Hardships: Post #2 in the face of the Covid19 Virus

March 21, in the year of our Lord 2020
These are unique days for us.  Difficult days for us.  Humanity across the globe is joined in what may be the first common struggle of our race.  Even in the days of World War II when most nations were locked in conflict some were spared the struggle, but even then humanity was divided.   It was a burden that we had imposed upon ourselves.

Today's struggle with COVID19 is different in that it does not distinguish between tribes, nations, creeds, race or gender.  This is one fight we are in together.  This is one hardship we share.   

The hardships we are experiencing and shall experience may be quite different for some folks.  It may seem very unfair what we have to give up, what is taken from us for a time, that others may not have the same challenges as we do.  And that is often the point of hardship, it is often unfair.  It involves sacrifice which also is often unfair.  But these are times that call us to sacrifice for our neighbor and for our neighbor to sacrifice for us.  

 A very difficult for many Christians and certainly for my congregation is to have to forgo worship for a period of time.  Our state has forbidden gatherings of over 10 for ten days and our Mayor and city council have extended this all the way through April 18th.    It is hard to not be able to gather together, especially in times like this, for mutual consolation, for worship and prayer, to receive the sacrament of Holy Communion which is very special for us.  

The following is mostly written for my flock and my fellow brothers and sisters of the LCMS.   

Our church has released some guidance regarding Holy Communion through the Commission on Theology and Church Relations.  I was reading through this and while there is talk of hardship and sacrifice, there is also comfort and promise here.  I'd like to share with you the key points:

• ·         The inability to commune is therefore no small matter, but a true hardship!

Holy Communion has the promise of Christ attached to it.  Jesus Himself said, "given for you for the forgivness of sins."  Holy Communion is one of the three means of grace that God uses to convey to us the benefits of what Christ accomplished on the cross through the presence of His body and blood.  So yes, to forgo this is a hardship.

• ·         We know, however, that the church has known this hardship at other times and not only in our own time…We are not in uncharted territory.

The CTCR mentions several examples of when the church has not been able to receive communion including during the spanish flu, settlement activities, and even today when small churches don't have pastors.  There were times in my military career as an enlisted member that I went for extended periods without communion.  Several of our own members have shared the same with me, that there were extended periods of time when it was not available.   Yet, their faith in Christ was sustained.  How?

• ·         The forgiveness of sins is not prevented when one cannot commune, for it is delivered by the Gospel as it is read and preached and spoken by the royal priesthood and also in the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper as well as in Absolution

Our God is a generous God.  Holy Communion is not the only means of grace.   The Word of God proclaims the Gospel and the Gospel is the power of God for salvation for all who believe.  We who are baptized remain baptized and the gifts of baptism are for us every moment of our lives.  As Luther reminds us in his Small Catechism, baptism is for us to daily drown the old Adam so the new can arise.   God has put His name on us.  We are His and He is ours.

There have been some discussions and conversations regarding potential ways we could safely continue to dispense communion including the use of technology or remote and in person distribution.    The CTCR also addresses these matters in the document.

• ·         As great as the hardship is when we cannot receive Christ’s body and blood, the hardship ought not be “resolved” in ways that promise an uncertain “sacrament” without the absolute assurance that Christ intends.

The CTCR says the following would be "unsatisfactory solutions".

• ·         a pastor speak the words of institution from the church during a streaming service while everyone communes at home.
• ·         also cannot support the suggestion that a pastor may consecrate elements with the elders or deacons, who would then administer them to members
• ·         best minimizes the spread of infection, we note that this suggested practice introduces two potential opportunities for the transmission of Covid-19. The first is the interaction between the pastor and the elders/deacons. The second is the interaction of the individual elder or deacon with the communicant(s) in the home.

While the CTCR does not specifically speak to the practice of private communion with the pastor, these words do give pause and concern regarding the "interaction" between pastor and communicant as well.   This too provides potential opportunity for transmission of Covid-19 with the pastor becoming a focal point of transmission.   It is something as a pastor I have to take into consideration in my pastoral care as many of my own people are especially vulnerable to this virus. 

So what are we to do?   This is the guidance of the CTCR for our church body the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in these days.

