It’s Sunday #2 of worship in the days of coronavirus restrictions. This week, our small congregation will not meet together in the sanctuary. However, we have chosen an alternative.
It started when one of our members insisted that he would ring the church bell on Sunday morning. We have a historic building and a long tradition of ringing our church bell on the Lord’s Day, and he didn’t think it should be silenced this week. So, at 10am, he will ring it so that all the surrounding countryside will know that our church family is still here in their midst.
Next, we invited anyone who is able to drive their car to our parking lot to hear the bell ring. So, in a manner of speaking, we will gather, but in a rather unique way.
After the bell is rung, I will go car by car, sprinkling each one with a baptismal blessing:
May you remember that you are God’s beloved children Buried with Christ in baptism And raised to walk in newness of life!
Then I will ask an occupant in each vehicle to roll a window down and I will pray for them, saying:
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord help you to be anxious in nothing, But may the peace of God guard your heart in Christ Jesus. May the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom. And may you go in his peace to serve the Lord. Amen.
Drive-through church, I guess.
I see it as a sign of faith, hope, and love that nothing can extinguish.
Note from CM: We have a special guest speaker for our weekly brunch today. My good friend and former iMonk partner Jeff Dunn is here with a message most appropriate for Lent. And like all of Jeff’s writing, it arises from his life. He has reached a critical point in his journey, and I’ve asked him to share it with you. I know you’ll appreciate his words and his spirit, and that this community will rally around Jeff and his family at this time.
Welcome, Jeff, and thanks for your transparency. We love you.
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Goodbye Seems To Be The Hardest Word By Jeff Dunn
The men in my family have always had trouble saying goodbye. My grandpa’s eyes would well up with tears when we would leave to return to our home—just 12 miles up the road. My dad and I do great on a phone call with each other, until that awkward time when it’s time to end the conversation. I almost imagine us being like teenage crushes. “You hang up first.” “No, you hang up first.” When our oldest daughter left to go to college for the first time, it about tore me up to say goodbye. And she was only going four miles away. Even our son, VERY much the millennial, doesn’t like saying goodbye. When he stops over for a visit, he’ll just get up and walk out the door without even a “See ya later.” There’s something about saying “goodbye” we Dunns just haven’t grasped yet.
Now I’m struggling to say goodbye to things that have been a part of my 60-plus years on earth. Goodbye to travel. Goodbye to going to Tulsa Drillers baseball games (if and when they get started again). Goodbye to going to Gardner’s, my favorite used bookstore.
I’m also learning to say goodbye to simpler things, like getting up from my chair unassisted, going to the grocery on my own, writing with a pen. Yesterday I said goodbye to my favorite coffee mug—handcrafted by a master artist here in Tulsa. It has become too heavy for me to hold.
I received my diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, last summer. That diagnosis—or, rather, deathnosis, as ALS is always fatal—put me on my farewell tour. And what a tour it has been! I’ve longed for this for so very long. No, I haven’t desired a fatal illness, and I wasn’t wanting to say goodbye to the many people, experiences and things I’ve enjoyed all of my life. But I have longed to say goodbye to the false self, the self constantly in need of approval and acceptance, the self that talked a good game about the love of God but didn’t believe he loved me or even knew I existed. All it took was ALS to help me to stop begging for attention from others and really, truly begin to know my ever-loving, merciful, kind and generous Father.
It’s funny how receiving a death sentence has freed me to live. Here’s what I mean. I had longed to go to New Mexico for a number of years. It was a longing in my spirit that I couldn’t explain. I just knew I had to go. And even though I made attempts to scrounge up the money and free some time for the venture, I always came to the conclusion we couldn’t afford it. New Mexico became a dream that most likely would never come true.
Then, right after the doctor confirmed the symptoms I had experienced for more than a year were caused by Lou Gehrig’s Disease (Motor Neuron Disease if you’re British, Charcot’s Disease in France), I decided I was going to New Mexico no matter what, and I wasn’t going to wait around to go. I didn’t know how fast the disease would progress to the point where I couldn’t travel.
My spiritual director asked me if I was afraid to die. “No,” I told him. “Why should I be afraid to die?
“But I am afraid to not live.”
So, in September my good friend Mike Lacer and I set off for the Land of Enchantment, neither of us knowing just why we were going, only that we had to go in order to live. I could walk you through the entire trip, but suffice it to say it was God-infused from the moment we left Tulsa until we returned five days later. There was something about meeting God in the desert that cannot be described, at least not in any language we possess.
