March 22, 2020

“I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will have the light of life.”

In these strange times, how deeply grateful I am that it’s still possible to do what we human beings were made for — that is, to worship. But when we’ve been scattered hither and yon, and drastically isolated from one another, not necessarily by our own decision, but in the interests of public health, our worship is going to look somewhat different!

For the time being, Prince of Peace Church has been asked not to use Deane Chapel on Sundays. Like many churches — and schools, and businesses, etc. — we’re going to have to roll with the punches. And, like many churches, we’re going to make available what we can online for our community, thankful that we have at least that way of (sort of) connecting.

This coming Sunday — March 22, the fourth Sunday in Lent — Dr. Shasberger will host an online video “gathering” via Zoom. We’ll start at our usual time, 10:30 a.m. (Pacific), and we’ll sing, hear the word of God, and pray, each in our various locations, but visible to one another. There will be a sermon. There will be no Communion, as it escapes my wildest imagination how we could come to the table, and eat and drink together in obedience to Christ, remotely. But I’ll accept what we’ve been given with thanksgiving.

The link to our meeting on Sunday is

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/153074013

I’m afraid I’m no Zoom expert, but Dr. Shasberger (along with many of our students) has used Zoom quite a bit, and so will probably be able to help. The meeting will be viewable in a web browser, but, as far as I know, there are also apps available for desktop/laptops, tablets, and phones.

If you have access to a Lutheran Book of Worship, we’ll generally be following the order given for the “Service of the Word” on pages 126–130.

I’m glad we can pray for one another, for our family and neighbors, and for the world, even under the severest conditions of social distancing, quarantine, or lockdown. Please continue to do so. For our faith and love and hope are, and always will be, in God.

March 8, 2020

The Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

This coming Sunday, March 8 — the second Sunday in Lent — we’ll hear the word of God from

Genesis 12:1–4,
Romans 4:1–5, 13–17, and
John 3:1–17.

We’ll sing Psalm 121, and other great music.

In our prayers, we’ll lift up Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church on San Antonio Creek Road (saintbarbara.net) — Saint Barbara, of course, being the very person for whom our fair city was named, and this congregation being one of around 500 identifying as Greek Orthodox in America. We’ll also pray for the people and churches of Costa Rica (operationworld.org). Please remember in your prayers, too, those affected by and responding to the outbreaks of COVID-19 (coronavirus) around the world, as well as our students resting, working, serving, and studying during spring break.

That break spans both this weekend and the next one. We’ll wait, therefore, until March 22 to pick up our ongoing discussion of Phillip Cary’s Good News for Anxious Christians.

It’s been some time since I last reflected on Luther’s 1519 sermon, “On the Holy Sacrament of the True Body of Christ.” But the following especially resonated with me this week:

God has appointed signs of this sacrament that serve the purpose of fellowship and by their very form stimulate and motivate us to this fellowship. For just as the bread is made out of many grains ground and mixed together, and out of the bodies of many grains there comes the body of one bread, and just as the drops of wine become the body of one common wine and drink — so it is and should be with us. Christ with all saints, by his love, takes upon himself our form, fighting with us against sin, death, and evil. This enkindles in us such love that we take on his form, relying upon his righteousness, life, and blessedness. And through the interchange of his blessings and our misfortunes, we become one loaf, one bread, one body, one drink, and have all things in common.

There’s an echo here of the profound Eucharistic prayer recorded in the mysterious second-century Christian document known as the Didache:

As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains, and then was gathered together and became one, so may your church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom (9:4),

which will be even more familiar to some of us as paraphrased in the song “As the grains of wheat, once scattered on the hill…” (hymnary.org).

But what struck me was the relevance of this 500-year-old thinking to the concern and angst — it is perhaps not exaggerating to say panic — being experienced by many, including Christians, about COVID-19. A recent post at Christianity Today was entitled “In Seoul, Coronavirus Forced Me to Give Up Community for Lent” (christianitytoday.com). Collections of advice, especially for churches, on how to change the ways we meet and live together in time of pandemic have been circulating widely. (In fact, another writing of Luther’s, “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague,” has been much talked about recently, for obvious reasons.) The health issues and risks are pressing, no doubt, and demand wise and thoughtful attention.

But in “On the Holy Sacrament,” Luther points out, rightly, that Christian community, fellowship, koinonia, is not something originated and maintained — or refused — by our human efforts and worries. It is this very fact of our community, given by Christ and in Christ, that may enable us to approach a crisis like the coronavirus with faith, love, and hope. And it is this community that is signified and strengthened in God’s gift of the Eucharist to the church.