Sixth Sunday and Counting

If you’re like me, you passed this Lord’s Day at home instead of meeting in corporate worship. And don’t mention Zoom and Vimeo to me; when God revises Psalm 122 to read, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us sit on the couch and live-stream,” I’ll content myself with “virtual” meetings. But not until.

Our church first cancelled services March 15. The emails and phone calls justifying this wickedness offered such lame excuses (“The governor asked us to” [ NEWSFLASH: the State always wants Christians to disband; why do you suppose it has harassed us throughout history and around the world?]; “We don’t want to endanger either our congregation or our neighbors” [Really? Well, since germs, like the poor, are always with us, will you continue “protecting” everyone by keeping those doors locked permanently?]; “This is only temporary” [you are either stupid or criminally naive, and either way, I’m not sitting under your teaching any longer]) that they embarassed me before my unchurched neighbors. By the way, Pastor Goat, your refusal to obey your Lord has not inspired a single such friend to gush, “Oh, wow, Becky! The Church really cares about me! Hey, tell me about Jesus, will you?” Instead, this reaction is more typical: “They’ve managed to get Americans to stay home, even from church on Easter Sunday. I’m not religious at all, but I was depressed last Sunday when realizing that the government had an enormously successful lockdown of Americans and there wasn’t even a single protest I could find to cover.” Everlasting shame on you, Pastor Goat! (And everlasting thanks to Bill Martin for sending this link.)

Meanwhile, a pastor on the “sheep” side of the divide, who continues to lead real, actual services notwithstanding intimidating pressure, forwarded an article about “Hundreds of Christian parishioners” who “went to churches in ex-Soviet Georgia” for “Orthodox Easter Vigil despite a state of emergency and calls from the government and doctors to stay home amid outbreak of the coronavirus.”

These brothers and sisters, who once endured unspeakable persecution, realize what a rare and special privilege it is to gather in praise of our magnificent God. They aren’t about to abandon this freedom.

Why have we?

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10:54 am on April 20, 2020