Is this the end?

Is this the end?

Is this how the world ends?

In my country of Australia unprecedented summer bush fires tore through vast tracts of land leaving communities, habitats and livelihoods in tatters. In some place, dramatic storm events followed in the same places, resulting even more damage. An enduring drought means that much of the land is parched.

Other nations and regions have their own stories of natural disturbances. Alongside them, the evidence is that the globe is warming at human hands with yet unknown outcomes.

Meanwhile, global leaders such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson and Xi Jing Ping strut the stage in their respective spheres, alarming many with their ambitions.

In the moral sphere, the once largely Christian nations of the western world sink under their denial and defiance of the God they once worshiped. Self-worship in the new religion and the only absolute truth is that there is no absolute reality, truth or values.

A low-level virus event originating in Wuhan has elevated to a global event of pandemic scale, causing fear, restricting lives and commerce and prompting global stock markets to tumble.

Is this the end?

This could be the end. Many of the conditions in the following verses have been met: ⁵ For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Messiah,” and will deceive many. ⁶ You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of birth-pains. ⁹ ‘Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matt 24, NIV).

It would be foolish to deny that this could be the end. However, it would be equally foolish to assert that it is the end. For Jesus equally said: ³⁶ ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son^, but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matt 24, NIV). The key points here are that his return will happen at a time unknown even to him and amidst the normal ebb and flow of life events.

The present natural disturbances may be at the more severe end of the scale but are not unprecedented. The present virus is not the first global health emergency (consider the 1919 flu pandemic) and Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Boris Johnson and Xi Jing Ping are not the first national leaders with ambitious ambitions. Life rolls on.

Again, a little reading of the history of Biblical interpretation shows past times when people have incorrectly read the skies and predicted the imminent return of Jesus. Even apart from the predictions of cults, mainstream Christians have wondered at the end around the millennial turns of 1,000 and 2,000 AD, let alone during the English civil war, the rise of Napoleon and Hitler and the 1917 Russian revolution.

Is this the end?

It may be – and how good is that if Jesus does soon return and bring the fullness of the new creation. Or it may not be – the present events may be just another in those regular cyclical disturbances in the affairs of the heavens and of earth.

It’s time to listen to Jesus again: ⁴² ‘Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matt 24, NIV).

This is a time for Christian people to remain constant in faith, hope and love. It’s a time to love our neighbour by serving them with the gospel and with deeds of mercy to those to suffer. And it’s a time to love God by being about the Master’s business while we wait for his coming.

Let this be our prayer: Come Lord Jesus come! And let me be found faithful in you and for you as I wait for that glorious day when my Lord will be all in all to all.

Covid-19 and virtual church

Virtual church in a day of virus

There’s an old joke about the benefits of hospitals without sick people and schools without children.

How about a church without people?

That’s come to life recently because of the Covid 19 scare. As a public health measure, and in the light of official advisories to avoid large public gatherings, some churches have gone virtual. Bible talks, and even prayers and musical items are being posted online for members to access in asynchronous mode in the comfort and privacy of their own home or wherever they choose.

Such measures prompt the question, is it necessary to physically gather to be a church?

Let’s argue the case for virtual church.

The inbuilt cameras on smartphones can be used to record talking heads doing Bible talks, prayers etc and these can be posted on social media at little cost.  DIY music can happen through YouTube (and each can choose music to their taste – avoiding these pesky worship wars). Prayer requests and other responses can be collected through chat groups, where small group meetings can also be facilitated. Communion can be celebrated through individual wafer and juice packs delivered to the door and likewise for baptisms with vials of water drawn from the church taps. Funds can be collected through the electronic banking schemes that many churches are already using. All this enables a virtual gathering of God’s people, perhaps on a wider and more regular scale than may happen presently.

One advantage is cost. Churches can downsize their property holdings. Away with those large auditoriums, classrooms etc that are only used for limited hours per week. Away with the paid staff and volunteers who invest their time and energy to do physical setup, clean buildings, provide security and parking control, along with greeting people as they arrive and caring for them until they leave. Another advantage is security, in places where to attend church is risky or where governments practice building surveillance or simply forbid church attendance on pain of arrest. Yet another advantage is convenience. Church members travelling for employment or leisure can participate on a ‘whenever and wherever’ basis. Likewise for those in remote or institutional locations or those who are housebound with their own infirmity or that of those they care for.

In a setting with even modest technical affordances, there is a good utilitarian argument for virtual church. And in situations such as corona-virus or some of the just-mentioned special needs, there is much to be said for it. Maybe the day is not far off, or already is, when many churches will add an asynchronous virtual church package to their standard offerings.

And so we return to the earlier question? Is a physical gathering of God’s people necessary or preferable?

