Lots of words are competing for our attention: social media posts, political debates, advertisements, and news, to name a few. During the COVID-19 pandemic the influence of social media and news loom large. But while social media can keep us connected and news can keep us informed, they can arrest our attention in unhelpful ways and feed the chaos and confusion we feel.
The act of making meaning cannot erase the reality of suffering, but must acknowledge it as a constitutive element in the very act of making any meaning at all, for that is the deep grammar at work in all of creation as made by and sustained by the triune God.
Morning and evening prayer have become a way in which the common prayer of each congregation, now scattered in quarantine, is carried forward by those called to the pastoral vocation. I trust that those in my charge are praying, reading Scripture, following our Lord, but this daily practice continues somehow as an anchor for us all, a daily offering. “My prayer be set before you like incense,” I ask.
I’ve learned to view being burdened beyond my strength and feeling the sentence of death as a gracious and comforting gift from the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort.
We can temporarily suspend gatherings and settle for the cheap substitute of video worship services and conference call prayer meetings, and this may be suitable for a season––and there seems to be much wisdom in adopting this approach during a global pandemic. But it is alarming to realize that some governing authorities regard church as little more than a form of entertainment akin to a movie theater, so that even as shutting down a theater can be replaced by streaming a movie at home, so also shutting down a church can be replaced by streaming a service at home. And it is alarming how many churches have jumped on board as if they agree! Is not our gathering as a church far more substantial than a one-hour production of two-bit worship-tainment?
Just as multiple viewings of “House” or “Grey’s Anatomy” do not satisfy as sufficient training to work in the medical field, neither will a crash course in Christian ethics lead to a moral life or snap decision making. Everyone is a theologian, good or bad. Everyone is an ethicist, good or bad. The key to good ethics is not immersion into ethical theory, but immersion into the church and into Christ.
True worship must be dialogical, not monological. People need to speak to God, and God needs to speak back. People need to hear from God. Then people need to hear from each other, and speak love to each other. That’s what makes church church, not the building (platform).
If there’s one thing we learn from how manna, that strange stuff or bread or substance (what is it?), worked throughout Israel’s time of traipsing through the desert, then it’s that trust is a major issue, trusting each other in our communities, trusting our local and national leaders and trusting the faithful triune God who is committed to us and present with us in Christ by the Spirit.
We can see each other, but we can’t be with each other. There is a big difference, and we feel it every time we log on. I’ve also noticed that many pastors are preaching shorter sermons and sending out short updates. This is because we recognize that a lecture on a screen is, quite frankly, not the best medium for teaching and preaching complex theology or calling people to deep reflection on the gospel.
In the COVID-19 crisis the hospitals and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need well-trained medical professionals to treat patients and offer guidelines, the government needs competent managers to coordinate response and preparation, and the church needs informed pastor theologians to take the helm and navigate the bride of Christ in the midst of towering waves.
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