With our world the way it is at present, there’s no doubt people will be struggling to find hope and the meaning of it all.
In Christianity, there isn’t a simple answer to help explain suffering. However, Rector at Yass Valley Anglican, Philip Rademaker, says the belief that God is by your side throughout this period can help you through.
“Christianity’s answer at the heart of it is Jesus who we believe is God, who has come to be with us, to walk alongside us and Jesus came to walk alongside people who were doing it really tough. He went to people who were the poor, the oppressed, the needy, the afflicted, the sick and he walked alongside them.”
“That’s the God that we believe in, the God who gets his hands dirty. He doesn’t sit far off, and sit high off on a cloud refusing to come and get involved in the messiness of human life. We believe that God came near to us and is present with us, as we walk along in these difficult times.”
“The 23rd Psalm talks about God being with us even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and I know for some people, Covid is really feeling like one of those valleys.”
“There’s no simple answer to suffering and anyone who has a simple answer hasn’t really dealt with it properly. But, there is an answer that while God doesn’t give us a nice little logical formula of how to understand it, he does promise to be with us,” he said.
As for how his Church plans to emulate Jesus’ life throughout this period, Philip says it’s most important to follow the directions of government to help keep “your neighbour” safe.
“We’ve always emphasised that the primary thing that we do is to think about how we can love our neighbours. One of the ways that we have been trying to do that is making sure firstly that we follow all the directions from the government.”
“It’s hard not being able to meet in person and I know a lot of our people are really desperate to meet together again physically but we’re just aware that there’s a lot of people that our vulnerable and it really helps if all of us are able to do those social distancing things and try and get vaccinated as soon as we can.”
“We’ve always put the love of our neighbours at the heart of our message but we’re also trying to get creative in supporting our own parishioners. We’re doing letterbox drops to our older folk who can’t manage a zoom service and we’ve got lots of people calling and having phone conversations,” he said.
Philip also revealed that the area’s Churches are working together to see how they can aid those in need.
“We’re now just trying to work out how we branch out and support the community as well.”
“I’m in conversation with some of the other ministers from the other churches about how we can coordinate that. We’re thinking about how we put together care packages, we’re praying for the community, we’re praying for our government as well, they’ve got a really tough job.”
With the timeline for a return to normality seemingly indefinite, there is a greater need than ever to have faith that things will all be okay.
Max O’Driscoll
