Dear Redeemer Family,
What a strange and trying time this is for all of us. So much has changed so quickly. Just a couple weeks ago, very few of us were taking the threat of coronavirus seriously; and now here we are - social distancing, quarantine, watching countries close their borders, and wondering how long it will be before things return to normal.
THE QUESTION
It’s that last sentiment that I want to address today, “how long will it be before things return to normal?” I spent some time yesterday on a call with our Bishop and the 40+ Rectors of other churches in our Diocese (what a gift it is to be a part of a network of wise, thoughtful pastors). With the CDC recommending postponing all gatherings of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks, with our President calling for no gatherings of 10 or more people, and with many health care experts predicting that that the virus may impact our lives well into the Summer months, it is reasonable to expect that it may very well be two months or longer before we are able to gather together as a church family. Therefore, it is time for all of us to undergo a difficult, but necessary mental and emotional paradigm shift. What I mean is, if we spend the next days and weeks thinking, “it’s almost over,” or “any day now things will go back to normal,” then we will be essentially treading spiritual water - thinking that this season is a blip on the radar - something for which we just need to grit our teeth and ride it out. If we maintain that kind of attitude, not only may we be unprepared for the serious challenge of the days ahead, but we will also miss out on the invitation that the Lord has placed in front of us.
So, for the foreseeable future, here is a tentative gameplan (which we will adjust as needed):
Sunday Worship—will be facilitated through our website. Similar to what was posted this past Sunday, there will be a prayer liturgy, a video-recorded sermon, and some video-recorded songs with which you can sing along. The goal of this time is not a passive viewing experience, but rather tools to help you actively worship and pray in your home.
Small Groups—will be facilitated via video conferencing—we recommend Zoom. Ben Lansing, our Small Groups Coordinator is working with all of our small group leaders to help them set up the right technology for the needs of their group. We’re in the process of figuring out how to move our small groups into a virtual space; thanks for your patience. If you have a question about what your group is doing, please email your leader. If you are not yet in a Small Group, now is the right time to join! Please email Ben and he will connect you with one.
Prayer Requests & Physical Needs—are welcome to be shared within Small Groups and/or with members of the Care Team and Staff. You are welcome to email me or Christa Vickers-Smith, our Care Team Coordinator with any prayer requests or physical needs you may have.
Pastoral Care—is still available to you in two different ways.
First, you are welcome to come and meet with me in person outdoors. We can sit 8 feet apart from one another in the metal chairs in the VMFA Sculpture Garden.
Second, we can always talk on the phone or video chat together.
Justice & Mercy—for our neighbors and city are still something we are committed to as a body. If you are young, healthy, and able - contact Teryn Morgan for ways to serve the most vulnerable people in our community. We will also include justice and mercy service opportunities in every Parish Newsletter.
THE INVITATION
So what is the real invitation here? Whenever the Lord led his people into the wilderness or into exile, He did so in order to invite them to trust Him more fully and to obey Him more faithfully. The wilderness is where God’s people learned how to follow Him, exile is where they learned that He was with them no matter what. Now, I’m not saying that we are being led into the wilderness or exile in a biblical/theological sense, but I do think we all recognize that we are being led into a unique season of testing where we will either learn to trust the Lord more deeply, or we will slip into self-centeredness, apathy, and fear.
Thankfully, the church knows something of what it means to grow and even thrive spiritually when cloistered away from society. I’m referring to the monastic movement which began as early as the 3rd and 4th century. Distancing oneself from society in order to devote oneself to prayer, fasting, and simple labor - and then, at times, to reenter society in order to serve the poor, the sick, and the needy is a rhythm and style of life practiced by thousands (if not millions) of men and women for the past 1,700 years! In other words, the kind of lifestyle that we are being forced into is not a foreign one in the history of the church - this is something we know how to do!
(More on this in the days to come) For now I’ll encourage all of us to begin thinking of our apartments and homes as mini-churches, mini-monasteries - places of order, prayer, work, and dependence on God - places from which we then (in intentional and strategic ways) launch out into the city to serve those who are most in need.
The sooner that we allow ourselves to undergo this mental and emotional shift and embrace a “new normal,” the more likely we are to discover that the Lord is here to meet with us, even in this troubling time.
ENCOURAGEMENT FROM SAINT PATRICK
Some of you may know the story of Saint Patrick - whose day our society remembered and celebrated yesterday. Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland at sixteen years of age. He survived six years as a slave before escaping and returning to Britain, where he studied the Christian faith and was ordained as a priest. Then, in a move that shocked his contemporaries (and continues to shock us today), he returned to Ireland as a missionary - seeking to love the very people who tormented and abused him.
The fruit of his courage was beyond what he or anyone else could have expected. Thousands and thousands of Irish men, women, and children came to put their faith in Christ as a direct result of the surprising love and bravery of Patrick. In the story of Saint Patrick, we see a model for what it looks like to walk into danger motivated only by love for Jesus and love for others - even those who pose threat to our wellbeing.
ENCOURAGEMENT FROM C.S. LEWIS
A dear friend of mine posted this quote from C.S. Lewis a few days ago, and I thought it was so helpful that I want to share it with you. This is Lewis reflecting on the fear of nuclear attack that society had in his time. Simply replace “atomic bomb” with “coronavirus,” and his words are highly relevant to us in our present moment.
“In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.”
—“On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
Dear friends - let us give ourselves to sensible and human and Christ-like things. Let’s order our time in the ways that Christians have always ordered their time when in danger or separated from society. Let’s resist anxiety and embrace the deep wisdom and cheerful courage of the Lord Jesus.
Our Lord is with us, He is inviting us to follow Him into the foggy and uncertain days ahead, and we may accept this invitation in full trust that His presence will always be our comfort.
In the Father’s love,
Dan