• ·         We can be thankful that God in His mercy has not given the Lord’s Supper as the only “means of grace.” Instead, he showers us with His grace. The Gospel is not silenced, forgiveness is proclaimed, Baptism will be administered even in emergencies, and Baptism is lived out daily by means of repentance and the new life that God’s Spirit enables us to live in any and all circumstances.
• ·         let us encourage every baptized child of God to be fervent in seeking opportunities to hear the Word of God as it goes forth from written sermons, letters, websites, emails, streaming videos, and other means, to read the Word in their homes, to implore God to end this plague and preserve His church
• ·         As great as the hardship is when we cannot receive Christ’s body and blood, the hardship ought not be “resolved” in ways that promise an uncertain “sacrament” without the absolute assurance that Christ intends. It is better humbly and repentantly to ask the Lord for the regular administration of the Sacrament of the Altar to be restored to us, together with an end to the “deadly pestilence” that is killing thousands of souls who are precious to God, their Creator (see Psalm 91; Jonah 4:11).

God indeed showers us with His grace.   While we must endure the hardship of not receiving Christ's body and blood and we pray that God will resolve this sickness and enable us to gather again for the Divine Service to receive the regular administration of the Sacrament, we will not despair.  We will not tremble.   We will not give the Satanic enemy purchase to cast doubt upon the power of the Gospel for salvation (Rom 1:16) and we shall not doubt that we are baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and as Scripture says, if we have been baptized into a death like His we shall see a resurrection like His. (Rom 6:3-4)

What can you do?   Read the Word.   Remember your Baptism.  Remember Christ has died for you and the promises of God never depend on what we do but upon what He has already done.  You can endure the hardships asked of you and make sacrifices for the well-being of neighbor, family, even yourself.  We will get through this.  And then when we can gather together again and celebrate the Sacrament together again it will be all the sweeter.

The graphic above reminds us there is no barrier that God cannot break down.  John in his first chapter of his gospel proclaims that Christ is the very Word of God, the light that broke into the darkness.   His light conquered the barrier of sin and death.   His cross defeats death and becomes a life giving cross no barrier can stop.   Our destiny is still certain.  Our direction is still  toward heaven in God's time.

Yes, if the virus or any other sickness or frailty ends our mortal life, heaven is ours through Christ.  But Christ has not yet returned.   He has not yet said the final day is here.  There is work for us to do yet as His people.  We are called to be light in the world.  There is work for us to do as Christian witnesses, as fathers and mothers, as friends and neighbors, as ones who love and are loved.  That work today calls us to sacrifice and hardship.   But it reminds us God remains with us.  It reminds us that we are in this together.   It moves us to gratitude for those who are sacrificing and risking much for us and others especially among our health care providers who are directly in harms way.  It moves us to endure the hardship and make the sacrifices needful to ease their path and preserve the lives of our neighbors, our families and those we love.

This will pass.  But until it does -- remain faithful. Do not tremble.  Endure hardship as generations of Christians have had to do before us.  And remember Christ has already endured:  for you.

Isaiah 53:5
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

Post #1 in the face of COVID 19

In the past week disruption due to the potential impact of COVID-19 has become part of our daily lives.   This is a situation that very few of us has ever seen anything like before.   For some of us the disruption is highly inconvenient.  For others the disruption is a threat to income.   For some it may become a threat to health and life.

It would be quite understandable if you are feeling a whole host of emotions right now.  Maybe you are angry that this is happening.  Weddings are being cancelled.  Folks are losing time at work.  Graduations are cancelled or postponed.  Children are out of school.  People are buying up all the toilet paper and other items.   I have a friend with health and income issues who travels about 100 miles to take his daughter to the doctor and do his shopping, only this past time to find that the stories are largely emptied of the basic items they normally buy.

Other folks are in denial.  We've seen the news reports of people continuing to party.  I've read the articles and blogs of folks who are claiming it is all "hype" and there is no real threat.   I've heard Pastors who say there is no need to follow guidance involving public worship because God will protect people.  I heard old myths bordering on superstition that the common cup for distribution of Holy Communion has the power to ward off disease (or at least prevent transmission of the virus from one communicant to another ) and conspiracy theories that this is just the government trying to gain more dictatorial power over the populace.   I've heard folks claiming it is no worse than a cold or the flu and there are far more deaths to the flu, without realizing the spread has not hit the US yet and hopefully won't if we follow social distancing guidelines.

Because it boils down to this.  We are in this together.  We always have been.   God created us that way.   We don't live in isolation.   God looked upon Adam and said it was not good for him to be alone.  When Adam and Eve fell into sin it effected not just them but all their children and that is us.  The world is broken.   That is why there is disease in the world in the first place.

