Any answers?

THE question was bound to be asked by somebody at some point. I heard it on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions? a couple of weeks ago. A woman phoned in and asked the panel: ‘Does the coronavirus prove that God does not exist?’

Professor Margaret MacMillan was the first to answer. She said that the coronavirus does not disprove God’s existence, then went on to say that, rather than thinking about that question, our focus needs to be on what we can do to bring the pandemic under control and support our health workers.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, MP, took a different approach. She said that turning to God could help people get through these trying circumstances and acknowledged that God had helped her in her work as a doctor and in times of personal difficulty. Edward Argar, MP, also said that faith was important for him and could be ‘a huge help’ for others.

The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, had the last word. He pointed out that it was Good Friday, a day when ‘the Church talks about the love of God revealed in the death of Jesus’. Good answer! If circumstances ever tempt us to doubt the love of God, we need to look to the cross where he has already revealed the depth of his love, and trust that nothing ‘will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:39).

Major Richard Mingay focuses on the cross in an article from five years ago on page 19, the second in our ‘From the archive’ series. He says that, whatever is going on in or around us, the cross should be the centre of our identity as Christians: ‘It must be the ultimate place we go to find our spiritual bearings... We go to Calvary in every situation.’

On the cross Jesus identified with us in the depth of our suffering as he reconciled us and all creation to God. This means that our calling as followers of Jesus involves identifying with others in their suffering. On pages 12 and 13 Steve Loveland describes how the Army’s homelessness services in Dublin are responding to the pandemic. He says the situation has meant that people are able to identify with the ‘social isolation and restrictions’ that many of those experiencing homelessness face every day. If that greater understanding leads to a greater effort to support them, then some good will have come from this awful situation.

Major Noel Wright looks at what it means to proclaim the gospel, in the first of a new series on the five marks of mission on page 10. He makes the point that, along with our ‘God-honouring demonstrations of love and compassion’, we should speak about Jesus because he is the good news that people need to hear. Major Gregory Morgan agrees in his reflection on page 14, where he says the good news must be ‘spoken and enacted’.

Where is God in all that’s going on at the moment? It’s not an easy question but the answer lies in the cross, which demonstrates God’s love for us and presence with us, and which motivates us to live for him and speak of him as we share in the challenging experiences of other people’s lives.

From the Editor Lieut-Colonel Jonathan Roberts