Struggle: A Wrestling Match

It was an exchange I'd found myself in more than once before. Another mom friend was musing aloud with me about various schooling options for her oldest child. After a few minutes, I couldn't keep track of where we were in the conversation. This school emphasized strong academics while that school prioritized spiritual formation. The university acceptances reported by this school appeared more impressive than that school. That school seemed more well-rounded while this other school swelled with elitism. I understood the reality of these considerations, but in the moment, the obvious overwhelm on my friend's face felt more important. "How are you doing with the decision making process?" I asked. 

It turns out, not so well. She went on to explain how, as a young girl, school had been rife with struggle. Peer relationships never felt easy or secure, academic life was so full of competition that learning lost its joy, and school days regularly ended with an exhausted collapse into bed.  What felt significant was not so much the content of our conversation, but the anxious question that pulsed just below her musings.  Which schooling option for her son would protect him from the struggles she had endured?  

The drive to answer this question seemed to almost burn within her, as did the twin beliefs that a "struggle-less" option existed and, if she ruminated long enough about it, it was within her power to discover it.  The impulse felt familiar.  I thought of my own wonderings. "Maybe if I could just master this parenting technique..." "If only we lived in that kind of house..." "If I could just say the exact right thing at the exact right time in the exact right tone..." It would be never-ending to name all the ways I've tried to problem solve myself and those I love out of the reality that in this life, we struggle. 

We wouldn't argue with it on paper. It is through the struggle of labor pains that we are introduced to this world and it abides with us all the days thereafter. None of us can escape the indelible marks left by various forms of sin and suffering. I doubt I'm alone in my struggle with relationships, full of richness as much as they are also full of unmet longings. I struggle with my capacity for impact, satisfied one minute with the work of my hands and disappointed the next. I see my children struggle in their own ways and my heart aches because I know there is more to come. 

I am aware that life in this world is marked by struggle and yet, like my friend, I long for an "out," or at least a way to minimize it, particularly for those I love. We all sense our design for Eden, for shalom, for a perfectly "struggle-less" existence. We feel our souls aching for it, even as our lived experience unabashedly and frequently reminds us that we find ourselves elsewhere. It's quite the wrestling match, really. Struggle is unavoidable but nevertheless, we can't help but try to outrun it. 

I wonder if Jesus' words in John 16 were spoken with this wrestling in mind. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. Struggle is a given, Jesus names, but so too is the offering of hope. In Christ, we can cozy up to the idea that we struggle and in Christ, our hope is given a face and a name.

This is the beginning of a biweekly blog series in which we seek to address struggle, our tenuous relationship with it, and our hope in the midst of it. As we enter into some of the coldest and darkest months of an already tumultuous season in our nation's history, may we take heart that the struggles we face are no surprise to our Lord and in Him we have reason to hope.

—Claire Lewis

Merry Christmas From Your Rector

Dear Redeemer Family, 

Our beautiful Christmas Eve Lessons & Carols and our cheery Christmas Day Communion services are behind us. We’re halfway through our 12 days of Christmas and most of us are scattered far and wide - having a wide variety of holiday experiences I’m sure. 

• Some of us are snuggled in front of cozy fires with good books and family. 

• Some of us are still out and about on travels, enjoying sweet reunions with loved ones. 

• Some of us quarantined at home, watching other people enjoy the celebrations we long to experience. 

• Still others of us struggle to even want to celebrate. Loss of a dear loved one or loss of a job has made even the light of Christmas feel dark. 

Wherever you are my friends, know that you are loved and greatly valued by your church family. It’s been an especially hard year to feel that love and value. You might be tempted to wonder, “Do these people even miss me?” “Are these relationships still real?”  

The answer is simply and unequivocally, YES. 

As I write this, I’ve opened up our church roster and am reading through the list of names, imagining your faces, and giving thanks to God for you. 

I hear from many of you how much you miss being with each other. I know you value one another. 

But more than that, I know that our Lord Jesus loves you and values you. Some of us may feel unseen, unknown, and unpursued - but the glorious news of Christmas is that God sees you, knows you, and pursues you. Thanks be to God! 

Take comfort dear ones, you are greatly valued by God and loved by your church family. 

Merry Christmas! 

In the Father’s love,

Pre-Election Prayer Vigil

Dear Redeemer Family,

There is always a temptation for Christians in the United States —especially in election years—to shift our hope to the relative success or failure of our preferred political party. But we must remember that the Christian hope is rooted in a much deeper reality than politics: the triumph of Jesus over all worldly powers, including the seemingly-ultimate powers of sin and death.

Join us for a Pre-Election PRAYER VIGIL - Monday evening, November 2 from 7:00-8:00PM as we remind each other of our shared hope which transcends partisanship, and pray for the peace and unity of our city and country.

All are welcome. Please invite friends, neighbors and Christians from other churches who may be encouraged by our time together. Please RSVP here.

In the Father's love,        

Your Rector, Vestry, & Staff

Drawing Us Back Together As A Church Family

Dear Redeemer Family, 

This coming Sunday, October 25th, we are going to shift from four services (8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 4:00 p.m.) to two services (9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.) with an all-parish outdoor Coffee Hour in the VMFA Sculpture Garden in-between.

The Sunday schedule will look like this:

• 9:00 - 9:30 a.m. — Family Service

• 9:45 - 10:45 a.m. — Coffee Hour in the VMFA Sculpture Garden

• 11:00 - 12:15 p.m. — Full-length Service 

For many reasons, I am very excited about this move and I think it will be a healthy step forward for our community!

For the past few months, we have been learning how to worship together in person with all the extra restrictions that come with this season. I think most of us agree that it has been challenging, but overall worlds better than online services! Now that we’ve got a few months under our belt and many of us have acclimated to engaging the world with Covid-19 precautions, it’s time for us to take steps towards drawing back together as a church family. 

I’ve been thinking recently about what this parish was founded on:

• We’re a church that cares about musical excellence, but this church wasn’t founded on the quality of the music. 

• We’re a church that cares about faithful, Biblical preaching, but this church wasn’t founded on the quality of the preaching. 

• We’re a church that cares about doing things well, but this church wasn’t founded on the quality of the programming. 

• We’re a church that cares about the wisdom in our ancient traditions, but this church wasn’t founded on the traditions of church history. 

No, I think what makes us “us” is you - the people. We are a church that gathers in order to be the church together. The music, preaching, programming, and traditions all serve a greater purpose in helping us be a church family. This is why the most common refrain I’ve heard from many of you since mid-March is “I just miss everyone.” 

Friends, this is a painful-but-good sign. We should miss each other! We’re family! 

