Sometimes,
you have to wonder at God’s providence.
Our Collect today reminds us that we cannot save ourselves at a time
when a pandemic and panic seem to be gaining the upper hand on the world, and
there is little anyone can do to stop the spread or the effects. Our Old Testament reading from Exodus asks
that question that we often wonder in the midst of such tragedies or natural
catastrophes, Is God among us or not?
And our lengthy Gospel reading reminds us that these passionate
discussions we have been having about church, whether to gather, what forms to
use, and all that, have been going on for nearly twenty-six centuries, at
least, among God’s people! Where is
the appropriate place to worship? How do
we worship properly?
And we gather
today not because we are defiant in the face of propaganda or science. In fact, I encouraged all those at risk or
those who care for or live with those at a higher mortality risk from this
virus to stay away. The pandemic is
real. The threat to life is real. But the threat to our humanity is also
real. We now live in a society that sees
the “other” as either a plague-carrier, a death-bringer, or a competitor for
resources. Folks seem to be competing
mostly for toilet paper, but there have been instances of fights over
sanitizing wipes and soap. Our Kroger
and Publix have experienced people trying to steal carts full of goods. Heck, there was an article yesterday in the
NY Times about people from Chattanooga profiting from the competition. A couple weeks ago, as we began this season
we call Lent, the veneer of civil behavior was strong. We were all nice Americans. Look at us now, such a short time later. It’s almost like God knew whereof He spoke
when He claimed we were stiff-necked, selfish, incapable of loving our neighbor
as ourselves without His instruction, without His example, and without His
presence among us.
I do not
join you here today out of some sort of desire for martyrdom or expected
protection for faithfulness above and beyond the call of duty. What would be the best way for God to answer
our question from Exodus, Is He among us or not? Gregg cuts right to the chase, doesn’t he? If God were truly among us, He would keep all
of us, especially those of us brave enough and faithful enough to worship Him
on a day like today, safe from the plague!
I mean, He is our rock and refuge, as our hymn reminded us. If we are the sheep of His hand, He has to
keep us safe, doesn’t He?
But does
anyone here gathered expect that we will be spared from the consequences of
this plague? Do any of us think that God
will keep us all from catching the plague, from transmitting it to a loved one,
from the effects on our retirement accounts and pensions, from the loss of
wages, from the loss of trust in others, from the depressions that will
increase with isolations, and even from death?
That was a
rather resounding “no!” on a Sunday morning.
That’s how the great AMEN should sound.
But good, you have been paying attention to what God has been teaching
and what I have been trying to preach and teach during my tenure here. We serve a God who wondrously and
mysteriously delights in redemptive suffering.
For some reason, He seems to think redemptive suffering catches the
human eye far better than the miraculous sign and wonder we claim we want. Think on Israel this morning. They just saw God part the water, destroy the
Egyptian special forces, protect them from the sun by day, keep them warm by
night, and how do they respond at the need for water? Is the LORD among us or not? He’s done all that for us, but can He
quench our thirst? We might say they
were blind to His presence in the midst of those miracles.
So, back to
us and those around us. If none of us
got the virus, would we notice it for what it was? Would we see God’s hand protecting us,
sheltering us? Would those around us
notice our health as a sign of God’s presence among us? No. It
would likely be blind luck or foolish luck, to them. What might cause them to notice His presence
among us?
How we face
our mortality is a great place to start.
None of us should seek death, but none of us should fear it, either. If we believe God’s promises, if we believe
what Jesus taught us, we who are buried in His death are raised in His
resurrection! If this virus tries to
take our lives from us, God will give us that life that He has reserved for all
His sons and daughters for eternity.
As you
might imagine, I have had several conversations this last week about
mortality. A few have been with
Adventers, but most have been with those “in orbit” of our parish. What do you think heaven will be like? I tell them I have no idea. I tell them it will be orders of magnitude
beyond anything I can ask or imagine.
With one lady I used the feast imagery.
I told her, if the Marriage Feast is real, if it is the BEST feast ever
in the history of the universe, what would you want to eat first? Like many ladies, she went to the dessert table
and then specifically chocolate. I told
her I go back and forth between the entrée and the appetizer table. She asked why, and I shared that I could
sample a lot more things on the appetizer table, but I just wonder at the main
dish, how good must the main dish be to be served at THE FEAST? I cracked her up. She’d never thought of that, but, you know,
chocolate. Then I asked her what she was
going to drink? I asked her who would
she like to talk to at that gathering? I
asked her if she was a dancer, was she a singer? As we continued on, she was openly laughing
at the prospects of THE FEAST. And I
reminded her that our combined imaginations were likely coming up short, and
that we were only talking about the meal.
What else would be there that would make us not shed a tear at the hurts
of this life? She couldn’t imagine it,
given her hurts. Neither could I. And if THAT is the worst outcome of this
pandemic, brothers and sisters, how terrified should we be? We should be those in the crowds remaining
calm because this virus cannot take us from His hand.
