10/11/23

Several years ago, I was visiting with family and one of my relatives  (I am being purposefully vague)  handed me a map, saying, “Here’s the location of our compound so you’ll know where to go when things fall apart” (that’s a paraphrase; she was a bit more specific about that last part).

What? 

Since then I’ve encountered more people with similar plans. They are anticipating a future time when our country will fall apart and they will have a place to take their families and hold up until . . . I’m not sure when. I guess until Jesus comes again? 

How do we respond when things fall apart around us? 

During the plague-ridden years of early Christianity, when people were dropping like flies, the rich would escape to the mountains and leave the poor to stay (and die) in the mosquito-ridden swamps below. Edgar Allen Poe (appropriate, since we’re in the “spooky time” of the year) described a similar situation in his short story, “The Masque of the Red Death”:

The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair from without or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballêt-dancers, there were musicians, there were cards, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red Death.”

Those who could afford to escape, escaped. “The external world could take care of itself.”

But in those plague-ridden days,  not everyone ran away. The Christians stayed and helped nurse the sick and dying. True, some got sick themselves and died. Many others, however, lived, and when the rich returned they asked the believers, “Why did you stay?” And the believers would introduce them to the Lord of Life.

And it wasn’t a case of their waking up one morning and saying, “O! It’s a new day. I think I’ll go live for others.” No, they responded as they did in times of crisis because that’s the way they lived their lives during normal time. Sure they might die, but they lived in expectation of the Resurrection. If their neighbor was hungry and they didn’t have extra food, they fasted two or three days a week so they would have enough to share. If a stranger needed a place to stay, they would open their homes and welcome them.  The “normal” Christian life was a life of care for others.

During the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, a philosopher from Athens who converted to Christianity wrote a famous “Apology” (apology in the sense of explanation, not in the sense of “I’m sorry”) explaining why Christianity is the best way to live. If you have a chance, look at the description of the lives of believers around the year 125 AD here, in paragraph XV in the Apologia of Aristides.  http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/aristides-kay.html

Christians don’t run away from crises. If we do, then who is to be Jesus for those who need Him most? We are his hands and feet in this world, and if we run away . . . 

But that’s just it. Believers don’t run away. They stay. They trust God. They are faithful.

In Acts 11, a prophet came to Antioch and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine all over the world. What did the disciples do? Here’s what they didn’t do: they didn’t speculate about the end of the world, nor did they hoard their resources. Here’s what they did do: “They determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea.” In other words, they asked themselves how they could respond to the need. 

I was a little too old for Mr. Rogers when he first appeared on TV, but I’ve always admired his approach to life. A quote that always comes up whenever there’s a time of national crisis is “When I was a boy, and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” 

For children, that’s wonderful advice. But, of course, as adults it’s not enough to just look for the helpers. When needs arise, we are called to be the helpers.  

So when my family member handed me the map, I handed it right back to her. My brother answered for me, “Honey, when that happens, he’s going to want to be right in the middle of it.”

Right in the middle. That’s where we belong. 

So, sure, store up MREs and non-perishables – but store up enough to share and not to hoard. Weapons?  If you feel it necessary, but do it to protect, not to kill (and there’s a difference).  Don’t look at times of crisis – small or large, personal or worldwide – as a time to panic and run away, but as an opportunity to be the Body of Christ at work in this world.

Because it all boils down to why we exist to begin with: “Loving God . . . loving others.”