In Psalm 119 we find the psalmist meditating on the law of the Lord as the path to life. The intensity with which he seeks God’s commandments suggests he is battling internal and external pressure from other temptations: “Open my eyes,” “I seek you with all my heart,” “Do not let me stray from your commands,” “I hold fast to your statutes.” This continues for 176 verses.
Martin Luther believed that human beings are formed by the words we hear and the words to which we respond—and that we are rightly determined by recognizing ourselves as created by God, addressed and sustained by his good Word.
But lots of words are competing for our attention: social media posts, political debates, advertisements, and news, to name a few. During the COVID-19 pandemic the influence of social media and news loom large. But while social media can keep us connected and news can keep us informed, they can arrest our attention in unhelpful ways and feed the chaos and confusion we feel.
The news, in particular, offers its own narrative about the world, and human hope and action in it. As citizens of a society born out of political liberalism, the dominant community by which we identify ourselves is a nation state. Further, news outlets that are publicly traded or for-profit companies will focus on writing and airing stories that reap the most attention and drive the most profit.
Of course, I am not suggesting we bury our heads in the sand or only read the Bible. The etymology of “news” is bound up in the new, and COVID-19 poses such a threat to us because it is just that: newly arrived. When it comes to a global pandemic we need to be prepared, especially as our being prepared and informed protects the most vulnerable among us and equips the churches and ministries who serve them.
I’m also not suggesting the economic realities we face are not real or difficult. But if our thoughts, actions, hopes and fears are shaped more by nations, markets, and news-cycles than by God, then these have become idols.
For Luther, idolatry is a function of our distrust in God’s Word which is the source of all life.
Luther believed that God’s entire creation communicates his Word—and therefore his goodness and promises. We were meant to hear and perceive his promises in all things, and to respond and live accordingly. But in the garden the serpent raised doubts about God’s Word and the goodness of God’s will, and so Adam and Eve turned toward unbelief and walked away from the only source of life.
As a result, we are no longer able to hear and perceive the gifts God has promised. Without the security of life in God we are afraid and only hear wrath and confusion around us:
Then the world is no longer the medium that delivers on the promise to me…If the world is not believed in as that which is promised, then it will be experienced as a ‘fearful natural realm,’… you must squeeze some sense out of this chaos, this fearful natural realm in all its uncertainty; you have to be in charge of making sense in this and out of this chaotic world; you yourself have to establish its order![1]
We are certainly aware of this feeling. The need for control, the need to understand everything on our own terms. The news feeds this fear while offering to help us make sense of the world—but apart from God this knowledge tends towards the meaningless, a gaping chaos. There is no life there.
But as those dead to sin and alive in Christ, we are given the faith to hear, perceive and trust God’s Word anew. We do not leverage ourselves out of chaos through our own knowledge and work, but by confessing our incorporation into God’s story. The promises of God’s goodness and provision, of his grace and forgiveness, that he is making all things new—these form our lives, our actions, and our view of the world.
Here we can begin to contemplate how faith in God’s promise and attentive listening to his Word might change how one hears other words that clamor for our attention.
I’ve appreciated much of the practical wisdom I’ve read about the news, for example:
Ground yourself in the Word and prayer each morning before reading the news;
Limit yourself to reading one national and one local news article each morning, then trust that you’ll get any other information you need to know later in the day but move on to living life.
Ultimately, those united with Christ are able to freely turn to the world. Through the mediation of Christ we can now hear the promises of God through his creation again—we can hear his speaking and see his provision in all things.
God can speak through the news as he can speak through the spring flowers. But only as we are steeped in the Word. Not because we find a formula or prescriptions for everything we face, but because we expect the living and active Word to meet us, communicate himself, and guide us in a dynamic way as we seek to live like Christ in our concrete circumstances.
And because God reminds us there again and again who he is for us.
While we were still powerless God poured himself out for us (Romans 5:6-8).
While we were still overwhelmed in the face of our inability to control or generate life. While we were groaning under the injustice, pain, and suffering of the world. While we were still held in slavery by our fear of death.
Jesus became like us to identify with us, deliver us, and intercede for us (Hebrews 2:14-18).
Luther emphasized that though God communicates his promises throughout all of creation, he uniquely promises to communicate himself in his written, oral, and sacramental Word. Here the living Word proclaims who he is for us which creates faith each day, reminds us who we are, and orients us to the world and to our neighbors.
As we navigate this uncertain time with a constant flow of new information, as we confront our fears and anxieties, may we anchor our lives in the Word and find our hope along with the psalmist: “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” (Psalm 119:50)
Emily Beth Hill is a Campus Minister for InterVarsity Grad & Faculty Ministries, in Cincinnati, OH. She holds a PhD in Theological Ethics from the University of Aberdeen. Emily is a member of the 5th Fellowship of the Center for Pastor Theologians.
Notes:
[1] Oswald Bayer, Martin Luther’s Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008), 102.
