DAY 145: “At war with a virus?” The collateral damage of a metaphor.

DAY 145

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-one Thursday 6 August 2020

“At war with a virus?”

The collateral damage of a metaphor.

“How much meaning can and should be found in a pandemic that has strewn indiscriminate fear and loss across the globe? According to the medical doctor and ethicist Lyda Dugdal, our country currently lacks a ‘common existential narrative,’ a shared story that can illuminate the meaning of widespread suffering and death. I think she’s right, with one exception – the meaning we find in war.” - Recent article by the same name in a Christian magazine

As a nation, we have been engaged in military conflict of some kind, somewhere, for 222  of our 244 years, from the Revolutionary War up to the war in Afghanistan. As a culture we understand the metaphor of war: we battle cancer, and we declare war on poverty, drugs, terrorism,  crime and now a virus. War language galvanizes except when it doesn’t, as in the Vietnam War, and in the present situation rather than unite us as a nation with a common foe the virus itself has become a weapon, politicized at the expense of the populace, placing us in an unenviable position of being shunned by most nations for fear of our contaminating their countries further. The collateral damage within the country is division and death; outside, closed doors. It remains that our ‘common existential narrative’ is not the image of war but our common suffering.

An alternate template for our response to COVID-19 can be found in the Book of Job, where Job, the ultimate  sufferer, appears at first read to resign himself to it all. But a closer look reveals a man whose inner resolve has been strengthened to endure through a fearless examination of his own heart, motives and attitudes. People can gather around shared suffering in a way that unites them without the combative language of warfare and still pursue the same end, the eradication, in this instance, of the virus. Ultimately, warfare imagery that counts is reserved for things unseen between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12.      

Reflective question: In what ways can a war metaphor serve you spiritually during this pandemic?

Reflective Scripture: Proverbs 21:31 – “…victory belongs to the Lord.”

Reflective hymn:

“Victory in Jesus” – Eugene Bartlett (1895-1941)

O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever!

He sought me, and He bought me with His redeeming blood.

He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him.

He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.