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A Post-Covid 19 world?


Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse
A new heaven and a new earth

At Chelmsford Cathedral we have been studying Revelation during Lent. I have not found it an easy book to spend a lot of time with. I certainly couldn't have predicted that its apocalyptic form would suddenly become so resonant with our common experience. Its focus is on: a heaven's eye view of the world, the end times and judgment, a desire to ensure true worship of God, and its final, hopeful chapters on the promise of a 'new heaven and the new earth' (21 and 22). 

One of the effects of our current global health crisis is that people are talking about a radically different world emerging out of our experiences - could it be a better one? It’s shocking and perhaps salutary to consider that the human ability to affect transformation in our own lives, habits and behaviours is seriously limited. Just a cursory glance at our Lenten disciplines would probably reveal limited ambition in our moral endeavours and limited long-lasting affect with regard new ‘habits’. Yet, can it be that an external force, like Covid-19, could radically change human behaviour? It has for a short time, but what might be the medium to longer term impact?

For a long time, certainly within Western democracies since the second world war, there has been the seemingly unstoppable advance of man, his ability to control, manipulate and master both nature and science for his own success and pleasure. We have made the world smaller with our fast planes and technology; we have created a global marketplace in which the wealthy can experience anything they wish for a price (whilst the poor continue to be exploited). Yet, with the rise of nationalism and the politics of Brexit we have seen many express a desire for the world to be smaller, for identities to be crafted locally, and for communities to be more self-sufficient. It may be that one outcome of Covid-19 is that we will have to take this reality seriously – much less mobility around the world (no long-haul flights, no round the world cruises?); less exotic fruit and food in our supermarkets; less availability of all sorts of ‘goods’. This might not have been the original intention of those seeking more locally derived identities and closer-knit communities, but if we are serious about the benefits of such a way of living, we need to be serious about the sacrifices that it will involve. I’m sure few of us want to return to be small-holders with limited cultural experiences and foreshortened horizons- so what could this new world look like? We would certainly all benefit from the ecological positives that less travel would bring; could more local living bring with it a greater attention to and nurturing of our local environments?

At the heart of the ‘new heaven and the new earth’ that is imagined in Revelation Chapters 21 and 22, is the collapsing of the gap between creation and God: ‘he will dwell with them and be his peoples’ . This is the gap which we experience as longing, as desire for God. There is also the end of suffering, death and loss: ‘Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more’. Indeed, the things which we could say define the human experience – desire for fulfilment, the experience of change, time, death, loss and pain. Without these things, what would it mean to be human? It has always been much easier to imagine Hell than it has been to imagine Heaven. Generating an idea of Heaven that isn't just frankly boring, is extraordinarily difficult.  Think of how Milton's Satan steals the show in Paradise Lost...... Not only is Heaven incredibly difficult to imagine, often our utopian fantasties are actually dystopian - think of Thomas More's Utopia. 

The opportunity to articulate with clear sighted vision, with a realistic understanding of all the repercussions, any new sort of world, is fraught with difficulty. So, if we do want to see real and lasting change Post-Lockdown- we need to be good at describing it, and with clear-sighted vision, thinking it through. The best model I have for envisioning a new world is looking at what Jesus did and said during his last week on earth. His demonstration of a world restored by God's forgiveness and redemptive love is one that I put by faith and hope in. 

For Further Reflection

How would you describe the ‘new world’ that you long to see? And could you really live in such a world that you imagine?

Revelation 21.22-23 describes a situation in which there is no need for a temple, because the Lord God dwells there with the Lamb. As we have no churches to gather together in at the moment, how might we see this not as a problem, but as an opportunity? 

How would you need to live differently, to enjoy the benefits of your new world? 



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