OUR CURRENT NEW WORLD
We in the U.S. are a few weeks into the Covid-19 pandemic. It has brought us into a new day and age globally, nationally, and locally. From the tragedy of death to the dilemma of social-distance, we are discovering new normals.
Hospitals and care-workers are at or beyond their maximum capacity. The greatest generation is held captive at home, school doors are shut, jobs are disappearing, businesses are closing, and for many, meals are at a shortage. The economy is reeling, and payments are pending.
We’ve all seen the media-managed conversations and commands, and as is typical today, we don’t fully know who to believe, but mostly we want to know who to blame.
I saw a social post a bit ago that shared how in lieu of social distancing and isolation, air pollution is clearing over China and the canals of Venice are seeing marine life that had abandoned its waterways for some time. Its as though mother earth is asking for a sabbath from us. Perhaps she's right to do so.
But what should we ask ourselves amid this sabbath?
A NEW SUNDAY MORNING
Many churches have forgone gathering on Sunday morning, and are turning to online mechanisms. For smaller existing churches with fewer resources and less tech-savvy, this is new territory. For many younger, tech-savvier, churches of financial means, who’ve been delivering online content for a while, this is not a notable shift, but simply a concentrated effort.
These new Sunday realities are causes for concern for a lot of churches as they face the same realities of mainstream businesses—wrestling with dollars, salaries, people, and performance. All the while trying to be a place of love, refuge, and support for those who sit in their pews or live outside their doors. You know...church things.
So what do churches do with this sabbath from church-as-usual? Should they examine their practices, their products, their procedures? Is it a time to shift from organization to organism? Is it a time to revisit a role in society that has been replaced?
Perhaps so.
And not just those older ones, but the newer experience-first churches as well. Is this a time to revisit foundational roots and not merely achieve well-branded success?
Perhaps so.
A FAITH LIVED OUT
And what about the churchgoers, the Christians, is this a new faith-place too? For a long long time, followers of Jesus from economically, racially, and culturally-advantaged spaces have been able to live out a faith that is pretty rewarded. Outside of disruptors like job loss or a wayward child, faith is relatively easy. We hold onto our politically-positioned and agenda-driven theology, which allows us to have a fine lifestyle—our proof point to validate a "correct" faith.
But is a faith that is relatively easy the robust true faith that Jesus calls us to?
Perhaps not.
In this time today, our faith is tested. We are challenged with actually having to have faith. To tightly grasp onto it through this unknown time and timeframe. We are told to be anxious for nothing but to let our requests be known to God.
Yet fear arises...at least for me.
But scripture teems with encouragements. Consider the lilies, the birds of the air, the shepherd to the sheep, the fear nots. We've got to hold onto these hopes and beliefs of our faith, and not the assuredness of our positions, postures, or pocketbooks.
Is a faith that requires difficulty to muster the faith we're actually supposed to have?
Perhaps so.