How we live
out the Second Great Commandment is another great place to start. We now live in a society where the other has
become a bringer of death or a competitor for resources. Look at the empty shelves at Publix or Kroger
or Target, if you don’t believe me. How
should we, God’s chosen people, demonstrate His Commandment that we love others
as ourselves? Don’t hoard is a great
place to start. How else? Absolutely, help those at risk in our
congregation get they things they need as safely as possible. Maybe we who are younger and less likely to
die, do the grocery runs or pharmacy runs for them. Maybe we check in with each other as an
antidote against loneliness, isolation, anxiety, and depression. Great answer!
How else? Right! We help those outside these walls. It is one thing to love someone we know; it’s
quite another to serve someone in His Name whom we do not know and whom we
doubt will ever return us the service.
Our Governor is contemplating shutting everything down, churches
included. I do not envy him decisions
such as this (that’s why we pray for our leaders), but if he shuts us down, who
serves the 800 individuals on the margins that depend upon us for
survival? Where do the customers of
Insight go in their effort to find healing in the midst of their anxieties,
their hurts, and their traumas in this emergency? Where do the 12-Step folks go for their needed
support? Where do the Rockhounds or even
the Bluegrass folks go for their fellowship?
What happens to the immigrants in our midst, who meet here during the
month to share more deeply what it means to be a stranger in a strange land? How will the Armenians, the Mar Thoma, or even
the MCF keep those ties that support them as they live and work and, yes, even
worship among us? What about the man or
woman who, when faced with their own mortality, tries desperately to seek Him,
only to find our doors shuttered?
And I
understand our brothers and sisters around this town, this diocese, this
country and the world are wrestling with such questions? Is God’s love better demonstrated by keeping
the doors shut and protecting the flock, or is it better demonstrated by doing
the work He has given us to do, even in the midst of a pandemic, even if it may
cost the lives of some in the flock or those whom the flock seeks to
serve? There are no easy answers, and it
is precisely for things like this that He came and dwelt among us, that we
might answer for ourselves that question that comes with such wrestling: He is
among us! He will be glorified! In every plague that has hounded humankind,
He has been glorified. He will be
glorified in all our prayerful responses to His call on our lives, even if, to
outsiders, they seem contradictory or wrong.
That, of
course, brings us to the question raised by the Samaritan woman. Where is the right place to worship? What is the right way to worship God? For the woman, the question was not academic. Jacob gave them the well at which she and
Jesus meet. The covenant passed through
the line of Jacob directly. Why should
their worship and service be excluded in favor of the Jews? Jesus reminds the woman that God’s Covenant
meant that salvation came through the Jews. I mean, it’s rather a given,
right? Jesus is Jewish. He is the Son of David come to establish the
throne. He is the ultimate seed of
Abraham’s faith. How does the woman
respond? She knows the Anointed is
coming who will make all things known.
And Jesus tells her that He is the Anointed One. God responds to all who call upon Him in
spirit and truth. But why do we gather
here for this worship when so many are cancelling services? Could not God bless us if we stayed at home in
our pajamas and prayed the Lord’s Prayer?
Of course, He could! But we are
Anglicans, we are a liturgical people, and for us that has a particular
meaning.
Each one of
us gathered here today, I believe, has been confirmed, believer’s baptism to
use the language of another tradition from which many of us were raised. That means we all went through a catechesis
class and can answer this fundamental question: what is a sacrament? Great.
An outward sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Your teachers would be so proud of you.
What is the
outward sign of baptism? Bingo! Water.
You can turn to the baptismal liturgy, if you want, but what do we
believe is happening as a result of the water being poured over our heads? Yes, the Holy Spirit comes and stays with
us. Great answer. But think a little before it. As I or any priest or bishop pours the water,
what do we say? You memorize that or are
you reading from the liturgy? True, I
did say you could look. We do the
Thanksgiving over the Water. In that
prayer, we remind ourselves that water has figured prominently in creation and
in redemption. Over it the Holy Spirit
moved in creation; through it He led Israel from the bondage of slavery. In it, Jesus was Anointed by the Holy Spirit
as the Christ, to lead us from the bondage of sin and death. Sound familiar? Good.
We go on to
remind ourselves that in water we are buried in Christ’s death, by water we
share in His Resurrection, and through that water we are reborn by the Holy
Spirit. Then I or another clergy prays
that God sanctifies the water that those being baptized may be cleansed from
sin and be promised a share in Christ’s inheritance, right? Why do we use the water? Couldn’t we use any liquid? Couldn’t we metaphorically use water, like
pretend it is there but it not really be?
It’s
because matter matters. One of the great
counter-cultural teachings of God’s people throughout the ages was that He
created everything and pronounced it good.
It is our sins, and the consequences of our sins, which causes things
like plagues and poisons to spring up.
In the beginning, we were gardeners.
We tended His garden. There was
no thought of exploitation or misuse or anything bad, until we decided we would
not trust Him. We use matter in our
liturgies because God taught or instructed us to do just that. Would God honor an emergency baptism in the
desert with no water? I would expect
so. But we have to think of extreme
cases; we come up with the exceptions to the norm which was passed down
generation from generation among His people.
