"To Him be glory forever": March 2020

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Prayer, and more prayer

Floating around somewhere in my head is the idea that Martin Luther once said something to the effect that he had so much to get done on a particular day that he needed four hours of prayer to make it all work out. On the one hand, four hours seems a bit extreme. That is a huge hunk of time out of the day, even for a productive workaholic. On the other hand, I can begin to understand his point.

It's been 6 ½ years since I made the career change from health care to pastoral ministry. Six and one-half years since our family moved from Minnesota to New Mexico and the reservation of the Jicarilla Apache Nation. About two years ago I was sitting in the kitchen of one of the members of our congregation, who suddenly said, "What? You were never a pastor before?" I guess she didn't know that when I came here I had zero experience for this kind of thing. The learning curve was steep but I guess people who didn’t know couldn’t tell that I was new at this.

I would say that at about that same time, two years ago, I realized I needed to pray more, in order to be a better pastor. Or perhaps said otherwise, I needed to pray more just to be a competent pastor. I had acquired more experience, but I also had a clearer understanding of what I needed to do, and, if possible, to consistently do well. And in order for that to happen, I needed to spend more time with the Lord.

And so I did two things. The first was to get up one-half hour earlier during the week. I needed a longer block of time that was largely free from interruption in order to pray. Early morning is the primary time I pray for myself, my family, and the many needs of the ministry and requests that people have given me. I could, I did, and I still do, pray for those things at other times of the day, but I have found that I am better prepared for each day when I spend that early time in prayer, without being distracted or feeling rushed.

The other thing was I've become better at praying during the day, either for a task that I'm working on at the moment, for something that someone asks me about, or for something that just seems to come to mind. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Paul writes,

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Lately that idea of prayer without ceasing has come at night as well. I've never been one to fret over wakeful times at night but in the past few months I have been more intentional about using that time to pray, rather than to think about other things.

One of the things that I've learned on the job is that experience doesn't mean I can get by with less prayer, but teaches me that I need more. I was reminded of that earlier this afternoon, as I spent some time working on a project for tomorrow. To serve the Lord well here I need prayer, and more prayer. And not just to serve well here, but anywhere, for that matter. And that's a truth that all who follow Jesus can be mindful of.

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Loving Your Neighbors

In response to a question as to what is the most important of God's commandments, Jesus says:

"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these."

Today was a curious day for churches, not just the churches here in Dulce, but all over the world. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic a great many churches were closed for worship, moving what they could of their ordinary Sunday ministry online, in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Our congregation was no different, making the decision last week to cancel worship for this Sunday and next week. We could easily find ourselves closed longer, as we move into April and see how the situation develops.

What does it mean to "love your neighbor?" What does loving your neighbor look like?

For our congregation today, one glimpse of loving our neighbors looks like the picture above. Our sanctuary, empty, so that a disease that can be present for several days without showing any symptoms is not inadvertently spread through our congregation as we worship.

Loving our neighbors also looks like this, which is a link to the sermon I was looking forward to preaching this morning. I spent a bit of time this week figuring out how to improve what we had done last week, when the sermon was streamed via Facebook live. This week I created a church YouTube channel and learned how to record the sermon on my laptop and then upload it to YouTube. It was a marked improvement from last week and I'm sure that next week my ability to use the technology will continue to get better. I also hope to be able to find some other ways to nurture our congregation online until the Sunday morning when we will be able to gather again in person.

As a pastor, on a Sunday morning, these are two examples where I have been called to love the neighbors who make up the congregation I serve. The call to "love your neighbor as yourself" is one that applies to every follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. How is God inviting you to love your neighbor, and to love God as you do so, during these days? May you be faithful in seeing those opportunities and then serving the Lord in them, to his eternal glory.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

"…every one of them…"

I was on a conference call today with people in Sioux Falls, SD; Athabasca, Alberta; Sioux City, IA; Kansas City, MO; and somewhere in south Florida. Add the two of us on the call from Dulce, NM and there was quite a spread, geographically.

