—Challenges
And Hopes In Times Of Lockdown
Dear Pastors, Church Members and Christians,
I
pray and hope that God's grace is sufficient for us and our church at all
times, even in this unusual time of Lockdown. For Christians, to not able to
come to church for this long, when we are in good health is very unusual. We
don't enjoy it. Yes, there were few Sundays, especially in winter, when we
wished to stay under the blanket and skip church. But that feeling is not what
we wear in our hearts this time. I am sure every Christian is missing the
church fellowship after 5 consecutive Sundays being gone just like that. Sure,
we might not be pious and devoted like the Psalmists (Ps. 27:4; Ps. 42:2; Ps.
84:10; Ps. 122:1) but we do agree as genuine Christians that we love to be in the
house of God. The teaching of Hebrew exhorting us not to give up the habit of
meeting together is not just an issue of sin for us anymore. (For if we skip
church continuously, it's a sin because the Scripture commanded us not to. Any
disobedience to the teaching of the Scripture is a sin.) Now, it is an issue of
missing the blessings of fellowship— the delights, encouragements, services we
missed from one another.
Oh!
How we miss the fellowship! It is rightly so because we are to grow in the community.
A Christian cannot exist individually as a lone Christian. Our calling as a
Christian is in the body of Christ, where Christ is the head, and the church is
His body. Each of us is a member of the body as an ear, eye, hand, etc. As an eye
cannot exist alone and as an eye needs an ear and hand and so on, without a
community of believers it is unthinkable for a Christian to exist. Therefore,
missing the church in this Lockdown is a sign of being a true Christian.
We
have only a few people here in our church. Actually, looking at the nature and
prospect of the ministry, it is difficult to call it a church, but we all know
that there's no perfect church anywhere since the beginning of the conception
of the first visible local church. So, we do not lose heart to go on as a body
of Christ. Though we are young and immature, we understand the nature of the church
and continue to seek and value the importance of meeting together at least once
a week. So, even in this time of Lockdown, we convene Zoom Meeting. We sing,
pray, read and study God's word, exhort and give updates about one another. Those
who had the habit of skipping church continue to do so with this and that
excuses. Those who love to have fellowship continue to show up irrespective of
the timing. While the faithful realize the blessedness of fellowship in this
Lockdown, the ignorant enjoy the suspension of church services. I suppose they
fool their conscience by saying to themselves, "The government declared Lockdown, so stay home no matter what!" Before the Lockdown, even the
nominal Christians had some sense of guilt for not coming to church. Now, they
can fool their conscience from the feeling of guilt.
But
you who are sensible know that feelings and reality are different. You can be
guilty and not feel guilty. Also, you can feel guilty and actually be not guilty.
As Ben Shapiro would always put in an effective way, "Fact doesn't care
your feelings." Those ignorant who don't feel guilty for not coming to
church now has always been guilty. And those faithful who feel terrible and
guilty for missing the church for so long aren't guilty. You see, it's not the
issue of circumstances, it's the issue of the heart, "Do you truly love
the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride?"
We
are not naive to have unrealistic expectations in this time of the pandemic,
but we expect God to work in His time for His glory alone. We have been open to
the idea that those who weren't able to wake up in time for Sunday worship
service (before the Lockdown) would be able to join us if we schedule it in the
evening. But it is evident that those who are faithful will remain faithful
irrespective of circumstances, and those who are ignorant will remain ignorant
even if an angel from heaven shows up. Abraham's reply to the rich man
concerning the request of the rich man to send Lazarus to warn his brothers
from the reality of his damnation in the story narrated by Jesus is indeed
telling (Luke 16:19-31). A friend of mine once asked, "Why do you convene
a meeting in Zoom seeing that it has only 45 minutes duration, why don't you
use WhatsApp or other apps because you are few in numbers? Well, my reply is,
"We know we are few, but we aren't supposed to be few. There are people
who profess to be Christians, and by their profession, they should be joining
us. Whether they join us today or not we are reserving a space for them where
they should rightly occupy even if they don't show up today. And BTW, they may
show up next time." Well, it has been 5 Sundays, and those who weren't
serious before the Lockdown continue to be unmindful of. Some have hardened
themselves by terminating the means of communication. As Pastor John
MacArthur wisely counseled that a preacher should preach to the ones on the
seats, and not be bothered with the empty seats. And as there are tares and
wheat in the same field, we must rejoice with the wheat and not be discouraged
with the tares of the field.
In
summary: The challenge is, of course, the social
distancing and the technical issues that come with the technology. Also the
hardness of the hearts of some! The hope of ministry is that the Grace
of God continues to work in us irrespective of circumstances, that the faithful
remain faithful, and realize the grace of God in ordinary times (before the Lockdown) which we hardly took time to consider upon when things were going OK.
As we endure this time, Pastors, as Paul exhorted Timothy, we must
preach in season and out of season (2 Tim 2:2). Christians, we must
remember the question of Jesus, “When the Son of man comes, will He find faith
on earth?” (Luke 18:8). And Church Members, be of good cheers that Jesus
is building His church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against His
bride (Matthew 16:18).