We are in this together.  When God gave His commandments they were all predicated on the fact that we are not alone in this life.  We exist in relationship to God.  We exist in relationship to one another.  We need each other.  That is part of being human.  And the decisions we make often impact others.

I am a Lutheran pastor.  Now Martin Luther was not an infallible prophet of the church.   He taught us to rely upon Scripture alone as the source for our understanding of God.  (Lutherans will say that scripture alone is the source and norm for faith and life.)   But Luther did hear Scripture and he had a knack for explaining what it says.   In his Small Catechism (a small teaching book) he said of the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" in answering "what does this mean":


"We should fear and love God that we may not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need [in every need and danger of life and body]."

The life we save might be our own.  The life we save might be someone we love.   The life we save might be someone we might not even know. God has always asked us to love our neighbor, to make sacrifices for our neighbor, not just to think about ourselves.  This is a time for us to do so.  The fruit may not be evident.   You might avoid that contact, that event, you might stay home and never get sick, never know if you would have gotten sick, never know if you would ever have transmitted the virus to someone else who got sick.   You might indeed be a person who can contract the disease and recover from it easily or have mild symptoms.   But we should all ask ourselves, if we are careless and thoughtless and become a carrier, whose life are we willing to put at risk because we want this or that.

In my state my Governor has required us to do some things and recommended and asked us to do some other things.  As a Senior Pastor of a moderately large congregation of pretty great folks who I care about dearly, these decisions have not come easily.  Only once in 25 years of ministry have I cancelled worship and that was because of a major blizzard/ice storm which made it quite unsafe for people to travel.  For Lutherans we understand worship as a place where we gather around the Word of God and the Sacraments (Lutherans believe God works through Baptism and Holy Communion) because God really does want to take care of His people. The same Christ who loved us so much that He came into the world as a human being to die for our sin loves us so much that He has promised that where two or three gather He will be present, that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation, that His body and blood are present in communion "for the forgiveness of sins".   Christ comes to care for us and as Lutherans it is hard for us to consider forgoing such treasures even for a short time.

But we know we are loved by God.   God baptized us into His very name (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).   Scripture says if we have been buried with Christ through Baptism so that we may also walk in newness of life. (Romans 6)  We yet have the Gospel which is the power of God for salvation.  (Romans 1)

And we know we are called to love our neighbor.  Ironically in this time it may be that the best way we can love our neighbor is physical distance from our neighbor.

So our congregation is forgoing in person public worship for the time being.   It is not an easy sacrifice but an important one.  We are fortunate enough to be able to live stream our services (http://mtcsa.org/worship/opportunities/  at 11am CST Sunday and 7pm CST Wed) for the time period.  And we are taking steps to continue pastoral care with responsible practices to help keep folks safe.

This is new for all of us.  The virus is new.   It's not the black plague but it is not the common cold or the flu virus either.  Yes, the known number of deaths in our country is higher from the flu, but that is part of the point.   At least with the flu strains our immune system has some sort of previous experience to contain it.   This virus is different enough from the coronovirus strains we have been exposed to that our immune systems have to attack it from scratch.   Studies that came out this week seem to indicate that for some people young and old our immune response goes into high gear creating a sort of autoimmune disorder that causes lung damage.   There are a lot of good sites out there (see the CDC) with information that convey a consistent message: the virus is a threat to many people and social distancing can help save the lives of people.

If churches take steps to implement ministry models based on social distancing (limiting or ceasing in person worship, limiting communion distribution, moving to individual cups vs. common cup and so forth) is that a lack of faith?   Lutherans understand Scripture is the sole rule and norm for all doctrine.   We understand that what Scripture says is solid, not to take away from it but also not to add to it.   No where in Scripture is there a promise to prevent the transmission of disease during worship, during communion,  or during any other holy rite if such is carried out in a way that does not responsibly address how a disease is transmitted.  For instance there is the old belief that a silver chalice of wine somehow sanitizes contaminates.   There is the "scientific" view that the silver and the alcohol somehow are effective.  A public health officer shared with me that silver does kill viruses if the virus ingests it, but there would almost certainly not be enough time for it to do so between one communicant and another.  Alcohol does kill viruses in enough concentration (60-70%) but wine doesn't come 140 or greater proof.  His assessment was that if someone had the virus and partook of the common cup there was a significant risk of passing it to people who commune after him/her.  There is also the belief that God wont' allow the common cup (or any other instrument of ministry) to transmit the disease.   This pastor can't find a single Word of Scripture to substantiate that belief.   So rather than being a lack of faith, perhaps churches are taking serious Christ's command to love the neighbor and being careful not to practice our faith based on beliefs that Scripture does not substantiate.

