Monday, March 30, 2020

Isolated Incidents

The one who isolates pursues selfish desires; that one rebels against all sound wisdom.  (Proverbs 18:1)

I had to chuckle at this verse as it was the first one of my devotion this morning. This translation, from the Christian Standard Bible, may be true in the general idea, but for our 2020 thoughts about COVID-19, I'm not sure that self-imposed isolation has anything to do with selfish desires, but communal necessity and good.

But, the Bible verse does start us on a quest for understanding: What is the difference between isolation and solitude? Can we develop a theology of isolation? Imprisonment? Solitude? Exile? Can we do this together?

Throughout the Bible, various people ranging from prophets to prisoners, kings and their cousins, Jews and Gentiles, have been unceremoniously cast out of their every day lives to exist in either self-imposed or administered exile. I've been trying to make a list of Biblical figures who fit these parameters, and the longer I think, I wonder if every character did not fit the bill at one point or another. Not all were exiled from each other, but certainly, in the beginning, Adam and Eve were isolated physically from God, perhaps even his voice was muffled (and not even because the computer microphone was muted).

Noah took the last boat.
Abraham was a stranger in a strange land.
Joseph was exiled from his family in Egypt.
Ruth defied logic to self-isolate from her people.
David found cave-life to be difficult.
The prophets of God were outcasts from their people.
Mary found herself 'blessed' by an 'impossible' pregnancy.
The early Christians were imprisoned for their faith.
Jesus was cut off from everyone, even the Father.

And so we find ourselves in government imposed self-isolation, quarantine, whatever terminology that we never thought we'd be using as an entire world. Like all of the faithful people of the past, we are confronted, literally assailed, by the thought of being separated from others. This is a scary thing, an itch that cannot be scratched. Somewhere in the back of our minds, or at least my mind, is this echoing, reverberating thought:

Will there ever be an end to this isolation, or separation?

One of the greatest movies every produced on this theme of isolation/separation/exile would have to be Castaway. Tom Hanks, FedEx bigwig, finds himself on an airplane across the Pacific Ocean. While boarding the plane, one of the flight attendants asks Tom Hanks' friend about her battle with cancer. Tom looks surprisedly at his friend, unaware that she had been sick. It seems that Tom had never enquired about the deep things of life. They had not connected beneath the surface of everyday life to talk about the scary things swimming underneath.

This kind of connection hadn't been important to Tom. Work, business, travel all seemed to take precedence.

But then, after being separated, stranded on a deserted island, we're taken on a journey of exile. If one watches closely, one gets an understanding that survival can occur with the basic necessities, but what is the one thing that Tom most desperately desires?

An end to isolation. He wants connection with humans and to hear their voices, to see the creases in their skin, to smell their deodorant...

In the beginning we are all created for connection, but we all encounter dis-connection (isolation, separation and exile) at various points in life.

For this week (at the very least) we'll look at some of these biblical figures in their times of isolation/exile/separation and gaze at them through theological lenses. What is God teaching them in their time of isolation? What are they hearing, learning or experiencing that will help later in life?

Tomorrow we'll start Jacob and his relationship with Esau. If you have a chance, read Genesis 32 and 33. We'll do a brief overview beforehand and then get into meat of it.

1 comment:

Debbie Gortowski said...

We are in exile indeed! The people in the Bible who were in exile had to get creative and learn new things. Abraham learned how to travel with a large caravan to a new country. Jacob left his family to live with his uncle and discovered his two wives. Joseph learned how to assimilate into a new culture in Egypt. David learned to live in caves and in nature.
Learning new things in exile is hard. I am unable to swim due to pool closings and it is too cold to swim in the lake. I am going through chlorine withdrawal! It is the only way I really exercise. Sooooo, I am walking. I have seen chalk messages that children have written on the sidewalk: “enjoy your walk” and “thank you health care workers.” What a great idea! I will think of my own messages to write with chalk on my driveway.
I am coloring to pass the time. I include the pictures in my letters to friends and family. Real letters! In the mail!
These are truly unprecedented times. We have not had a pandemic of this kind for several generations. In the state of Illinois we are shut down until the end of April. That means we need to create a new way to celebrate Easter.
Let’s put our creative minds to work to encourage one another, pray and live in and through this exile! Believe it or not - it will eventually end.

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