Many think my life now is a desert. All I have before me is daily physical deterioration. I will soon (if I’m not already) be useless to others. All I’ll be able to do is watch Netflix and drool. This is what many think is the inevitable path in front of me. And maybe it is. I am experiencing new physical limitations or pains daily. My muscles constantly twitch. It will soon be hard for me to swallow, so perhaps I will drool like that dog on Turner and Hootch. I don’t have Netflix, and don’t plan to get it—instead, I watch the squirrels and birds out my back window.
As for being useless to others, I think I’ve lived on that island for quite a while already.
But my life is far from a desert, or at least the desert most people think of—a lifeless place of dirt and rocks and a few plants you can’t touch because of their sharp quills. The desert is a magnificent landscape teeming with life. However, it takes special senses to experience this life. Senses that can adjust to the desert landscape. Eyes to see the sky reaching all the way down to the earth. Ears to hear the powerful silence. A nose to smell the freshest fresh air ever. Hands to touch pyrite and gypsum and iron ore. And a tongue to taste—oh the tastes! Rich, earthen meals made from simple ingredients that are more wonderful than any gourmet meal. This is the desert I experienced in New Mexico, and thanks to the Holy Spirit, brought home with me.
For so long, my life was noise and buildings and a lifeless sky. It took a deathnosis to get me to see that God has so much for us in the barren and broken places. In these last months I have—at last—learned to not strive for God, but rest in him. He is here with me, more real than the rocks I brought back from the desert. I now have the intimacy with my Father that I have longed for.
In The Luckiest Man, author John Paine recounts his life before and after his own ALS deathnosis. He puts in much better words than mine just how I feel about this illness.
ALS gave me a gift. It brought me to edge of myself—my abilities, my confidences, my control—then pushed me over the edge, screaming. I didn’t find the abyss over that edge, though; I found the open arms of God waiting to welcome me into his life of unconditional love, validation, comfort, and peace. In my own powerlessness, I found myself welcomed by the Power of all power.
Yes, I see ALS as a gift from God. Nothing—and I mean absolutely nothing—matters outside of God. He will not settle for being a part of my life—not even the biggest part. He wants all of me. He wants to take me from edifices built for the glory of man, the sounds of uncivil discourse, and the smells of those desperate to extend their lives and take me to the desert, his desert, where there is real life, true life. The only way there is by death. For me, that death includes physical death, most likely in a year or two. For all, it means a death to self. Being a Christian is not easy. God demands nothing less than everything.
So, I am saying goodbye to things that used to make me so happy. The coffee cup I mentioned at the start of this post is made of clay, not steel, but yesterday it weighed by arm and shoulder down to where it was too painful to drink from. I said goodbye to “hopping up” to go anywhere. I have no “hop” left. Now I have a lift chair—a recliner that pushes me up to a standing position so I can get up when no one is here to help.
I said goodbye to the idea of returning to New Mexico. Any trip longer than half an hour wears me out. I said goodbye to going to Ohio to see my aging parents or going to Dallas for an In N Out burger.
I’m having to say goodbye to talking for very long. About five minutes into a conversation I find myself gasping for air. (This is a blessing for those who have been subjected to me rambling endlessly about things only I care about.)
Maybe the hardest thing I’ve had to say goodbye to are my beloved books. I can no longer hold a hardcover book, and can only hold paperbacks for a short time. I’m switching to reading mostly on my Kindle. eBooks are an awesome innovation, but as you book lovers know, it ain’t the same as holding paper in your hands.
None of these goodbyes, however, hold a candle to the Hello I’ve received from God. I implore you to let go of everything and get to know God in the most intimate way possible. For most, it will not take being diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s. But for everyone it will involve dying.
I want to close with a quote from St. Augustine. If you forget everything I’ve just said, fine. But hold these words close to your heart.
All those who belong to Jesus Christ are fastened with Him to the Cross. A Christian during the whole course of his life should, like Jesus, be on the Cross. It would be an act of rashness to descend therefrom, since Jesus Christ did not descend, even when the Jews offered to believe in Him. The time for driving out the nails of this Cross is only after death; there is then no time to extract the nails whilst we live; we must wait until our sacrifice is consummated. So strong sometimes are the storms of life that strength of arm is of no avail, and there is no other means to save us from shipwreck than trusting in the Cross of Jesus Christ by which we are consecrated.
