Hi Grace family,
I wanted to write and share some thoughts related to the COVID-19 crisis. I promised you a long time ago that I would try my best to be a pastor who keeps main things as main things. I told you that I would try not to be that guy who thinks he is supposed to opine publicly about every single current event.
I’ve also said to you that our faith either addresses reality, or who cares?
As concerns continue to grow, I wanted to share three quick thoughts with you.
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1. As Christians, we don’t have to be afraid.
This is not because there are not scary things that happen in our world. This is not because we have a promise that our faith guards us from trouble.
Instead, we don’t have to be afraid because we are promised that we will never be outside of the Lord’s care and concern, no matter what trouble comes.
As in all things, Christians of a previous generation have gone before us and left us treasures for our reflection.
In a time of intense sickness, disease, and plague, in a time before modern medicine, when a farmer could cut his hand on a rusty blade and be gone by nightfall, some Christians wrote a beautiful resource. Following a question and answer form, it goes like this:
Q.What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil.
He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation.
Therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.
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Notice that the promise is not that we will not get sick. The promise is that we will not be outside of the Lord’s care when we do.
The writer Marilynne Robinson says it simply, “Fear is not a Christian habit of mind.”
If you need a few lines to meditate upon, might I suggest these, from Psalm 27? In fact, can all Grace members read, meditate, and pray from these words, every day until further notice?
Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2. We should be wise.
We will, and should, take some wise measures.
Let’s be washing our hands, taking our vitamins, getting plenty of rest (maybe this could be a gift to us anyway).
Remember our Grace Kids’ “well child policy.” (Only kids who are healthy participate in our kids classes.)
If you are feeling ill, you should stay home from Grace events. (But let our leadership know, or your home group know, if you need attention, and we’ll come to you.)
We’ll have only healthy folks and sanitized hands serving communion and we’ll continue our normal cold/flu communion protocol.
Our leadership will continue to build plans in the event that further measures are necessary for our gatherings. We will be open to how the Lord may want to use this crisis as a gift to grow us in ways that we could not have anticipated.
3. We should be thinking, firstly, of others.
In reality, a church of our demographic mix should shift our concern. We’re unlikely to become gravely ill, but we can certainly spread a virus to more vulnerable populations. The measures that we take should be focused upon others.
We have begun conversations with Second Presbyterian with regard to how we can serve them (Second’s congregation is all elderly).
We have begun conversations with local schools. In the event that closures happen, can we assist with food for families like we have done in our Advent Food Drive?
In the event that we cannot gather and folks would have to stay home, we should be utilizing phone calls and FaceTime sessions to continue to encourage and check on each other as we normally would in person.
4. We should be faithful.
Some words from CS Lewis are helpful here. These were originally penned to address a different crisis, so I have done some editing, in brackets and italicized:
“…first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be [sick with a virus], let that [virus] 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 [a virus]. [Viruses might] 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
Let’s enjoy Jesus, let’s pursue ordinary faithfulness, let’s be praying, reading Scripture, and calling friends.
Love you all. It’s a joy to be your pastor.
Joel