Date: September 10, 2023 

Scripture: Romans 8:26-39

Sermon Title: “Nothing” Sermon Series on Loneliness #1 “Pandemic and Loneliness”

Preacher: Rev. Dr. Bob Jon

You can also listen on Podcast from iTunes and Spotify. Search for “Podcasting from Rev. Bob Jon.”

Back in March 2020, I went to the church to work in my office. As I stopped by the sanctuary to say hi to the choir, I saw several faces with much concern. One of the choir members said, “Do you think that we need to cancel the worship service this Sunday?” The cases of COVID-19 were rising throughout the country, while Kansas, California, Alabama, and Wisconsin reported one of the first deaths in the U.S. It was still unclear how the virus was spreading from one to another. But we had to do something as a church. So, I still remember sending all church emails saying that we would cancel the in-person worship and instead hold online worship. 

Everyone was forced to stay home, as schools, gyms, and restaurants closed. Remote work and online learning became a new reality. Church was not exceptional, although some churches defied the order from the state not to hold in-person worship. While people were stuck in their homes, I wanted members of my church to feel like they were still at the church on Sundays. So, I brought my cellphone and the tripod. I turned on Facebook Live for the first time and led the worship service. I played the piano, played the recording of the liturgist reading scripture, and led in prayers. But I felt alone looking at the empty pews. Loneliness… 

Three years later, the CDC declared the end of Covid-19 as a public health emergency. It does not mean the virus is over, as it is still mutating and spreading among people. Some of you recently contracted it and had to quarantine in your houses. With the help of vaccines and medication, the virus is not as deadly as it was back in 2020. So, the question is, Are we back to normal? In other words, are we back to pre-pandemic? Many experts say no. They say that the pandemic has shifted our notion of work and that it is not just a means to bring food to the table. It should be meaningful to us while being able to maintain a good balance with health. 

At the same time, the pandemic has revealed how our society is deeply divided politically, as people debate with each other regarding the necessity of masks, the effectiveness of vaccines, and social distancing. It has shown how our society is still deeply ingrained in racism, as many channeled their frustration and violence to the Asian community in the U.S. Most importantly, the pandemic has not only highlighted but also exacerbated loneliness among people. I say exacerbated because people were already feeling lonely before the pandemic due to the lack of meaningful social connection. This pandemic has made it worse. 

According to a report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in 2018, 22 percent of all adults in the US say that they often feel lonely and socially isolated. Another 2018 study by the health insurer Cigna also reported that one-fifth of respondents said that they never feel close to anyone. Since many Americans are rooted in individualism, we tend to dismiss these numbers as unimportant. “Oh, everyone is lonely. It is just a matter of how one deals with it.” Unlike the way we deal with our physical problems, we often do not pay attention to our mental problems because they arouse feelings of guilt and shame. However, Dr. Vivek Murthy warns that loneliness could be associated with higher risks of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, addiction, self-harm, and dementia. 

While loneliness is a critical issue to public health, it is also a matter of faith for us Christians because faith is essentially communal in nature. It is interesting that Jesus who had all the powers in himself, such as healing the sick, walking on water, turning water into wine, calming the storm, feeding the multitude, and even raising the dead back to life. He is all powerful, all knowledgeable. Maybe he is someone who does not need others. But one of the first things he does in his public ministry is to call and gather his disciples. He goes around and calls the fishermen and tax collectors. When his mother and siblings came asking for him, Jesus turned to his disciples and others and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.” He expands the concept of family to include all those who do the will of God as his mother and siblings.  

Of course, Jesus often tried to find solitude so that he could pray to God alone and renew his strength. After he fed the five thousand people with the five loaves of bread and two fish, he withdrew himself to a remote place and prayed. Theologically, the wilderness often meant a place of punishment and death. It also meant a place to be alone with God, discern God’s will, and seek healing. Just because someone is alone, it does not mean that the person is lonely and isolated. You may not have another family member under the same roof, but you can still have a meaningful relationship with others who care about you as their friends. 

