The Church Scattered
This is the first in a series of reflections during this unusual time.
How are faith communities called to respond as COVID-19 unravels our sense of community?
One of the first challenges that we face in trying to make sense of the new reality COVID-19 presents each of us with, is the challenge of language. How do we communicate when the ways we communicate have been fundamentally altered? How can we be the Church and do church in a time where the best recommendations of public health officials is to practice social distancing? How can two or three gather if, as Rev. Traci Blackmon reminds us, “we are now the Church scattered rather than gathered?”
COVID-19 and the recommendation to practice social distancing present a particular challenge to faith communities globally as we seek to respond to this health crisis even as it threatens to unravel our sense of community. And yet, this is precisely what we are called to do. Even as the four walls of our church buildings become sites of potential contagion, Brad Braxton offers this reminder, “the human spirit is not a site of contagion.” And our spirits, propelled by the Holy Spirit, must persist. The Spirit of comfort and joy, the Spirit of hope and possibility, the Spirit of care and mutuality, must persist.
We cannot be seduced by the false security of self-isolation, self-indulgence, and self-interest. While we are being asked to practice social distancing we must also practice communal solidarity. Put simply, we need each other. And these are the ways we need one another:
It is a strange yet beautiful gift that we face this crisis while journeying through the wilderness of Lent. And perhaps if we remember that during this time, already set aside for reflection, repentance, and reconciliation, we may see a roadmap for how to press on. That is why this week’s lectionary seems so appropriate to me.
This week’s lectionary texts include Psalm 23; even now I can imagine your mind is percolating with memories that are set to the words of this enduring Psalm. That is the point: Psalm 23 carries the histories of each of our great joys and heaviest sorrows. This Psalm is near to us, just as it reminds us that God, our Shepherd, is near to us, meeting our needs and guiding our feet. Remember, that as we seek to serve our flocks and tend to the concerns of the most vulnerable, our shepherding, covenanting, and keeping God gives us a model of how to shepherd one another even from afar. If God whom we cannot see, still proves time and again to be able to shepherd the stories of our lives, we who are here, even though we must stay 4-6 feet apart, though public worship be suspended, we, yes we, can commit the work of our hands, our internet connections, our calls, our silent prayers, to the task of holding one another up.
My prayer for each of us is that we may come to know creativity, authenticity, and joy in the midst of the shifting realities we face with COVID-19. My prayer is that we relearn how to communicate with one another the hope of Christ and the promise of God’s power. How can CANAAC pray for you? Lift up those prayers even now, in the confidence that the Spirit intercedes and translates on your behalf.
Lord in your mercy.
Amen.
How are faith communities called to respond as COVID-19 unravels our sense of community?
One of the first challenges that we face in trying to make sense of the new reality COVID-19 presents each of us with, is the challenge of language. How do we communicate when the ways we communicate have been fundamentally altered? How can we be the Church and do church in a time where the best recommendations of public health officials is to practice social distancing? How can two or three gather if, as Rev. Traci Blackmon reminds us, “we are now the Church scattered rather than gathered?”
COVID-19 and the recommendation to practice social distancing present a particular challenge to faith communities globally as we seek to respond to this health crisis even as it threatens to unravel our sense of community. And yet, this is precisely what we are called to do. Even as the four walls of our church buildings become sites of potential contagion, Brad Braxton offers this reminder, “the human spirit is not a site of contagion.” And our spirits, propelled by the Holy Spirit, must persist. The Spirit of comfort and joy, the Spirit of hope and possibility, the Spirit of care and mutuality, must persist.
We cannot be seduced by the false security of self-isolation, self-indulgence, and self-interest. While we are being asked to practice social distancing we must also practice communal solidarity. Put simply, we need each other. And these are the ways we need one another:
- we need one another to hope for us when hope is too heavy,
- we need one another to have faith for us when faith seems foolish,
- we need one another to check in on us, pray for us, cry with us,
- we need one another to commit to being the Church,
- we need one another to do what we have been, or should have been doing, even before COVID-19 upended the ways we expect Church to show up.
It is a strange yet beautiful gift that we face this crisis while journeying through the wilderness of Lent. And perhaps if we remember that during this time, already set aside for reflection, repentance, and reconciliation, we may see a roadmap for how to press on. That is why this week’s lectionary seems so appropriate to me.
This week’s lectionary texts include Psalm 23; even now I can imagine your mind is percolating with memories that are set to the words of this enduring Psalm. That is the point: Psalm 23 carries the histories of each of our great joys and heaviest sorrows. This Psalm is near to us, just as it reminds us that God, our Shepherd, is near to us, meeting our needs and guiding our feet. Remember, that as we seek to serve our flocks and tend to the concerns of the most vulnerable, our shepherding, covenanting, and keeping God gives us a model of how to shepherd one another even from afar. If God whom we cannot see, still proves time and again to be able to shepherd the stories of our lives, we who are here, even though we must stay 4-6 feet apart, though public worship be suspended, we, yes we, can commit the work of our hands, our internet connections, our calls, our silent prayers, to the task of holding one another up.
My prayer for each of us is that we may come to know creativity, authenticity, and joy in the midst of the shifting realities we face with COVID-19. My prayer is that we relearn how to communicate with one another the hope of Christ and the promise of God’s power. How can CANAAC pray for you? Lift up those prayers even now, in the confidence that the Spirit intercedes and translates on your behalf.
Lord in your mercy.
Amen.
--J. Henry Narcisse, M.Div.
Joshua was a PC(USA) delegate to the 2018 CANAAC General Assembly.
He is currently serving as a pastoral resident in Memphis, Tennessee.