The message of God to the world comes not through natural phenomena like coronavirus but through the good news proclaimed by and embodied in a people who bear his name. “War, plague, and famine” are not severe words from God. They are groans of a broken creation into which God sends his word of faith, hope, and love through Jesus-shaped people. – Chaplain Mike
Chaplain Mike has been reading my mind this week, ending his post yesterday at the spot where I wanted to start mine. How do we want to model Jesus in this time of disaster? By being his hands and feet. Mike’s note: Before leaving this page, make sure that you at least scan down to the end of this post to see some great resources for parents with kids at home.
My mind started thinking about how we can be Jesus’ hands and feet last Friday when my cousin Jesse posted the following on Facebook:
If there are any Fernie residents who are seniors, or immune-compromised, who might be wary of heading out in public or to get groceries, please let them know I am willing to help deliver groceries or help in other ways. I will be free to do so this coming Wednesday onwards, and am eager to help calm this chaos! If you know of anyone please send me a DM and I can connect with them. Spread love not fear. – Jesse
I know her post inspired at least six others to act in similar ways. I thought to myself, “we are facing an pandemic that is growing exponentially, we need actions of love to spread exponentially as well.”
Over the next couple of days other family and friends posted similar things:
For any of my friends or family struggling with COVID-19,
If you need prayer or encouragement, message me! I would love to chat through Messenger, video calls, or whatever form works best. This is especially true for all you university students!!
If you are sick or elderly and need groceries or supplies, my friends and I at my church are looking to serve within our church community and the wider community!… – Drew
If anyone needs help delivering groceries or supplies to your home in light of the Coronavirus scare, please let me know. Happy to help. – Patrick
Hi friends (especially students)! At such a chaotic time, with some of us are moving home and many foodbanks running dry, I challenge us to consider the most vulnerable and needy people in our city. If you have any perishable or non-perishable food or hygiene products you are willing to give away please message me, Kalina or Elysia FT this week and we can pick them up from your house and deliver them to a local foodbank. – Hannah
I started hearing of a number of groups being formed to assist others, a health food store matching singles with seniors.
The list of those offering help continues to grow exponentially. In my town of half a million, nearly 1 out of every 100 residents has signed up to help through just one such site! I am hearing similar stories all over our country.
Another friend, Krista, who has just finished homeschooling her three children, realized that what she could offer was twenty years of experience of providing a meaningful time at home for multiple children. Every day she has been posting multiple suggestion and resources that she has found helpful.
I am going to wind up this post here with my final comments. You can then scroll through some of her suggestions below.
We all have ways we can help. Even the simple act of calling someone who is housebound on the phone to chat is a significant act of grace. I look forward to reading in your comments some of the good news that you have heard, or ideas that you have, or things that you are doing, that might be of help to others reading this post, or the community at large. Your thoughts and comments are welcome.
>Here is some of what Krista has had to offer over the past week, the first set can serve as a template for some of the others.
Resources for kids at home:
March 15 at 5:08 PM
For those of you with kids suddenly at home due to school closures, I’m sharing what a dear friend wrote up regarding homeschooling…..
I am seeing some comments from overwhelmed parents suddenly thrust into homeschooling their kids, with no opportunity to prepare. If I could offer a little perspective from 30 years of homeschooling, I’d suggest not trying to replicate school at home. Instead, focus on what you can do better at home, than they can do in a school setting.
1 Read lots and lots and lots of good books. Use audiobooks if your voice gets tired.
2 Bake together, and use the opportunity to practice measuring and maybe fractions.
3 Start some seedlings and learn about how seeds sprout and what plants need to grow.
4 Play outside, and don’t feel guilty about it. Play facilitates brain development.
5 Take nature walks, use different senses to find evidence of spring.
6 Do art projects together.
7 Help them set up journals where they can record and process their thoughts and experiences.
8 Maybe do an audio recording and/or drawing and/or cutting out magazine pictures for pre-writers.
9 Play some math or reasoning based games. Yahtzee, 21, that game with a grid of dots where you try to complete boxes, I’m sure there are tons of ideas online!
10 Create a skit or a short play together.
11 Play music from various favorite composers, and learn about their lives.
12 Ditto for looking at art from famous artists.
13 Play geography based games.
14 Plan an imaginary trip to an intriguing location. Learn all you can about what to see and do there, their culture, food, history, etc.
15 Begin learning a foreign language.
16 Learn to knit, crochet, sew a simple project, etc.
17 Bundle up, drive to a darker location, and go stargazing on a clear night. Download an app to identify what you’re seeing.
You’ve got this, mom or dad.
It is a short blip in 12+ years of schooling. Your kids will be fine. They really will.💕
March 16 at 11:08 PM
The Institute for the Excellence in Writing is a phenomenal program.
They are offering free curriculum… Try it out with your kids!
Even if you just do some creative writing – rewrite a fairy tale or a process essay – how to make KD…
Yesterday at 8:46 AM Self directed learning so the kids are learning while you are working… Mike’s note: A whole bunch of different sites branch from this one. Some of them my kids have used in the past to help with their homework. I know the first link (Khan Academy) is extremely high quality.
Hear it again: “God allows trials to come our way to get our relationship back in tune with Him in order to keep us from eternal calamity.”
Is that what God is saying to us in these challenging days? Is a text from 2 Chronicles a word from heaven for us? This minister seems to think so.
In this Covid-19 pandemic, did God “send an epidemic on [his] people” for a purpose? Is God calling us to “repent and turn from the evil [we] have been doing”? If we dedicate ourselves to prayer and this kind of repentance, will God hear us, forgive us, and make us prosperous again?
Many of our spiritual ancestors would have thought so. There is a certain view of Providence (with a capital “P”) that emerges, in my opinion, from an unacceptably flat view of the Bible, one that makes no distinctions between various texts and how they apply. One that sees no progress or development in revelation.
We read a passage of scripture and if it sounds like what we’re going through, we take it as God’s Word™ spoken directly to us. And in a time of natural disaster, the word, culled from a multitude of available First Testament texts, is that God’s judgment is falling upon us. Or, as Pastor Robert Jeffress said in his recent sermon, “Is the Coronavirus a Judgment From God?” — “All natural disasters can ultimately be traced to sin.”
Nor is this merely a Protestant or evangelical perspective. In an article on LifeSite News, Catholic historian and author Dr. Roberto de Mattei calls coronavirus a “scourge from God.” Mattei quotes Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444), who declared: “There are three scourges with which God chastises: war, plague, and famine.” The professor concurs, saying —
The theology of history tells us that God rewards and punishes not only men but also collectivities and social groups: families, nations, civilizations. But while men have their reward or chastisement, sometimes on earth but always in heaven, nations, which do not have an eternal life, are punished or rewarded only on earth.
God is righteous and rewarding and gives to each what is his due: he not only chastises individual persons but he also sends tribulations to families, cities, and nations for the sins which they commit.
God is the author of nature with its forces and its laws, and he has the power to arrange the mechanism of the forces and laws of nature in such a way as to produce a phenomenon according to the needs of his justice or his mercy.
While this may be established theology for some, I think it’s bad Bible, failing to recognize the Christocentric nature of true Christian interpretation. At Maclean’s, Michael Coren agrees.
At a more serious or theological level, this is a reductive and banal spirituality that may satisfy the zealot but is dangerously crass and in fact profoundly ungodly. It depicts a genocidal God, sufficiently cruel to hurt indiscriminately, and too indifferent or impotent to be able to punish only those who have genuinely caused harm. It’s all the product of an ancient, fearful belief system that has nothing to do with the gentle Jewish rabbi of the 1st century who called for love and forgiveness, and so distant and different from the Gospel calls of Jesus to turn the other cheek, embrace our enemies, reach out to the most rejected and marginalized, and work for justice and peace.
If God is speaking to us, perhaps it is more a message about loving our neighbors, making sacrificial choices for the sake of others, praying for wisdom to know how to support our public officials and those ministering to the sick, and sharing the good news of Jesus who heals the sick and binds up the wounds of the brokenhearted, rather than a message of divine judgment.
Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus is God’s final word for us. John 1 tells us that the unseen God is seen in Jesus. God is Jesus-shaped, and that means he comes to us incarnationally rather than in the kind of providential judgments and deliverances attributed to God in the First Testament.
Furthermore, the risen Jesus indwells his people through the Spirit he poured out upon us. The message of God to the world comes not through natural phenomena like coronavirus but through the good news proclaimed by and embodied in a people who bear his name. “War, plague, and famine” are not severe words from God. They are groans of a broken creation into which God sends his word of faith, hope, and love through Jesus-shaped people.
Each year, on Ash Wednesday and during Lent, I focus attention on a singer-songwriter or album from the popular culture of my lifetime in which I find echoes of the Lenten journey.
This year, we devote ourselves to listening to Mary Chapin Carpenter’s superb intensely personal album from 2012, Ashes And Roses, which describes her own journey “from night into day,” as she processed a life-threatening illness, a divorce, and the death of her father. Grief became her constant companion in that season of her life, and the songs that sprang from her sad experience are insightful and moving.
