I have reflected on the life of my mother these past couple of weeks. She died on May 21st. I am fortunate that I have, as a friend of mine reminded me, a heritage of faith. My mother took very seriously the promises she made as a parent when I was baptized, to put in my hands the Word of God, and to raise me up in the Christian Faith, with the Spirit of the risen Jesus Christ leading and guiding her.
The Bible for me as a child came alive through something called Arch Books. They were children’s books with lots of drawings that accompanied the stories of the Bible. My mother gave me a dozen or two of them, read them to me until I could, and those stories have continued to speak into my life to this day. One of my favorites was The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Perhaps you remember the story that Jesus tells of a man beaten up and left for dead by robbers on what was known as a difficult road. A priest passes by on the far side of the road without stopping. A Levite, an assistant to the priests, also passes by. And then a Samaritan comes, is moved with compassion, and cares for the injured man, gets him to a place of recovery, and foots the bill for the man’s care. I still have that Arch Book. The parable Jesus tells is as current as today. But it’s the set-up of the story that is key: a righteous man comes to Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus, ever the good teacher, asks the man what the Word of God has taught him. And the man, an educated lawyer, responds correctly: “Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s the right answer. Jesus tells him it’s the right answer. But then the educated man wants to show he’s a good man, to justify himself, prove that he’s right. And so he asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And that’s when Jesus tells the Good Samaritan story. It’s a great question for the Church of today and for all of us who are journeying through this life. Who is my neighbor? The word is a relational word. Sometimes it’s easy to limit the definition of “neighbor.” The people within walking distance in my neighborhood. People in my Church. People who look like me, or who think like me. And yet when Jesus responds to the question, he really gives us two examples of who the neighbor is. The first is the person hurting in the middle of the road. The second is the Samaritan. So as a pastor, a priest if you will, walking along the Waynesboro road, who is my neighbor? The easier answers are: the family from the Church who is grieving because their loved one died from a difficult disease, who I want to reach out to in their pain. Or the friend who is really hurting because of a divorce, and has reached out for help; or the congregation member or next-door neighbor in the midst of Covid-19, who wants to remain connected, who needs help with groceries, who made me my mask, who struggle with the fact that they haven’t had the human contact they so want. I do not use these examples lightly. However, I will also say, I will walk and kneel down and be the neighbor, show mercy as God gives me strength, without much effort. But I have another neighbor who is hurting. He is hurting, he’s angry, as is the congregation he serves. They have seen multiple people who share their skin color — one, named George Floyd, a Christian who shared the gospel in the toughest parts of Houston, and was just starting ministry in Minneapolis — killed, unarmed, under suspicion for allegedly spending a counterfeit $20 bill. And another neighbor, who just two weeks ago, in the city of Waynesboro, shook and sweated in his car for an hour after going into a store, gently saying hello to a young girl, who ran over to her mother and said “that black man is trying to kidnap me.” One of the kindest people I’ve ever met, afraid, uncertain about what would happen next. Who is my neighbor? Jesus responded with a simple story. The priest, the pastor, if you will, passed by on the other side. The unexpected Samaritan responded generously, on an uncertain road, and showed mercy. Often, interpreters of this story point out the historical facts about Samaritans: they were of a different race, they worshiped God in ways the religious leaders of Israel didn’t approve of, and they had cultural customs that Israel didn’t understand. So shocked and biased was the lawyer that Jesus used the example of the Samaritan as neighbor that he couldn’t even name him; he could only grudgingly say “the one who showed mercy.” But on this day, I think of myself, the pastor, and I think of the Church, including the mostly white congregation that I serve. You can listen to many stories and hear people far more eloquent than I speak to our national crisis. The Arch Book which my mother gave me speaks of relationship, and neighbor. The people we live with in Waynesboro, Augusta County, Staunton, and surrounding counties. And in that Word from God is the question of the day: Who is my neighbor? We, the Church, are still one of the most segregated organizations in America. And yet we are gathered because we believe that “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” a song learned from my heritage of faith. We are on this difficult road with our neighbors. And this Jesus tells us a story of someone gravely hurt, in the middle of this road. Who will we be? How will we answer the question? Not just one time until the next tragedy, but recognizing that until we all die, we remain on this same road — together.
