Messiness in Our Faith Life ~ David Patterson

Staff, March 10, 2021

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  ~Matthew 7:7

There have been times during the pandemic that my faith has been shaken. I have wrestled with God, and asked angrily, why did you allow this terrible virus to happen? It has destroyed lives, businesses, relationships, and congregations. When I feel this way, I am comforted by the fact that God did not condemn Jacob for wrestling with God, or Mary, when she asked the question, “How can this be?”, when told by Gabriel that she would conceive and bear a child. When I get down on myself for questioning and doubting, I remember how Martin Luther in the Small Catechism made asking questions alright, when he asked, “What does this mean?”. Perhaps it is in the Catechism that Martin Luther gives us some answers as to why such bad things happen and this evil pandemic continues. He writes in the explanation of the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “God tempts no one to sin, but we ask in this prayer that God would watch over us and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful self may not deceive us and draw us into false belief, despair, and other great and shameful sins.” God did not bring about Covid, it was Satan, the world and our sinful flesh. While God did not cause this terrible pandemic, God has promised to make all things, even Covid and its devastation, to work together for our good. God has promised that we don’t have to get through it alone - God will never leave us nor forsake us. And finally, God promises that on a future day all things will be made new, and there will be no more suffering or pain, and we will no longer see through a mirror dimly, but rather fully know, as we are fully known.

God, the Way, the Truth and the Life, help us fear, love and trust you above all things. Amen.