As we begin to come out of the last fourteen months there are bound to be some pains associated with the movement back towards normalcy. Some people maintained a fairly regular schedule regardless of what the wider culture was doing; while others were completely shut down, either by their own choice or because of the mandates laid out by their local civil authorities, parish, or congregation.
The wisdom (or lack thereof) of these decisions is moot at this point, and while it may be worthwhile in the future to deliberate on how and why these dictates were good/bad/indifferent, right now is not the time for it. We are too close to the events to gain anything really positive from a deep dive into the question. The real matter before the church currently is how to restart folks back into the streams of the ordinary means of grace.
In many ways the people of God are like an athlete who had a major injury and has had to spend time in rehabilitation until he can get back out on the field. The thing about physical therapy is that you have to start with the basics. If you have been immobile for six months the first thing the therapist is not going to do is to get you up on the treadmill for a 5k. You must begin learning to walk again, putting one foot in front of the other as you build up strength and stamina. Then you can start doing some of the more difficult and demanding things. The same is true of our spiritual life as much as our physical body.
Most of us because of everything that happened in 2020 and 2021 had to get out of the normal routine, missing corporate Bible Study, in-person Prayer Meetings, even in some cases morning and evening worship on the Lord’s Day. Even if we kept up with online opportunities, and private devotional time we have to admit it wasn’t the same for us as when we were there in real life. That’s because Zoom is a poor (and insufficient) fill-in for the physical needs that we have. We are social animals and feed off the real presence of fellow believers.
We also had built up muscle memory on these things for decades. Inertia is a powerful motivator. While it was hard many to give up that (let us be honest, for some it was a relief to not have to drag themselves to church on the Lord’s Day), we also know that it is going to be that much harder to motivate ourselves to get back into those routines. If you have ever tilled a garden you know that if you leave ground fallow for a while it doesn’t matter how long you had made it ready for planting in years previous; doing it this time is like doing it for the first time. Yet if you want to eat fresh produce then you are going to have to put in the effort to get the ground ready for planting. Good things come to those willing to put the time in.
In this month’s word I wanted to give a message of encouragement to all of us to begin to think about starting back in the ordinary means of grace, if you have not already. Many have grown complacent and, frankly, like being able to stay in their pajamas and treat Sunday like Saturday, another day to serve the self. I say this not to shame or bring down a cudgel on those still feeling their way back, just like with physical therapy everyone has their own path they need to follow. Good therapists don’t use a one-size fits-all plan. Prudence and providence still must guide us. However, if we are going to learn to walk we have to go to therapy. Tilling that ground is hard, but I think we all agree it is worth it in order to receive the blessings that come from the irreplaceable godsend of fellowship, and from the opportunities God gives us to spend time on His day being fed with His word. While it has been a blessing in God’s providence to have You Tube be there and Facebook Live for streaming, there is nothing like experiencing the warmness of one another’s presence in the flesh, especially when that means hearing about how Jesus is working in their lives.
The Christian Church is a community built upon the camaraderie of place. More than this however is the realization that by continuing to absent ourselves from the meetings of our brothers and sisters, while always a danger, it is especially dangerous at this time. Satan is encouraging us to maintain our separation, to act as if we can live individual existences while being “fed” by television, Facebook, and personal time. This would be like trying to perform physical therapy on yourself.
It also has the same success rate.
So let me again encourage you to get back in the habit, remember the fact that the means of grace is a corporate work, and that we need you to be there for our benefit, as much as yours.