Some have asked about the quote I shared this morning on dealing with a pandemic from Martin Luther, famous leader of the Protestant Reformation.
It is from an open letter he wrote in 1527, during an outbreak of a plague in the middle of the throes of the Reformation he had started ten years earlier. I remind myself he wrote it during extremely divided times - yes, worse than ours - when people were polarized by the Reformation. Their struggle with death was filtered through their religious disagreements.
It is said that Protestants saw the plague as God’s judgment on Catholic idolatry, and Catholics accused Protestants of weakening the unity of the Church in a time of crisis. Both sides painted the opposition in the worst possible light. Luther himself was being accused of irresponsibility by staying in Wittenberg to do ministry when officials had asked religious leaders and others to flee the city.
The open letter is entitled “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague.” I shared only part of the quote this morning (the boldfaced part), but it is so incredibly applicable to our times that I am giving you a more complete quote from this famous spiritual giant:
“Others sin on the right hand. They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague. They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are. They say that it is God’s punishment; if he wants to protect them he can do so without medicines or our carefulness. That is not trusting God but tempting him. . . .
“No, my dear friends, that is no good. Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate house, yard, and street; shun persons and places where your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city. What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body? You ought to think this way: ‘Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid persons and places where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me, and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely, as stated above. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God’.”