Now, what can we do about this right now? I think we still need to offer two different kinds of services until we’re able to run Redeemer Kids ministry and nursery again (and it might be a while). So we still need to offer a 30-minute family service and a 75-minute full-length service. However, to help provide opportunities for us to be together, we’re going to provide space between the two services for an all-parish coffee hour outdoors on the VMFA lawn. You are welcome to bring your own coffee/tea/hot beverage or (if you feel safe doing so) you are welcome to help yourself to freshly brewed Blanchard’s Coffee which we will have available. 

Now, lest you worry we are throwing caution to the wind, let me assure you that we will still be following all CDC and governmental precautions:

• Everyone who enters our building will be required to wear a mask.

• We will continue to have sanitizing stations available.

• We will still tape off sections of the pews to ensure safe social distancing within the sanctuary. 

• We will still ask everyone to RSVP for services online in advance so that we can cap attendance at 125 (which is still less than ⅓ of our max seating capacity) so that we can ensure that our space does not become too crowded. 

• When we gather for coffee at the VMFA, we will remember our public witness and intentionally spread out so as not to create a densely packed group of people that appears (to those who don’t know us) to not care about the pandemic. 

Folks, being a church together has never required more intentional effort, but it has also never been more necessary. Let’s not allow anything to prevent us from following our Lord Jesus as a community together. None of us can do this alone, we need each other. 

In the Father’s love,

An Invitation To Join Us For Fasting Fridays

As we navigate the murky waters of this season of life we find ourselves in, something that has impressed me as being a BIT more important and relevant than I realized it was is the spiritual discipline of fasting. 

From the earliest stories in the OT, to the early church in Acts, through church history to contemporary times, we have an abundance of evidence that God’s people approach trials, tribulations, national emergencies, impending attack or disasters as an opportunity to cry out, and seek His guidance, healing, deliverance, forgiveness, and protection among other things! 

Daniel fasted and received revelation about the future of his nation. Hannah sought God in fasting and prayer for the desire of her heart, and He gave her one of the greatest leaders in the Old Testament. Moses was a rock star in this discipline and after 40 days (twice) He got to see, hear and experience God while everyone else got a cloud and pillar. 

Isaiah laid out a pretty awesome explanation for why God called us to fast and what it accomplishes for His purposes.

Ezra proclaimed a corporate fast for protection, Esther did as well as she confronted their impending destruction. Jesus recommends it. In Acts the church fasted and prayed corporately before making big decisions to seek God’s will, not their own. 

John Wesley marveled as it averted disaster in London in 1756. King George VI called for a day of prayer and fasting before the miracle of Dunkirk. Thomas Aquinas found it noble. Martin Luther 

I think my favorite example of corporate prayer and fasting right now is in 2 Chronicles 20- I love this story! This is the Christa paraphrase, but the full story is here.

Jehoshaphat gets word that his nation is in grave danger from 3 different armies. The armies of Pandemic, Financial Collapse and Conflict and Division. (Kidding! Moabites, Ammonites and the inhabitants of Mt. Seir-way more terrifying)

It says he was afraid, AND he set himself to seek the Lord. So he proclaims a fast to cry out for help for his country, and I love his prayer, because you can just hear him looking up, not around. 

He cries out and says, "You are God, right, and you are bigger than this threat, right? You rule over all the kingdoms of all the nations, You hold power and might in your hand, so this isn’t too big for You, right? 

 You’ve helped us before, so (v 9) if disaster comes upon us-judgment, pestilence, famine, recessions, pandemics (ok last 2 I added!)…. (vs 12) we will stand before you and cry out in our affliction and You will hear and save. We have no power against everything coming against us, nor do we know what to do…..but our eyes are upon You."

The next verse says men, women and children were standing before the Lord (I take that as a corporate posture of seeking, knocking, inquiring), and THEN the Spirit came, and spoke reassurance as well as strategy and guidance and a promise. 

 They bow low, they worship and praise Him, they believe Him, did what He said, and then watched as their enemies turned and completely destroyed each other! They just got to march in and take the spoils of God’s victory over their lives. I love that it says they return home with joy.  And his realm was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around. 

Friends, are you discouraged? Do you feel trapped from all sides? Are you afraid of what you’re reading, hearing, seeing or experiencing? Are you concerned about what could happen next? Do you long for change? Do you long to see bonds break, oppressed go free, light to shine in dark places, truth to expose lies? 

Me too. This is my invitation to us to be like Jehoshaphat. We might be afraid, but may we set ourselves-RESOLVE to seek the Lord! Because He is found by those who seek Him. (Deut 4:29, Is 55:6, Lam 3:25, Jer 29:13, Mt 7:7)

We will find what we are looking for….

We have a unique hope because we get to look up, not just around at the mess around us. My hardest days are the ones where I don’t look up, and I let my circumstances, my fears, my emotions, or my news feed inform me of how I’m doing.

So, please consider joining me every Friday, to inquire of the Lord- to mourn, to grieve, to repent, to cry out, to ask, to listen, to hear, to respond to all that our God is up to in this time. 

Because I promise you, He is up to something redemptive. Even if we don’t see it, feel it or believe it, He’s on the move. And I want to stand with Him and witness all that He can accomplish even when it feels like hope is just beyond our reach. When it feels like we’re surrounded, we’re trapped. Lift up your heads! The King of Glory is coming- strong and mighty! (Ps 24:7-10)

 For the sake of brevity (or my attempt at it anyway!), if you’re interested in joining me and want to email me, please do! I’d love to hear from you as we as a staff and vestry ask the Lord for help. 

In hope,

 Christa Vickers-Smith

Care Team Coordinator

A Letter from Your Rector, Your Bishop, and Your Archbishop

Dear Redeemer Family,

If you’ve been giving any of your attention to the national news, you’ll have heard about the disturbing murder of George Floyd, the riots in Minneapolis, and the subsequent riots in Atlanta and in other cities around our nation. As I began to draft a letter to you, I received one from Archbishop Foley Beach that was written collaboratively by four Bishops in the Anglican Church in North America. Immediately after that, I received an email from the Bishop of our Diocese, John Guernsey, adding his name to the list of signatories on the first letter. 

I’m grateful for the wise, Biblical, and courageous guidance of our leaders in this time and I commend the following to you wholeheartedly. Additionally, I’d like to draw your attention to this paragraph towards the end of the letter. 

 “Our hope is that our churches become places where our life together as disciples demonstrates the power of the gospel to bring together the nations of the earth (Rev 7:9). Such work cannot be carried out by one letter written in the time of crisis. We commit to educating ourselves and the churches under our charge within a biblical and theological frame to face the problems of our day. We likewise commit to partnering with like minded churches in the work of justice and reconciliation.”

