The Power and Promise of Those Things That Remain Constant by Jason Edwards

A NOTE FROM PASTOR JASON
April 2020 Monthly Article

This is not the article I planned to write.

Many of you know Janet Hill, our communications extraordinaire, has us on a well-crafted, strategic publishing schedule. Regularly, we get email reminders of when our articles are due, and when they will be released to the congregation. One of my regular contributions is in our monthly newsletter, which usually comes to you the Sunday before a new month begins. With that in mind, I knew exactly what I was going to write about in this article. Holy Week starts near the beginning of April, so I'd planned to offer anticipatory Holy Week words.

But, of course, so many of our plans have changed. Plans changed because the world has changed.

In recent days, most of us have become increasingly isolated as we've also become increasingly connected. If we're living with family, our societal isolation has maximized our in-house relational proximity. We are fully together and experiencing all the ups and downs this brings. If we have internet access, we've also become increasingly connected through social media. Last week many of our phones signaled our screen time increased by up to hundreds of percentage points, and we're not sorry about it. It's keeping us informed and diminishing our sense of isolation.

We've leaned into this as a church as well. My heart was warmed last week to hear you share ways our online worship services were meaningful. Live stream services aren't new for us, but people from across our congregation are now worshipping through this medium, and many mentioned what a moving and surprisingly beautiful experience it was. It was for me too.

It's also been incredibly moving to witness our leadership work, adapting to life and ministry in the midst of this pandemic. In addition to creative online worship opportunities, we've mobilized to help local ministry partners who need more volunteers who are less personally at risk. We've formed a rapid response team to address needs within our faith community, ranging from picking up groceries and prescriptions, to care and counseling-related needs. Lay leaders have begun making personal phone calls to every household in our congregation, checking on the well-being of all of our members. Pastors and other care ministry leaders are actively engaged in offering prayer, phone calls, and notes to minister to our most isolated and at-risk members. Our discipleship leaders are actively working on virtual pop-up Community Group opportunities. Children and Student Ministry leaders have been working to provide families with resources. Teams and committees continue to do their work via Zoom meetings. This is just a sliver of it. In the midst of social distancing, we are adapting daily in an effort to meaningfully minister to as many people as we can. It's been a beautiful and inspiring thing in which to participate.

And, amid so much change, we are also experiencing the power and promise of those things that remain constant. God's love and promise to be with us through all things remain constant. Our commitment to love our neighbors as ourselves has proved constant. Our mysterious connection to God and one another, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is constant. And, of course, our calling to be God's people—people of the cross and the resurrection, who work in response to God's love, empowered by God's Spirit, and for God's abundant life in the lives of everyone, remains constant.

This means our constant need for God's love, grace, and good news has never been more apparent. So then, maybe this article is still an anticipation of Holy Week.

So much of Holy Week took Jesus' disciples off guard. They expected … none of it. The triumphal procession of Palm Sunday was supposed to be the precursor to conquest … so they thought. No one expected their presumed Messiah to be taken, put on trial, convicted of crimes, and ultimately crucified. The week was filled, almost entirely, with unhappy surprises. Almost entirely. But not completely. Because the day after Holy Week ended, in the midst of their darkness … in the midst of their isolation … in the midst of their fear, there was a kind of rising that not one of Jesus' followers had ever, even for a moment, anticipated.

As I sit here on March 20, typing these words, the world has changed. It continues to change. There are healthy reasons why all of us may be feeling fear and anxiety. In the days at hand and the days ahead, there will be struggles, some anticipated, some not. But in Gospel hope, we have reason to hope that there will be a rising. And, between now and then, there will be glimpses and glimmers of resurrection as we live, work and pray together as God's people in God's world.

For the one who made us and redeemed us, is the one who keeps us still …

With Easter Hope,
Jason Edwards, Senior Pastor