Grief can annihilate our magical thinking. That is the point of one of the album’s finest meditations: “The Swords We Carry.” The superficial nature of many of our “beliefs” gets laid bare. The “swords” we’ve used to guard ourselves whenever reality threatened us prove useless when it finally breaks through and overwhelms us. We learn the lament, the cry of those whose easy faith is confronted by pain never before imagined. Anfechtung leaves us speechless, defenseless, lost.
•
•
Back when I believed in luck
And stones and crosses
I’d put a coin found on the street
Towards cosmic losses
And passing graveyards in a car
Tracing every falling star
Luck was never very far from childhood causes
And pennies kissed with wishes arced into the fountains
And time was said to heal all pain
And hope move mountains
And all that could befall a heart
Or break this perfect life apart
The swords we carried could not do a thing about them
Away I am going, away I am gone…
Ghosts and angels are but memories and visions
And revenants are out there taking up positions
But back when I believed in you
You’d raise the sun and set the moon
How could I help but love you holy as religion
Away you are going, away you are gone…
But back when I believed in luck and words as spoken
I found a lie could break and split the world clean open
And grief became my company
Pain so deep I could not breathe
All betrayal is like dying in slow motion
Is it luck that makes us shout or makes us whisper?
Is it luck that makes us wise or turns us bitter?
With our maps that point true north
With our vows we sally forth
The swords we carried can’t protect us from each other
Away we are going, away we are gone…
Tuesday with Michael Spencer Looking for an Exit (2009)
At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69)
Have you ever come to a place where you wanted to say, “Let me off. I’m done?”
Maybe you were in a car with an 88 year old driver who shouldn’t have been driving anywhere, much less down an interstate.
Maybe you were about to get on an amusement park ride that you really didn’t want to ride.
Maybe you were going back for week two of a job that was not at all what you thought it would be.
You said to yourself- or to anyone else who would listen- “I think it’s time for me to quit.”
After listening to Jesus give what may have been his most intense, challenging and disturbing talk, it seems that some of Jesus’ disciples were ready to quit. “Eat my flesh and drink my blood” was their place to get off the bus.
We tend to think of the people who followed Jesus as an “easy sell.” They were sitting around, doing nothing, just waiting for a prophet or rabbi to show up so they could spend years following him. Like eager customers at a car dealership, they were ready to buy from minute one and never doubted.
I doubt that such a scenario is true. It’s more likely that many days ended with some of the disciples saying “I’ve had enough. I’m going home.” I imagine many late nights around the campfire were punctuated with one disciple talking another out of leaving, or arguments that ended in departures the next morning.
Why? The scriptures suggest to me at least three issues that may have caused some of Jesus’ followers to look for the next exit.
Some were frightened because of what they saw Jesus do. When Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples were terrified. We may think it was wonderful, but if you and I had been there, it’s likely we would have said, “If this is God, I don’t want to be around him.”
Some may have just heard enough of what they couldn’t believe. Jesus didn’t hesitate to put the choice to be a disciple in less than “attractional” language. He seemed to purposely offend with hard words to force a choice. We would be a bit silly to think that every disciple heard Jesus make statements about the decisive choice to suffer, go against family or embrace the cross and easily said “Yes. I choose that way.” Some certainly heard Jesus say “If anyone would come after me….” and said “I’m not coming after you any more.”
I especially think about the traumatic experience of having all your certainties about God, life, the Kingdom, the Messiah, scripture and the future exploded every day. Jesus relentlessly took on the certainties of religion and politics, redefining and reanimating them all with whole new meanings. This couldn’t have been easy. At times it must have sometimes been infuriating and depressing. Some would have said, “I don’t want my whole world turned upside down. I’m quitting.”
As evangelicals, we’re often blind to this segment of the people we relate to and communicate with. We are oriented to think that our witness is to people who are open to be convinced or are moving toward the truth. In fact, Jesus had many people move the other way as the truth about himself himself came clearer.
There are many in evangelicalism who are close to that same place. They are looking for the best time and place to quit. They are moving away from Jesus and away from those who believe in and say they follow Jesus. We often write these people off as “quitters” or we simply don’t admit their existence. But they are there. Sometimes they are a son, daughter or close friend. Sometimes, it’s been some of us.
Why are they thinking that it’s time for them to “get off” the evangelical/Christian journey?