I’ll remind us that a letter is only encouragement along the way in the work of justice and reconciliation, it is not the work itself. May our parish be a beacon of light in a dark time and may we all be agents of mercy and peace in the way of Jesus. 

In the Father’s love,

Dan

---

Dear Friends,
 
The letter below was written by four of my brother bishops in the Anglican Church in North America, responding to the horrific death in Minneapolis last week. I, along with many other bishops, have added my name as a signatory to the letter.
 
I commend it to you and ask for your prayers for an end to racism, for the healing of our nation, and for the Church in our ministries of reconciliation.
 
Faithfully yours in Christ,
 
The Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey

---

George Floyd was made in the image of God and as such is a person of utmost value. This is not true because a few Anglican bishops issue a letter. This conviction arises from our reading of Scripture. The Psalmist said:
 
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. (Psalm 139:13-14)
 
The opening book of our Scriptures declares the value of all human life:
 
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. (Gen 1:27)
 
What happened to George is an affront to God because George’s status as an image bearer was not respected. He was treated in a way that denied his basic humanity. Our lament is real. But our lament is not limited to George and his family. We mourn alongside the wider Black community for whom this tragedy awakens memories of their own traumas and the larger history of systemic oppression that still plagues this country.
 
George’s death is not merely the most recent evidence that proves racism exists against Black people in this country. But it is a vivid manifestation of the ongoing devaluation of black life. At the root of all racism is a heretical anthropology that devalues the imago dei in us all. The gospel reveals that all are equally created, sinful and equally in need of the saving work of Christ. The racism we lament is not just interpersonal. It exists in the implicit and explicit customs and attitudes that do disproportionate harm to ethnic minorities in our country. In other words, too often racial bias has been combined with political power to create inequalities that still need to be eradicated.
 
As bishops in the ACNA we commit ourselves to standing alongside those in the Black community as they contend for a just society, not as some attempt to transform America into the kingdom of God, but as a manifestation of neighborly love and bearing one another’s burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ. We confess that too often ethnic minorities have felt that contending for biblical justice is a burden they bear alone.
 
In the end, our hope is not in our efforts, but in the shed blood of Jesus that reconciles God to humanity and humans to each other. Our hope is that our churches become places where our life together as disciples demonstrates the power of the gospel to bring together the nations of the earth (Rev 7:9). Such work cannot be carried out by one letter written in the time of crisis. We commit to educating ourselves and the churches under our charge within a biblical and theological frame to face the problems of our day. We likewise commit to partnering with likeminded churches in the work of justice and reconciliation.
 
The Feast of Pentecost is here in a couple of days. The power of the Spirit is loosed to convict of sin and deliver us from its power. We pray that in a country as diverse as these United States, the Church will be united in the essential truths of Christianity, including its concern for the most vulnerable. So…come Holy Spirit. Mediate to us and all the earth, we pray, the victory of Jesus over the principalities and powers that seek to rule and cause death and destruction in this time between the times. Come Holy Spirit.
 
Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation: Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
 
Almighty God, you created us in your own image: Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and help us to use our freedom rightly in the establishment of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
 
Sincerely in Christ,
 
Bishop Jim Hobby
Bishop Todd Hunter
Bishop Stewart Ruch
Bishop Steve Wood
Bishop John Guernsey

 

*Read the original ACNA post here. 

It's Hard To Wait

Dear Redeemer Family,

I’m sure that many of you have been hoping (as have I) that we will be able to meet together, in person, soon. There seems to be an awful lot of chatter this week about “reopening” - with a pretty wide variety of opinions about what we should all do next. Rest assured, I am in regular conversation about this with our Bishop, pastors of other churches, knowledgeable health care providers, our Staff, and our Vestry. 

I know, I know - we want a plan. I want a plan! Dear friends, those of you who know me, know that I love strategic planning. Few things are as exciting for me as brewing a fresh pot of coffee and breaking out the white board. However, that is exactly what we do not need to do right now. We don’t have enough information and we do not have a clear enough vision of what the next few months will look like for us to roll out a step-by-step plan for reopening. 

Fear not. The minute we have enough data - that’s exactly what we’ll do. 

In the meantime, we get to hear what my kids hear from me 5,438 times a day, “You just need to be patient.” 

Oh, the joy of waiting. I was thinking this afternoon about some of the hard things we may be feeling as we all wait for church, school, and the economy to reopen. 

1. This is a Frustration to our Independence: I think one of the most annoying and difficult things about waiting to reopen is that this is a decision that is, largely, made for us and not made by us. We are not in control, and we feel that reality more viscerally with every passing day. 

2. This is a Challenge to our Individuality: Additionally, waiting to reopen is (for the most part) not an individual decision, but a communal one. This requires our society to act as a group for the good of the whole. While that sounds like a nice principle in theory, what it feels like in practice is sacrificing what I want to do for the good of other people. 

3. This is a Drain on Our Energy: Talking about reopening, strategizing about reopening, watching the news as other people argue about reopening, reading articles online about reopening… are you tired yet? Me too. 

It’s hard to wait. It’s even harder to wait when you don’t know how long you’re going to be waiting. 

In that sense, this time is (give me some rope here) a bit like what all of life is like for a Christian. We await the return of our King, but we don’t know how long we’re going to be waiting. 

The whole Christian life is lived between two Advents, the first and second coming of the Lord Jesus. If we knew how long we’d be waiting, this whole thing would be a heck of a lot easier. However, it would also require far less faith. You see - you can “white knuckle” just about anything if you know how long you have to hold on. 

A lot of us have been “white knuckling” this quarantine. We’ve been hanging on through sheer will power - determined to “get through this.” However - as this time stretches on and on - our ability to hang in there is going to weaken and one of two things will happen:

1. We’ll break. “I just can’t take this anymore. I don’t care what anyone says, I'm going to do what I want.” 

2. We’ll grow. We’ll finally enter into the rhythms and practices that God has been inviting us to take up all along. Praying throughout the day, reading scripture every day, communicating with our neighbors and seeking to meet their needs, serving the poor and vulnerable in our city. 

Here’s just a little something to help us while we wait. This is a song written by Flo Paris Oaks from Rain for Roots. It’s called, appropriately, “It’s Hard to Wait.”  I’ve been humming it as I putter around the house this week. The chorus goes like this: 

There is gonna be a day
Every low valley He will raise
There is gonna be a day
Hills and mountains gonna be made plain
There is gonna be a day
Winding roads gonna be made straight
Comfort, comfort, comfort, comfort
It's hard to wait
So hard to wait

You can listen to the whole song here (written by Flo Paris Oakes, ©2015 Flo Paris Music). 

