Ulrich Zwingli: Plague Hymn

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:2

The Swiss Reformer, Ulrich Zwingli, contracted the black death while caring for the sick in 1519. Like many who suffer today from COVID-19 which tends to cause difficulty breathing and take weeks to beat, he thought the plague might claim his life.

Christian History reports: “His famous “plague hymn” recounts his sense of trust and then his joy at regaining health. Stanzas 1–4 were written as the disease first struck, stanzas 5–8 as his health deteriorated. Upon his recovery he finished the final four quatrains.”

1. Help me, O Lord,
My strength and rock;
Lo, at the door
I hear death’s knock.

2. Uplift shine arm,
Once pierced for me,
That conquered death.
And set me free.

3. Yet, if thy voice,
In life’s midday.
Recalls my soul,
Then I obey.

4. In faith and hope
Earth I resign.
Secure of heaven.
For I am Thine.

5. My pains increase;
Haste to console;
For fear and woe
Seize body and soul.

6. Death is at hand.
My senses fail.
My tongue is dumb;
Now, Christ, prevail.

7. Lo! Satan strains
To snatch his prey;
I feel his grasp;
Must I give way?

8. He harms me not,
I fear no loss,
For here I lie
Beneath thy cross.

9. My God! My Lord!
Healed by the hand.
Upon the earth
Once more I stand.

10. Let sin no more
Rule over me;
My mouth shall sing
Alone to thee.

11. Though now delayed,
My hour will come.
Involved, perchance.
In deeper gloom.

12. But, let it come;
With joy I’ll rise,
And bear my yoke
Straight to the skies.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) battled with the black death at age 35 and survived. His work was not done. He would lead the reformation of the church in Switzerland and meet the Lord at age 47.

I pray this hymn touches you deeply as it did me. I can do nothing but pray after reading it over and over. Join me.

Father in heaven, hear our prayer for help as pains increase all over the world. Though death snatches many, we fear not. We will bear our yoke and serve others, including the sick, with joy in our hearts. Our confidence in Christ’s love and work for us and the promise of heaven sustains us. Bring deliverance by your Holy Spirit. But if not, we fear no loss for we are secure at the foot of the cross. In your mercy, come to our aid. Amen.

“Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16

“When pestilence begins to stalk abroad, or famine or war, or when any other disaster seems to impend over a province and people, then also it is the duty of pastors to exhort the Church to fasting, that she may suppliantly deprecate the Lord’s anger. For when He makes danger appear, He declares that He is prepared and in a manner armed for vengeance.

In like manner, therefore, as persons accused were anciently wont, in order to excite the commiseration of the judge, to humble themselves suppliantly with long beard, dishevelled hair, and coarse garments, so when we are charged before the divine tribunal, to deprecate his severity in humble raiment is equally for his glory and the public edification, and useful and salutary to ourselves. And that this was common among the Israelites we may infer from the words of Joel. For when he says,

Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. (Joel 2:15)

he speaks as of things received by common custom. A little before he had said that the people were to be tried for their wickedness, and that the day of judgment was at hand, and he had summoned them as criminals to plead their cause: then he exclaims that they should hasten to sackcloth and ashes, to weeping and fasting; that is, humble themselves before God with external manifestations.

The sackcloth and ashes, indeed, were perhaps more suitable for those times, but the assembly, and weeping and fasting, and the like, undoubtedly belong, in an equal degree, to our age, whenever the condition of our affairs so requires. For seeing it is a holy exercise both for men to humble themselves, and confess their humility, why should we in similar necessity use this less than did those of old? We read not only that the Israelitish Church, formed and constituted by the word of God, fasted in token of sadness, but the Ninevites also, whose only teaching had been the preaching of Jonah.

The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.” Jonah 3:5-9

John Calvin (1509-1564) in The Institutes of the Christian Religion 4.12.17 (Grand Rapids: CCEL) 758-759.

Calvin was impacted by the plague his entire life. Scholars note that it was probably the cause of his mother’s death at 3 years old, and what likely motivated him to leave Noyon for Paris to study at 14. His hometown had been hit. His actions, however, do not reflect fear or selfishness, but appropriate care and concern.

We can trace that Calvin had no fear of the disease throughout his life but exercised both compassion (my word for the year) and care. He visited the sick in many instances. He also established a hospital in Geneva and appointed deacons to care for the sick in isolation (see The Ecclesiastical Ordinances, 4th Order).

