In His Lifetime Jesus Taught US
Cosmic Mystery Series
Virus Wisdom
In His Lifetime Jesus Taught Us
Tune: MANNHEIM 87.87.87
Melody from a chorale by
Friedrich Filitz 1804-76
Adaptation attrib.
Lowell Mason 1792-1872
- In his lifetime Jesus taught us
To observe and then reflect
On the laws that nature teaches
If we pause and then inspect
Ways of plant, or bird, or seed life *
To affirm or to reject.
- In the midst of fear and dying
What can Covid nineteen teach?
Wherein lies its deepest wisdom
What new truth can we now reach?
Every process holds a wisdom
That is nature’s form of speech.
- We had thought that what seems tiny
Can’t exceed what’s very large
Yet a microscopic virus
Can unleash a tragic charge
Teaching us what seemed important
May be only a mirage.
- Free and open market theory
Says that more is always best.
Competition will protect us
From the plight of all the rest
But as viral plague is spreading
Rich and poor both form its nest.
- If we choose to live believing
That democracy’s supreme
In all human situations
Plague can change this long held dream
And let us see state controlling
Can at times be our best scheme.
- When the lives of all are threatened
Kindness can become the norm;
Worth we give to wealth and power
Can’t divert the viral storm
But compassion is the best way
To embrace what’s wise and warm.
* Matt. 6/28 Luke 12/24 Matt. 13/31 Matt. 13/33
Text © William Livingstone Wallace
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William (Bill) Livingstone Wallace is a retired New Zealand Methodist Minister and one of our most prolific contributors. Bill says that his work springs from communicating with the fire in his gut and his observation of both the internal and external aspects of the Cosmos. Since an early age, he has been both sympathetic to and critical of the church, announcing at the age of 13 his belief in evolution. In his youth, he struggled with the disconnection between art and spirituality in his own and other denominations and with the way in which all of the liturgies prior to the sermon were regarded as preliminaries and longer sermons were viewed as superior to more concise ones.
He holds a B.A. in philosophy and a Dip. Ed. and is the author of nine published collections of his hymns as well as other resources on our website. His aim is to help people be empowered by the divine within them and the Cosmos and to work to overthrow the forces of personal and institutional greed which destroy both the ecosystem and human society.
Click Here for a Full Biography of William L. Wallace
Click here for a complete list of his work on ProgressiveChristianity.org