The Theology of Pandemic #8:
Church Is Not Essential
Last week the President declared that churches are essential and that he would override Governors that kept them closed due to Covid-19 and order them open.(1) With all due respect, I firmly disagree. Church is not essential.
Those that know me might be shocked by this statement. I pastor a church (2). My father is a pastor. I've gone to church my entire life. But I disagree with the president. Church is not essential.
My first objection is that President Trump seems to be of the understanding that churches stopped meeting during the pandemic and thus must be labeled as essential (like a business) and ordered to reopen. This perspective is rooted in the belief that many hold (not just the Commander and Chief) that church is a gathering of people in a building on Sunday. This understanding, rooted in physical space and time, could not be further from the truth. The church has never been primarily about a material structure or a certain type of meeting at a specific time. The church is much larger than that. The Apostles' Creed reads, in part, "I believe...in the Holy Catholic Church." My denomination (the Christian Reformed Church) places an asterisk behind the word Catholic and adds a foot note: "that is, the true Christian church of all times and all places." In this sense the church has not, and never will stop meeting because it is beyond time and space made up of all those who are seeking (or ever have) to follow the way of Jesus. The church, at its core, is the living embodiment of all those seeking to live in the way of Jesus, and "churches" are the local expressions of that reality which goes far beyond the places they meet or the times they convene.
Second, the reality is that the church has not stopped meeting during Covid-19. Churches have shown an abundance of creativity in continuing to gather on Sunday's. Some have shifted to Zoom, or FB Live, other drive-in services and still others record services for distribution in other ways. Churches have done virtual communion or sacraments through windows. I heard of a pastor going to members houses one by one armed only with a chair so she could sit on the porch and talk to, and be with, each one. Priests have administered holy water with squirt guns (ok that one is a little out there). Online small groups, classes, youth groups and more, have creatively moved into cyberspace, using what they have to do what they can to still be the church. Churches have housed the homeless, fed the poor, and continued the needed social services they provide. The church has not stopped caring for its neighbors, seeking justice for the oppressed, praying, reading the Bible, listening to the Holy Spirit or any the other ways true followers of Jesus seek to follow his way. The churches don't need to be opened, because they never closed, and cannot ever close since the church is the people of God living the way of Jesus.
The reason that the church has been able to continue is the simple fact that time and place are not as important as presence and community. For example, all through the farewell discourse (John 14-17) with his disciples Jesus keeps telling them he is going away, but he doesn't leave them a building. He doesn't comfort them with a meeting time, a liturgy, or a song. No Jesus promises a new presence - the Holy Spirit. He keeps telling the disciples that he is in his father, and his father is in him, and he is in his followers. The whole idea of indwelling is presence - God's presence among people and an invitation to join into the presence of the Trinity. This is where community comes in. At the the center of the universe is a loving relationship, the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are dancing around love. Humans are invited into that dance, that presence, that community. This joining into the dance of God is what a church is. No virus can interrupt this dance!
Readers that know the Biblical text well might be objecting, "but it says in Hebrews 10:25, do 'not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.'" I think this gets back to what type of meeting we are talking about. Believers should be in community with one another as the writer of Hebrews says, but I don't believe weekly church services are what the writer had in mind. Contemporary worship services are very music heavy, despite (if I remember correctly) the fact the gospels only record one instance of Jesus singing (Mark 14:26). While the Old Testament is loaded with songs and references to music and singing, the New Testament barely mentions it and spends a great deal of time encouraging follower of Jesus to pray. My experience in the church today (particularly those with a contemporary style) is that prayer is often done to fill space or transition from one element to another in an effort to reduce the liturgy to six songs and a sermon. So maybe when we look at Hebrews 10:25, it would be good for us to back up and remember that the purpose for meeting in community as believers is not what we often think of as church - singing and sermons - but rather to "spur one another on toward love and good deeds." What is essential is not the weekly meeting (regardless of format), but the community encouraging each other to live in the way of Jesus.
Those that know me might be shocked by this statement. I pastor a church (2). My father is a pastor. I've gone to church my entire life. But I disagree with the president. Church is not essential.
My first objection is that President Trump seems to be of the understanding that churches stopped meeting during the pandemic and thus must be labeled as essential (like a business) and ordered to reopen. This perspective is rooted in the belief that many hold (not just the Commander and Chief) that church is a gathering of people in a building on Sunday. This understanding, rooted in physical space and time, could not be further from the truth. The church has never been primarily about a material structure or a certain type of meeting at a specific time. The church is much larger than that. The Apostles' Creed reads, in part, "I believe...in the Holy Catholic Church." My denomination (the Christian Reformed Church) places an asterisk behind the word Catholic and adds a foot note: "that is, the true Christian church of all times and all places." In this sense the church has not, and never will stop meeting because it is beyond time and space made up of all those who are seeking (or ever have) to follow the way of Jesus. The church, at its core, is the living embodiment of all those seeking to live in the way of Jesus, and "churches" are the local expressions of that reality which goes far beyond the places they meet or the times they convene.
