The Ark Was Made of…

God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. (Genesis 6:12-15)

As the population of the world increased, evil increased along with it. God’s heart was broken. His indictment upon humanity was that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Mankind’s sin was universal, and God prepared for a universal judgment – a worldwide flood. 

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). God would deliver Noah and his family from the flood through the building of a boat, an ark. We don’t even need to know the story to guess what Noah used to build the ark.

The ark was made from wood. Wood comes from trees, more trees of the Bible. We’re only six chapters into the first book of the Bible and trees have told us most of the story.  These trees in Genesis 6 carried Noah and his family safely through God’s righteous, divine judgment of sin.

God command to Noah was specific. The ark was to be made of cypress wood (Gen. 6:14). Older Bibles (KJV & NASB) used the term “gopher” wood here.

I think the gopher wood came from Minnesota. 

Maybe not. But Noah’s salvation came through trees.

Thousands of years later, our salvation would come through another tree.

But first, trees still have another role to play in the telling of the flood story. We’ll look at that next time.

 

Fad or Faith?

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (James 1:19-21)

COVID-19 is spiking to its highest levels in the Upper Midwest, far outpacing the summer wave. Most states with the highest COVID infection rates in the country form a ring around Minnesota. Our state is not quite as severe, but rural southwest Minnesota is the hottest quadrant in the state. Earlier this week I had a serious discussion with our elders about closing the church building again. After difficult debate, we did not take that step. Under certain conditions, however, closing down remains a future possibility. And so the COVID story continues to unfold. It is nowhere near finished.

When widespread response to the pandemic began in March, the governor’s stay-at-home order provided citizens an opportunity to hit the “reset” button for our priorities and habits. In my case, the freedom to control my complete schedule allowed me to exercise more and eat less. The motivation was simple. My flabby physical condition and my fourth-quarter age put me at higher risk for COVID complications and death. I wanted to be highly prepared to contract, not just avoid, the nasty virus.

An unintended consequence of the strict, new regimen turned out to be weight loss. I didn’t step on the scales at the beginning because weight loss wasn’t a goal. But as my weight decreased, my motivation increased. Soon I began to track it. I pushed hard on the exercise bike. I pulled back from the dinner table. My motivation was so strong that I wasn’t even hungry for three or four months.

A few people commented, “It must have been hard to lose all that weight.” No, it wasn’t hard because I wasn’t even trying. Until I was. It just happened. Until it didn’t. Somewhere around July or August, I found it easier to miss a day of exercise. We were no longer locked down. The novelty of COVID was gone. My schedule was more complicated. The bicycle became an unwelcome intrusion each morning. About that time I also began to get hungry. When it gets hard, most diets fade and the results are temporary. But a lifestyle change is permanent. A question from the back of my mind in March jumped to the front of my thinking in August. Is this a diet or a lifestyle change? The answer will determine my future.

During the pandemic and the accompanying social unrest, economic upheaval, and political polarization of the 2020 election, our church has been crying out to God to help us become quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Several times recently, as part of a sermon series based on James 1:19-21, the congregation has prayed in unison, “Heavenly Father, help me to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”

Is it a fad or faith? The answer will determine our future as a church, especially in the aftermath of whatever comes next.

(Don’t) Pass It On

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. (Philippians 2:3-4)

When I was coming of age in the 1970s, Pass It On was a popular youth campfire song. Some teens learned to play guitar because of that song. The first YouTube version which popped up in my search even has a fire burning in the background. If any Christian song can date my generation, this one might be it:

It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
And soon all those around will warm up in its glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love, once you’ve experienced it,
You spread His love to ev’ryone; You want to pass it on.

In the five decades since Kurt Kaiser wrote those iconic lyrics (in just 20 minutes), the preeminent goal of my life has been to pass on the love of Jesus Christ. Seeds which flourished in my pastoral ministry were planted in the commitment of that song and the experience of singing it at camp. The song bore fruit even though the guitar playing was often terrible. I still want to pass it on.

What do we do at New Life Church? We pass it on. Our mission is to help people know Jesus.

