From the January-March 2010 Issue
Thoughts from the influenza epidemic
Vitaliy Maryash
VitalyLast October was marked by the storming into our daily life of a severe influenza virus, which took the lives of many people and put thousands of others in our city into hospital beds. It was reported later on that the “long-awaited” virus A (H1N1) had come to Ukraine. Ironically, as is always the case in our country, the virus was expected, but came unexpectedly! Not all hospitalised people suffered from this kind of influenza; some of them died from pneumonia or from another influenza, a type which doctors cannot diagnose. The virus is said to be constantly mutating. Schools, colleges, universities and some other state institutions were quarantined. In the beginning of the epidemic Ternopil turned out to be, so to speak, a city of death: the streets became empty, as well as people’s eyes. I have to confess that the nearness of an epidemic (and potentially death) creates all sorts of thoughts, colouring one’s faith. When your soul is cast upon the scale with eternity alongside, everything else becomes like shadows in Plato’s cave. With influenza come out all sorts of other questions, beginning with ethical issues: Is it right for Christians to use a prophylactic for influenza? Does a protective mask over your mouth on public transport and in public places signal that you do not trust the Lord? Should we listen to the government request to reduce the length and number of church services? – and then, concluding with deeper questions: Why does the Lord allow this? What is He doing now in it? As to the first group of questions, I guess I have answers; as to the second group – I wish I had.
THE LOST SKILL OF CAREFUL LISTENING
During my Seminary studies I came across an interesting book written by H. U. von Balthasar, ‘The Heart of the World’. Let me paraphrase some sentences from it. One paragraph runs like this: ‘We have fenced ourselves off from the Lord with the walls of our religion. We have plugged our ears with our religious practice in order not to hear the voice of the Lord. That which could be life has calmly and imperceptibly turned into some mechanism in which our soul finds rest. Life is long, and continual repetition of one and the same lulls to sleep. The one who has dwelt near a waterfall, in one week ceases to hear its din. So we have lost the skill of careful listening. Sometimes we let the voice of the Lord be heard – when we hear some sermon, meditate on Christ’s passion, listen to the Adagio from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no.5, read Wordsworth, or feel an ineffable awe contemplating some landscape. These festal moments – experienced in the midst of well-paid comfort – satisfy our religious needs.’ Maybe events such as epidemics are a part of the Lord’s answer to our ‘walled’ religion. I wish we would hear His voice, not drowned out with the voice of influenza and our panic following thereupon.
MARRIAGE AND SINGLENESS
Anyway, life goes on and our Christian ministry must also do so. Now let me take you back a few months from the current disappointments and place you in the warm summer atmosphere of the Carpathian Mountains. There two camps – one for married couples, one for singles – took place. For many years we, and our good American friends who visit our church, have organized camps for married couples, but it was the first time we had decided to have one for singles. Twenty-eight people were present from different cities in Ukraine. Our decision was based on the bare fact that the spiritual needs of this stratum of church society are pastorally neglected. Singleness, in my opinion, is now generally regarded in Protestant churches to be something unusual and deserving pity, while marriage is seen as a fig leaf for singleness. The best and often only pastoral advice which flows out of such ideas is to get married. That is why, when preparation for this camp took place, lectures on singleness were deliberately avoided (such as how to cope with this, what it is, is it good, etc.). We just took the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians and tried together to measure the breadth and length and height and depth of the love which springs from the fathomless heart of a person, who was, in fact, all his earthly life as single as we are. Matched with other different activities, this study of Ephesians yielded good fruit, which exceeded all our expectations. Christians were encouraged and testified about many blessings they had received. It is our solid persuasion, therefore, that we should pursue this ministry further.
THE REGULAR MEETINGS
At the end of my article I have placed a few snapshots of our ordinary church life. I find it sometimes very difficult to tell about this. Not because I am not interested in our church, but because I have already written about it many times. Telling this story looks like painting the same picture, but every time with different colours. Occasionally a few additional elements can be brushed in, but the central plot of canvas remains basically untouched. Apart from three, so to speak, official services, there are five Bible study groups. These groups play a very important role in the life of our church. Most people coming to Christ attended these Bible studies and continue to do so. Now I lead only one of these groups (with a second group we study a course on ‘The Survey of the New Testament’). We meet every week on Saturday evening. We have grown in number – a few people from the church have joined us and a few unbelievers come.
There are, of course, all sorts of other meetings – for young people, women, preachers, for studying theology and even New Testament Greek. It is already ten years that we have been constantly gathering together early on Friday mornings to pray for our church’s growth, spiritually as well as in number. These activities help us better to worship the Lord, to serve Him and to spread His righteous kingdom, a little province of which we, the church in Ternopil, are.