Friends, we have a lot of waiting to do. Let’s not “white knuckle” it and let’s not waste it. I am eager for us to reopen and we will just as soon as our Bishop, our elected officials, our studied and credentialed health organizations, and your Vestry deem it wise to do so. 

Until then, I am waiting with you and (more importantly) the Lord is waiting with you. 

In the Father’s love,

Dan

Ahmaud Arbery & Our Need For Exorcism

Dear Redeemer Family,

On the afternoon of February 23, 2020, Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African-American man, was fatally shot after being pursued and confronted by Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael, who were armed and driving a pickup truck.

Some of you may have followed this story in the news recently. If this is unfamiliar to you, you can read more about it here. 

Friends, this atrocity is sickening… it makes us both nauseous with grief and livid with rage. So many people are asking, “Why does this keep happening?” “When will this kind of racist violence end?” 

This week, as I was praying for the Arbery family and reflecting on the ongoing racial strife in our nation, I was also (by necessity) preparing for the sermon for this coming Sunday. We are in the midst of a series on the Lord’s Prayer and the phrase for this coming Sunday is “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Some translations of the last part of that line read “deliver us from the evil one.” As I reflected on both this tragedy, the evil of our time, and this phrase that the Lord Jesus taught us to pray - I happened to stumble upon a chapter in a book that addressed all of these together. Rather than attempt to summarize what I read, I’ll just quote it verbatim. The following was written by the Rev. Dr. Wesley Hill, Professor of New Testament Studies at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA. 

“One of the fascinating developments in recent science, both in the hard sciences as well as the social sciences, has been the focus on how human beings are at all times at the mercy of powers greater than themselves. Contrary to sunny notions of free will and self-expression, we all are shaped by powers as small as microscopic biochemical forces, some of which are microbial interlopers in our bodies, to those as large as inherited notions of what constitutes acceptable gender performance.

Think, for instance, of how racism makes itself manifest in a society. Older generations of white Americans may have more readily thought, “So long as I am paying my black employee a fair wage and greeting her warmly each day, I’m not a racist.”

But racism operates more covertly and insidiously than that. In a recent experiment, for instance, a sociologist asked participants to stare at a screen on which a series of black and white faces flashed. These images appeared and disappeared so quickly that the viewers were not even consciously aware of having seen them. Immediately after seeing a black or white face, the participants were then shown a picture of a gun or a tool. These images were quickly removed from the screen but not quite as quickly as the facial images, so as to allow the participants to register having seen them.

It turned out that when participants viewed a black face followed by a tool, they were more apt to remember the tool as having been a gun than they were when the image of a tool followed that of a white face. The racialized tendency to associate black faces with a violent weapon, the sociologist concluded, “requires no intentional racial animus, occurring even for those who are actively trying to avoid it.” People are, in a very real way, enslaved to something outside of their control. As one theorist has put it, racism has “a life of its own.”

So modern Western minds actually might be catching up with the inspired wisdom of Scripture rather than the other way around. Evil is not just what we do, but—more hauntingly—it is what we suffer, what we are mired in and encrusted with. And if that is the case, we are unable to extricate ourselves from it by any direct action.

No amount of good intentions—to return to our example from above—can cause a white person to disassociate black skin from the threat of harm. The prince of racism—and of so many other forms of evil—hinders even the most virtuous white people from ending their own racist habits of mind by sheer decision.

Stronger medicine is needed. And that is what Jesus urges us to pray for: we must, in the end, appeal to God to deliver us from the grip of the Evil One. Christians who worship whiteness don’t just need education; we need exorcism.”

—

“Stronger medicine is needed. 
Christians who worship whiteness don’t just need education; 
we need exorcism.”

—

I think fellow Anglican pastor the Rev. Dr. Hill is absolutely right. The past racial wounds and the ongoing racial malevolence here in the city of Richmond and in the United States of America will not be healed by mere education (or by even the best material, social, financial, relational efforts). These are all a good start, but they are just that - a start. We dwell in a time and place of far deeper spiritual oppression that cannot be accurately described as anything other than demonic. 

Therefore, when we hear the stories of Ahmaud Arbery, or Breonna Taylor, or Oscar Grant -  we, the church, must fall to our knees and (with the words of the Lord Jesus on our lips) pray for our nation, for our culture, for our neighbors, and even for ourselves,, “Deliver us from the evil one.” We pray this for Ahmaud, for his family, for his friends and community, for the black community in Brunswick and all over the nation. 

We must also pray this for the McMichael family. Though we are tempted to hatred, we must pray for their souls - that they would be delivered from the evil that has made them instruments of death. 

As we pray these Jesus words, we must then get up off our knees and go about the Jesus work of loving and serving our neighbors, our city, and even our nation.

Jesus’ words and Jesus’ work always go hand in hand - and the church must be a people of both. In the face of such blatant racism, we must pray the Lord’s Prayer and then we must live the Lord’s Prayer. 

Dear church family, the days are troubled - may Christ deliver us from evil. Amen. 

In the Father’s love,

Dan

Prayer and The Material World

I know you’ve experienced this. 

In a moment of well-intentioned extroversion you ask someone, “Is there anything I can do for you?” They kindly and predictably reply, “Please just pray about ________.”   To which you instinctively feel the desire to respond, “But, is there anything I can ACTUALLY do for you?” 

Me too. It happens all the time. We don’t feel as if we are truly doing something for each other unless it involves using our hands and feet. 

Now - this instinct is both right and wrong - or rather, right and insufficient. 

RIGHT: The instinct is right insofar as it reveals our desires to impact the real, physical, material world. We are not Christian/Buddhist hybrids who think the spiritual is superior to the physical and therefore a spiritual act (like prayer) is more meaningful than a physical act (bringing someone a meal). 

The Christian faith takes the material world seriously. God made it, called it good, gave it for our stewardship and blessing, and has redeemed it with his material death and resurrection. His promise is to restore the material world. He cares for it, loves it, and is committed to it - and so, as Christians, are we. 

So, our desire to serve each other by doing something physical is a good instinct - it takes the materialism of our Christian faith seriously. 

INSUFFICIENT: However, it is also wrong, or - more precisely - insufficient. When we pray, we are not doing something merely spiritual. But rather something that is both spiritual and material. To be clear, this is only true of Christian prayer, not all forms prayer. 

Christian prayer is distinct because we pray with and in the Spirit of the risen Jesus Christ. Jesus is God made flesh. The spiritual eternally fused with the material. God becoming part of His creation. 

