Offering Faith-Based Research Amid COVID-19

Theologian and former Episcopal bishop N.T. Wright helped to kick off the recent, online Spiritual First-Aid Summit by discussing biblical passages that can help us deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

World Renew Disaster Response Services helped to sponsor the online summit, as did Food for the Hungry, Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, NavPress, and Outreach. Featuring more than a dozen speakers, the summit took place April 30.

Starting his presentation, Wright pointed to Psalm 36 as an example of rich poetry that speaks about God’s righteousness and how God cares for creation. In verse 7 the psalmist writes, “How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”

But this can be a hard message to get across and for people to receive at a time when millions of people around the world are suffering and many are dying because of COVID-19, said Wright.

“There are no easy answers. Try explaining God’s care to someone dying in a refugee camp” or to a patient fighting for breath in an ICU.

Yet, by going deeper into Psalm 36 and other Scriptures, said Wright, we can find deeper truths about the nature of God, “who will bring good out of evil. . . . Human wisdom doesn’t mean we know all that is going on.”

In fact, during these troubling and uncertain times, said Wright, we could do well in calming our anxiety and fear and finding solid ground by turning to the example and words of Jesus.

One especially appropriate Scripture to consider right now, said Wright, is in John 11, which chronicles the death of Lazarus, a friend of Christ.

In this story, Jesus is called to Bethany, where Lazarus had been living with his sisters, Martha and Mary. By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has already been in the tomb for four days. And Martha is upset that he didn’t come sooner.

But Christ reminds her that he is “the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live,” says Jesus, “even though they die.” He points her attention to a place beyond her brother's tomb.

Wright said this response about being “the resurrection and the life” shows us the divinity of Christ — the embodiment of God in human form. Christ is the person in whom we can believe and hold on to when the world is turned on its head.

And there is something else in John 11 that shows Christ’s very human side, broadening the picture for us.

Before going to the tomb, says Scripture, Jesus saw Martha and Mary and many others in tears. Deeply moved, Jesus also wept, filled with sorrow about the death of his friend.

Thinking of today as the world reels from a virus that continues to elude a vaccine, said Wright, we can put our faith in this God who offers real life and yet also weeps for those who die. We see the God who is not unwilling to lament painful experiences.

“We are reminded that we don’t always need to be looking down and grumbling,” said Wright. “We can look up and see and be reminded of the glory of God’s creation.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, events such as the Spiritual First-Aid Summit have been presented with the help of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, a faith-based, disaster-research center at Wheaton College.

Out of its academic research the institute developed Spiritual First Aid, a range of resources that churches can use to help them face and recover from disasters.

Joining Wright was Danielle Strickland, a spiritual leader and justice advocate who lives in Canada. While COVID-19 has caused much disruption, she said, it can also be a “divine” opportunity.

“This time of stuckness can offer the chance for discovery,” she said. “It can be an open door to look deeply at ourselves. . . . To realize we are truly known by God.”

We can use this time of chaos, she added, to find the security that God provides, even if it doesn’t seem to be the case right now. Take time, she suggested, to recall that we are God’s people at all times.

Meanwhile, although staying at home may be lonely, it can also provide a chance for us to pay deeper attention to the needs and suffering of others. While searching ourselves, praying and reading, we can look outside and take in — on much more than a superficial level — what is happening elsewhere. “Empathy is the gateway to hope,” Strickland said.

Another speaker was Dino Rizzo, executive director of the Association of Related Churches (ARC), an organization that he cofounded and that has planted hundreds of churches across the country.

In 1992, Dino and his wife, DeLynn, founded Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., which they pastored for twenty years. Today he serves as an associate pastor at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Ala.

The current COVID-19 pandemic brings back memories of the situation in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, he said. Although the disaster occurred on a much different scale, it was nonetheless very painful and people without means needed all kinds of help after Katrina just as they do now.

“We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who have reduced opportunities right now — and there are a lot of them right now,” he said.

As we face the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, “we need thousands of Christians everywhere being involved and praying. The crisis we are facing is very painful.”

When the first 600 people died of COVID-19 in New York City a few weeks ago, said Rizzo, “I knew we were at the point of no return. . . . We are all experiencing trauma” — from single-parent mothers with no money to put food on the table to prisoners who are infected by the virus and dying in prisons without proper care.

“I hope the church emerges from this better, that it will gain ground,” he added. “We will have plus yardage; we won’t get sacked.”

His church has supported the formation of a crisis mobile health clinic in Birmingham. They are partnering with other ministries, from those offering food assistance to home-schooling resources.

“We need to be asking as a church how we can fill in the gaps,” Rizzo said.

Knowing God is in control at all times is key. “We know he will take care of us,” said Rizzo. “But we also need to be careful. We can walk in peace, but we must make sure to sanitize our hands.”