Selah2020: Pause and Reflect

[This is one in a series of mid-week devotional reflections prepared for Horley Baptist Church during May 2021]

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? [Psalm 137 v4 NIVUK]

In the conclusion of his talk with Angie a few days ago, Martin posed some questions about our feelings about the potential for re-launching ‘church’ rather than just reviving what had existed before. In this Tuesday Challenge I want to revisit those questions. As one who has been ‘doing church at a distance’ for over 10 ten years, my experience is rather different from that of someone who thinks of lockdown as an interruption to normal activities. Nevertheless, perhaps my comments will provide some stimulus for further thoughts.

Are you looking forward to returning to physical church, or are you quite happy accessing online church at home?
For me, returning to physical church is not currently an option so my vote would go to continuing to provide access to church activities online. There are many categories of people for whom physical attendance at a conventional service is difficult; the online option allows them to sustain the contact. In addition, it is not a betrayal of HBC to suggest that there are other choice morsels available elsewhere on the internet menu. If I prefer more classical singing, it is there; if I want in-depth teaching on a particular topic or passage, it is there; if I want to see how other denominations practise their faith then that is there too. A varied diet stimulates the appetite and we may well learn something new that will benefit our own worship times.
That is not to say that everything we see is wholesome or helpful. We need to emulate those in Berea who heard Paul’s teachings and then tested them against the Scriptures. Perhaps one of the most important roles of a physical church or home group is to teach us how to make sound judgements about what we see and hear.

What have you missed most? What were you glad to do without?
What I have missed most has been the home group – the detailed look at the Scriptures, the focussed prayers, the discussions, the prolonged debates after hours, the handed-down wisdom of those who have travelled ahead of me.
Notwithstanding a degree of envy towards those who can use their talents to praise the Lord in song we should remember that ‘worship’ is more than a musical interlude in the service. The whole service should be an integrated act of worship, leaders and congregation alike, and that is more difficult to achieve online.

Does change excite or worry you? Does it even make you angry? Why?
Change is not necessarily progress. There is an old saying which has been widely ignored during this century, in many aspects of life: ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’. How have the things that we want to change come about? They were themselves the outcome of change but why? We need to examine the reasons for the proposed changes, to ensure that they are indeed changes for the better. Change for a valid reason can be honourable; change simply for change’s sake is not.

Even amongst the disruption, have we felt that God has been shaping and working in us, our community, and our church?
Throughout history, God has used disruption to work his purposes out. He disrupted Noah, he disrupted Abram, he disrupted Jacob, he disrupted the Hebrews in Egypt. In fact, one gets the impression that disruption is God’s ‘modus operandi’; it is through contentment and complacency that his people tend to lose touch with him. We should not be surprised when God allows the boat to rock, be reassured that he still controls the storm.

Psalm 137 is a lament. The author, possibly Jeremiah, describes the sadness and despair of those who are unable to enjoy the worship if the Lord in the ways that they remembered from before their exile. But, is a lament for the ‘good old days’ appropriate for us? We have seen God at work through the new technologies; they are neither new nor a mystery to him. For various valid reasons, some churches have decided that modern means of communication are beyond them. Such decisions must be respected but perhaps God’s words through Isaiah are more appropriate for us:

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. [Isaiah 43 v19 NIVUK]

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