So when we pray in the Spirit of Jesus, we stand with Him between the spiritual realm and the earthly realm to speak and listen back and forth. The words we speak into and hear from “the heavens” shape and change both us and our world. 

SO WHAT? Now (this is going somewhere, I promise) we are all quarantined in this time of coronavirus pandemic. We want to be doing more for and with each other - but the answer the question, “how can I help you?” will (for the next few weeks) be answered 90% of the time with some version of, “Can you pray for ______?” 

So, my friends, since we are unable to do the things we would normally prefer to do rather than pray, let’s seize the opportunity to give ourselves to prayer in a new way. Not as an alternative to doing something material, but as a means of impacting the material world. 

SOME HELPERS: As a reminder that our prayers impact the physical world, the church has historically taken up embodied practices during prayer. 

• Crossing Oneself: Touching your forehead, left shoulder, right shoulder, and center chest while repeating “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” A reminder that the cross of Christ is your forgiveness and redemption. 

• Kneeling: Reminding you to approach God with humility. 

• Lying Prostrate: A sign of complete submission to the will of God.  

• Lifting One’s Arms: Originally an Orthodox posture of prayer, this has been more recently adopted by the Charismatic movement - a sign of worship and adoration. 

• Holding a Cross: Gripping a small, wooden cross in your hand while you pray - to remind you that, it is only because of the cross of Jesus that your prayers of heard and accepted. 

Friends, you might use all or none of these, the point is - prayer is one of the few things we have left to do for one another, for our neighbors, and for our city. 

What if, in this strange time of quarantine, we labored long and faithfully in prayer? 

What if this was the season where you learned how to pray consistently? 

What if (if you have kids) this was the season you learned to pray as a family?

What if you came out on the other side of quarantine a changed person because you spent such significant time in prayer? 

In the Father’s love,

Dan

We Need The Contours of Holy Week (Now More Than Ever)

Dear Redeemer Family, 

Yesterday, when Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued the Stay-At-Home order - (which will remain until at least June 10) our need for a prescribed sense of order and routine went from a felt-need to an absolute-essential. Whether we’re trapped in an apartment by ourselves, or marooned in a retirement community house, or sequestered in a brick rancher with toddlers - we are all experiencing the tendency for the hours and days to stretch on and on endlessly. Someone sent me a meme the other day with this phrase, “In case you forgot the date, today is March 97th.” Amen. Me too. Here here. 

As I call, text, email, zoom with many of you - I keep hearing stories about some of you finding yourself still in pajamas at 2pm, eating 7 meals a day out of boredom, and giving in to the temptation to watch Netflix past midnight. I’m also hearing lots of stories from parents of young children who are going stir crazy and have already exhausted every activity, craft, lesson, story, game idea they have! 

Yall, this is hard, and the bad news is, it’s about to get much more difficult. All of us will either descend into a kind of depressed, anxious, boredom; or we will exercise and develop the kind of inner and outer disciplines that are necessary to give structure and order to an otherwise flattened season of life. 

*Aside: For the handful of us that think we are the exception to the rule - that we can skate by without sliding into lethargy or strengthening into discipline - let’s not fool ourselves. We are all on a trajectory here: are we growing and taking steps forward in faith or are we backsliding? It is always one or the other. There is no neutral ground. Ever. 

And to give us the kickstart we need to begin ordering our days with great intentionality, we have the most important week of the year - HOLY WEEK. 

The gift of Holy Week for us, in the time of quarantine and coronavirus, is not only it’s content (the passion of Jesus), but also its contours (the lowest of lows and highest of highs). 

We need the content of Holy Week - more than ever before. 

We need to reenact the triumphal entry, the footwashing, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. We need to be reminded that Jesus comes to be our King, to serve us, to give Himself as a ransom for us, and to secure our eternal future. 

But we also need the contours - we need days that are different from one another. 

Days that are set apart, special, holy. 

This is the gift of going through Holy Week in the time of coronavirus. 

Yes, we are lamenting being separated from one another and bemoaning the total lameness of doing Holy Week services online. I feel it too. Trust me. 

However, there is a hidden gift for us here. More than ever we are in need of structure - an order that is imposed upon us, from the outside. So many of us are not all that good at running our own schedules! We are not good masters, not even to ourselves! 

We need to be told what to do and how to do it. Holy Week gives us the order and structure that we need. 

So dear friends, next week, I invite you to give yourself to fully participating in Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. Throw yourself headlong into these times of worship, prayer, service, fasting, and celebration. Allow Holy Week to be something of a bootcamp, a pre-season training of sorts, to whip us all into spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical shape for the challenging season that lies ahead of us. 

Who knows what the next few months will be like? No matter what comes our way, we will be prepared if we have allowed the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus to shape our hearts, minds, bodies, and even our schedules. 

In the Father’s love,

Dan

Life in the Crucible

“The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts”.

— Proverbs 17:3

Simple. Beautiful. Sobering. 

• The simple elegance of a Hebrew proverb - crucibles and furnaces are designed for the purification of precious metals. 

• The beautiful imagery - our minds conjure up scenes of noble blacksmiths hard at work heating and hammering. 

• The sober realization - this is the way of the Lord when it comes to our hearts. 

Now, to be sure, it is not the only way of the Lord in the tending of human hearts. The Lord is also our comforter, protector, and provider. He heals and binds up wounded souls. As we’ve been examining the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we’ve considered God the Father as the welcomer of broken and contrite hearts.

All true. 

Now, to the consolation of God as comforter, we add the challenge of God as tester. This is equally true, and (perhaps surprisingly) equally loving. Our Heavenly Father cares for us far too much to let warped desires and bent trajectories fester and twist within us. Like a caring parent cradling a child with a skinned knee on His lap… first he hugs, then he scrubs the wound with soap. 

To be clear - I’m not claiming any special knowledge or spiritual insight by claiming that our present season of quarantine is a test from the Lord. Rather, I think all of us can observe what is happening in our own lives and easily conclude - this is a test for me. 

Speaking autobiographically, I’ve been knocked off my rhythm. My daily and weekly routine, crafted and solidified over decades, has suddenly, dramatically, and forcibly changed. 

I don’t quite feel myself. 

Which makes sense I suppose, if we really are homo liturgicus (the liturgical creature). 

In the heat of this crucible season, all sorts of unpleasant and unsightly things are bubbling to the surface in my life. My self-narrative (the story I tell myself about who I am) is crumbling in the face of new and incontrovertible evidence. Here’s what I’ve seen thus far: 

• My self-narrative of easy-going flexibility has been disrupted and exposed me to be a person of rigid, deeply ingrained habits. 