So out of love of neighbor we make sacrifices.  We forgo in person worship for a time.  When we come back together we may still forgo hugging and shaking one another's hands even though it will be so good to see one another again.  We may forgo the common cup though there is great symbolism in the unity of one cup.   But we are united in love and care and concern.  We are in this together.  We can make some personal sacrifices for the well-being of others.  The life you safe in the coming weeks -- you may never know.  It might be your own.  It might be someone in your family.  It might be someone you don't even know.  As for me, I'd rather not know  than engage in risky behavior to others and know and find out about the life I didn't safeguard.

This will pass.   Soon we shall be able to gather together again.  Soon we shall lift our voices together in God's house together and praise Him.  Soon we shall pray together and commune together.  Now we are asked to socially distance.   But God is not distant.  God is right here.  He is with you in your baptism.  He is with you in His Word.   And even if we are physically distant from one another for a time we are close in heart, in prayer, in love.  

I have not posted to this site is some time.  But I continue to meditate upon the events of a little over a week ago when a small Christian congregation was forever wounded in a community not very far from me.  This sermon I preached last Sunday in light of recent events but in the greater light of God's Holy Word.

Thank you Father in heaven for Jesus.

TEXT:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope… Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Dear friends in Christ,

Last Sunday as many of us were gathered together in worship a single man entered into a house of Christian worship and left an imprint in our memories that may haunt us for some time.  Our hearts are broken for the people of Sutherland Springs. 

Some fifty people had gathered in their small church to worship and pray

only to have a man enter and kill 27 of them, including an unborn child, and wound 20 others.  Only four escaped physical harm but their hearts are not unscathed.  Indeed the wounds extend beyond this small community. 

Where was God?  This is the question in the minds of some folks.  Why would he let this happen?

Was it a problem with our laws, with our keeping up with people who have indicated they have problems, with our mental health care system? 

What went wrong that this could happen?

But one thing we know.  Shattered are our illusions that evil is far away.   Shattered are our illusions that we are each of us completely safe and secure.  We read about the horrors of history like the holocaust but that is safely far away in distance and time,  Then evil comes knocking at our door and it isn’t just an idea anymore.  People just miles away are right now grieving the murder of their loved ones just a week ago.

We are left with questions.  How could this happen?  How could a human being point a rifle at innocent people in a church of all places and kill them?  How can anyone shoot and kill a child, or a pregnant woman?   That anyone could do this shatters our illusions. 

We wish we could help and change things.  There is no way that this can be undone.  Evil had made itself known at terrible unfathomable cost.  Why?  Scripture gives us one reason.  Sin infests this world and each and every person who inhabits it.  But by the grace of God this would be far more common.  The world is not as God created it to be. 

Last Sunday in Bible class I stressed that a key component to Luther’s theology is that life is not fair because this world has descended into sin.  Things happen to people that should not happen.  Luther wrestled with this because he loved his flock and he saw tragedy strike them for no apparent reason.  It is almost as if life itself rises up and says no, God does not exist or No God does not love you.  Luther says that over and above these “No’s” we experience, we hear God say Yes in His Word. 

This is what St. Paul is doing in his pastoral letter to a church.  Brothers do be uninformed.  We grieve but not as if we have no hope when we lose loved ones.  Jesus is Risen and He has promised that He will come for us.  And will shall rise again.  Paul tells us to encourage one another with these words. 

These are God’s “Yes” that cry out against the “NO” of life in this world. 

Sunday a man took the lives of Christians in prayer.  Some said, see God does not exist or God does God.  Against this NO the Word of God says Yes, God does care.  Jesus already died so that these who lost their lives to evil in this world are already with Him in a place where all things are as they should be. 

Sunday the world said to Christians you are nothing special, you are not safe.  But God says in His Word, Yes you are.  You are redeemed.  You are  loved.  You are adopted children of God.  And when the time comes not matter how it comes, God will bring you home to Himself.

Meanwhile, here we are.  Not quite the same.  A week later we are getting back into our normal routines and somewhat putting out of mind what transpired a week ago today.  We reminding ourselves that it was just one man out some 350 million who live in the nation and that chances of it happening to us are so very slim.  We tell ourselves we can go on and live assuming such things cannot happen to us. 

