but God exists God exists I'm not mad at you and I want to be clear I know what you mean what you mean is God is real that's what that's what people mean that's what people are saying but the existent God doesn't help us because if God exists then what we have is is we have an Orthodox doctrine but a pagan imagination about how that doctor works so so we believe that God is a divine relationship between three that is winding himself through all of creation holding it all together that's Orthodox doctrine no matter what Christian denomination you know but then we picture a single white dude on a throne so if we picture an insistent God holding all the creation together but if we believe in that but then we picture a single white dude on a throne so we our belief is an insistent God but our imagination is an existent God then we have to ask questions like why aren't you doing something like in the snap of a finger you write those are questions for an all-powerful existent God and so an atheist say that God doesn't exist I go amen I don't believe in the all-powerful existent God I do honor and believe that God is an insistent spirit that is moving and holding me together and holding you together the the philosophical term for that would be ground of being but it but none of that matters if we don't apply it to how we live and so the reason that matters is is that if there's only one God and that God is holding us both together then I can't possibly harm you without knowing I'm harming myself if you're sick and my actions or inactions can make you better or sicker then I have to choose the actions that make you better because I'm now participating with the God that's holding us put together there'd be no racism like if you had black skin we're both basically white but if you had if you and I'm really white but if you your black skin I can't now treat you less than me because there's one God holding us all together but if God exists then in God's choosing one over the other now I can justify harming you so one of the things I think you see one of the places I think you see God in the pandemic is in the unrequited kindness of the healthcare workers putting their life on the line the police officers who are jumping into crowds to keep them separated you see the the 24 year old who has five senior citizen neighbors and she's making sure every day that she's doing the grocery store run for them I think you see it in in the selflessness of some people choosing to self isolate you also see the opposite of God and people who know they're sick and they choose to ignore that and then now they're participating in in the breakdown of health and wholeness so so I think once were through this and people start thinking through it what will come out is is that God was everywhere and if we just look what will see him but I it cut brings to mind a moment and Jesus is life where they they met him on the road to emmaus and he's standing right there and they can't see him because their minds on their trouble and I think that once it's all said and done we'll see we'll see the hand of God not the existent all-powerful Zeus on the throne but rather the insistent spirit of the risen Christ that is holding everything in every way for all things were made by him and for him and through him all things hold together and we'll be able to see that working through all of it so what you're saying is that in this season we establish that God is insistent so that means that he continues being us so would you say then that our church has the opportunity right now to be God in this pandemic of course because and one of the ways you'd be God is you honor the fact that there is no us in them that the same God holding us together is holding that person together in that prescribed word regardless of their ability or lack of ability to name it God is still at working them I love the way Paul says it in Ephesians Ephesus was a pagan place where Diana was the you know main thing and he he shows up and says remember the spirit of the risen Christ is filling everything in every way except followers of Diana know the spirit of risen Christ is at work in every like we do not bring Jesus to our neighbor we simply allow the press of Jesus to manifest in such a way where they can name what's always going on and when we do that or the hands and feet of Christ and you can know you're the hands and feet of Christ when your neighbors going well I was questioning whether God was real but God's in front of me and that's what we're talking about well guys I hope something that we shared this morning will add shared with you this morning blesses you and really encourages us that in this pandemic that we can make a difference and that we will minister in this season I guess we time for easy thanks good thanks [Music]

Channel: Highway Church

Views: 3,839

Rating: 4.8666668 out of 5

Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus, shane willard, god

Id: p3h2bF_7pFM

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 26 2020