Hearing the Music

A Way of Life

Since the pandemic entered our world, we have all longed for the day that it would be over. We were hopeful when positivity rates started falling. We were happy to get vaccines on board and see some return to normalcy. But then new variants started showing up. Positivity rates started climbing. Health care systems continue to be overwhelmed. At Christ Church we have lost loved ones due to the disease. The CDC continues to scramble to stay on top of things. All of this to say, COVID has become a way of life.

With Covid seemingly entrenched as a part of life, I thought a word of encouragement may be in order. If we go it alone I am afraid that we will become overwhelmed and succumb to discouragement. We need each other. It is in all of our best interests to continue to seek to serve our neighbors despite our own COVID fatigue and in the midst of theirs. There are so many ways to serve one another as we move forward together. Here are a few that come to mind: 

• Make meals for those who are down with sickness.
• Fill a volunteer slot at church for someone who has to quarantine.
• Consider how getting a vaccine or wearing a mask may help a neighbor.
• Call or send cards to folks who are more isolated.
• Encourage a healthcare worker any way you can!
• Listen well to those who need to work through their own ruminations.
• Join our Zoom Worship if you are not able to attend in person.

And above all pray. Pray that we would seek the Lord in the midst of all of this mess. Pray that our Great Physician would bring relief to this weary world. Pray that the Church would find its voice to point collectively to the One who is gentle and lowly in heart, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).

Perhaps you picked up on the Zoom worship above. This Sunday we will begin hosting a Zoom worship service at 10:30 weekly. It is our hope that those for whom in-person worship is not advisable long term or temporarily not warranted, the Zoom service will be a place of community where sisters and brothers can worship together. An elder or staff member will host the service and collectively work through the home worship guide. The sermon will be recorded at the 8:30 service and posted for collective listening. Prayer requests can be shared. Signup to join your Christ Church family if you find yourself at home!

As we talk about a COVID way of life we are reminded of the way of life that Jesus laid out for his disciples. This week we will begin a series on the Sermon on the Mount that will take us through Easter. In particular this week we will be focusing on the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12) as a gateway to understanding the whole of the Sermon.

Photo by J W on Unsplash

A Christmas Sword

One of the themes of Christmas is the rejoicing of a weary world. As we continue our journey with Mary, this week we will be gazing through her grief. In Luke 2:34,35 old Simeon insightfully reminds Mary that the road of discipleship will be a road marked with sorrow. Her son will be the occasion for the rising of many, but also for the falling of many. And to Mary, Simeon says, "a sword will pierce through your own soul also". We might rather that this not be an aspect of discipleship, but then again ...

Ross Douthat is a columnist for the New York Times and author of a recent memoir called "The Deep Places". In this excerpt he wrestles with a God who works in beauty and in brokenness: 

"... what I learned from my illness is that chronic suffering can make belief in a providential God, ... feel essential to your survival, no matter how much you may doubt God’s goodness when the pain is at its worst. To believe that your suffering is for something, that you are being asked to bear up under it, that you are being in some sense supervised and tested and possibly chastised in a way that’s ultimately for your good, if you can only make it through the schooling — all this is tremendously helpful to maintaining simple sanity and basic hope. 'If God brought you to it, He can bring you through it', read an aphorism in one of the doctors’ offices I frequented: a neat distillation of what I wanted — and, more important, needed — to believe, in order to get up every morning and just try to hold my world together for another shattered-seeming day." 

In the midst of another "shattered-seeming day" what is our hope? It is that God has not only not abandoned us, but that there is some meaning behind it all that tests us. Our hope is that God is weaving together the dark strands of our lives, along with the light strands, into a beautiful tapestry. But how can we believe such a God? Look no further than the babe in a manger. He is the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53). He is the stone the builders rejected (Psalm 118; Mark 12). He wears a crown of thorns and he did his best work on a cross. Yet, He has been given the name that is above all names (Philippians 2). He is still the Incarnate One, ruling and reigning at the right hand of the Father. This is the enduring hope of Christmas.

Photo by Ricardo Cruz on Unsplash

Family Affair

I titled this update "Family Affair" as I am just old enough to remember the sitcom featuring 5 year old Cissy and Jody tormenting Giles, the butler. But that is about all I remember, and it is not exactly what I had in mind with my title.

What was in my mind with the title "Family Affair" is the way that the Incarnation plays a role in God's expansion of the very notion of family. Family is an incredibly powerful unit in our world, both now and throughout the centuries. We have family names and family traits. Our family of origin, whether we come to it biologically or through adoption, very powerfully shapes the way that we think about finances, education, art, sports, faith, justice and any number of other topics. Family connections can open doors, while family disgrace can mark us forever. 

When Jesus stepped into our world he stepped into a Middle Eastern Jewish family, with all that this entails. Over the years Mary, as his mother, fed him, kept him clothed, brought him to the temple, sang with him, worried about him, etc... We see this worry come out in scripture text like Mark 3:21, 31-34 where Jesus' mother and brothers fear for his well being and seek to intervene on his behalf. In response to this attempted intervention, Jesus expands the heavenly vision of family by saying that all who do the will of God are his brothers, sisters and mothers. 

What does this new way of looking at family mean for us? That is the focus for Pastor Addison this Sunday as he opens to us more of Mary's journey of discipleship, particularly focused on family. 

I look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning, and don't forget our Children's Christmas in the round on Sunday night.

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash