• Selah tonight, prayer, music, reflection on the word, 7:00p. The focus in prayer tonight will be on our own growth in faith, and in Christ, through the crucible of anno domini 2020.
• The remainder of this note addresses why we have resumed singing in worship and I realize now, when it’s too late, that such a note is a fool’s errand. All along, the issues raised by Covid-19 have driven us to a matter-of-fact reconciliation of earth and heaven, or material and spiritual reality. How do we dwell in that place where we are fully trusting in God and yet continue to guard our own health and that of others? That reconciliation of primary cause (God) and secondary causes (masks) is arguably the main struggle of life in Christ. And it isn’t easy. If you were to ask me, “what’s the real solution to Covid? Should we pray more or should we get vaccinated?” My answer would be, “yes.”
• The elders met twice on this issue (singing), and in between we met to pray (no discussion of the issues, just prayers to a wise God on behalf of not-so-wise people). At the end of our second meeting, I asked if a couple men would send me, from their perspective, a summary of points leading to our conclusion on singing. I’m going to repeat those points below. In the coming weeks I may attempt something longer on the deeper issues beneath this crisis, but there’s no way I’m going to get that done today.
• Before the summary I’ll say this. The only fixed barrier in the Cosmos is the one between heaven and hell (Lk 16:26). All other barriers in Creation are easily crossed, including (or perhaps especially) the perceived barrier between earth and heaven, what we sometimes call the material and spiritual realms (Heb 12:22; 2 Ki 6:15ff). You must live fully in both realms at once. I’m a minister of the Gospel, a bad source for medical advice. What I have been doing, and what I will continue to do, is counsel you to seek and find God in this moment because it has come to us only after passing through his hands. Covid may not be, in any manner, the chastening or discipline of God, but there’s no denying that such a thing is entirely possible (“I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord,” Amos 4:11). As a servant of God, your first priority, even if you are a doctor, is to engage the Lord in this and ask “what are you saying to us” and “what are you doing with us.” This may sound strange but the answer you get is far less important than the fact that you are going to him. What he wants from us is our clinging to him (“…yet you did not return to me”), and depending on him. What he wants is you. Give him that.
• Here’s the summary:
1) As far as we know, the science is not clear and it is possible the state and the media, our primary available sources for information, are not always telling the story in full. See this.
2) It appears, from all we can see, that masked singing does not represent a significant increase in risk, especially done as we do it with a single hymn at a time.
3) Our history as a church, going back to the English Reformation, is steeped in walking a line between honoring authorities without fully submitting to their edicts regarding worship.
4) We have heard from many in the congregation who have been grieved by the singing restriction and expect we will now hear from those opposed to singing in worship.
5) One of our essential considerations hinges on whether Governor Inslee’s restriction opposes the scriptural call to sing in worship.
6) As a percentage of population, church attendance in the Puget Sound region is in single digits, meaning churches are a lesser threat to the region.
7) Our lives are not conceptually in God’s hands, but actually in God’s hands. This is not an excuse to throw caution to the wind, but it is the predominant fact of this crisis, and all crises that may come in our lifetimes. Our days are a fixed number, written in his book and no one else’s (Ps 139:16).