1. They can’t believe in the God we’ve told them about any more.
2. They can’t live the Christian life as it’s been presented to them.
3. They don’t want to be like the Christians they see and many they know.
4. They tried “it” and “it” didn’t work.
5. They’ve thought about it, and something other than Christianity makes more sense for the moment.
Many Christians would immediately present arguments, apologetics and a pile of reasons to these people.
Jesus gives an interesting response.
In John 6:61-62, Jesus says, “If you are offended now, you haven’t seen anything yet. Wait until you get the big picture of who I am.”
His offensive words about flesh and blood would soon be overtaken by the resurrection and the ascension. A puzzling and mysterious Jesus would be replaced by a world-overcoming/world-transcending Jesus.
Jesus says all our objections are ultimately dwarfed by the truth of who he really is. It’s not that our objections and reasons to quit are irrational. They simply can’t compare to the truth that is so much greater than any of our questions, objections and even rejections.
Peter says, “Yes, it’s difficult sometimes, but where else and to whom else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Where else can we go is a great response. It’s honest and authentic. It doesn’t make Christianity a game of “How many questions can be answered?” No, it’s a matter of WHO Jesus is, and despite the mystery, the challenge, the intimidation and the difficulty, who else comes to us as God on earth, with the words of eternal life?
In the story of the prodigal son, both boys learn that the Father’s love and grace are greater than what stands in the way of understanding him. The Father’s love and grace to the wasteful son overwhelms his sin and his religious plan to get back in the family. The Father’s love and grace is greater than the moralistic, legalistic system of reward that the older son thought guaranteed him his place in the family.
The Father was greater than all that they brought to the table. In the end, they were left not with answers to their questions, but a Father whose love and purpose to save couldn’t and wouldn’t fail.
For all those who are looking for the next place to “get off” the path of following Jesus and/or being a Christian, their is no list of answers. There is only one who overwhelms all questions and answers; one to whom we ultimately say “Even with all my objections and reservations, where else could I go, Jesus, except to you.”
I realize it seems a bit devotional to say that Jesus is the answer to all those reasons to “quit.” I’m not naive. I’m expounding scripture, and that may have already hit the trash bin. I’m giving my own testimony — Jesus is all that keeps me on board these days — and that isn’t everyone’s story. I realize all of this.
But I do think that sometimes it’s not at all the court case we make a spiritual divorce out to be. Sometimes the answer is simply coming to know that there is One who, as love himself, makes all the questions move back a few rows so our faith can have a place to sit.
I pray that many will stay with the journey a while longer, and learn that a Jesus-shaped faith contains one whose great grace overturns our hurts and fears.
Greatest Songs of My Lifetime: Ecclesiastes in Song
Some of the best songs in my lifetime contain lyrics that seem impossibly wise before their time. I think of Jackson Browne writing “These Days” at age 16. How can such profound thoughts about loss and regret emanate from the pen of a teenager? It was only when I heard Glen Campbell’s adaptation in 2011 that I truly heard it as the weathered autumnal sigh that it is.
And so it is with what I consider to be the greatest example of young wisdom in American folk and popular music — Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” Though written when Mitchell was in her mid-20s, it somehow expresses a lifetime of experience and perspective. I consider it the “Ecclesiastes” of popular music.
I first heard “Both Sides Now,” as many of us did, through Judy Collins’s sunny single on my AM radio. The song obviously expressed profound thoughts, but they were wrapped in an arrangement that belied their depth.
Mitchell’s own early rendition of the song (as you’ll see below) hinted at the song’s sagacity — after all, Joni has always been a true poet. However, it wasn’t until I heard her orchestral-backed arrangement of “Both Sides Now” in 2000 that I could begin to plumb its depths. The slower tempo, surging strings, and Mitchell’s time-worn voice convey the wisdom of Solomon.
Here are two recordings by Joni herself, thirty years apart. How much she must have learned in that time! How much this song has grown! How much better I understand both sides now.
Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken, Lieferinxe
What we did in worship today
Our small congregation decided to meet this morning for worship. However, I adjusted the contents of the service to reflect the Covid-19 pandemic. I preached on Martin Luther’s counsel to the Christian leaders and residents of Breslau during the 1527 plague epidemic (an excerpt of which we ran yesterday). We followed the regular liturgy, but here are the sections I adapted.
• • •
The Welcome
When anxiety is high in our culture, corporate worship is a primary location for proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and the continuing care of God for all people. Here we can find solace and reassurance in the midst of our fears.
However, we must also remember to use common sense and intentional action with regard to preventing the spread of pathogens as we gather.