The first thing the meeting organizer wanted us to share with each other was what the situation was re: the COVID-19 pandemic and how our various churches were responding. There was also quite a spread as far as that news went, from communities where there are actual cases of the disease and where worship last Sunday was an online experience, to our community/congregation, where there are no known cases and worship went on as usual last Sunday, albeit with smaller numbers. Part of that decrease happened as people and families practice social distancing and part of it was due to the rhythm of the calendar for tribal members and employees.

The scripture that was going through my head during this part of the conversation was Psalm 139:16,

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them."

That verse reminded me that our days, every one of them, are known to God, long in advance of any one of them coming to pass. Not just the days of my life, or yours, but also of Robin as she gets in a few quiet moments on the couch, our boys as they watch TV, all of the people on our conference call, all of the people in our various congregations and communities, and all of the people in the world.

COVID-19 may be dominating the news right now, and rightly so, but the Lord sits on his throne, fully aware of all the moments of all the days of all the people, ever. No one can predict how long this crisis will continue. No one can estimate when, or if, there will be an easy cure or a preventative vaccine. No one can guess at how many people will become ill, and even die, as a result of COVID-19. But Christians can know certain hope in this: all of our days, every one of them, are always known, to the Lord. Always.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

It's Not The End Of The World…

So I'm writing this presuming you've heard of the coronavirus, aka COVID-19. Here is a link to a reference from John's Hopkins with an interesting chart showing the spread of the virus through the world. My wife linked to a different collection of information earlier today. There is all kinds of stuff online about it, with all kinds of suggestions for us to do, ranging from advice to PANIC to NO BIG DEAL. As a family we are going to self-quarantine, meaning that as much as possible we will be staying home for a while. For the most part our family is low-risk for a more serious episode, should it land in our home. Our intent is to both reduce our own exposure and reduce the possibility of us being exposed and then passing the virus along to others.

Personally I'm glad I'm no longer working in health care, because my guess is that infection control awareness and procedures are sky-high right now. That is both right and good, as well as something I don't miss having to deal with anymore. As a pastor, coronavirus does present a few opportunities for reflection.

Without having to wrestle with all the science behind it, and I do have an undergraduate science degree, my basic understanding is that it is a new virus in the world, which will likely affect many people as it passes through the first time. As of the time I write this since January 20th over 121,000 have been reported ill, over 66,000 have recovered, and 4,373 have died. Today the World Health Orgaanization declared a pandemic.

That the onset and spread of this coronavirus in the world is of serious concern is, I believe, beyond question. It has affected many people, some people and families tragically so. And it will likely continue to spread for a while before it abates.

It is not the end of the world…

It is not the end of the world, but if it was, then Christians, of all people should live with a heightened awareness of what, ultimately, is at stake.

I'm a pastor, rooted in the Reformed tradition of Christianity, and I continue to whole-heartedly affirm the teachings of our confessional standards that I gave assent to at my ordination: The Heidelberg Catechism, The Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort.

When I preach on Sunday, no matter what particular biblical text I have open on the pulpit, I try to bring out both the truth of God's law and the mercy of God's grace. The Bible is particularly clear that without receiving God's grace in life, one will die under God's judgment. There is no middle ground between an eternal destiny of indescribable beauty and one of unimaginable horror.

So the outbreak of the coronavirus is an occasion to be reminded of the brevity of human life, even one of a hundred years, when compared with eternity. The window we are all living in now is the only one we have in which to make the decision that shapes our eternity. It is the only one in which to turn in faith to the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin. I'm presuming that most of my regular readers are believers in Jesus. If you are not, please contact me separately and I would be glad to talk more about this with you.

As a Christian the outbreak of the coronavirus is an invitation to live with awareness that I frequently interact with people who are unsaved. In those interactions am I mindful of opportunities to share the good news of Jesus with them? Am I praying over those interactions before they even take place? Am I praying that God would be softening their hearts so that they would be ready to receive his mercy?

You've probably read a bazillion words about the coronavirus by now, and you'll likely read several bazillion more before this all comes to a conclusion. So I'll close with the first question-and-answer of the Heidelberg Catechism, which our congregation used as it's affirmation of faith as we worshipped last Sunday:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.