They say you can find a MASH episode for almost everything. Recently someone put a clip together that dealt with social distancing, hand washing and masks, appropriate for our times. The clip that resounds with me, however, is one where Hawkeye is performing triage in the compound for soldiers brought in from battle. Father Mulcahy comes over to pray and Hawkeye tells him, “Not now, Father, I’m trying to save lives.”
It is Father Mulcahy’s response that has given me much thought. I do not have the words exactly, but it goes something like this. “I know Hawkeye that you all are trying to save lives, and I try to stay out of your way. But I have a work here also, and that is to save souls.”
I think that is what is bothering me most right now. We are focused on saving physical life, but at what expense? At a time when our society, our world, is bombarded with fear, mixed messages, confusion, have we forgotten that there is much more to us than our physical life?
Everyone, scientists, doctors, politicians are focused on saving physical life. While we deal solely with what a virus can do to our bodies, we may be ignoring even greater ramifications. MSN reports that suicides, drug abuse and domestic violence are on the rise because of social isolation. How many other hidden or ignored problems are also?
We are social beings. God designed us to interact with each other. He put us in families. We are designed to shake hands, touch shoulders, hug each other. When we are at our best, we stand shoulder to shoulder literally to battle life’s difficulties. We wipe each other’s tears in times of grief and sorrow. We hold each other, we smile, we rejoice together, we connect. There is much more to living than mere physical life.
There is also much more to a church and to pastoring than being behind a pulpit on a Sunday morning. You cannot connect the way God intended through a two-dimensional sterile image on a broadcast. People are being saved certainly. But God gave us a pattern to follow as saved, social, spiritual humans … it is essential that we do so.
Acts 2:42-47: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
