All in this Together

I am not at church today. I come to you in your home, from my home, at least for now. And as soon as we made that decision, the first question that Doug and Jim and Tom asked was, “Well, are you going to wear your robe?” At least, for today, the answer was yes. The robe is part of preparing for worship for me. As I study and prepare my sermons, I pray for God to speak through me, to be emptied of what I want to say and filled with courage to say what God wants God’s people to hear, and putting on the robe is the final physical act for me symbolically that I am standing in front of you not as a teacher or a friend or a leader, but I stand in front of you, humbly, as a messenger of God. So, the last time I was at church, I brought home my robe. And yet, as I have reflected on Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi and the closeness that they experienced to one another because they were able to empathize and connect with each others’ experiences, I am reminded that Paul didn’t wear a robe. Robes didn’t come to be a sign of clergy until the 4th Century. And I was faced with one more question, one more change…and I realized how weary I am, how weary we all are.

I have had the song “We’re All in this Together” stuck in my head for weeks now. This is partially because, yes, I have slowed down enough to watch High School Musical. For those who know how little television and how few movies I watch, you understand how out of character for me that is. We are in a time of drastic change. I wearied of the phrase “unprecedented times” weeks ago. And they aren’t unprecedented times, really, in some respects. There have been other plagues, other recessions and depressions, other disrupters to our status quo…but what is unprecedented is that some of the veneer over the ills of our society is being uncovered. We are seeing how racism and socio-economic disparity, and red lining and food deserts and lack of medical care impact us all.

We are realizing that we are dependent upon one another whether we like it or not, we are seeing that we can do much of our work from home and that many essential jobs in our society have been undervalued and unappreciated. And we are seeing how dependent we are globally, in economics, in trade and supply chain, in scientific research, on the simplest level, we are seeing how interconnected we are as we map how this novel coronavirus revealed how mobile we are. We are seeing that we truly are, all in this together.

And we are struggling not just against a virus, we are experiencing the first time in our lives that we don’t know what the goal is. We are a nation whose founders were reachers we have always had a goal – the first explorers came reaching for a new trade route to the Indies, the settlers came reaching for the New World, “Go West, you man” they encouraged as our young nation reached for the West Coast, we have reached for the goals of democracy and representation, we reached for the moon, we have reached for success and security, we reached for our children to excel in school, in sports, in music lessons and dance lessons and karate lessons – whatever their gift, whatever their interest, we invested our time and our money, reaching…and now we are at home. We don’t know how long we will be at home. We are beginning to see some of the value that can come from this time: families having meals together, planning and scheduling their days, family chores and projects together, parents with fewer meetings and obligations, we are seeing how much of our work day is spent in inner-office conversation and how efficient meetings on Zoom and Gotomeeting can be.

In the church world, churches are seeing a peeling back of the veneer as well. We are seeing how far from the mission many of our churches have gotten. The churches struggling to survive are ones built on the personality of the pastor and program ministries with large-group gatherings that are attractional “draws” for youth or young adults or singles or older adults that are not based in relationship and faith formation. Make no mistake, it is hard not to be able to be together, to not have Fellowship Coffee and Wednesday night dinner and to not go to Perkins for breakfast together between Sunrise Service and 11:00 service on Easter. It is hard to learn to create worship to post online, there are tons of questions every week, and we are all still learning. It is hard to not be able to see and comfort one another. But it is encouraging to see that we are worshiping together and we are caring for one another and we are studying in Zoom Bible studies and having small group meetings over the phone or over Zoom, and we are all in this together. And in the midst of it, members who have been unable to attend worship are able to worship with us, whether they have moved away or have mobility issues, it is exciting to see members of the Farmington family able to praise God together. We are learning to do Bible study remotely, and ideas for future study possibilities are endless – we can study together over lunch regardless of where you work or live. Meetings can be held remotely, preserving family time and eliminating drive times.

And so our goal of going back to “life as normal”, that we may have had in the first weeks of staying at home, is fading away. And now, we don’t quite know what the goal is. School is out, until at least August. What will change between now and then? Will we be able to go back then? When will it be safe to gather? When will we travel again? When will it be over? Or will it never be safe, and all of us will be exposed at some point? Will I have it? Will I survive it?

Our entire world faces these ultimate questions. This is an unprecedented opportunity for the church. We know what the goal is. The goal of humanity – the goal of every person – is to glorify God. So, how do we do that when we are struggling?

Over the next several weeks, my sermons will share insights from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi. Both Paul and the Philippians were struggling. Paul was in prison; the Philippians were persecuted, and Paul wrote to them a letter about faith in the midst of hard times.

Paul founded the church at Philippi, a city that served as the “front door” from Asia to Europe of the Roman Empire. It was known as the mini-Rome. When Paul first went to a city, he went first to the synagogue to preach to the Jewish people that the Messiah had come. But, there was no synagogue in Philippi, and only a few Jews. But, Paul goes to pray by the river that runs near the city gate, and there he met Lydia, a wealthy woman, who worships God. And God opens her heart and she and her family are the first in Europe to be baptized. When he wrote the Thessalonians, Paul said that “he had suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi (I Thess. 2:2).” Politically and socially believers in Philippi struggled and risked beatings and imprisonment.

So, Paul writes to them, “I thank my God every time I remember you….because of your partnership in the gospel.” The Greek word here translated partnership in the New International Version is koinonia, the same word for the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit and the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. I thank God because I am not alone; I thank God that we are all in this together because we are drawn together by the Holy Spirit and by the body of blood of our Lord.

“And I pray,” writes Paul, for three things: First, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Second, that that insight would allow you to discern what is best and you may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. And third, the result would be that you are filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.

My friends, I thank God every time I think of you…that God unites us together as one, and we are all in this together. And I pray, that we may love the removal of the veneers of our society more and more as we gain and even seek a new level of knowledge and depth of insight, that will allow us to discern what is best and we may be pure and blameless before Jesus and that the result will be that we are filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – so that God will be glorified. That is our goal.

As we learn about disproportionately higher rates of infection or higher rates of death in particular demographic groups, may we ask the deeper questions of why and the will to take action to address the systems that have led to it. As we realize the blessing of family time and Sabbath rest, may we ask the deeper questions of why we allowed our lives to be so filled with busyness and the will to take action to address the values and priorities that have led to it. The other night, we built a fire in the fire pit and Nicholas looked up and noticed how clear the sky was and that he could see the stars. As we realize the impact that all of our driving and flying and manufacturing have on our world, may we ask the deeper questions of why we need to go and have and whether we need to go and have and the will to take action to minimize our impact on God’s creation. For each one of us has a part, and each one of us is a part. And we are all in this together. Thanks be to God, to whom be all glory now and forever. Amen.