While the practical approaches Calvin took toward the plague match the care people are taking in modern times, we must not overlook the spiritual counsel of Calvin as the plague afflicted people throughout his life. Whenever the plague raged, he called the pastors to tell the churches to fast, to pray, and to confess. He wanted them to call to God for helpin humility.

As I read from the Scriptures he referenced from Esther, then Joel, and then Jonah, I was touched deeply.

In Esther we learn that when crisis impacts everyone, the right response is to call for a fast. From Joel we learn to engage in this practice together. Perhaps “the sacred assembly” can take place with appropriate social distancing. And from Jonah we learn that, interestingly, both the people and the animals fasted. I find that especially fascinating because coronaviruses normally impact animals, and this one is afflicting people too.

Why fast, pray, and confess?

I can speak to this. They are the spiritual priorities that God has led me to have the staff, board, and regional facilitators of Global Trust Partners to call people to practice all over the world. Again, why?

They are the three practices that God’s prophets called God’s people to practice to humble themselves and ask for divine help. They are the only path of deliverance from the financial corruption that has ravaged churches and ministries worldwide. And, related to COVID-19, they mark the way to find physical relief during a plague.

The crisis we face is beyond our pay grade. We need God’s help. Not as a last resort but as a first priority, let us get our focus off ourselves (like God said to Jonah) and call the Church to fast, pray, and confess, asking God for mercy for people who need to repent and for safety for the animals too (as God loves animals).

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah 4:10:11

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2 Corinthians 4:17

“The fear and faith of God ought to make you prepared for everything, although it should be the loss of private estate, although the constant and cruel harassment of your limbs by agonizing disorders, although the deadly and mournful wrench from wife, from children, from departing dear ones; let not these things be offences to you, but battles: nor let them weaken nor break the Christian’s faith, but rather show forth his strength in the struggle, since all the injury inflicted by present troubles is to be despised in the assurance of future blessings.

Unless the battle has preceded, there cannot be a victory: when there shall have been, in the onset of battle, the victory, then also the crown is given to the victors. For the helmsman is recognised in the tempest; in the warfare the soldier is proved. It is a wanton display when there is no danger. Struggle in adversity is the trial of the truth. The tree which is deeply founded in its root is not moved by the onset of winds, and the ship which is compacted of solid timbers is beaten by the waves and is not shattered; and when the threshing-floor brings out the corn, the strong and robust grains despise the winds, while the empty chaff is carried away by the blast that falls upon it.”

Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, writing during the plague in North Africa (c. 251) in Treatise VII, On the Mortality, 12, in Treatises in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, Volume 5 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899) 472.

As we continue reading the words of the bishop in the midst of the plague, we are reminded that “struggle in adversity is the trial of the truth” or in plain terms, it shows our true character and colors.

Let’s not be blown away by this current adversity. On this Saturday, let us pause with gratitude that “the fear and faith of God” makes us ready for anything. We might lose everything or even our lives.

Look around you. Everything you see is temporary. Don’t let your current troubles rob you of the reality and assurance of future blessings. Keep living, giving, serving, and loving generously. This is our moment to shine like lights in a dark world. We’ve got this because God’s got us.

Remember Noah and his family weathered the storm for 40 days. But they did not get out of the ark to begin life anew for a whole year. This COVID-19 tempest may last a similar length and the aftermath may take a year or more to sort out. Only the Father in Heaven knows.

May “the fear and faith of God” not only help us from being blown away like chaff, but may it be our greatest witness to a struggling world.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

“Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly refuse. 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 places and persons 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 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.”

Martin Luther in The Annotated Luther, Pastoral Writings, Volume 4, ed. Mary Jane Haemig (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016) 404. Special thanks to my GTP colleague, Ruthie Cristobal, for redefining “social distance” with the terms “social solidarity” and “physical distance.” That’s the posture I am recommending from snow-covered Colorado.

During the plague of 1527, Martin Luther describes the unselfish act of keeping “physical distance” from others which is to avoid unnecessary contact with people to who may be infected and if infected to avoid unknowingly spreading disease to others. Again, this practice is being prescribed virtually all over the planet in this COVID-19 crisis.