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In this world, there will always be those who we disagree with. It can be simple and non-threatening things, like smooth vs. crunchy peanut butter, or Cavaliers vs. Hokies — though such things as college rivalries have divided families and cancelled weddings, I know first hand.
But we all know that our disagreements can be stronger than that: Places where we tend to draw a line. There’s the old saying that there are two things one should never talk about in public: politics and religion. At the same time, these are important, even central ways we talk about what is meaningful, even life changing for us. One of the odd blessings that come from what we’ve been going through together with the coronavirus is that in many ways we have set aside our differences for the sake of the common good. The type of question we ask of our neighbor are, for example, of whether the senior citizen down the street who is more vulnerable to COVID-19 needs help with groceries, not whether s/he is of a certain political affiliation, or goes to a certain church, or doesn’t go to church. With the pressure to end restrictions and to remove essential and non-essential labels from businesses, and pressures even from churches to end restrictions to in-person worship, we find that there are disagreements. I was in the grocery store earlier this week. I had on a mask, and was in line to check out on a busy day. I was masked and honoring the six foot suggested rule, staying in the square on the floor designated for me to wait on, until I was next. As I was getting in line, someone else was also joining the line ahead of me, and he recognized the family in front of him. None of the family ahead of him, nor the man himself, had masks on. They chatted casually a couple of feet apart. They shook hands as they said goodbye. As I drove home from the store, I pulled up next to a truck with a lot of bumper stickers on it. There was the cross of Jesus front and center on the tailgate of the pickup. To the left was a bumper sticker that declared the sanctity of human life. Above the cross was a bumper sticker that trumpeted: “Trump 2020 — Make the Liberals Cry Again.” To the right of the political sticker was a second amendment rights sticker which spelled “Co-Exist” out of various types of assault rifles. Nearby at the same stop light was a Toyota Prius with the “Co-exist” sticker made out of religious symbols of the world’s major religions, a Pro-Choice sticker, and a “Bernie” sticker from 2016. You may be familiar with the Zoom conference meeting app that allows people during this time of social distancing to meet together. Churches, businesses, even families are using it to stay in touch, to see one another to maintain connections in this time of social distancing. If you’ve ever used it, you see the faces of each person in a box. Everyone is in boxes, separate from each other. All of us disagree, sometimes find ourselves in opposite camps. The “boxes” of what are important to us, are different. Religion, politics, the other places we “wave our flags.” 500 years ago, a contemporary of Martin Luther named Erasmus wrote about the differences of his time as a follower of Christ: “Above all else let peace be sincerely desired. The populace is now incited…by insinuations and propaganda, by claims that the Englishman is the natural enemy of the Frenchman and the like. Why should an Englishman as an Englishman bear ill will to a Frenchman and not rather good will as a Christian to a Christian? How can anything as frivolous as a name outweigh the ties of nature and the bonds of Christianity?... If nothing else will move your majesties, not the sense of nature, not respect for religion, no such frightful calamity [such as the coronavirus], let the power of the Christian name bring you to concord.” The name of Jesus. Grace Lutheran has been helping with the Disciples Kitchen meals for the homeless and those in need (served at Second Presbyterian and Basic United Methodist churches), and I was helping to serve one day with another congregation in the county. There were all kinds of differences between us: ours a downtown church, the other a county church. Our theologies are different; I daresay our approach to social issues is likely different from the other church. But as we served together, the differences didn’t matter; the fact that Jesus asks us to serve our neighbor together in unity was what mattered. And that was the focus of the conversation I shared with one of the pastors. For followers of Jesus, we can see even in Scripture, there was “no small debate” about many things in the Church (cf. Acts 15:1-2). And yet what we also witness is Jesus’ own prayer to the Father — “let them be one as the Father and I are one,” for the sake of our witness to God’s love and grace (John 17:22-23) to those around us. Regardless of the boxes that make up your identity, one thing we’ve learned from the last few weeks is that we are in this together. For Christians, we add that Jesus is our primary identity box that trumps all others, for the sake of our witness to the world. Whether it’s the coronavirus, upcoming elections, or anything else that we care about, that’s the box worth checking. Dear Friends in Christ:
For thousands of years, patterns of faith and life have been an integral part of the life of the Church, including worship, and serving and witnessing to the Gospel in our community. The basic form of our worship is to Gather, to Hear God's Word, to Share in the Sacraments, and to be Sent out as ambassadors of Jesus Christ into the world. The history of the Church has recorded many times when this has been disrupted, often when disease or crisis prevented the faithful from gathering. I've written a few times about the Plague, and Martin Luther's response to the situation which emphasized physical distancing, medical care and good hygiene, while encouraging people not to forget about their neighbors. A Grace member shared with me her childhood when Polio was a yearly scare after World War II, and people tried to escape to the countryside their relatives for safety. Others mentioned the influenza outbreak after World War I in which tens of thousands died. Governor Ralph Northam announced to Virginia early this week (3/30) his Executive Order #55, which orders all Virginians to "remain at their place of residence", with exceptions to buy food, see the doctor, travel to work, etc. Included is a specific order that religious events of more than ten people are prohibited. Bishop Bob Humphrey, in a pastoral video that was sent out yesterday, March 31st, echoed these instructions, and recommended that at this time, we follow Governor Northam's order, and postpone worship until Sunday, June 14th. Grace Council, at a special called meeting last night and after much discussion, agreed that Grace should adhere to these guidelines. You can find Bishop Humphrey's video here. This is an unprecedented amount of time for the Church to not gather in person. As Bishop Humphrey notes, a great deal of our Festival Days that are so important to recalling the Good News we have as the Church will not be in-person: Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, Holy Trinity Sunday. This also affects important Life events such as Confirmation - three of our youth will have their Affirmation of Baptism delayed. I take very seriously the fact that God sent Jesus "IN PERSON" - incarnationally - in order for the world to understand most completely God's love for the world and its people. We are challenged in this time of Coronavirus to be creative in the ways we can keep our connection to one another and our neighbor. And yet it must be said that there have been too many Church congregations who have acted rashly, have conducted worship services and other in-person activities heedless of common sense health warnings, and the plain truth is that they have spread the Coronavirus and jeopardized the health and wellness of many, including those in the over-65 and under-18 categories of risk. The Coronavirus is no longer an "it's in New York, not here" disease. Every place where our members live, there are now Coronavirus cases. As national and local health experts tell us, the models and patterns of the coronavirus are the same everywhere, including here. However, this is the EXACT time for us to be Church as creatively as possible. We will continue worship via YouTube and Zoom. We will celebrate our festivals of Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter with as much intentionality, thoughtfulness, and then joy as we can, even if we are present with each other via computer screen or telephone. Take part in these opportunities, which we'll communicate to you shortly. I’m also so thankful for the examples of care and love for neighbor and one another that can be told in and through Grace! Look for additional opportunities for you to care for our neighbors, and respond as God’s Spirit moves you. We will communicate regularly via email, U.S. Mail (for those without computers), Facebook and telephone. As your pastor, I will continue to offer care by telephone or whatever communication works best for you, and at critical times of death and emergency, will minister in person, honoring the Orders in place in our Commonwealth. We will creatively offer Zoom classes, and are working to provide a Zoom Prayer Group and opportunities for online fellowship. Look for additional communications in the next week or two. In particular, I’d like to thank Nancy Dowdy for her work in the Church Office keeping us connected to one another in many ways, and Mike Myers, for his work in continuing to offer “a sweet sacrifice of praise” to God in worship through music and song. A special thanks also to Owen Keefer for his gifts of technology that have been so important to our continuing worship, and Gordon Putnam for updating website and Facebook. AND there are so many others who have quietly helped in ways too many to mention that have continued to make us A Community of Servants Sharing in the Word and Work of Jesus. You ARE the Body of Christ! You ARE blessed to be a blessing! We WILL meet again soon, and in the meantime, pray this prayer daily from scripture, shared with me by another Grace member who has found great comfort in it: “Cast your anxieties upon Jesus, for he cares for you.” (I Peter 5:7) Jesus cares so completely that though equal with God, he emptied himself, and in his humanity gave his life up for us all, for the sake of our new life in him. (cf. Philippians 2:5-11). This new life continues in and through each of us, even, and especially in these times we live in. God’s peace be with you all! In Christ, Pr. Paul |
AuthorPastor Paul came to Grace to serve as our Pastor in October 2012. After a first career in product and graphic design, he was ordained in 1993, and has served as a parish pastor in Virginia and South Carolina. He is married to Jill and they have two daughters, one at Roanoke College and one at James Madison University. Archives
December 2021
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