(36) The Crown

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for The Crown, originally shared on July 30, 2020. It was the thirty-sixth video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   We’re now in a place where over 150,000 people in the United States have died of the coronavirus since, what?, January? Remember, that’s compared to 56,000 in a typical flu season, which typically lasts 5-6 months. There’s no end in sight for the coronavirus. Florida is setting daily records in deaths. LA County is setting daily records in deaths (partly because of a backlog in reporting, so that’s good).

   There are people who still think it’s all a hoax.

   It’s been said that there are two kinds of people in the world. People who divide the world into just two kinds of people, and those who don’t.)

   Dividing the world into two kinds of people if the kind of thinking that got us into this polarization mess.

   Some people who refuse to wear masks and social distance, and keep their hands clean and away from their faces do so some of the time. Some do so most of the time, and some never do so. So, there are four kinds of people in the world.  😊

    No, people are complex and, sometimes, just need a gentle conversation with the right motivation to change.

   The coronavirus disease is also known as COVID-19 (C-19 for short). It was originally called the “2019 novel coronavirus”. It was called “novel” because it’s new. (We are still learning how it behaves, and how it will respond to particular things.) These are the names of the disease, but the virus that causes the disease is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

   But, did you know why its called the coronavirus?

   Do you like to wear hats? I don’t, but I do when I need to, and I have a collection of funny hats. Here’s one of my favorites. This one says “Old Lutheran”, which I find appropriate. Old Lutheran is a brand of clothing and fun Lutheran stuff; I think it was a reference to the Old Navy brand. If you wear a hat, you wear a crown. This part of the hat, around the top, is called the crown.

   The Crown, a TV series depicting Great Britain’s royal family over several generations, was nominated for 4 Emmy’s in this its third season.

   Corona, “crown” in Spanish, beer was at first not selling because people thought it had something to do with the coronavirus. Now, though, I understand that sales are brisk.

   Have you seen a picture of the coronavirus? Do you see those things sticking out of the central ball? What are they topped with? A shape that suggests a crown. Under an electron microscope each ball-shaped virion (that’s what a single virus is called) has things sticking out of them with crowns on top. That’s why this virus is called the coronavirus. It’s covered in crowns.

   The Bible mentions a crown in many places. Five Crowns are associated with the Christian life:  The Crown of Life, the Incorruptible Crown, the Crown of Righteousness, the Crown of Glory, and the Crown of Rejoicing.

   I think these are not literal crowns that we earn, but metaphors for the qualities of the Christian life. You may have heard someone say, after you’ve done some sacrificial act, “Well, that’s another jewel in your crown”. That’s not in the Bible; not that I can see. It’s just another metaphor for doing something for which there is no reward now.

   Either way, what happens to these crowns, literal or metaphorical?

*Revelation 4:6b-11  [lion=Mark ; ox=Luke ; face of a human=Matthew; flying eagle=John]

   Do you know, the dentist’s hymn, “Crown Him With Many Crowns”. 😊  Where in the Bible does that come from?

*Revelation 19:11-16

   Does that contradict everything you “know” about Jesus? The military images, the militant images, the seeming use of force and coercion? I get that.

   But, now, imagine that you didn’t grow up in the United States, or that you grew up in slavery, or watching the body parts stack up fighting against slavery. That’s the era of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, a hymn that some now reject because of its militant and military imagery, also based on this text.  

   Imagine that you grew up someplace where a militant and oppressive government had made it illegal for you to worship and to serve God as you believe God called you to do. Imagine that you had paid a price, and that your family and everyone you loved continued to pay a price: disappearing, physical torture, loss of jobs, loss of family, or loss of friends and family, or loss of hope for the future in this world, in order to make you give up God and your fellow Christians. What image would mean something to you about a God of love who also loves justice?

   Ultimately the only crown that matters is the crown of thorns that tells us the meaning of happened on the cross.

   Jesus, the King and Suffering Servant, died for you and me and for all who repent and believe.

*Matthew 27:27-31

   The coronavirus is a most perishable crown. It will eventually go away.

   The imperishable crown is the one won for us by Jesus Christ, who wore a crown of thorns and suffered and died for us on the cross, that we might be given the imperishable crown of eternal life that is given the instant we open our hearts to receive the gift of faith, the living relationship with the one true living God.

   Seek or celebrate that crown today. Open your heart and let the streams of living water that is the Holy Spirit, form and sustain you today and for all time.