By: Pastor Brian Krause and Erin M Diericx
Pastor Brian Krause says…
I thought that everything was going my way. I had been trying to get a job in Florida so that I could be closer to Erin for a long time now. I was trying to do the responsible thing, you know, get a new job while still hanging on to the Job I had so that there would be little if any interruption in my income as I transitioned from my job in Ohio to my job in Florida. I finally thought I had landed that job. After an interview with the State of Florida for a prison Chaplain position I was told to be patient as it might take a few weeks for them to run it through the bureaucracy. At the end of the phone interview I was even told to, “not be discouraged” if it took a few weeks to hear back. Those are the kinds of things you want to hear when you are interviewing for a job. I was certain I was going to get the job, but before they could get back to me things really changed in this country. I still have not heard back, and my interview was in late February. The last I did heard was that things had been slowed down significantly because of the Coronavirus. Part of me thinks that hiring may have been put on hold indefinitely.
We had dreams for my future. I was going to move to Florida with a good job, and then we would save up for our wedding. I was hoping that I would be able to transfer to a prison closer to Erin to continue my chaplaincy after we got married. Everything seemed like it was finally coming together after months of trying, and then it all seemed to have crumbled so quickly. I did move to Florida, but without work. I am still trying to get work in the area, but I don’t know if any one is hiring in the midst of this global pandemic, and I fear that if I get a job outside the house I could be putting not only my own life at risk, but Erin’s life as well. How could so much have changed in such a short amount of time? In late February and early March I thought we had a good plan for our future, now I have no idea what our future holds.
Erin M Diericx says…
It is scary to think just how much has changed in a short amount of time. We did have a solid, responsible plan. and we are not the only couple that had their plans derailed. Couples across the nation and around the world are being forced to postponed their weddings or have small wedding with just the priest and two witnesses. And then there are the high school seniors who are missing a whole host of end of the year events, including prom and graduation. The coronavirus has really changed how we function in the world. I just wish he would reveal his plan and show us the way out of the darkness.
Pastor Brian Krause says…
If there was ever a Good Friday where we could cry out with Jesus and the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 22, this certainly is the year. How many people have seen their dreams for the future thrown into Chaos? How many people have gone from planning for their future to hoping they have enough money to keep food on the table? The Coronavirus has sent a harsh shock into our lives, and the futures we were all dreaming of have all been put on hold, if not cancelled. We don’t know when things will return to some sense of normalcy. We don’t even know when we will be able to leave our houses without the fear of catching a highly contagious and very serious disease that is killing people by the thousands every day. The whole world has been turned on its head.
The news doesn’t seem to be getting any better. We keep hearing signs of optimism, perhaps we are flattening the curve, but then there are fears that the virus could resurge if we come out of quarantine too quickly. Perhaps the heat and solar radiation in the summer will keep the virus at bay for a few months, but then they predict that it could come roaring back in the fall. Just how long are we going to have to keep up this social distancing? When will it ever be safe to leave the house again? What is God up to in the midst of all of this suffering and death?
Erin M Diericx says…
What is God up to? It feels like God has abandoned us! How can we speak of God in the midst of so much suffering and death? Shouldn’t God have done something to have prevented all of this suffering?
Pastor Brian Krause says…
Sometimes God feels so distant when we are suffering. It feels like we are down here languishing and God is up on some cloud somewhere being attended to by angels. People are dying and it feels as if God is nowhere to be found. If God would just come down from Heaven God would see just how bad things are down here, and then, perhaps, God would do something about it!
Erin M Diericx says…
Is that not why we have this day? Is that not the reason we commemorate Good Friday?
Pastor Brian Krause says…
God did come down from Heaven. God came to earth in Jesus. He was born of a human mother and lived a life like all humans live. He knew what it was to suffer as we all suffer. Jesus became truly human. What does that mean? It means that Jesus was not immune to the viruses that affect human beings. Did Jesus get sick? If we truly believe that Jesus became truly human then we must also conclude that at times Jesus had to contend with viruses and bacteria invading his body and making him sick. The gospel writers did not write about Jesus getting sick, but then again the gospels only cover a small fraction of Jesus’ life. What we do know about Jesus, however, clearly indicates that he struggled with many very human things. The gospels tell us that after fasting for forty-days Jesus was famished. Jesus knew what hunger was. Jesus wept at the death of his friend, Lazarus. Jesus even knew what it was like to feel abandoned by God in suffering. On the cross Jesus cries out that he is thirsty, and “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Erin M Diericx says…
That’s the part that keeps running through my mind: Abba, Abba, why have you forsaken me? It is a plead for help; an anguish cry; help me, Father. It is the same plead we are crying out, “God, help us!”
Pastor Brian Krause says…
Jesus did not just come to earth to experience human life, however. Jesus came to earth to do something about the brokenness of our human condition. Jesus gave himself up on the cross to save us from sin, death, and the power of the devil. Isaiah says that, “By his stripes we are healed.” Jesus death opens for us the way to a life without suffering or death. Through faith in his death and resurrection we have access to new life with God. We definitely do not yet experience this life in its fullness here and now, but it is ours already by faith.
Erin M Diericx says…
With our faith, we are led to hope in something beyond death and to love the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as well as to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is in our faith that we can imagine something the grave.
Pastor Brian Krause says…
The story of Good Friday tells us that God does not sit around in the clouds being waited on by angels while humanity suffers. God came to us in Christ. God became fully human in Jesus and dwelt among us. Jesus knows our suffering, our sickness, and our distress. Jesus even knows what it is like to feel abandoned by God in suffering. Jesus cried out with the author of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus, who was God in the flesh, cried out from the cross so that we might know that God is indeed with us in our suffering. God is not absent as humans are suffering and dying in the midst of a global pandemic. God is at work comforting those who are mourning, working though the healthcare workers and first responders to save lives, and God is welcoming into the eternal kingdom those who are dying this day. In this world we will struggle, suffer, and die, but by faith we have access to a new life in which we will no longer suffer, struggle, or die. Jesus died on the first Good Friday to open the way of healing, wholeness, and life for us now, and forevermore.
Erin M Diericx prays…
O Lord, this Holy Week is a bit different than we can remember. We pray for all those who are sick, on ventilators, and actively dying. We thank you for the small blessing in knowing you are with all those who are dying and sick. We pray for angels to protect our loved ones and us during this time. We pray for your wisdom and peace. We pray all these things in your holy name, amen!