What were His instructions? Go
and baptize! The sacrament of baptism is
important to us because it reminds us that He has covenanted with us and that
this, all this around us, is not what He intended. We have marred His glorious creation rather
than stewarded it.
What of the
Eucharist? For what does the bread
stand? That’s right, His Body. Which was what? Broken for us? What about the wine and the water? That’s right, they are the blood and water
which flowed from His side when pierced by the spear, demonstrating to us that
the He truly died. Why don’t we use
other symbols, why do we not use different matter for the Eucharist? Because the matter matters. Our Lord did not suggest we use bread and
wine. Our Lord did not say that we
should use something that seemed good to us.
No, He commanded and instructed that Maundy Thursday long ago that we
use those symbols to remember His sacrifice, death, and resurrection. We rightly call it a Eucharist, a
thanksgiving, because He accomplished for us what we could not accomplish for
ourselves. When we chew that bread and
drink that wine we understand that we are chewing His flesh and drinking His
blood. And in that act, we are the
recipients of His grace and mercy and the benefits of His Passion.
But there
is more. Where does this take
place? In the community of
believers. We gather. One of our promises to God at our baptism and
confirmation is that we will continue to gather for the prayers, for the
worship, of God. Chiefly, we liturgical
Christians who call ourselves Episcopalian or Anglican give thanks via the
Eucharist. Each and every time we eat
that Flesh and drink that Blood we are reminded that Christ died for us, that
Christ was raised from the dead that glorious Easter morning, and that He will
return to claim what is His! By virtue
of that sacrament, you and I are encouraged, you and I are strengthened, You
and I are nourished, you and I are prepared for the work that He has given us
to do outside these walls because we are reminded of His promises and of His
unique and sovereign grace and power to redeem all suffering!
That
fortifying takes place among other believers, among other real people. Yes, when we eat and drink we participate in
a celebration that transcends time and space, but that holy mystery is rooted
in our gathering and sharing, in and among us Adventers. I or other clergy take that bread, bless it,
break it, and give it to you. And what
do you do? You acknowledge the words The
Body of Christ. The Bread of Heaven.
And what they mean to you and to those around you. You then eat it. You chew on it—physically and spiritually. And then what? You are offered the chalice, the cup. The Blood of Christ. The Cup of salvation. Make no mistake, it is not the cup from
which He drank. Ours is much easier. In that drinking, though, we are reminded
that He shed His blood that we might be cleansed from our sins. Because He drank of His Cup, we are made righteous
before God, and we celebrate that act one with another. And we are reminded that we can each drink
from those cups that glorify Him, we can each bear our crosses that lead others
to Him!
Am I
wanting to trash those of our tribe who are trying “Virtual” Eucharists or
other alternative types of worship? Of
course not. They are responding to God
as they feel called. They recognize a
need to do things as normally as possible even in an abnormal time. As do we.
I would, naturally, argue with my Episcopal/Anglican colleagues about
the need, as Archbishop Cranmer covered this nearly six centuries ago; I
recognize also that some colleagues would argue the need for a pastoral
exception in their locale. I have zero
doubt that folks will be blessed by God’s grace during those online worship
services. But, I also recognize that we
serve a God who came down from heaven and became fully human. We celebrate Christmas because the Creator of
heaven and earth took upon Himself our marred, fleshy nature. He walked among us. He taught among us. He fed us.
He healed us. He raised us. And then He blessed and empowered and sent us
to do likewise in the world. We gather
as a congregation today not ignorant of the dangers, not as a group of mad
martyrdom-seeking worshippers, but as a group that is doing its absolute best
to remind the world that THIS, all this associated with the plague, is not best
that it gets, that THIS is a perversion of what our Lord intended and for what
He died, that we might become a nation of priests, a host of lights pointing to
the Light of Christ in the darkness, that they might turn and be saved.
Brothers
and sisters, you know my background and my love of things ancient and of
history in general. Many of you have
shared your love of history with me.
Through how many plagues has the Church survived? Through how many natural disasters has the
Church survived? Through how many
economic strains has the Church survived?
Through how many bad civic leaders has the Church survived? Through how many bad clergy leaders has the
Church survived? All of them! And guess what, She will survive this threat,
too, because He has promised. He has
promised that where as few as two or three are gathered in His Name, He will be
in the midst of them. We, and all our
brothers and sisters, are far more than just two or three. And we know, we absolutely know by virtue of
the grace and benefits of those two sacraments, we have nothing to fear, that
we are free to love and serve others in His Name. He will be present in our serving. He will be present in our suffering, both
from the effects of the virus and all the consequences we cannot even begin to
name this morning. He will be present
even in our deaths. Through all those
evil times, even through the valley of the shadow of death, He will be
consoling us, strengthening us, encouraging us.
And if, at the end, these bodies are crushed by the effects of this
virus, it will be He who calls our names and tells us to get up or to rise and enter
that which has been prepared for us since the beginning of Creation! We will know His voice and we will answer and
obey. Such is His promise to us, a
promised He proved capable of keeping by His Incarnation, His Death, His
Rising, and His Ascension—the Truth to which all these things and even our
gathering point!
In His Peace,
Brian†
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