But… we know it could, unlikely, but possible.  Indeed we know evil is out there.  That’s why we lock our doors at night and why we are thankful for all those who stand to protect and serve, whether they be police and other first responders or those who wear the uniform of military service.  We are thankful for those who heard the call of God through vocation to serve others putting their own lives at risk.

I remember so many times that brothers and sisters in uniform put themselves into harms way to make a difference.  Perhaps because of last Sunday the memory that is most fresh in my mind is in the middle of the hot desert of Iraq in a small trauma center.  The call that casualties were coming had gone forth and we had gathered to wait.  The emergency bay was eerily quiet.  Everyone was already at their station. These men and women knew their jobs.  They stood waiting for the dam to burst, to go from stillness to fervent activity. And then we heard it.  The roar of a  humvee as it came flying in and the doors sprang open and we had our first wounded child.  A very small Iraqi boy with a beanie baby tucked into his shirt, probably placed there by a medic.  And they cut away his clothes and the gaping wound in his side was revealed.  And they went to work and they saved his life.  And I learned later how evil had lifted its head.  How an insurgent had deliberately thrown a grenade into a school to shake off his pursuers.    

I am no longer surprised by what this world throws at us.  But I am thankful for all those who stand to make a difference. 

What can you and I do in such a world to make a difference in such a world?

First, we can make a difference for one another.  We are here today, together.  WE are worshipping.  We are praying because we know God hears us.  There is not any “NO” that can counter God’s “Yes” in Jesus.  When we grieve we can comfort one another.  We grieve when a loved one dies.  We grieve when things like last Sunday happen. But we do not grieve as if there were no hope an no meaning. 

For Jesus is Risen.  Jesus is mighty and victorious.  Events like evil, tragedy and death do not change that.  That is why we encourage one another with the Word of God. 

Jesus is Risen.  Jesus is returning. This sad shadow of a world will not last.  A new heaven and near earth are coming.  Each day that passes it is closer.  Soon we shall be with Him.  Soon all shall be right with the world.  It’s going to happen because Christ has promised so.

Jesus is the only answer to a sinful world fallen into darkness. 

What can you and I do to make a difference in such a world? We can make a difference for others.   Bring the light.  Bright and clear and bold.  Proclaim Christ and Him crucified and risen to redeem the lost sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.  Proclaim the promise of forgiveness.  Proclaim the promise of everlasting life.  Proclaim the promise of a new heaven and near earth. 

Jesus said the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy but He has come that we may have life and have it to the full. 

This is God’s Yes in world that screams NO.  But the world and the devil do not get the last Word.  The last Word is the only Word that matters.  Jesus says come to me all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. 

The Lord is coming.  He will bring Him all those who have died in faith and together those who have died in faith and those who are alive shall experience all the promises of God come true.

In Christ’s name,

Amen.

Change and Presence

The future calls. One thing I learned a very long time ago, was change is a part of being human. Many years ago in a small room I would come to find as a safe comfortable space with a man I looked up to as a mentor; I learned, spoke and breathed philosophy. The stuff of meaning was honey dripping our fingers. I learned how we all exist in relationship with other people and make our lives together and I began to see just how important it is that we human beings have a story to write. We move through time. We have a past, exist in the present, but hear the call of tomorrow. Tomorrow beckons us with it potential creating excitement and it risks and threats creating fear if we let it.
Some things are in our span of control. Some things are shaped by the actions of others. And some are handed to us and change our storyline forever. Some of those things are great and wonderful. And some are not. My cancer is strangely enough... both.

I am blessed in that my form of cancer is controllable, at least with 90+% odds. But the future is now very uncertain and more unpredictable. I must anticipate two ending for my story.; One that is near and more sudden; the other far as hoped for. I am learning to live with uncertainty and that the fact that life is not all that ordered and reasonable in fallen sinful world. Removed from God, to some degree at war with God in rebellion demanding our way and our freedom to be god, how can it be otherwise. God is the source of all life and order. To reject God is to reject life and order. At least that's how I see it.

In the midst of my disorder I find God. I remember the story of the centurion looking at the dead Christ upon the cross and the words of a might Lutheran theologian Dr. Norman Nagel, "Jesus was never more God than when He hung dead on the cross." As the centurion proclaimed, "Surely this man was the Son of God." For myself, Jesus presented the clearest revelation of all that not only was He God in the flesh, but God is a God who suffers with us, cries with us, mourns and wraps His arms around us to be present because sometimes it is presence that we crave.