Email from Bishop Ken to Clergy, March 16, 2020
What a strange time we are living in. Last Thursday morning I sent an email and by the end of the day it was obsolete in many places. The situation is rapidly changing.
The CDC is now recommending that there are no gatherings above 50 people for the next 8 weeks. Those who are vulnerable should not attend any group gathering.
The question we face in these times is how do we creatively be the church.
A number of churches did a livestream this last Sunday – most have done this completely (with no physical congregation). There are a number of ways to do this well. At IAC, they held “Church in the Park” at 4 different locations in the city – where people could gather, but practice “social distancing” (I was out of town, but heard from a few who went that it was powerful). The point is that we need to be connecting and sharing as leaders – to encourage and learn together how we walk through this time.
I have asked Linda Nkosi to set up a private Facebook Page where clergy can share ideas and resources and encourage one another – you will be invited to this shortly. We need to share how we can continue to be the church and love and serve our neighbors in new and different ways (and love our communities by doing what we can to “flatten the curve”).
We are in Lent – a time when we recognize our vulnerability and mortality – we recognize how little control we actually have. As the world comes to grips with this, fear rises – and that fear can be more contagious than the virus. However, our lack of control and our vulnerability is not bad news as it opens us to the good news that we worship a God is in control, who entered our mess in order to restore us and eventually restore all of creation – and we are dependent on Him. That doesn’t mean that we are glib or ignore what is happening – a friend, John Blase, wrote, “Drunk on fear or drunk on denial is still drunk.” What it does mean is that we are honest with what is happening and we lean into the truth that there is a hope that is deeper than our circumstances – a hope that circumstances can’t steal.
This current crisis will, one day, pass. But the reality that this crisis reveals – that we are fallen people in a fallen world who are vulnerable, not in control, and subject to death – will remain (even when we work to insulate ourselves from that truth). But what we have an opportunity to reveal in these days is the even deeper reality of the life and hope we have in Jesus.
The following quote was sent to me by Jay Greener.
Martin Luther’s response to the outbreak of a deadly Plague — a disease so terrifying that when it finally stopped spreading, up to 60% of Europe’s population had died. In August of 1527 the plague struck Wittenberg and numerous people fled in fear of their lives. Martin Luther and his wife Katharina, who was pregnant at the time, remained behind. Martin Luther explained his decision:
“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.”‘
Praying for all and thankful for you,
+Ken