Rather than complain about what the authorities are doing or worrying about what we cannot do, consider what you can do to show love for God by loving others with “social solidarity.” Call or text your neighbor to check in. Discourage foolhardy behavior, and always include love with whatever you do because perfect love is the only thing that drives out fear.

But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. Job 23:10

“Job, after the loss of his wealth, after the death of his children, grievously afflicted, moreover, with sores and worms, was not overcome, but proved; since in his very struggles and anguish, showing forth the patience of a religious mind, he says, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, naked also I shall go under the earth: the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as it seemed fit to the Lord, so it hath been done. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” [Job 1:21].

And when his wife also urged him, in his impatience at the acuteness of his pain, to speak something against God with a complaining and envious voice, he answered and said, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, why shall we not suffer evil? In all these things which befell him, Job sinned not with his lips in the sight of the Lord” [Job 2:10]. Therefore the Lord God gives him a testimony, saying, “Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in all the earth, a man without complaint, a true worshiper of God” [Job 1:8]…

Righteous men [and women] have ever possessed this endurance. The apostles maintained this discipline from the law of the Lord, not to murmur in adversity, but to accept bravely and patiently whatever things happen in the world; since the people of the Jews in this matter always offended, that they constantly murmured against God, as the Lord God bears witness in the book of Numbers, saying, “Let their murmuring cease from me, and they shall not die” [17:10].

We must not murmur in adversity, beloved brethren, but we must bear with patience and courage whatever happens, since it is written, “The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise” [Psalm 51:17]; since also in Deuteronomy the Holy Spirit warns by Moses, and says, “The Lord thy God will vex thee, and will bring hunger upon thee; and it shall be known in thine heart if thou hast well kept His commandments or not” [8:2]. And again: “The Lord your God proveth you, that He may know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul” [Deuteronomy 13:3].”

Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, writing during the plague in North Africa (c. 251) in Treatise VII, On the Mortality, 10-11, in Treatises in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, Volume 5 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899) 471-472.

We are living in challenging times. My prayer for everyone reading this is that God will enable us to come forth as gold and appear as true worshipers of God. That means we accept joyfully the struggles and suffering without murmuring.

Before I offer some practical suggestions, let us learn from the bishop and his use of Scripture. Notice that to inspire Christians facing difficulty, he drips Scripture. He reminds them that God tests and us and what He looks for, that God notices servants like Job as well as grumblers. He sees all.

God sees us in our self-quarantines and our social distancing. How will we function? I suggest you call one or more people daily. Check in. Ask them how they are doing? Many are in crisis. They were just laid off or furloughed from their job. Offer to assist them as you are able.

Some may be doing well. The COVID-19 crisis may not be impacting them much yet. If so, invite them to join you in reaching out to others and offer the same care. Cyprian knew that if their hearts were focused on trusting God rather than complaining, that people would see Christ in them.

It worked then. It caused the gospel to spread, and it can work now. It’s one thing easy to live generously in good times, but what we do in moments like this can best reveal our Christian faith to a hurting world. He knows the way we take. When He has tested us, may we come forth as gold.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:53

“It disturbs some that the power of this disease attacks our people equally with the heathens, as if the Christian believed for this purpose, that he [or she] might have the enjoyment of the world and this life free from the contact of ills; and not as one who undergoes all adverse things here and is reserved for future joy.

It disturbs some that this mortality is common to us with others; and yet what is there in this world which is not common to us with others, so long as this flesh of ours still remains, according to the law of our first birth, common to us with them? So long as we are here in the world, we are associated with the human race in fleshly equality, but are separated in Spirit. 

Therefore until this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal receive immortality, and the Spirit lead us to God the Father, whatsoever are the disadvantages of the flesh are common to us with the human race.

Thus, when the earth is barren with an unproductive harvest, famine makes no distinction; thus, when with the invasion of an enemy any city is taken, captivity at once desolates all; and when the serene clouds withhold the rain, the drought is alike to all; and when the jagged rocks rend the ship, the shipwreck is common without exception to all that sail in her; and the disease of the eyes, and the attack of fevers, and the feebleness of all the limbs is common to us with others, so long as this common flesh of ours is borne by us in the world.

Moreover, if the Christian know and keep fast under what condition and what law he has believed, he will be aware that he must suffer more than others in the world, since he must struggle more with the attacks of the devil.”

Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, writing during the plague in North Africa (c. 251) in Treatise VII, On the Mortality, 8-9, in Treatises in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, Volume 5 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899) 470-471.

As I continue to read the words of Bishop Cyprian to the people, he reminds them that disease and trouble will affect all people. Whether a person follows Christ or not, does not make he or she immune from disease or difficulty. The same is true for COVID-19.

But the bishop reminds us of the good news. The generous gift of life in Christ gives us hope of the resurrection. Mortal Christians will someday receive immortality. But while we wait for that day, the bishop keenly reminds us, we should be prepared to suffer attacks from the devil.

That’s right, Christians also face the temptations. How are you tempted today? Related to compassion and generosity, don’t let fear cause you to hoard or hide. That’s what the evil one wants. Follow leading of the Spirit and keep living generously and loving your neighbor as yourself.

And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good. 2 Thessalonians 3:13

“I pray to God to give me perseverance and to deign that I be a faithful witness to Him to the end of my life for my God.”

St. Patrick in The Confession of St. Patrick, trans. by Ludwig Bieler, in Saint Patrick, by William J. Federer (St. Louis: Amerisearch, 2002) 68.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. In his Confession, Patrick states this simple prayer that has never been more fitting.

God, help us persevere as faithful witnesses, with Patrick, so that in this time of crisis, people see Christ in us as long as we may live. Amen.

Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Luke 21:31

“Although in very many of you, dearly beloved brethren, there is a steadfast mind and a firm faith, and a devoted spirit that is not disturbed at the frequency of this present mortality, but, like a strong and stable rock, rather shatters the turbulent onsets of the world and the raging waves of time, while it is not itself shattered, and is not overcome but tried by these temptations; yet because I observe that among the people some, either through weakness of mind, or through decay of faith, or through the sweetness of this worldly life, or through the softness of their sex, or what is of still greater account, through error from the truth, are standing less steadily, and are not exerting the divine and unvanquished vigor of their heart, the matter may not be disguised nor kept in silence, but as far as my feeble powers suffice with my full strength, and with a discourse gathered from the Lord’s lessons, the slothfulness of a luxurious disposition must be restrained, and he who has begun to be already a man of God and of Christ, must be found worthy of God and of Christ.

For he who wars for God, dearest brethren, ought to acknowledge himself as one who, placed in the heavenly camp, already hopes for divine things, so that we may have no trembling at the storms and whirlwinds of the world, and no disturbance, since the Lord had foretold that these would come. With the exhortation of His foreseeing word, instructing, and teaching, and preparing, and strengthening the people of His Church for all endurance of things to come, He predicted and said that wars, and famines, and earthquakes, and pestilences would arise in each place; and lest an unexpected and new dread of mischiefs should shake us, He previously warned us that adversity would increase more and more in the last times. Behold, the very things occur which were spoken; and since those occur which were foretold before, whatever things were promised will also follow; as the Lord Himself promises, saying, “But when ye see all these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is at hand.” 

The kingdom of God, beloved brethren, is beginning to be at hand; the reward of life, and the rejoicing of eternal salvation, and the perpetual gladness and possession lately lost of paradise, are now coming, with the passing away of the world; already heavenly things are taking the place of earthly, and great things of small, and eternal things of things that fade away. What room is there here for anxiety and solicitude? Who, in the midst of these things, is trembling and sad, except he who is without hope and faith? For it is for him to fear death who is not willing to go to Christ. It is for him to be unwilling to go to Christ who does not believe that he is about to reign with Christ.”

Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, writing during the plague in North Africa (c. 251) in Treatise VII, On the Mortality, 1-2, in Treatises in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325, Volume 5 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899) 469.

These are complex, challenging times. Thankfully, “He previously warned us” that in such times, the kingdom or the reign of God is near. What does this mean? In plain terms, it means God has gotten the world’s attention.

Only weeks, even days ago, people thought they were in charge of their lives, their futures. I don’t exclude myself but count myself among such people. We plan as though we are in control. We are not.

Moments like these become defining moments if we allow “faith and hope” to guide us toward our true home, rather than “anxiety and solicitude” reveal our intoxication with “the sweetness of this worldly life.”

While I hear ministry blokes calling for social distancing to avoid plague outbreaks and overcrowding of medical facilities, what I am not hearing is that our lives must be regarded as less important than our neighbors.