Second, the reality is that the church has not stopped meeting during Covid-19. Churches have shown an abundance of creativity in continuing to gather on Sunday's. Some have shifted to Zoom, or FB Live, other drive-in services and still others record services for distribution in other ways. Churches have done virtual communion or sacraments through windows. I heard of a pastor going to members houses one by one armed only with a chair so she could sit on the porch and talk to, and be with, each one. Priests have administered holy water with squirt guns (ok that one is a little out there). Online small groups, classes, youth groups and more, have creatively moved into cyberspace, using what they have to do what they can to still be the church. Churches have housed the homeless, fed the poor, and continued the needed social services they provide. The church has not stopped caring for its neighbors, seeking justice for the oppressed, praying, reading the Bible, listening to the Holy Spirit or any the other ways true followers of Jesus seek to follow his way. The churches don't need to be opened, because they never closed, and cannot ever close since the church is the people of God living the way of Jesus.
The reason that the church has been able to continue is the simple fact that time and place are not as important as presence and community. For example, all through the farewell discourse (John 14-17) with his disciples Jesus keeps telling them he is going away, but he doesn't leave them a building. He doesn't comfort them with a meeting time, a liturgy, or a song. No Jesus promises a new presence - the Holy Spirit. He keeps telling the disciples that he is in his father, and his father is in him, and he is in his followers. The whole idea of indwelling is presence - God's presence among people and an invitation to join into the presence of the Trinity. This is where community comes in. At the the center of the universe is a loving relationship, the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who are dancing around love. Humans are invited into that dance, that presence, that community. This joining into the dance of God is what a church is. No virus can interrupt this dance!
Readers that know the Biblical text well might be objecting, "but it says in Hebrews 10:25, do 'not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.'" I think this gets back to what type of meeting we are talking about. Believers should be in community with one another as the writer of Hebrews says, but I don't believe weekly church services are what the writer had in mind. Contemporary worship services are very music heavy, despite (if I remember correctly) the fact the gospels only record one instance of Jesus singing (Mark 14:26). While the Old Testament is loaded with songs and references to music and singing, the New Testament barely mentions it and spends a great deal of time encouraging follower of Jesus to pray. My experience in the church today (particularly those with a contemporary style) is that prayer is often done to fill space or transition from one element to another in an effort to reduce the liturgy to six songs and a sermon. So maybe when we look at Hebrews 10:25, it would be good for us to back up and remember that the purpose for meeting in community as believers is not what we often think of as church - singing and sermons - but rather to "spur one another on toward love and good deeds." What is essential is not the weekly meeting (regardless of format), but the community encouraging each other to live in the way of Jesus.
My final argument that church is not essential is that there is no church in heavenly city at the end of time. In the vision of a restored world found in Revelation 21 we read, "I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple" (v.22). Henry Drummond titled his 1893 sermon on this passage, "The City Without a Church." I agree with Drummond that in God's perfect city there is no church. That means that the church is not essential. Why, or how, can there be no church in the coming city of God? Revelation tells us it is because God is dwelling perfectly with his people. It seems we are back to those two essential things, community and presence. Maybe they are more than essential. Maybe the community of those seeking to follow the way of Jesus and experiencing the presence of God - the loving relationship/dance of the Trinity to which they have been invited - is elemental, something beyond essential.
Mr. President the weekly opening of the doors of a building is not essential.
Mr. President the weekly opening of the doors of a building is not essential.
President Trump the churches have not been, and cannot ever be, closed.
God is dwelling with his people beyond all time and space, beyond buildings, and formats, and liturgies. Wherever there are true believers seeking to live the way of Jesus; anywhere a community is encouraging each other toward love and good works; anyplace the presence of God is being experienced and lived into, that is the church. The church has never been, and can never be, about a building, or a certain time, or a way of meeting, it is about presence and community.
Joel K
D.V.
Joel K
D.V.
Footnotes:
(1) Aside from the fact that the word essential has been overused and watered down in this pandemic, this assertion of the President raises all kinds of questions around states rights, separation of church and State (some outlets said the President was "ordering" churches to open), and how church can be seen as essential by someone that does not attend, etc.
(2) In the interest of full disclosure I must state that my congregation has met face to face in recent weeks. We have done this outdoors in a park, wearing masks, and spaced 6-10 feet apart. We are also have followed the State guidelines for group meeting size. We are a small congregation (30-40 on a Sunday) and are in a State that has had a rather low number of cases of Covid-19.
(1) Aside from the fact that the word essential has been overused and watered down in this pandemic, this assertion of the President raises all kinds of questions around states rights, separation of church and State (some outlets said the President was "ordering" churches to open), and how church can be seen as essential by someone that does not attend, etc.
(2) In the interest of full disclosure I must state that my congregation has met face to face in recent weeks. We have done this outdoors in a park, wearing masks, and spaced 6-10 feet apart. We are also have followed the State guidelines for group meeting size. We are a small congregation (30-40 on a Sunday) and are in a State that has had a rather low number of cases of Covid-19.
Works Cited:
Drummond, H., 2008, The city without a church, Wilder Publications, Radford.
Drummond, H., 2008, The city without a church, Wilder Publications, Radford.