• My self-narrative of generosity has been disrupted and exposed me to be a person with subtle, but unyielding selfishness. 

• My self-narrative of gracious love has been disrupted and exposed me to be a person who is basically annoyed almost all the time. 

I could keep going… but you get the picture. My secret vanities and my private selfishness are being brought to the surface in very unsightly, unbecoming-to-a-pastor ways. I am not a fan. 

But in the long run, I trust that it’s good. It stings like soap on a skinned knee. 

Friends, why does the Lord do this to us? Why does the Lord test us?

Because who you are when you’re alone is who you really are.  Because who you are when you’re under stress is who you really are. This is the wisdom of the crucible: that when we are isolated and under pressure, all the worst parts of us come out. When these ugly things come out of us, we have a choice - we can blameshift, or we can offer them to the Lord for purification.

A word on blame shifting:  Y’all, it’s the oldest defense in the book. Literally - Genesis 3. The woman made me do it. The serpent made me do it. Coronavirus made me do it. Can we agree that, in the stressful, uncomfortable days ahead, blame shifting should have no place amongst us? Let me not be too quick to excuse my behavior and let myself off the hook. 

Rather, let me be quick to do what the crucible is meant to do in me, which is to lead me to deeper repentance and heart transformation. The Lord is testing my heart, and - dear friends - He may be testing your heart as well. This testing is not a punishment for past sin, nor an evaluation of spiritual performance, but rather a crucible, furnace-like testing that is designed to lead us to more deeply and fully repent by exposing sin that we didn’t even know was there. 

So in the days ahead, let’s embrace life in the crucible and allow the Lord who loves us to test our hearts. What we see will not be pleasant. But if we allow it to drive us to our knees and to more fully repent, then we will discover a newfound joy and appreciation for the Gospel - for the Lord who tests is also the Lord who forgives. 

In the Father’s love,

Dan

Saint Patrick, C.S. Lewis, & the Next Eight Weeks

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):

1. 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. 

2. 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. 

3. 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. 

4. Pastoral Care—is still available to you in two different ways. 

   1. 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. 

   2. Second, we can always talk on the phone or video chat together. 

5. 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

Precautions & Practices During COVID-19

Dear Redeemer Family,

As concerns Dear regarding the coronavirus have escalated around the world and in our own country, I have spent much time over the past two weeks talking with our Bishop, other Rectors in our Diocese, many other lead pastors of Richmond churches, as well as our church Wardens and staff about how we as a church can respond wisely and courageously. While we do not yet have a comprehensive strategic plan for the coming weeks and months, here is the temporary plan for the next week.
 

THE GRAVITY OF SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19

We continue to monitor closely the ​CDC​ and ​VA Department of Health ​recommendations regarding ​SARS-CoV-2 (the virus)​ COVID-19 (the disease caused by the virus)​.​ Governor Ralph Northam has declared a ​state of emergency​ in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the City of Richmond recommends ​postponement or cancellation of all large events​.

Now, I know that, within our congregation, we are all over the map regarding how serious we feel the situation is. Some of us feel that public officials have been too slow to take action. Others feel that the threat is overblown and that everyone else is overreacting. Still others have not been paying much attention to this and will be surprised to learn that University of Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond City, Henrico Co., and Chesterfield Co. Public School, and many other schools and institutions are temporarily shutting down.

No matter how we may feel personally, let’s remember that our top priority as a church family is not preserving our way of life and ministry, but rather love for God and neighbor.
 

OUR MOTIVATION

Which brings me to my second point - and let me be clear on this one: Our motivation in taking significant action in response to the pandemic is ​love​, not fear.

Fear seeks to protect the self at all costs; love seeks the protection of others at cost to the self.

As the author of 1 John writes, “​There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.​” Therefore, in the coming days, the most important question we can ask ourselves as a church family is, “​How can we protect our neighbors and our city in these troubled times?” Answering this question will no doubt require much sacrifice on our part. It will cost us something. But dear friends - this is the way of Jesus in the face of threat. And, surprisingly, this is also the path of joy.
 

IMMEDIATE CHANGES

So, motivated by love and desire to protect our neighbors and city, here are the immediate changes we are implementing.

1. Our March 15 Sunday morning worship service is canceled.​ Yes, this breaks my heart. I’m one of those, “we-always-do-church-no-matter-what-kind-of-guys” - but if we are to slow the spread of the virus and avoid overwhelming our city’s health care system, we must do everything we can to slow the transmission from person to person. We cannot stop it (that is outside of our control), but we can do things to slow it down.

   1. We will send out prayer liturgies, songs, and a recorded message for you to use to worship the Lord and pray in your home.

2. Small Group gatherings and all other ministry programs for the Week of March 15-21 are also canceled​. I do think there are wise and cautionary ways that some people can gather (and I will send out some guidelines for how we can do small gatherings), but our current format for Small Group gatherings and other ministries are not conducive for this. So, until we are able to establish best practices for small gatherings, we are temporarily suspending all ministry programs.

   1. Note: Though our Small Groups are not able to gather together, that does not mean that we are unable to pray for, communicate with, and care for one another.
       

THE WEEKS AHEAD

At this stage, so much is changing so quickly that I do not think we can accurately predict what we will need to do weeks and months in advance.So, at this stage, here’s what I can tell you:

1. Your Vestry and Staff are praying for you and working to create a strategic plan to help our church navigate the difficult days that lie ahead.

2. You can expect that things will, most likely, not return to “normal” for a little while. Let’s all commit to suspending our expectations and allowing a mental and emotional shift to take place within us. Our world is fraught with anxiety. Our neighbors are fearful. This not a time for us to wish that life were easier. Rather - this is a time for us to find our deep security and hope in Christ and to be a stable, courageous, compassionate, non-anxious presence to our families, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Remember the words of our Lord, ​“In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” ​I love the old King James translation of this verse. Instead of ​“take heart” ​it reads, “be of good cheer.”​ Though we face many challenges ahead, we need not face them with gloom and doom, but rather with good cheer because our hope is in Jesus.
    

WAYS TO CARE

Friends, the church has a long and robust history of caring for others during times of sickness. Now what shape might that take for us?

1. Praying on our knees for each Other & for Neighbors:​ What if, as anxiety in our city heightens, we spend more time on our knees praying (not for our own protection) but for the health of others?
    

2. Food & Sustenance for Each Other & Neighbors: ​What if, when some of us are quarantined at home, we drop off food, hydration, and basic over-the-counter medicines for each other?
    

3. Writing Real Letters:​ What if, when some of us are separated from one another, we take up that old practice of putting pen to paper and writing real letters to one another?
    

