Scripture: Luke 24:44-53
44 Then he said to them, “These are
my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything
written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be
fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and
said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the
third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of
sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise
of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power
from on high.”
50 And he led them out as far as
Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he
parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and
returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple
blessing God.
For three years, Jesus walked the earth, healed the sick,
performed miracles, and poured Himself into teaching and loving His disciples.
Jesus accomplished all He came to the earth to do: He gave Himself as a
sacrifice, dying on the cross for the sins of the world, three days later
raised to life, resurrected. Jesus’ great ministry was laying the foundation
for His Church in the world.
Then, in our passage here, Jesus takes the disciples out to
Bethany, a special place for Jesus. Bethany was a town Jesus stayed in many
times. Bethany was where Jesus visited with His friends, siblings Mary, Martha,
and Lazarus. Bethany was the place where Lazarus became sick and died, Jesus
wept over the loss of his friend, and then called Lazarus back to life. So, it
is fitting here that when Jesus prepares to return home to Heaven, He decides to
leave from Bethany, a special place for Jesus surrounded by His closest friends
and family.
Jesus blessed them and departed for Heaven, and the
disciples were filled with joy and worshipped together in the temple in
Jerusalem.
Jesus laid the foundation. Jesus prepared the disciples for
what was coming next- the task of building the Church throughout the world,
spreading the Gospel of Jesus- the Good News that Christ has died, Christ has
risen, and Christ will come again. And Jesus sent the Holy Spirit as a Helper
to live inside His followers to guide them as they began this massive
undertaking- telling all the world about Jesus and His great love for everyone,
everywhere.
Over these past months, we have been unable to gather
together inside physical buildings to proclaim and worship the Risen Savior. We
have not been able to lift our voices together in one place to praise our God
like the disciples were able to do, leaving Bethany to return to Jerusalem to
the temple to continually bless God. It has been difficult, but it has been
necessary, because we want to do everything we can to keep everyone we can safe
and healthy and well throughout this crisis.
I don’t want this to be interpreted as a political
statement, but follow where I’m going… Give me some grace here as you listen.
On Friday, our President spoke at a press conference and said that houses of
worship were essential services and should be allowed to open to provide these
essential services this weekend.
I disagree with this. Church is not essential. The Church,
however, is completely essential. Going to church on Sunday, getting up and
taking a shower and dressing in nice clothes and traveling to a building to
gather with a group of people to sing songs and give money and hear a sermon
and pray together is not essential.
For many people, this is the only way we practice our faith-
by being faithful to go to the same place week after week.
This is not essential. This is a wonderful thing, and I miss
it terribly, as most of you out there do, too. I miss seeing my church family
and being able to shake hands and hug people and hear what’s happening in
people’s lives. I miss singing wonderful hymns with live musicians playing
piano and guitar and praying together. I miss seeing people in our empty sanctuaries
as I proclaim the Word of God. But none of our gathering is essential.
Like I said before, this isn’t an indictment of what the
President said. Simply put, the act of going to church every week is not
essential. Health care, particularly right now as we face the COVID-19 virus,
is essential. Access to food is essential. But going to church is not
essential.
Now, before you think I am trying to discount our faith and
our practice of faith through gathering together for worship, I am not. Going
to church is just not the essential thing here. It feels like we’re fighting
the wrong fight. Going to church is not essential- BEING the Church is
completely essential, especially right now.
This is the task for which Jesus prepared the disciples.
This is the reason why Jesus asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to come
and live inside us to help and guide our paths. We have been tasked with
building the Church. Jesus told us to love God, love people, and make disciples
of Jesus all over the world.
We are missing the point when we start to equate going to
church with supporting a political affiliation. We are missing the point when
we are fighting with one another over freedom to go to church. Jesus told us to
love one another as we love ourselves. Part of loving one another is working to
do what we can to keep everyone safe and healthy so that once it is deemed
safe, or safer, rather, then we can once more gather to worship and praise in
spirit and truth.
Our two churches, Franklinville and Rehobeth, have a median
age of about 75. That means that about 90% of our people are in that high-risk
population for getting tremendously sick, as we’ve seen right here in Randolph
County in our nursing home facilities. I am no fan of preaching to a camera and
posting videos and calling and texting people instead of being able to see
everyone face-to-face, but I also do not, under any conditions, want to put
people at risk for getting terribly sick or worse, dying, just so we can go to
church.
Staying apart right now is how we as the Church of Jesus can
show one another love. This isn’t a popular opinion, particularly when our
President says that going to church is essential. It almost makes me feel like
I’m a bad pastor or worse, a bad follower of Jesus because I haven’t opened up
our churches for people to come. Thankfully, this hasn’t been my decision to
make, as our Bishop has stated we will remain closed to indoor worship until
June 30th. This means, sadly, that the last service I presided over
in this appointment was March 8th. But, it also means I continue to
hear from people as I check on them, I ask, “How are you doing?” And everyone
says, “We’re doing okay.” Praise God we’ve not transmitted sickness by coming
together.
So, coming to church is not essential, but being the Church
is essential. What does this mean for us?
It means that we must find new ways to proclaim our faith. It
means we must return to our own personal faith in a way which goes straight to
the heart of God and God’s desire to love us and be loved by us. It means we
read Scripture, and hear God speak to us through the Bible. It means we spend
time alone in prayer. It means we use the technology available to us to connect
and proclaim God’s love- like Facebook and YouTube and our phones and texts and
video calls and emails.
Being the Church is completely and entirely essential. God
weeps alongside us as we lift up those who have suffered through the effects of
this virus. God holds families in His loving arms of peace as they grieve those
lost to this virus, as they lament the loss of employment and lack of
resources. God knows our pain at having our routines taken away and wants to
shepherd us into His great love- this is why He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell
in our hearts, that God is always with us, no matter where we are and how we
gather- virtually or in person.
In order for us to be the Church, which is so very essential
right now, for us to show others the love of Jesus, we have to be open to
realizing God’s grace for our lives, and showing that same grace and love to
the world. Jesus told us to love God with all we are and to love our neighbors
as we love ourselves- this means we must pray for one another, check up on one
another, help each other out as we’re able, and above all things, show the love
of Jesus through the ways in which we live our lives, day in and day out. Going
to church to see and be seen week after week turns the worship of Holy God into
a Christian country club, just another social engagement to check off on the
list. Being the Church is what we are called to do right now and coming
together inside in a physical place is still too risky, so we show God’s love
through remaining apart from one another.
Jesus left us the task of continuing to build His Church
here on earth, to build the Kingdom of God. That task looks a lot different for
us in the midst of this pandemic. But our task is essential, just like medical
care and food- showing people the love of Jesus means the difference in eternal
life with God in Heaven or not, and we’re not showing people the love of Jesus
if we’re helping speed them along to illness or death by gathering together.
That’s literally the very opposite of what God has called us to do in loving
one another as we love ourselves.
We continue ahead to build the Kingdom of God here on earth
through the smallest things we do- practicing social distancing while out
shopping, wearing masks where appropriate, staying home as much as we can,
checking on one another, all ways we show love to one another, ways we are able
to show Christ’s love, even while we remain apart.
Going to church is not essential, but God knows and has
called us to that most essential task of all- being His Church. And with that,
I’ll leave you with words from the hymn, “We Are the Church”: ‘I am the church
/ You are the church / We are the church together / All who follow Jesus all
around the world / Let’s be the church together.’
So, let’s do it- let’s get to our essential task and be the
Church, together.
No comments:
Post a Comment