The quickest of concordance searches shows many references to church as God’s people physically gathered. (Try searching under the groups of words clustered around ‘assemble’ or ‘gather’). For example, Israel gathered before God on Mount Sinai to make covenant and receive the law (Exod 19:7f). They gathered to hear Ezra read and explain the same law after returning from exile (Neh 8:8ff). They gathered again to choose new leaders after the apostasy of Judas (Acts 1:15) and to pray when Peter was arrested (Acts 12:12). Such physical gatherings were not just in times of crises. Passages such as Acts 2:42-47and 1 Cor 14:26 suggest that physical gatherings were regular, involved the whole church and were the norm. Even given the technology of letter writing, John recognises that there are things best done face to face (2 Jn 13; 3 Jn 13). Paul longed to see  his readers (Eg, Rom 1:11; 2 Tim 1:4; 1 Thess 2:17).

Why is a physical gathering of church so desirable? The reasons are many. The 70% of communication that happens with body language happens best with physical proximity. That quick twinkle or moistening of an eye, furrowed brow, pause in response and sagging of the shoulders can be concealed even when a camera is used. The warm handshake, brotherly hug or simple touch on an arm that can signal “I’m here for you” can only happen in person. The encouragement that comes from gathered voices raised in prayer and praise is hard to replicate when we each sit in our own lounge room with headphones and splendid isolation. Indeed, there is much to be said for God’s people physically gathered.

So, by all means let’s use virtual church when public health, security and other circumstances prevent physical gatherings. However, just as we seek and await a face to face experience with the Lord (eg, Exod 33:11,18-23; Rev 22:14), let’s do all we can to gather with his people week by week (Heb 10:25).

Covid 19 - The virus

The virus

It started small. A handful of people were infected in a distant city known only to a few.

And soon it spread. Airports, roads and rail lines closed in response. Shelves emptied of anything edible as hoarders dug in for a siege. Evacuations were arranged and strangers found themselves sequestered in quarantine.

Worst of all was the tsunami of suspicion.

Suspicious eyes glared over face masks at anyone who looked as though they might come from the country where it started. A cough or sneeze was enough to make a crowd scatter, as though a dog ran into a flock of pigeons. Even inside churches, the place where faith should banish fear, people looked at familiar faces, and those of strangers, with wary eyes. Who knew where the enemy would next appear under a deceptive disguise?

We’d been through it before, with SARS. This time, governments and people were better prepared and swifter to react. However, and in a horrid twist, this only made the virus spread more swiftly and with greater effect.

Someone has said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. However, fear was the virus that stalked the land.

The (undiscussed) other life

The (undiscussed) other life

Bob and his wife Marion served as Christian missionaries in East Malaysia for almost 30 years. (Not their real names, but this is otherwise a true story.)

When they first left their home country, many kept in touch, but this dropped off with time. That didn’t surprise them. They thought this would be rectified when they left for home assignment ready to tell all that the Lord had done. They were typically invited to speak at their supporting churches, given a five-minute slot in the service and invited to stay for conversation over morning tea. The big surprise was that not many people came to ask questions and the eyes of those asking typically glazed over with disinterest when Bob and Marion started to tell the details of God at work.

Over time Bob and Marion stopped talking about their life in East Malaysia. The learned that the way to hold a conversation was to shift talk to the life of the people back home. They lived their lives in two world that were kept apart.

Bob and Marion are not the only ones to discover habitual disinterest in life beyond the local setting.

Donald lived in a regional area but spent a few days weekly in another city for work and sometimes travelled further afield. His church friends were sorry that he missed weeknight small group meetings and sometimes commented on the burden of travel, but otherwise no one asked about what he did when he was away. Even his own family stopped asking and their eyes glazed over if he started giving details. He too learned to talk in brief generalisations about his ‘other life’ if anyone asked and to direct conversations to the lives of those he talked with.

Some of this is understandable. Perhaps it’s a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.  Perhaps those at home have unrecognised jealousy at what they imagine to be an exciting life elsewhere. Or perhaps they are just clueless about what it is to have a life lived in different parts in different places. Or perhaps it’s just that most of us habitually function with ourselves at the centre.

What can we do to help respond to this?

For starters, when we are talking with Bob, Marion and Donald, take a moment to enter into their world. They have this other life that is an important part of who they are. If we really want to engage with them and be an encouragement and help, we need to dig into that world. So, ask about it. And listen – actively. Maybe make a note somewhere afterwards so that in the next conversation you can link back to something they mentioned.

There are also things that Bob, Marion and Donald can do. Appreciate that the life you live outside is not on the radar of the one you speak to. So, ask about their life. And listen – actively. Maybe make a note somewhere afterwards so that in the next conversation you can link back to something they mentioned. And, if someone asks about your outside life, thank them for doing so. Answer briefly and let them lead the conversation on if they want more.

For all of us, there is scope to frame the way we approach conversation with anyone. Good conversations are mutual. Good conversations mean that we serve one another. So, when we start a chat and someone asks how we are, answer briefly then shift the conversation to them and their life. When that’s done, that’s the time to talk about our world.