My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Many of us have over the years seen at least one of the movie series Back-To-The-Future. Marty and Doc speed through time from the 80’s to the 50’s to 2019 and even back to the 1850’s. We see reminders of the golden age of rock-n-roll, flying cars in the future, and the frontiers of the Wild West. Over the course of the three movies, the characters make better choices in the past which have a way of making the future better. Marty’s Dad stands up to Biff resulting in a better childhood for Marty and his siblings. Marty learns to not freak out when called a chicken. Doc Brown finds love and a family in the Old West. Who would not want to go back in time and change decisions to make our lives better?
But, wanting to go back is not always the healthiest choice. In the story of Lot, fleeing the destruction of his home, Lot’s wife looks back at the city as it is being destroyed presumably lamenting the loss of everything they had. No longer having the prosperity and luxuries of living in the ancient world’s Sin City and being stuck in the wilderness with nothing; the feelings of loss and grief overcome her, and she looks back with a longing to go back in time. But in the act of looking back, she turns into a pillar of salt. Turns out that wanting to go back to a town being destroyed for its sinfulness, ends up bringing destruction upon herself. Wanting to go back to a more prosperous and “better” time forfeits the “best” time God is creating. Going back results in never moving forward.
No doubt many in our congregation have reflected upon and desired that we could go back to the way things were before the quarantine. We have ample time on our hands to reflect and consider how things differ now compared to before. No doubt we are overwhelmed with many feelings and thoughts, perhaps even to the point of being unable to discern what day it is, what time it, how many days in quarantine we have been, but one thing we almost all have done is to desire our present to become more like things were before the self-isolation. We could do so much more than we can now: trips, visits, shopping, eating out, and much more. Like Lot’s wife we spend our time now looking back toward before and desiring that things now were more like then.
Bur regrettably that turning back and looking and desiring that things were the way they were are likely to turn us to salt. While we were able to get our hair cut, or shop for leisure instead of need, or have a dinner anywhere but the kitchen or dining room, were things better “then” than “now.” Think and reflect of how things were in our church. We were capable of being an anonymous member. We could come to church, we didn’t really need to interact with anyone, we could be entertained for a brief moment, we could skip coffee hour, we could ignore the pleas of the committee for volunteers, we could fulfill our duty for the week. We always had an attitude of scarcity instead of abundance. I heard endlessly about “how we are asking for more money again.” We had injustices, poverties, broken relationships, no kids in Sunday School, someone else cleaning the church, and everyone going to Florida. Was it better than now? To turn back and look at how it was, I feel like I am turning to salt.
But what if now is a possibility given from the Grace of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to move forward; because I am not sure we really want to go back to the ways we were before. Imagine, for a moment, if instead of anonymous members hiding in the Sanctuary and hoping no one asks me to get involved, we were willing to invest in each other. Imagine if we were bound to each other in commitment, just as God has bound us to God. Imagine if we were to emotionally and financially and physically invest in each other. Not hoping to leave before someone spots us or hoping that we never get asked to serve as a Church officer, even never joining the Church so we can never be asked to do anything. What if we sacrificed for each other, building relationships of mutuality instead of selfishly considering only our wants? What if we participated in each other’s lives like the Father and Son participate in each other by the Love of the Holy Spirit?
Well my friends, we would not be an institution, we would be a group of people. We would not be a non-profit organization in the eyes of the State, we would be the body of Christ. But we cannot go back to the way we before the quarantine because we were not yet the body of Christ. We cannot go back to the way we before the quarantine because the Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. We cannot go back to the way we before the quarantine because we are not the same people than before. We cannot go back to the way we before the quarantine because, maybe just maybe, it really was not all that great. But most importantly, we cannot go back to the way we were before the quarantine, because God is making now better than we were before. We cannot go back to the way we before the quarantine because we need to disciple God forward.
So when we can meet together, and at some point we will be able to, will we have the commitment, the self-sacrifice, the love to become the Church as a group of people called and created to assemble for God or will we have yet another excuse to remain an Anonymous Christian, which is really no Christian at all?
In Christ,
Rev. Mark
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