But faith is essentially communal, as Paul says in Romans 10:17, “Faith comes by hearing.” While many people claim that they have their own way of searching for the truth, we learn about who God is from someone who not only shares their testimony about God, but also lives out the love of God. When I was in high school, one of the girls in our youth group lost both her parents and her grandparents within one year. The continuing death of her family members drove her insane. From a precious daughter and granddaughter, she suddenly became the head of her household, being in charge of her two younger siblings. She wandered from one place to another mindlessly everyday. 

At that time, it was the people in the church who brought food to her and made sure that they did their homework. The youth group went to her house and brought her and her siblings to the church. We prayed for them. She has grown wonderfully, went to a college, and met her husband. She is working now as the principal of a kindergarten. She is a mother to two beautiful daughters today. My mother just came back from Korea last week. She told me that my friend came to visit her. And she said, “Ms. Jon, I do not know where I would be if it were not for people like you and others from that church. You fed us, prayed for us, and taught us to love God. I am who I am today because of people like you. Thank you.” 

Dr. Murthy says that while more people wrestle with loneliness and isolation today, the antidote to them is a social connection through which we feel that we belong, we are seen, and we matter. Loneliness often leads to many forms of addiction that destroy people, Dr. Murthy argues, “Connection based on a trusted relationship such as family or friends has even more potential to heal.”^[1] As many Christians call their churches “my church family,” a church, centered in the unconditional love of God, could be an antidote to our loneliness today where people are welcome, embraced, and empowered. I heard that during the pandemic, people at Aldersgate also actively met for the coffee hour via Zoom after the worship service. I also heard a group of people reach out to everyone on a weekly basis to make sure people did not feel alone, but they were loved. 

While the pandemic pushed people to feel more lonely, distanced, or fearful of intimacy, working as a factor to separate people from people, you responded to the grace of God through whom Paul said that there is nothing to separate us from the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He says, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? All these are probably what Paul himself had to endure as he was called to be the apostle for the Gentiles, often being rejected, stoned, and persecuted. He felt lonely as he was put into prison, cut off from his religious community, shipwrecked and floating on the water for days and nights. But by the power of God, he says, “No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 

It was Pentecost Sunday in 2020. I was all alone in the sanctuary again. I just played the hymn on the piano. I welcomed those who were watching the service from their homes. I played the sermon video recorded by Bishop Devadhar. All of a sudden, I heard the door to the church open and saw Faith walk in. She said, “I am 96-year-old. I don’t care however I go to God. I belong here.” While others had computers or smartphones to watch the service, she had neither of them. Since then, she became my worship buddy during the pandemic. From time to time, she would nod her head during my sermon which I thought she was agreeing with me but turned out she was taking a nap. 

Then, a man named Doug volunteered to help me with the livestreaming. I started the live streaming with my cellphone at the beginning of the pandemic. Several months later, the church purchased an overhead camera and computer. And Doug volunteered to move the camera, zoom-in and zoom-out. As I led the worship service, Doug would sit at the computer on the left side and Faith on the right side, singing a beautiful soprano and nodding her head during my sermon. And I remembered the words of Jesus to his disciples. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

Dearly beloved. Many people say that the pandemic is over. But Dr. Murthy says that loneliness is the new epidemic that we all face and struggle today. Someone may have a family and look externally like the happiest person in the world. But that person could suffer loneliness, feeling worn out, feeling not belonging anywhere. Someone could choose to withdraw themselves from a meaningful relationship with others because of their memory of hurt from those they trusted in the past. From time to time, we could feel that no one knows our pain, and no one will ever love us in a meaningful way. 

However, regardless of our circumstances, Paul reminds us that the love of God is not only eternal but also inseparable. “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruler, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There is nothing to separate us from the love of God, even this epidemic of loneliness. 

Amen.

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^[1] Vivek Murthy, Together: the Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, (New York: Harper Wave, 2020), 51.