The New Normal Preached during Virtual Worship for Wollaston Congregational Church On April 19th, 2020 Scripture: John 20:19-31 The Brick Bible is one of my favorite biblical interpretations, when I’m in the mood for fun. It is a picture book in which each scene in the Bible is presented in Legos … yes, Legos. I would show it to you now, but unfortunately it’s locked away in my office at the church. The creator of this unusual version of the Bible doesn’t gloss over the most lurid and gore-y details, so I don’t recommend the Brick Bible for young children. But, it’s great for teenagers, especially if they begin to yawn at the mere mention of the word Bible. The Brick Bible provides both entertainment and illustrations of many of the great biblical stories. Often it is uncannily spot on. This is the case, for me, in the Brick Bible’s portrayal of our reading today from the gospel of John. The scene is disciples remain in the upper room. Mary Magdalene has told them she has seen the Lord, but they haven’t taken in the news. Or perhaps it doesn’t mean anything to them. They remain locked in the room. They fear the temple authorities who handed Jesus over to be crucified. They fear the patrolling Roman soldiers, who are rooting out possible insurgents. They are waiting in that room, for what … they don’t know. And so, the Brick Bible presents a very familiar scene for us these days. The gang is sheltering in place, aimlessly entertaining themselves. Some are playing cards. Others are taking a nap. They are sloppily dressed. Their hair is unkempt. Empty beer cans litter the floor. There’s not a whole lot going on. They’re a ragtag group … if you were to show someone this scene and say that this portrays the beginning of the global church, they probably would not believe you. In the midst of this … Jesus comes and stands among them and says the words “peace be with you.” He shows them his hands and his side, which are wounded from the ordeal of the cross. He repeats “peace be with you, as the Father has sent me so I send you.” And then he breathes on them, “Receive the Holy Spirit…” Well, you know the rest of the story. Thomas wasn’t there. When he returns and the disciples tell him what happened, he doesn’t believe them. And then … well, they remain locked in again for another week. Nothing much happening. Until Jesus comes back again. He stands among them and again he says “Peace be with you.” Then Thomas is allowed to see Jesus’ wounded body for himself. Fast forward … almost 50 days and the beginning of the book of Acts. We have to be a little careful here. Acts continues Luke’s gospel, not John’s story. And yet, this is point at which all the gospel stories end. And Acts picks up the thread. We find the disciples together again. Now they are organized. They spend much time together in the temple, they break bread at home and eat their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. We’ve heard it said that in the Easter story the tomb becomes a womb. In the fifty days between the resurrection and Pentecost, the Holy Spirit germinates in the disciples. And in that time the community is transformed. In these days, in our COVID-19 world, we have been called to transform too. You might say that something has been germinating these past weeks while many of us have been shut away in our own homes. In the beginning of the crisis I know I was just hoping for it all to be over, and for everything to “get back to normal.” We have heard that expression quite often “when things get back to normal.” It has taken a while, and it will probably take a while longer, for us to accept that things will not be the same again. This feels both scary and comforting. One reason it’s scary is because of the impact on the local and global economy. When I look at the staggering levels of unemployment at this time I wonder: how will we ever recover? And on a personal level, I know that I want to return to what I knew. I want to go out and do the same activities I did before. I want to be able to visit the people I am missing. I want to experience the freedom to go to gatherings like our church services and to get coffee or lunch with friends. Perhaps you are missing sports: children’s and professionals games, the rites of springtime in Boston, Opening Day and the Marathon. And at the same time as I want to get back to normal, I realize that things couldn’t have gone on the way they were. We couldn’t continue to consume and deplete our planetary resources at the rate we were going. Our human bodies and psyches couldn’t keep up with the non-stop busy-ness. Political discourse had descended to an all time low. And there seemed very little will to pay attention to the needs of people for food, shelter, and healthcare. You might say that the pandemic has caused us to hit a huge reset button. Pollution levels in China are estimated to have gone down 25% since the beginning of the lockdown.[1] And air quality has improved in many places. Perhaps the new normal will include better care for the environment. And we have discovered that our bodies and souls need to slow right down. In a time of crisis it takes us time to think, time to process. We are recognizing our bodily need for a daily time outdoors. We are recognizing our need for rest, and our need to heal relationships with our extended families and the people we live with. And we are realizing, on a communal level, that we are all connected. The pandemic cannot be stopped unless we provide food, healthcare and shelter for all members of the community. When the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples in the upper room, perhaps they felt both comforted and scared. Perhaps they hoped that things would now return to the way they were, that Jesus would be with them again in the same way. Instead, Jesus prepared them for a new normal. He breathed the Holy Spirit onto them and blessed them with peace. And in the same sentence he sent them out as the Father has sent him. In the early days of the church, being sent out would require a great deal of courage. In order to share “the way” of following Christ, the apostles risked martyrdom and their communities risked persecution. A generation after the coming of Jesus, Palestine looked completely different. Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed by the Romans and one million Jewish people were killed. The followers of Jesus were a part of that community. The loss of the temple and the city was as devastating to them as to the others. They would need to move their communities beyond the temple. It was just as well that they had already begun to establish home-based churches, where members ate meals, sang hymns, studied and prayed together. The rapid growth of the Christian church had begun. The apostles took Jesus seriously. He had blessed them with a new kind of peace, that would become known as Pax Christi. It was the kind of peace that inspired them to live deeply into who they were called to be. As the Father had sent Jesus, so they were sent. To bring good news to the poor and the outcasts, to forge a new community of peace and love, worship and prayer. Friends, I hope that here in our community we will pay attention to the reset of COVID-19. One vision of that reset has been offered by a former chaplain, and now writer, Kitty O’Meara. [2] O’Meara worked in palliative care in the past. She knows what suffering and grief look like. When the virus hit, she felt anxious and wished there was something she could do for her friends working in healthcare. Her husband advised her to use her gift for writing. The poem she wrote has gone “viral” in a good way, all over the internet. Here is it: “And the people stayed home. and read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced, some met their shadows. “And the people began to think differently. And the people healed. And in the absence of people living in ignorant dangerous, mindless, heartless ways, the earth began to heal. “And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images and created new ways to live and heal the Earth fully, as they had been healed.” [3] My friends, we will continue to pray for safety and healing for all our community, and for the world. We will continue to hope for the day when this danger will be behind us. In this time of shelter-in-place may we allow Jesus’ blessing of peace to germinate in us. May the tomb become the womb from which a new community of peace and love, worship and prayer, will be birthed. May all God’s people say, Amen [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-environment-impact-pollution-climate-quarantine-2020-4 [2] https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/a31747557/and-the-people-stayed-home-poem-kitty-omeara-interview/ [3] https://www.crsdop.org/In-The-Time-Of-Pandemic-And-the-People-Stayed-Home-Poem?lang=en
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