4. Make Real Phone Calls: ​Texting is easy, phone calls take more effort. What if, when we are apart from one another, we do that old-fashioned thing where we pick up the phone and call for no other purpose than just to talk?

Additionally, our friends at ​ForRichmond.org​ have sent out a list of helpful steps in loving our neighbors:

1. Make a list of your neighbors – the neighbors on your block and the folks in your broader network. Take 5 minutes to think about who might need your help right now.

2. Do you have a 65+ neighbor? Call, text, or knock and keep a safe distance and ask if they need anything – groceries, a prescription refilled, a good book to read to pass the day.

3. Do you have a nurse, doctor, EMT or a first responder in your life?Mow their lawn while they’re at work. It one less thing for them to think about and a simple way to show you care.

4. Do you have working parents with school-aged children who need childcare support now that schools are closed? Offer to watch their kids for a day. Ask other neighbors if they would be willing to help too.

5. Do you have a sick neighbor that is quarantining him or herself? Call or text to find out what they might need and leave it on their doorstep so they can access it without exposing you to sickness.

6. Do you know someone in a nursing home or hospital who no longer is allowed to have visitors? Give them a call and let them know they’re not alone.

7. Do you have neighbors or friends who struggle with anxiety? Check in on them and encourage them to embrace self-care strategies like limiting social media and news consumption. If they are open to prayer, pray with them.

8. Do you know a family that struggles with food insecurity? Share some of the groceries you picked up for own family.

9. Do you have Asian-American neighbors? Many are experiencing a lot of ignorant comments and racism right now. Talk to your kids about why that’s wrong and if you hear others saying racist things, gently but firmly confront it.

10. Are you a block captain or an admin on a neighborhood message board? Use your existing network to reach out and see if there are neighbors in need.

These are just a few, simple starters. No doubt you will think of many more creative ways we can care for one another and for our neighbors outside our church family.

Dear ones - we do not yet know what kind of storm we are headed into as a city and as a church family. But we do know that our Lord is with us, and therefore we have nothing to fear.

May the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

In the Father’s love,

Dan

*POST-SCRIPT | PERSONAL PRECAUTIONS

To keep germs from spreading, the Virginia Department of Health recommends you do the following:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer only if soap and water are not available.

• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing.

• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

• Stay home when you are sick.

• Avoid contact with sick people.

• Avoid non-essential travel.

A Letter from Bishop John Guernsey regarding COVID-19

---

Dear Friends,

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7).

The global spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus, has become a focus of attention and concern for many of us. I have been reading extensively about it. I have consulted with diocesan leaders, including doctors and scientists with advanced degrees and expertise in virology, immunology and infectious diseases. Drawing on their wisdom, I offer these points:

1. Trust God. 

In the midst of uncertainty, we trust God. He is sovereign over human history and over our lives. He is the Lord, “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). And he is loving and merciful. Psalm 100:5 assures us, “For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.”

We witness to our Christian faith when we resist panic, knowing that our times are in the Lord’s hand (Psalm 31:15). No one can snatch us out of the Father’s hand (John 10:28-29). And so, “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

The Book of Common Prayer offers on page 269 a list of suggested Psalms on many helpful themes, including God’s sovereignty, providence and mercy, trust in God, and living faithfully in times of trouble. If reading from the Psalms in not a part of your daily prayers, I’d encourage you to turn to one of these psalms each day to keep your heart focused on the Lord and his presence and care.

2. Be informed. 

There is much on the internet from unhelpful extreme perspectives that encourage either panic or complacency. Neither is appropriate. Pay attention to health advisories from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and your state and local governments. Experts in our own diocese are tracking and helping us to implement, as needed, recommendations from these and other sources.

• The CDC website provides a wealth of information about the disease and appropriate steps for individuals, churches, schools, and businesses to take.

• You may wish to subscribe to the CDC’s COVID-19 newsletter to get regular updates. Go to their newsletter subscription page and choose the newsletter entitled, “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).”

• The Virginia Department of Health website also offers resources and information, including up-to-date statistics on the number of COVID-19 cases in Virginia (there are none) and even the number of people currently who have been tested or are being monitored. Other states and some local governments have similar websites, as well.

3. Be prudent.

Wash your hands! Wash them frequently and thoroughly, for a minimum of 20 seconds using soap and warm water. There is no substitute for this. While alcohol-based hand sanitizers can kill bacteria, they have not been shown to be adequate against COVID-19 or other viruses. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recently warned that an alcohol-based hand sanitizer is not an effective agent against viruses such as COVID-19.

For cleaning surfaces, such as doorknobs, telephones, countertops, etc., the CDC and our experts recommend using bleach (1 part bleach to 100 parts water).

If you have symptoms of a cough, disease or a fever within the last 24 hours, please stay at home. An infectious disease specialist in our diocese emphasized how vitally important this is, though COVID-19 can also be spread by people who have not developed symptoms of illness.

If you are returning from known areas of higher prevalence of COVID-19, we encourage you not to attend church for two weeks. The list of affected areas and the period of self-quarantine will likely change in the weeks ahead.

Prudence and care, especially for those who are susceptible to this and other viral illness, may lead to temporary changes at your church. I have written to our clergy and church wardens with specific steps for your church to consider, particularly in worship. They have my permission to make these changes as they deem appropriate, and this may result in adjustments in, for example, your church’s pattern of passing the Peace and administering Holy Communion. 

The World Health Organization now reports that the mortality rate of COVID-19 is many times higher than that of influenza. While we will know more in the coming weeks, the present circumstances warrant steps beyond what we do in a normal flu season to prevent the spread of disease. If we wait until there is a local outbreak, it will be too late for the effective preventative action. 

Know that the plans being considered will be undertaken wisely, prayerfully, and in compliance with governmental directives and in consultation with local physicians and scientists.

4. Act in love. 

Reach out to your neighbors, particularly the elderly and those who are vulnerable or alone. 

And pray. Pray…
for those suffering from COVID-19 around the world;
for doctors and nurses and other medical personnel who care for them;
for researchers seeking a vaccine to prevent it;
for wisdom for public health officials and other government leaders;
for peace and for deliverance from fear or anxiety;
for the witness and ministry of the Church to those in need.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

+John

On The Keeping of a Holy Lent

Dear Redeemer Family,

We are about to enter a special, albeit, mysterious season of the year - the Season of Lent. For some of us, we are already anticipating certain rhythms of fasting and discipline that we will take up. For others of us, we’ve heard people talk about Lent, but the meaning and purpose of this season remain strange and confusing to us. So, to help us as a church family all get on the same page, here is some information that I hope you find helpful: 

What Is Lent? Lent is a 40 day period (not counting Sundays) of Christ-centered devotion between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. The practice of Lent has been observed by Christians around the world since the second century. This season is meant to mirror the 40 days of fasting that Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for His ministry. 