First of all, in weeks to come, if you find yourself suffering the symptoms of a cold or other respiratory illness, please refrain from joining us in worship. Stay home and get well!
Second, we are an affectionate congregation that shows our love for each other with handshakes, hugs, and other gestures of physical touch. Today and for the foreseeable future, we will ask that we limit these physical expressions out of concern for one another. When we arrive and depart, and when we share the peace during worship, please greet each other without handshakes and hugs. We also invite you to use the hand sanitizer that is placed in both the back and front of the sanctuary to keep your hands clean.
Third, we will celebrate communion today as usual, and I will encourage all servers to make sure they use hand sanitizer before offering the elements to the congregation. If you have concerns about receiving communion and wish to refrain, we still invite you to come forward, cross your arms over your chest, and you will receive a blessing.
In our service today, our prayers and message will be focused on the current situation we face. I believe we have some distinctive contributions we can make as Christians. One is to offer our prayers for God’s mercy and help in this time of need, and to hear God’s word to us so that we might have the mind of Christ in these days.
The Apostle Paul wrote that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. May this spirit of God lead us and bless us in our worship together today.
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The Prayers
We pray for the church, the world, those in need, and for all creation. We especially pray for our lives and those of our neighbors in this extraordinary time of pandemic.
(Pause)
God, our peace and our strength, we pray for our nation and the world as we face new uncertainties around coronavirus. Protect the most vulnerable among us, especially all who are currently sick or in isolation. Lord in your mercy/hear our prayer.
Grant wisdom, patience, and clarity to health care workers, especially when their work caring for others puts them at risk. Lord in your mercy/hear our prayer.
Open the understanding of scientists, lab workers, and those in the public health community, that they may know how to respond as this situation develops. Lead them to increase the medical community’s capacity to handle this crisis and to develop vaccines and methods of care that will bring healing, comfort, and help to those threatened by this virus. Lord in your mercy/hear our prayer.
Give wisdom, compassion, and good communication skills to our elected representatives, to public health officials, and others who address the public with words of instruction and guidance in these days. Lord in your mercy/hear our prayer.
We dare not forget those who are suffering in a variety of ways even as our attention is focused on the coronavirus. Remember all who are sick or injured, those who are suffering from mental illness, those who are hospitalized or in care facilities, those recuperating from surgery, and all those who need your healing touch. We especially remember: ___________________________________________________________.
Lord in your mercy/hear our prayer.
All wise and caring God, guide us as we consider how best to prepare and respond to the extraordinary events around us today in our families, congregations, workplaces, and communities. Give us courage to face these days not with fear but with compassion, concern, and acts of service, trusting that you abide with us always.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.
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Sending
In times of need we are reminded that Jesus Christ is the bread of life and God’s living water, given for the life of the world. During these times, particularly with communal health concerns, we will continue to gather as long as is deemed wise, as a sign of resurrection hope in the midst of fear and trouble. Here we taste and see the Risen Christ’s presence through word and meal. Here in the Spirit we pray for the needs of a suffering world. And from these moments of gathering together we are sent to care for all our neighbors who are sick, hurt and hungry.
So go in peace, and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Lenten Brunch Lite 3: March 14, 2020 Special Pandemic Edition
During the Lenten season, we will offer a “lite” version of our Saturday Brunch. Each week, I will set forth one question (or set of questions) related to keeping Lent and ask us to focus our discussion on it.
Today we hear wise counsel from Dr. Martin Luther, who helped deal with an epidemic of Black Death in Wittenberg in 1527. Out of pastoral concern he wrote a pamphlet called “Whether one may flee from a deadly plague.” He covers a lot of things in that pamphlet, but I found the following to be especially reflective of the situation we find ourselves in today with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Let’s focus our discussion today on answering the question, “What does a faithful Christian response to the current crisis look like?” I think you will find Luther’s counsel helpful. Perhaps you will have more to add form your particular setting and perspective. Also, there may be insight to be gained from considering that this is occurring in the Lenten season.
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A “Plague Doctor” in the 1600s
Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate house, yard, and street; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city. What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body?
You ought to think this way: “Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.
If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.
If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely…. See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God.
A lot has changed in the five weeks since I first wrote about the Corona Virus. With all the uncertainty swirling, and things rapidly changing I thought I would offer an update. One that at least offers a ray of hope.
Most of this post will be about explaining the graph above, which I think is the most important one that I have seen in the past six weeks. You can click on it to view it full size. It was created by Thomas Puyeo. I would really recommend reading his full article and explanation.
