On Sunday, many of the online viewers who tuned in to worship with us received a message of hope:
“We’ll Begin Shortly,” the message read on the screen.
Except, of course, that it didn’t. Our streaming service threw us for a loop, and we were not able to broadcast the video portion of our service. The audio portion of our worship offering sounded great, however. Sigh (yes, I’ve got my face in my hands and I’m shaking my head).
As many of you know, these technical hiccups, curveballs and failures absolutely gnaw at my soul. Technology is both my fascination and my kryptonite. “We’ll begin shortly?” What a tease.
It also captures well how life has felt these last months. Hope for a spring-back recovery to pre-virus realities has been dashed. Our best intentions to execute a pandemic-initiated Plan B (or Plan R, for that matter) are frequently thwarted. And the already unprecedented season has become increasingly caustic, tragic and shrill.
So yes. What exactly will begin shortly?
Disappointment in life’s circumstances suggest that one had high hopes. Being positive and optimistic about what can be is certainly commendable. But not surprisingly, when our hopes crumble it can be hard to bounce back. A natural response to delayed or negated fulfillment is withdrawal and surrender. It is certainly easier to wave a white flag than to risk more disappointment.
The church--and the work of doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God--does not have the luxury of giving up or sitting this one out. There are numerous moments where it would be tempting for the church to take a seat in the upper deck and to watch the world spiral. Disengagement, one could argue, might even be advisable. It would certainly be less problematic, less expensive, less hassle. And a church on the sidelines would expect far less of people than it might otherwise. It’s not hard to imagine how this could be in our self-interest.
The problem with this strategy, however, is that it doesn’t remotely resemble the Kingdom of God. Withdrawing from trying amidst our challenges would certainly result in error-free ball, but it would also suggest that we’re not being faithful to our call to be salt and light—relevant and alive!—in the community in which we’ve been planted. Jesus plowed ahead in His proclamation of the Kingdom through all kinds of storms, setbacks, problems and crises. We would be wise to do the same.
And why? Because the work of the church—that is, being the Body of Christ in a world that God wishes to save—is hard, necessary, and required of all those who follow Jesus. We must constantly be looking for ways to do justice in a world that is power-hungry and oppressive. We must strive for connection and community even though the world increasingly sees us as irrelevant, boring, a waste of time and energy. We must commit to being faithful proclaimers of the world even though the seed we scatter may fall on hard soil, or fail to be broadcast online…
So, brothers and sisters, thank you for being patient with us as we seek to adapt to a world that is inhospitable to our goals. Thank you for being gracious to us when we mess up, fall flat on our faces, or make the wrong call. We cannot promise that we won’t have other snafus and missteps going forward. However, we will strive to make different mistakes going forward.
And know this: We are not finished here on Main Street. We have work to do as the Body of Christ. We will continue to find ways to be faithful and to serve others and to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.
And as we do, we will sometimes get it wrong.
But that’s okay. Our apologies will ‘begin shortly’…