Why Practice Lent? The most important reason to practice Lent is to draw near to Jesus Christ and become like him. Lent is a season of intentional discipleship under Christ and with Christ. We also practice Lent to bond more closely with fellow Christians who are on the same journey, not only in our local church but also around the world. Along the way, our sin and enslaving habits are put to death, and we learn to internalize and share in Christ’s resurrection power.

INVITATION TO PRACTICE LENT AT REDEEMER

To the extent that you are able, practice Lent with your church family. 

• Begin with an Ash Wednesday service and receive the sign of the cross in ashes on your forehead - reminding you of your own mortality. 

• Participate in a Small Group and discover that you are not alone in your struggles. 

• Give up comforts like: sweets, alcohol, and some forms of technology and entertainment on Monday-Saturdays.

• Take up new disciplines like: daily scripture reading, daily confession, giving away extra time and money to our Justice & Mercy Partners. 

• Feast on Sundays! 

• Plan ahead for Holy Week, so that we can walk through Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday together as a church. 

What we hope you’ll find is that, as we enter into these practices together, God’s grace for us is more abundant than we previously thought. We’ll try together and we’ll fail together, then we’ll confess our sins together and be forgiven together. When we come out on the other side, into a bright Easter morning, we’ll find ourselves closer to Christ and closer to each other. 

HOW MIGHT WE GROW SPIRITUALLY DURING LENT?

There are some themes that often arise when people describe their experience of practicing Lent; however, this list is not exhaustive, God’s activity in your life cannot be predicted or controlled.

➤ Humility – Humility is the capacity to recognize who we are in relationship to the living God. The path of Lent reveals our mortality, sin and limitations. Often, the Holy Spirit reveals personal and corporate blind spots during Lent. Our hunger pains, headaches and failures during Lent become living reminders of our great need for the salvation offered through Jesus Christ.

➤ Reordered Loves – The gentle harness of Lent is designed to loosen our unhealthy attachments to creation (including food, drink, and money) so that we may enjoy a deeper bond to the Creator. We learn to internalize and enjoy the love of Christ during Lent. 

➤ Purity – Soren Kierkegaard said that “purity of heart is to will one thing.” During Lent, we see the incompatibility between our commitment to Jesus and our dabbling in idolatry. We confess our sins and thereby take hold of the forgiveness that is ours in the Gospel.

➤ Joy – As we give ourselves to him in our suffering, Jesus Christ supplies us with a lasting spiritual overflow and the consolation of the Holy Spirit. This is to be distinguished from a spiritual high, which cannot be sustained over time or during suffering. Easter Sunday and corporate worship during Lent grants us a taste of heaven.

➤ Renewed Imaginations – As we progress through events of Ash Wednesday, the 40 days of Lent and the drama of Holy Week, see ourselves and the world as they are in God. The events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection become for us a window into the new creation (otherwise known as the Kingdom of God) in which we can participate and from which we can receive a secure identity.

➤ Dependence – During Lent, we unlearn the lie that we are self-made, self-contained individuals. We learn to draw upon the life of God and the bonds of affection with our fellow Christians.

Friends, the season ahead is not fun per se, but it is good. Starting tomorrow - let’s begin this journey towards the cross and the empty tomb together. 

In the Father’s love,

Dan

GO DEEPER | ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR KEEPING LENT

PRACTICES & SCHEDULES

• Lent in the Common Rule by Justin Early

• An American Lent by The Repentance Project
  

ARTICLES TO READ

• What’s the Point of Lent? by Greg Goebel

• Keeping a Holy Lent by Craig Higgins
  

SUGGESTED BOOKS TO READ DURING LENT

• The Good of Giving Up by Aaron Damiani 

• A Way Other Than Our Own by Walter Bruggeman

• The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard

• Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

• Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

• Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Calhoun
  

MUSIC

• Lamentations by Bifrost Arts

• Lent to Maundy Thursday by Page CXVI

• Resurrection Letters: Prologue by Andrew Peterson

• Fortunate Fall by Audrey Assad
  

VIDEOS

• What is Lent? By Immanuel Anglican Church

Freedom and Community

Midway through every 7 year-old girl’s favorite musical, Frozen, Elsa delivers a line that summarizes so much of our cultural moment. Having put aside the constraining expectations of her family and the royal court at Arendelle, she sings: 

“I’m alone. But I’m free.”

What a line. It so concisely summarizes the predicament of our modern understanding of freedom. You and I tend to think of freedom as the absence of all constraints, of anything that would inhibit the fulfillment of our deepest desires and wishes: “anything that makes demands upon my time, money, pleasure, and resources that I don’t prefer must be at least an undesirable (if not a categorically bad) thing.” Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a society, institution, career, or even another person who perfectly aligns with each of our individual desires. 

As a result, we settle for a kind of freedom that leaves us feeling deeply alone. 

We know that we have needs for relationship and community, but how can we reconcile their constraints with our insistence on being able to do what we want whenever we please? How do we navigate between our desire for freedom and our desire for community? 

In the Christian story, freedom is not something that we achieve by throwing off all constraints. Rather, true freedom is the presence of the right restraints. A fish that has thrown off the constraint of only living in water is not free. It’s dead. Similarly, a person who shirks all attachments that demand any form of sacrifice is not a true person, but a diminished person.

If we want to know what it means to be truly free, we have to know what it means to be a person. We have to understand what it means that we are made in God’s image, that we bear resemblance to God himself and are imbued with longings that are a part of God’s good design for us. 

Part of what it means that we bear God’s image is that we are inherently relational creatures. Christianity is different from all other religions because it asserts that love is not a created thing, but an eternal thing. God didn’t create us so that love could exist. Rather, God is love and has been dwelling in perfect love (shared between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) from forever. This means that our longing for relationships is not primarily the result of the brokenness of the world (though the world is certainly full of relational dysfunction), but part of a good desire God placed in us to reflect his character. 

We can’t be healthy people without some healthy relationships. 

So, (strong pivot!) let me invite you to consider what it might look like for you to enter into this strange freedom that is Christian community and find a satisfaction you can’t know without it. 

At Redeemer, one of the forms community takes is found in small groups—which are exactly that: gatherings of people meeting throughout the week and throughout Richmond to eat, pray, and read the Scriptures together. Click here for a full list of small groups and leaders’ contact information. 

Small groups relaunch tonight (January 14) and you are warmly invited.
We look forward to seeing you there as we discover more of God’s freedom together. 

All of grace and peace,

Jeff