When I first wrote about the virus, I quoted a Lancet article that had been written on January 21st, 2020.
To possibly succeed, substantial, even draconian measures that limit population mobility should be seriously and immediately considered in affected areas, as should strategies to drastically reduce within-population contact rates through cancellation of mass gatherings, school closures, and instituting work-from-home arrangements, for example.
We of course have heard about the suspension/cancellation of the NBA and NHL seasons, as well as the delay of the start of Baseball. In my home province of Ontario, all schools are now closed for the next three weeks. This, despite the fact that the whole country has only had 80 cases to date. I will likely be starting to work from home in the next few days.
What I want to try to demonstrate from the above graph why these “draconian” measures are so important, and so effective.
Let me start off by saying that I have long discounted the number of case counts, they seem to be significantly undercounting the number of cases in the community. I could give a number of examples of why I believe this to be true, but what we have currently is huge discrepancies in the ratio of cases to deaths, netting out somewhere around 3.4%. That is why in my last post, my graph displayed the number of deaths, as the number is very concrete.
What we find in the graph at the top of this post, is that the reported number of cases significantly lagged the actual number of cases. The yellow bars are the reported cases in Hubei, China from December 26th to February 11th. But when they asked people “when did you first start exhibiting symptoms?” they got much earlier dates dating back to December 8th as shown by the gray bars. Did you get that? The gray bars represent when the cases actually started, NOT when they were reported.
On January 23rd, the Chinese government shut down Hubei, one day later they shut down 15 other cities. On the day they shut down Hubei they only had 400 reported case of the Corona virus on that day. In hindsight we can see from the gray bars that they actually had 2500 cases on that day, with the number of unreported cases probably adding a significant number.
Although the yellow bars (the reported cases) continue to climb and climb for 11 days hitting a peak of 3500 on February 4th, look at what happens to the gray bars. Once Hubei and the surrounding cities are shut down, the actual cases stop growing, and instead start to decline, quite rapidly in fact. By February 11th, they are down to about 100 cases per day, and today that daily case number is starting to approach zero.
Quarantine works. And it starts to work immediately. That is why Ontario announced their closure of schools today. Even though we only have a total of 60 cases, 18 of them occurred today, and it was time to act before it got completely out of control as seen in many countries. Note: The last case announced today was Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, the wife of the Canadian Prime Minister.
We are seeing more cancellations on a daily basis. My fear is that countries in general are not acting fast enough and it is going to still get worse before it gets better. But at least there is hope. We know what works, and we have the means to stop it, or at least slow it down, before it kills millions of people.
A few final quick notes:
I agree with the American decision to ban flights from Europe. It is getting out of control in most of Europe, Sweden just announced that they are no longer testing unless you are actually sick in hospital. It has moved from a containment phase to a mitigation phase. In North America we are still in the containment phase. Please pray that our leaders act with wisdom.
My son and his fiancee are in self isolation in Seattle. The don’t know if they have contracted the virus, but had symptoms three weeks ago. Please pray that they will remain safe.
I fear for my Dad, he is 80, and is a three time Cancer survivor. He is in a very high risk group. Please pray for him.
The first case in my home town of Hamilton was an Oncologist who is a colleague of a good friend. Please pray for my friend Kevin and his family as well.
The Canadian Deputy Prime Minister stated today that she expected that 30 to 70 percent of Canadians will eventually contract the virus. Please pray that it does not come to that.
Vaccines are still a year or two away. Please pray that they may find an effective and safe one quickly.
(initial career direction was to become a stockbroker. I eventually decided that programming and data were more up my alley, but I still like to dabble. I had made a rather insensitive comment on another post that I had sold my stocks at the top of the market crash. My apologies for being insensitive. Soon after writing my first post on the topic on February 7th I started watching the market closely. By the 14th I had decided I was going to sell, but didn’t actually do so until the market started to drop on the 24th. (I acted against the very strong advice of my financial adviser). I have no real idea where the bottom of this market is going to be, although the Toronto Stock Exchange Index (TSX) looks like it has some support another 1000 points down from the close of 12500 today. Click on the graph to see it full size. I added the lines to the graphs on Wednesday of this past week. Please do NOT take this as investment advice. It is intended as another ray of hope that the bottom might be in sight.
Lent with Mary Chapin Carpenter (4)
, which describes her own journey “from night into day,” as she processed a life-threatening illness, a divorce, and the death of her father. Grief became her constant companion in that season of her life, and the songs that sprang from her sad experience are insightful and moving.
The Internet Monk Archives 