June/July ‘Witness’: Walking by faith during COVID-19

(LCMS/Erik M. Lunsford)

“We walk by faith, and not by sight,” St. Paul declared to the Corinthians, and so we, too, have walked over the last few months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The June/July issue of The Lutheran Witness begins to ask questions about recovery. What have we learned about our response as the church? How did we — and how do we, in the future — continue to witness during government shutdowns?

How should we respond to these government mandates? How do we balance the command to be obedient to those in authority with St. Peter’s declaration that we must obey God rather than men?

COVID-19 is not the first plague the church has faced, and it will not be the last, pending our Lord’s return. In this issue, we seek to place our response within the historical context of past plagues and pandemics.

In the end, we do not trust what our eyes see, but what our Lord declares. Faith clings not to a vision of a perfect, glorious life here on earth, but to the One who died to destroy sin and death. And so, while the world around us frets and worries, we do not fear. Christ has overcome death and brought life.

Subscribe at cph.org/witness; enjoy web-exclusive stories and a selection of articles from the print magazine at witness.lcms.org.

Posted June 15, 2020