A Christian’s Response to National Panic
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The ticker tape of Wall Street might as well be exchanged for a perpetual roll of toilet paper. At least according to the national pandemonium over the novel coronavirus. Perplexing as the issues are concerning the media’s persistent coverage and the feverish response, a singular truth remains: the spread of, and reported deaths related to, COVID-19 is nothing to be taken lightly. Prayerfully, in a couple months we will be past this virus as we’re already witnessing sharp declines, but we must not forget the effect it has had on our communities and the questions which our Sovereign God intended such conditions to draw out of us.
This pandemic reminds me of the wisdom I’ve gleaned from the English noncomforming pastor, Thomas Brooks (1608-1680)—not that it takes much to make me look to his leadership as a pastor. When our neighborhood is crying out in fear and buying out shelves of groceries, this is no time to further agitate those around you. Or condemn them as less faithful. Or deride them as gullible saps. How are we to make our compassion contagious, even while protecting ourselves and our families? Thomas Brooks thinks through these thoughts, however tangentially, in his heavyweight volume London Lamentations, or a Serious Discourse Concerning the Great Fire of 1666.
Why would a person want to read a heady essay on a fire that happened in 17th century London? I’m not only asking you; I’ve spent a lot of time asking myself that question. I treasure Thomas Brooks more than the next guy, but this is a long, heavy dirge of a treatise, clocking in at over 300 pages. I guess I’m not really selling it, am I? Brooks was timely in writing of an event that hit close to his own home for people asking questions we still ask today: why do bad things happen? Let me share how Brooks helps us to speak compassionately to our community today. As a blessing to you, I’ll sum up the treatise for you in the following paragraphs.
Concerning the Context
The importance of this treatise has more to do with context than content. Within London’s Lamentations, Brooks isn’t out to press a theological argument. He isn’t out to condemn one side or elevate another. Brooks is seeking to give answers to a congregation, namely his own deflated church members, for the suffering they encounter. Yes, the Puritans are known for long-winded heady expositional exercises, but they are also known for passion and eloquence with which they communicate to their people. Brooks uses a current event to drive home the gospel; to make endurance amidst suffering a constant reminder of Christ’s redemption.
A pastor’s pastor, Brooks knew when and where to poke the bear. Even while remarking on Isaiah 42:25, “It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart,” Brooks was consoling his church members in a time of chaos. Not only were he and his people dealing with overall government-driven turmoil alongside their fellow protestant churches, not only bouts of plague and disease, but in 1666 a fire erupted in a nearby village and tore through the better part of London, devastating most of Brooks’ neighborhood. Where do you turn for answers when such a barrage of physical and spiritual attacks come at you and your family? For us today, how do we respond to a virus spreading with no foreseeable end? Brooks sought wisdom from the Lord—not just for church members, but for his own family.
Three Kinds of Answers
Amidst all Puritan verbosity, there is much wisdom to mine in London’s Lamentations. This essay was designed as a fire to warm those in the cold of suffering, “Are there no burnt citizens who are grown cold, even stark cold, in their pursuit after God, Christ, heaven, holiness?”[1] Our affections must be fanned back to flame, especially in times of trial. Let’s look to three kinds of responses Brooks gives for the reason of community turmoil.
Examination: First, Christians are called to examine who God is in their discomfort and confusion. Brooks writes repeatedly that our consciences need routine awakening. The Lord brings judgments not simply to bonk us on the head for being sinners, but to refuel our affections. Struggles often zap the energy right out of us, but God preserves us with new life in ways that the world cannot understand.
Brooks writes, “Severe judgments contribute much to the enlightening of men’s understandings, and to the awakening of their consciences, and the reforming of their lives.”[2] Brooks pleads to always remember the London fire, that those devastating flames might continue to fan affections for the Lord. What are five days of fire when compared to the infernal eternal fire that Christ has freed you from in His mighty mercy?[3] Are we called to remember what we are thankful for? Are we called to examine ourselves in light of viruses, discomforts, and schedule-derailments?
God’s Providence: Second, God’s judgment is always present. One of the hardest sentences to say to another human is that God has a purpose in suffering. Yet one of the most pleasant things to hear from another Christian is assurance of God’s purpose in suffering. Make no mistake, London’s Lamentations is a sobering treatise—but Brooks argues the truths of Scripture to reveal the purpose of suffering.
God’s providence in suffering is “that you may be filled with all the fruits of righteousness and holiness, and that your soul may be bound up in the bundle of life, and crowned with the highest glory in the other world, in the free, full, constant, and uninterrupted enjoyment of that God who is the heaven of heaven and the glory of glory.”[4] Does God have a sovereign purpose in COVID-19? Of course He does; our God is never surprised. We ought to meditate upon His providence.
Our Stability in Heaven: Brooks’ third response: We are promised a heavenly city. Brooks quips, “A soul in heaven is a soul out of gun-shot.” Today we might say, a soul in heaven is a soul out of quarantine! Brooks writes to a people who have lost their earthly dwelling, their safety, their security, yet he calls that we must never reject the great mercy of God who has given us an unwavering stability. God has chosen to dwell in us based on “the foundation of [His] eternal good-will and pleasure.”[5] Do we care more about what possessions were lost in London’s fire than the souls lost in God’s fire of Hell?
Recognize that shortly after the Lord bristles his people with Isaiah 42:25, he then assures them with the promises of 43:2, “when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” Is there room for evangelism and steadfast faith amidst the turmoil in our community? Do you share your anchor of hope in times of these rough seas?
Brooks in Practice
Brooks wrote in 17th century London to a people whom he knew intimately. Brooks shared in the same sufferings his church experienced. He walked alongside them through it all. Because of this, he knew the questions his people were asking, and lest we place Brooks on a pedestal, he and his family were likely asking these same questions.
Brooks properly prepared his people for catastrophe by being the shepherd who knew his sheep and led his sheep through the hard truths of doctrine. This made it far easier to tackle hard questions when suffering inevitably arrived. Do I exalt Christ so much that the trials of this world are seen as the temporary sufferings they truly are? Do I know the questions my congregation is struggling to answer? Have I compassionately thought through situations of pain and heartache that abound in my local community? Such questions are useful even without a pandemic!
When we come to an essay like London’s Lamentations we mustn’t miss what is perhaps most important. Brooks was not belaboring; he was compassionately turning his own people to the answers they desperately wanted from the Lord. Not only was he giving hope in times of trouble, he was convicting them; even in their desolation they had every reason to hope—and a formidable answer to give to those around them—that Jesus Christ is Lord. When we live alongside others we know how to speak into those questions.
We share in this pandemic whether sick or well, so are we suffering alongside our church members in the right way? How might you use the turmoil in your community to fan into flame the affections of Christ’s people? This pandemic is doing one thing well, it is forcing us to walk alongside others in very new psychologically challenging ways.
We must be prepared in season and out of season to love others the way the Bible teaches us, the way Thomas Brooks shares: examining ourselves, meditating on God’s providence, and professing the heavenly stability we find in saving faith. Forget about putting stock in toilet paper, put stock in Christ! When you’ve invested in the right market, a turmoil can become a chance to practice and exercise faith rather than drown in fear.
[1] Thomas Brooks, “London’s Lamentations on the Late Fiery Dispensation” in The Works of Thomas Brooks, vol. 6, ed, Alexander B. Grosart (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1980), 257.
[2] Brooks, “London’s Lamentations,” 251.
[3] Brooks, “London’s Lamentations,” 212.
[4] Brooks, “London’s Lamentations,” 12.
[5] Brooks, “London’s Lamentations,” 283.