During the coronavirus pandemic crisis, our mission has not changed. But how we carry out our mission has changed. As we prepare for the reopening stage of the coronavirus pandemic, health concerns are a very high priority. We seek a COVID-free environment at church. At least, as much as possible.

The process is not easy. It begins with valuing others above ourselves, as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians. My private mantra has become that every person has the right and the responsibility to determine his or her own level of risk. But nobody has the right to carelessly or presumptuously pass the virus on to others. Everyone must establish their personal risk tolerance, based on their age, their health, their job, their environment and their fears. But no one benefits when we transmit the virus to others. The result could be devastating, especially in a community of older and vulnerable people.

There is tension between our mission and our method. What do we do at New Life Church? We pass it on while we don’t pass it on. That’s why we have been meeting remotely for the past several weeks. Now that the world has begun to relax, a few people have asked for my criteria about reopening the church. I have three thoughts:

1) We should reopen the church when we can carry out our mission more effectively than meeting remotely. In a perfect world, we would always meet face to face. Personal contact is at the heart of the gospel. Jesus came from heaven to meet humanity face to face. I was taught in Greek class that being “with” God or “with” one another literally means “face to face.” Nothing can substitute for personal contact.

COVID-19 has changed the way we do personal contact. Surprisingly, we have discovered some new strengths. At New Life Church, people have joined us from four states in our Zoom virtual worship meetings. We will lose some of those connections when we reopen the church. We found there’s a price to pay for meeting remotely. We’ll find there’s a price to pay when we reopen, too. For a season, the best way to love our neighbor has been to stay home and not get sick. As that window closes, we must evaluate about how opening the church would affect our witness in the community. If we lose more in community good will than we gain in physical fellowship, the price of reopening is still too high. My top concern is not our constitutional right to meet or our familiar desire to gather as a church body; it’s the welfare of our neighbors. Moving to the next stage of the coronavirus crisis does not override our mandated priority of putting others first.

Furthermore, when we do open, some members may not return to church because of the inherent health risks in group settings. Maybe a new form of ministry will evolve in which the church can meet physically and remotely at the same time. Many churches have been doing that effectively for years. Perhaps it’s our turn now.

2) We should reopen the church when we can meet the CDC’s guidelines for safety. Specifically, that would require two weeks of decline in new positive virus cases along with the capacity of the medical community to test everyone for tracking purposes. These standards are necessary for containment in the event of a new wave of COVID cases.

In addition, the governor is providing criteria for reopening churches. I will listen carefully and observe any restrictions and guidelines which apply to us.

As I write, Minnesota has experienced a small surge in cases after a brief downturn, including our area. Today’s death toll was the highest yet. Testing has increased, but it’s still not as widespread as will be necessary to contain a new outbreak. Many places are reopening despite not meeting CDC guidelines. Nationally, behavioral norms have shifted away from social distancing in the past few weeks. Therefore, the CDC guidelines may become goals to achieve after reopening instead of being a prerequisite to fulfill before reopening.

3) We should reopen the church only after the leadership team has planned and executed appropriate safety measures and ministry adjustments. The national office of the C&MA recently released a relaunch planning guide with excellent questions for church leaders. Of the several dozen questions, I circled thirteen items of special interest to me. Our leadership team may not be able to discuss all of them, but we should hit the critical ones, at least. It’s not enough to want to return to normal. We need patience planning, not impatient pouting. Here are my top five questions in the order in which they appear on the list:

#8 – When will we allow the relaunch of small groups meeting in person, and what precautionary steps will they need to take?

#12 – How will we suggest that people greet one another? Should handshakes and hugs be avoided for the initial season of relaunch?

#14 – What surfaces will need extra cleaning during this time to help ensure people’s safety? How will we accommodate this need?

#20 – Is our website and social media presence adequate for the times in which we live? What did we learn about this during the crisis that has ongoing application?

#22 – Would it be wise to continue providing the Sunday worship experience in some sort of online fashion (livestream or recorded) for the vulnerable, for those who may not be ready to be in a group of people, and as an outreach tool?