Saturday, May 2, 2020

“Not ‘What?’ but ‘How?’” - May 3, 2020



Acts 2:42


            If you think we’re living in chaotic and dangerous times, you’re right.  And so did Jesus.

Right after Jesus was born, a ruler with a shaky claim and an uncertain hold on power heard a rumor that someone else who might be considered the rightful king had been born in Bethlehem, so he ordered the massacre of all boys less than two years old.  Joseph had been warned and had taken his family to Egypt for safety, so Jesus spent his earliest years as a political refugee.  Later, Jesus’ inner circle included a man called Simon the Zealot.  The Zealots were a group advocating war against Rome.  That alone, even ignoring what Jesus was teaching about the Kingdom of God, made him suspect so another disciple, Judas, was bought off by people who wanted Jesus dead and were willing to pay solid silver to see it happen.

From there, things became more chaotic.  His followers insisted that although he had been dead and buried, he somehow returned from the dead.  They insisted that his Spirit, which was not a ghost but his power and presence, was encouraging them to keep on doing what he had done.  Meanwhile, the danger grew with the confused state of the time and place they lived.

            Bitterness and violence turned into civil war and rebellion.  After an uprising that killed 6,000 Roman soldiers, the legions enslaved or crucified people all over Galilee and Judea on their way to starve Jerusalem into submission.  In August of 70 A.D., they broke through the walls; slaughtered the defenders; and looted, burned, and leveled the Temple.

            No Temple?  No sacrifices?  Every Jew in the empire considered as a hostile alien?  What about the followers of someone who had been executed by Pilate, the Roman prefect, with a sign over his thorn-crowned head identifying him as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”?  We – you and I – have no idea what torment the faithful endured all through that terrible period.  The effect would be far more profound than our temporary arrangements.  They had to meet in locked rooms because they were marked for death.  We are asked not to travel.  They fled for their lives. 

What we do know is that they did endure.  The Zealots were slaughtered, the Sadducees disappeared with the Temple.  The Pharisees developed into modern Judaism.  The smaller group that followed this suspect Messiah/King, Jesus, became us.  Each one of these groups had to ask questions like: now that Jerusalem was gone, now that there was no Temple and there were no sacrifices to atone for their sins, were they doomed to carry the guilt forever? 

Jesus’ people already had an answer.  They looked at the death of Jesus and asked if and how that took the place of the sacrifices in the Temple.  They looked at his resurrection, and saw new life for them as well, as individuals and as a community.  Their faith was not centered on a place anymore, but on a person.

Like him, they began to live a new life.  They came to accept Gentiles – even Romans, the enemy of Israel – as part of the people of God.  They came to set aside or reinterpret huge sections of religious law that talked about how to eat, how to dress, how to organize the family.  They changed their language from Hebrew and Aramaic to whatever the local language was: Greek or Latin or Syrian or Persian.  They developed new patterns of leadership to replace the system that had led to the holocaust in Jerusalem and Judea.

You can see all of that, and more, happening in the letters they saved from those decades, letters that they considered so important, so inspired, that they attached them to the ancient scriptures as a second section, a New Testament.

We have entered a period where the challenges we face are nowhere as great as theirs.  For the next while, though, we have to figure out how best share the good news about Jesus with others and to be faithful to his teaching when the tools we are used to are not available. 

For too long, we’ve seen our mission as a matter of getting people to go to church.  Once that happens, things go onto autopilot.  We have done a great job making our buildings attractive.  We’ve made our music beautiful and inspirational.  We know how to provide age-appropriate educational programming and provide opportunities for people to develop friendships and healthy social bonds that bolster their spiritual development.  We make unequalled jello salads, casseroles, and desserts.

            We look back at the words of the New Testament and see that in the first days, after the coming of the Holy Spirit and before the destruction of the Temple,

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  [Acts 2:42]
When the early Church was scattered, they continued provide for Christian education, fellowship, provision of basic physical needs, and worship.  Under our current limitations, we will be able to do that, too. 

I would caution, though, that some of it is going to be tricky, especially education.  We may need to move toward family-based learning instead of classroom-based lessons for awhile.  In an abnormal time, children both need to be protected and to be prevented from spreading any lingering virus.  What if we provide lessons and supplies for parents to share with their children?  Or maybe we could have teachers go to them at home instead of having them gather in a classroom.

            I want to say that older kids should be able to be more careful, but I have seen even adults do some things thoughtlessly in the past few weeks.  I go back and forth on how to decrease the risk to middle- and high school students without allowing for their naturally expanding independence.

Adult education may mean smaller classes than we have had, offering the same class at two different times to keep groups smaller, or participating online.  This would apply to midweek studies as well as Sunday mornings.  I can actually see some advantages in this, in providing more variety of topics and teaching or learning styles. 

Fellowship will, I believe, emerge stronger from all of this because it has been missed.  That is why people are trying to move faster than is probably prudent.  Weekly coffees and monthly meet-and-greets are out, but Zoom check-ins are a good way to begin.  Over the summer, maybe small outdoor gatherings can take place.  How new relationships develop, though, is still to be seen.

As for the “breaking of bread”, the sharing of basic necessities, I am happy to say that we have managed to keep that going throughout the emergency.  We have been providing takeout meals throughout this time, and people have continued to support the Kitchen Ministry, to provide supplies for PACS, and have been generous in helping one another financially. 

With respect to the “breaking of bread” in the form of Holy Communion, we will be careful in that as well.  In the past, I would squirt some Purell on my hands before handling the bread or cup.  In the future I will wear gloves also, and will ask an acolyte, also wearing gloves, to distribute individual cups of juice.

Worship will need to be conducted with smaller groups at first, spread out across the room.  That means some people will need to move forward.  Passing the peace will mean waving.  To accommodate these changes, we will have to add at least one service or livestream to rooms other than the sanctuary (most likely the chapel and Fellowship Hall).

Some people have asked that we continue to provide worship online.  We will do that in some form.  Most likely, we would switch over from the current recorded format to a livestreamed version.   

            And if none of this works, we will have to do something else.

            What counts is that we do what, when everything else is pushed aside, we have always done, which is tell the story of Jesus, who will always stand out as the light that the world needs.  No matter how confused, chaotic, or experimental things get, keeping Jesus at the center of the way we order our lives is what makes us the Church.

That’s the “what”.  Everything else is just “how”.

No comments:

Post a Comment