Most messages sound like advice on how to survive in this present world. I believe the reason Jesus warned us that such times would come because He wants God wants us to prepare for the next.

Was the world passing away in the days of Cyprian? It obviously did not pass away in the middle of the third century. So what does this expression mean and why does it matter for us in these difficult times?

The bishop wanted people to grasp the fact that Jesus told us that this present existence is temporary. It’s the wrong thing to live for. I echo this. It’s why we must keep living, giving, serving, and loving generously.

We have forgotten that “perpetual gladness” awaits us. God forgive us. We have gotten too comfortable here. Lose that feeling. Now, the kingdom of God is near. Come Lord Jesus. Let us give Him our attention and allegiance.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.

Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead. Exodus 12:30

“To other men the present might not seem to be a suitable time for a festival. Nor indeed is this or any other time suitable for them; neither sorrowful times, nor even such as might be thought especially cheerful. Now, indeed, everything is tears and every one is mourning, and wailings resound daily through the city because of the multitude of the dead and dying. For as it was written of the firstborn of the Egyptians, so now ‘there has arisen a great cry, for there is not a house where there is not one dead.’ And would that this were all! For many terrible things have happened already.

First, they drove us out; and when alone, and persecuted, and put to death by all, even then we kept the feast. And every place of affliction was to us a place of festival: field, desert, ship, inn, prison; but the perfected martyrs kept the most joyous festival of all, feasting in heaven. After these things war and famine followed, which we endured in common with the heathen. But we bore alone those things with which they afflicted us, and at the same time we experienced also the effects of what they inflicted upon and suffered from one another; and again, we rejoiced in the peace of Christ, which he gave to us alone.

But after both we and they had enjoyed a very brief season of rest this pestilence assailed us; to them more dreadful than any dread, and more intolerable than any other calamity; and, as one of their own writers has said, the only thing which prevails over all hope. But to us this was not so, but no less than the other things was it an exercise and probation. For it did not keep aloof even from us, but the heathen it assailed more severely.”

Dionysius of Alexandria (c. 200-265) writing c. 260 about the impact of the plague and pestilence on the people of Alexandria, as recounted by Eusebius Pamphilius (263-339) in Ecclesiastical History 7.22.

Reading the letter from the bishop we find the impact of a plague on the people in general. It causes them to lose heart. It is “more dreadful than any dread, and more intolerable than any other calamity.”

And notice the powerful words he states about the church. “But to us this was not so, but no less than the other things was it an exercise and probation.” The plague was a time of testing. It is the same today.

Will we pass the test? The test is linked to where we place our hope. Will our faith in Christ shine in crisis? This is an exercise and probation for us. As darkness covers the earth, we must show that nothing prevails over hope.

Dionysius reminded everyone to celebrate the hope of Easter back in 260 despite the plague. Likewise, let us rejoice in these days leading up to Easter 2020 with the same resolve. Hope despite great mourning.

This is our moment to love deeply and mourn sincerely. Despite social distancing, for those you touch or text, remind them of the hope and peace only found in Jesus Christ in word and deed.

Hope reigns supreme in times filled with terror, fear and darkness, with sickness, death and mourning, and with plague, pain, and sadness, the bishop Dionysius would say, because of three words.

Christ is risen!

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 82:3-4

“The emperor, Julian launched a a campaign to institute pagan charities in an effort to match the Christians. Julian complained in a letter to the high priest of Galatia in 362 that the pagans needed to equal the virtues of Christians, for recent Christian growth was caused by their “moral character, even if pretended,” and by their “benevolence toward strangers and care for the graves of the dead.” In a letter to another priest , Julian wrote, “I think that when the poor happened to be neglected and overlooked by the priests, the impious Galileans observed this and devoted themselves to benevolence.” And he also wrote, “The impious Galileans support not only their poor but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us.”

Roman Emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus (c. 331-363) is known as Julian the Apostate for his rejection of Christianity. This excerpt from letter to a priest, as recounted by Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997) 83-84.

Nothing can touch love. In a world on lockdown due to COVID-19 ask God today how you could show love and kindness to someone.

Again, the tendency in crisis is to hoard rather than help, to retreat rather than to refresh, and to close or shut down rather than care and share.

These are unprecedented times. This is our moment to shine. The world is watching. Holy Spirit, empower us to be people of benevolence!